Dictionary-based assessment of European Sustainability Reporting Standard (ESRS) disclosure topics

Abstract As the imperative for sustainable business practices and corporate responsibility has grown, the analysis and integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues into corporate strategies has become a crucial aspect of business strategy. The paper assesses the ESG reporting preparedness of companies in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region by analyzing their compliance with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The study assesses the variability in disclosures across ESG pillars and examines their relationship with financial metrics using a test of independence and bootstrapped multiple regression. By employing an automated text analysis methodology on sustainability reports from top-performing companies, including Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Slovenia, and Romania, the research identifies significant differences in reporting scores across various ESG disclosure topics. The results indicate that Climate Change (E1) scores are higher than those of other topics, suggesting an uneven emphasis on different aspects of sustainability. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that larger companies tend to achieve higher ESG scores, reflecting their greater resources for comprehensive and transparent reporting practices. The research contributes to the understanding of ESG reporting practices in the CEE region and highlights the importance of improvement in sustainability reporting to foster greater transparency and comparability. The findings suggest policy initiatives to encourage balanced reporting across all ESG topics and that companies, particularly smaller ones, could benefit from capacity-building efforts to enhance their reporting capabilities. Graphical Abstract