Executives worldwide expect environmental issues to impact shareholder value more than any other socio-political concerns, but for those in India data security is more important, a study says.

According to a survey conducted by global consultancy firm McKinsey, 48 per cent of the executives from across the world pointed out climate change as the single biggest concern that would affect the shareholder value over the next five years.

In a similar survey conducted in 2005, the executives had termed job losses from offshoring as biggest socio-political issue and environment issue stood at third place.

In the latest survey, the offshoring-driven job losses have dropped to fourth place, after political influence at second and healthcare benefits as third biggest such concern. 

However for Indian executives, privacy and data security are bigger concerns than environmental issues in terms of impact on shareholder value in the next five years.

"In India the issue of privacy and data security, at 34 per cent, edges out the environment by one per cent for impact on shareholder value," the McKinsey Global Survey titled 'Assessing the impact of societal issues' said.

The importance of IT outsourcing and offshoring to the country's economy may be the reason for it, the global survey added.

At 33 per cent the environmental and issues related to climate change stood at the second position.

Interestingly, about 27 per cent of the Indian executives termed job losses from offshoring as the biggest concern, even though India has been known as a beneficiary of the offshoring trend.

Globally, just 24 per cent of the executives named job losses from offshoring as the biggest concern, down from 41 per cent in 2005.

Also, in India, political influence and/or political involvement of the companies emerged as the major concern with 27 per cent executives voting for it. Globally, it was named as a bigger concern by 25 per cent of respondents.

About 26 per cent of the executives in India said affordability of products for poor consumers would be the biggest socio-political issue, against just 16 per cent in the worldwide survey.

Globally, the other major issues affecting shareholder value includes pension and retirement benefits (6th), demand for healthier and safer products (7th), pay inequality between senior executives and other employees (8th), demand for more investment in developing countries (9th) and affordability  of products for poor consumers (10th).

Across various regions, environmental issues was named as the biggest concern in Europe and China, while it was healthcare and other employee benefits in North America. China was the only country where executives did not find job losses from offshoring among the top five issues.

However, Chinese executives termed opposition to foreign investment and free trade as one of the five major concerns impacting shareholder value, while executives from no other regions -- India, North America and Europe -- found this a major socio-political issue.

The survey was based on responses from 2,687 executives across the world with 36 per cent of the respondents being CEOs or other C-level executives.