ABSTRACT

Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) scores are frequently involved in investment-related decision-making, e.g. for red-flagging or to manage risks. The increasing interest in ESG data raises the question about their validity from various sources. Therefore, we explore the consistency and convergent validity of the well recognized ESG data providers. Exploratory factor analysis of S&P Global 1200 index demonstrates considerable uncertainty across extracted latent factors. Further factor analyses show that the consistency and convergent validity across ESG data significantly depend on the industry type and the country of domicile. These findings are supported by confirmatory factor analyses. Thus, the stakeholders are encouraged to incorporate the company sector and domicile aspects into their decisions. Otherwise, naive use of primary ESG scores may provide a misleading clue.

摘要

环境、社会和公司治理 (ESG) 评分经常参与投资相关决策，例如警示或管理风险。人们对 ESG 数据的兴趣日益浓厚，引发了各种来源对其有效性的质疑。因此，我们探讨了公认的 ESG 数据提供商的一致性和收敛有效性。S&P Global 1200 指数的探索性因素分析表明，提取的潜在因素存在相当大的不确定性。进一步的因素分析表明，ESG 数据的一致性和收敛有效性在很大程度上取决于行业类型和所在国家。这些发现得到了验证性因素分析的支持。因此，鼓励利益相关者将公司部门和住所方面纳入其决策中。否则，