What drives the quality of corporate ESG disclosures?

Purpose Today, environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues are very important for the corporate sustainability reporting performance and trustworthiness. To help organizations respond to these expectations, guides have been designed, offering a systematic approach for reporting ESG information. Although such standards facilitate firms to disclose a complete picture of their ESG performance, the effective implementations of these guidelines remain a challenge for the business community. In this context, this paper examines the quality of ESG information disclosed by Greek firms in relation to an ESG guide introduced by the Athens Stock Exchange (Greece) which is in line with the various international standards. Design/methodology/approach An evaluation framework based on a content analysis technique was constructed that combines a set of reporting topics and a scoring system. This framework was applied to a sample of Greek sustainability reports to assess the quality of the disclosed ESG information. Findings The findings showed that the sampled firms provide a moderate level of ESG disclosure in terms of both quality and quantity. Environmental issues are the most well-disclosed issues compared to the other two ESG dimensions, with industry sensitivity (i.e. division into sensitive and non-sensitive sectors) being a factor which affects disclosure performance. In contrast the listed status of firms and the publication years do not affect the disclosure quality. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature on the quality of ESG disclosures. Focusing on the Greek context, it provides insights into the ESG reporting behavior of firms operating under the common regulatory regime of a European Union member state. It offers empirical evidence on the ESG reporting practices of Greek firms and their initial responses to the requirements of an ESG guideline.