The Influence of Corporate Sustainability Rating Methodology on Disclosure Behavior

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides empirical evidence on the strategic nature of firms' responses to rating methodologies, contributing to the literature on ESG ratings and disclosure.

🏢実務担当者:Advises caution in relying solely on ESG ratings for investment decisions; suggests evaluating actual emissions data alongside ratings.

🏛政策担当者:Highlights potential flaws in rating-dependent disclosure systems; informs regulatory design for mandatory disclosure.

The rise of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing has illuminated long‐standing concerns over the ability for sustainability rating schemes to accurately convey sustainability‐related performance of firms. This study theorizes and empirically examines how a detailed and transparent rating methodology influences what information firms choose to disclose and how such influence may further decouple the rating from societal outcomes the rating seeks to address. I replicate the scoring methodology of a prominent disclosure mechanism and rating scheme (CDP) and examine the relationships between firm motivation and capacity for strategic response to ratings and carbon emissions. Findings indicate that firms closely attend to rating methodology, both applying greater effort to aspects of disclosure carrying greater rating value and altering disclosure when rating value prescribed by the methodology changes over time. More significantly, higher ratings are not on average associated with better carbon emissions performance.

• semanticscholar https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.70700first seen 2026-07-18 07:35:56