A Study on ESG Disclosure Practices and Standardization : Focusing on the Similarity and Completeness of Sustainability Reports

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

🔬研究者:Provides a quantitative method for assessing ESG disclosure quality using text mining, applicable to other markets.

🏢実務担当者:Highlights gaps in Governance disclosure and small-firm reporting, guiding internal reporting improvements.

🏛政策担当者:Informs standard-setting by showing the impact of mandatory disclosure timing on report similarity.

[Purpose] In recent years, the importance of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)management has been increasingly emphasized, leading to growing demand for corporate ESGinformation disclosure. However, the diversity of disclosure standards and formats has raisedpersistent concerns regarding the comparability and reliability of the information provided. Previousstudies have mainly focused on the relationship between ESG ratings and financial performance,while relatively little attention has been given to the consistency and completeness of ESG disclosuresthemselves. This study aims to quantitatively evaluate the consistency and completeness ofsustainability reports published by listed companies in Korea. [Methodology] To test the research hypotheses, this study employs text mining techniquesto analyze the sustainability reports of Korean listed firms. Specifically, disclosure consistencywas assessed by calculating sentence－level similarities across reports, and disclosure completenesswas evaluated based on the K－ESG guideline framework. [Findings] The findings show that similarity among ESG reports has generally declined overtime, although in 2023, the postponement of mandatory disclosure requirements temporarilyincreased the degree of similarity. Furthermore, the analysis of disclosure completeness revealedthat the Governance (G) domain had a lower fulfillment rate than compared to the Environmental(E) and Social (S) domains. In terms of firm size, small－sized companies exhibited the lowestlevel of ESG disclosure completeness. [Implications] These results highlight the need to enhance the substantive quality of ESGdisclosure and to develop domain－specific standardized guidelines. This study contributes bothpractically and academically by providing foundational evidence to strengthen the consistencyand credibility of ESG disclosures.

• semanticscholar https://doi.org/10.29189/kaiaair.44.1.7first seen 2026-05-05 23:21:01 · last seen 2026-08-02 06:19:27