IDLab Workshop

Mariia Molodchik presented the study "Sector-Driven ESG Reporting Strategies in S&P 500 Companies: shifting priorities and value creation". Co-authors of this research: Petr Parshakov, Mikhail Usanin, Irina Maksimova

This study analyses the ESG disclosure strategy of S&P 500 companies over the period 2010–2021. Applying text mining techniques for more than 30,000 documents, the study reveals ten topics of ESG reporting. The ESG disclosure strategy is sector driven and changes over time. Environmental issues have become more important, particularly “Emissions and climate change risk”, while the Social pillar in terms of data privacy and security has decreased its presence in ESG reports. Investors seem to be sensitive to all three ESG perspectives, demonstrating that their ESG-based expectations change overtime. The findings reveal that the average market value effect of ESG disclosure is negative. While the industry decomposition of this effect shows heterogeneous investor reactions to ESG topics.