국가 간 ESG 격차와 불평등의 관계 연구

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to critically examine ESG by raising questions about whether the ESG principles are achieving their essential purpose. And it tries to analyze the status of the ESG performance gap among national actors in order to find out the problems of current ESG trend.
 Originality: Despite its significance in international relations, there remains a lack of theoretical analysis on the ESG centered on state actors. Also, excessive attention was paid to the evaluation results of the ESG rather than the actor’s activities considered ESG factors. This research analyzes the types of interactions among state actors, focusing on the ESG field and considers what they mean.
 Methodology: This article uses content analysis, a qualitative case study methodology.
 Result: The current ESG evaluation was able to confirm a tendency to depend on the legal and institutional infrastructure within actors, and the differentiation of these legal and institutional infrastructures caused the ESG performance gap between actors. In other words, the gap in the ESG performance of actors has an inherent income bias. This gap in ESG performance serves as a major variable in the process of making investment decisions based on ESG evaluation, thereby excluding developing and underdeveloped countries with low scores in ESG evaluation from ESG investment destinations. Accordingly, it was revealed that ESG is contributing to the deepening of international inequality.
 Conclusion and Implication: This study drew the result that the ESG introduced for the purpose of improving the sustainability of actors can act as a factor that deepens inequality within the international community. Prior to emphasizing the internalization of ESG principles by actors, consideration must be given to a standardized ESG evaluation framework within the international community, and consideration is needed to ensure that all actors are provided with a fair opportunity.