The pitfalls of (non-definitive) Environmental, Social, and Governance scoring methodology

Evaluating companies' sustainability embraces environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities. Data providers assign companies ESG scores as a quantitative measure based on available information. Refinitiv (previously ASSET4) is a key data provider whose scores are used extensively by researchers. However, their ESG scoring methodology allows the ESG scores of the five most recent years to change post-publication without any announcements. Such ESG scores are called non-definitive. Then, ESG research findings using the data from the same data provider might be inconsistent. By optimization and exploratory data-mining approaches, we show that it is possible to change ESG scores to exhibit stronger risk dependence. Additionally, we discuss that the initial disclosure of ESG information and an update in the published ESG information alter how ESG scores are computed in a given industry group, impacting ESG research findings greatly. Finally, our work points out the criticality that should be addressed to improve comparability within research studies relying on the same data providers.     «

Evaluating companies' sustainability embraces environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities. Data providers assign companies ESG scores as a quantitative measure based on available information. Refinitiv (previously ASSET4) is a key data provider whose scores are used extensively by researchers. However, their ESG scoring methodology allows the ESG scores of the five most recent years to change post-publication without any announcements. Such ESG scores are called non-definitive. Then,...     »