Academic

ESG media signals and earnings risk: evidence from Vietnamese listed firms, Journal of Trade Science (2026) 14 (3): 279–296, 16.07.2026

Using the Covalence database, which aggregates global media, NGO publications and institutional communications into firm-level ESG reputation scores, the study constructs a panel of 62 Vietnamese listed firms over 2012–2023 (709 firm-year observations). Panel fixed-effects models are estimated across four earnings volatility specifications with ESG variables lagged one year. Robustness is assessed through winsorization, COVID exclusion, alternative lag structures, placebo tests and first-difference specifications.”

Can investors curb greenwashing?, CREST, ENSAE, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, 27.03.2024

In practice, we propose a two-step empirical method for analyzing companies’ environmental communication policies and testing their dynamics in cross-section. To do so, we use monthly data from the data provider Covalence, which constructs an environmental reputation score, an environmental controversy score, and an environmental performance score from published news.”

University of Westminster researchers find no causal relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial risk, University of Westminster, 10.05.2022

New research led by Dr Julie Ayton, Senior Lecturer in Finance, has rejected any causality between corporate social performance and financial risk, contrary to what previous evidence has found. Speaking about the significance of the research findings, Dr Ayton said: “Our paper’s main contribution and originality arises from both the methodology and the data. We were able to access monthly corporate social responsibility data from Covalence SA, showing that it is possible and necessary to use monthly data for more insightful analysis of corporate social responsibility.”

Responsabilité Environnementale & Sociale des Entreprises du Territoire néo-aquitain, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, 17.06.2020

Les laboratoires du CATT et du CRAJ ont obtenu conjointement un financement de la région Nouvelle Aquitaine pour mener à bien un projet d’études des pratiques de responsabilité sociale et environnementale des entreprises (RSE) installées en territoire néo-aquitain ainsi qu’un projet de construction d’un réseau de recherche pluridisciplinaire sur ce territoire. (…) Données ESG (Environnement, Social, Gouvernance) : Pour l’étude RESET, en complément de l’analyse de l’enquête menée auprès d’entreprises de plus de 9 salariés situées en Nouvelle-Aquitaine et en Aragon sur leurs pratiques de RSE, les chercheurs s’appuient sur les données COVALENCE.

Integrating corporate social responsibility and financial performance, Amelia Bilbao-Terol, Mar Arenas-Parra, Susana Alvarez-Otero, Verónica Cañal-Fernández, University of Oviedo, Management Decision, 12 July 2018

In this paper, data for firms’ CSR performance evaluation come from Vigeo and Covalence rating agencies. They gather different and complementary information about companies in terms of ESG criteria. (…) This could be due to the different sources of information and methodologies used by these two agencies. (…) Of course, both evaluations are valuable and, therefore, an aggregation process would appear useful. (…) The authors present a hybrid TOPSIS methodology on transformed scores of both the CSR valuations and the financial ratios.

Every Little Helps? ESG News and Stock Market Reaction, Gunther Capelle-Blancard, Aurélien Petit, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Journal of Business Ethics, 18 September 2017

Stories about corporate social responsibility have become very frequent over the past decade, and managers can no longer ignore their impact on firm value. In this paper, we investigate the extent and the determinants of the stock market’s reaction following ordinary news related to environmental, social and governance issues—the so-called ESG factors. To that purpose, we use an original database provided by Covalence EthicalQuote. Our empirical analysis is based on about 33,000 ESG news (positive or negative), targeting one hundred listed companies over the period 2002–2010.

With Strings Attached: The Belief in The Business Case for Corporate Social Responsibility and its Grounding in Fair Market Ideology, Sebastian Hafenbrädl, Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC) University of Lausanne, Switzerland; Daniel Waeger, Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, 7th Annual ARCS Research Conference , Kellogg School of Management, May 13 – 15, 2015

All the information we presented to the respondents was based on real data. To operationalize social performance, we used data from Covalence EthicalQuote (www.ethicalquote.com) from 2002 to 2006 for a total of 183 companies taken from the Dow Jones Sector Titans Index , an index of the biggest companies in important industries. Covalence EthicalQuote is a rating agency based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is specialized in assessing external information about the social and environmental performance of companies.

ESG Impact on Market Performance of Firms: International Evidence, Jean-Michel Sahut, IPAG Business School, Paris, France; Hélène Pasquini-Descomps, HEG Haute Ecole de gestion de Genève, Switzerland, International Management, 2015

We propose below an original study of over 200 large US, UK, and Swiss companies, based on the availability of ESG scores and Fama-French factors. Our study on the performance of companies will compare their ESG ratings available from Covalence with their market performance adjusted for various factors during the 2007—2011 period. We measured the change in the market value of a stock using a five factor linear market model derived from Carhart’s model.

The weighting of CSR dimensions: Does one size fit all?, Gunther Capelle-Blancard, Aurélien Petit, CES, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, 2014

This paper proposes an original weighting scheme based on media and NGO scrutiny. To this end, we analyze thousands of items of ESG news (good or bad) published by the media or NGOs concerning 100 firms over the 2002-2010 period. This database was provided by Covalence, an information provider which systematically collects ESG news concerning the world’s largest companies. We use this detailed information to provide a set of weights which reflect society’s concerns regarding CSR, and which differ across sectors.

Changes in the Covalence Ethical Quote, Financial Performance and Financial Reporting Quality, Fayez A. Elayan, Jingyu Li, Zhefeng Frank Liu, Sandra Felton, Department of Accounting, Goodman School of Business, Brock University, Canada; Thomas O. Meyer, Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, LA, USA, The Journal of Business Ethics, 2014

We examine the equity valuation effect of press releases of upgrades or downgrades reflected in the Covalence Ethical Quote (CEQ), an index ranking the ethical performance of multinational firms. (…) We find first a significant causal relationship between stock market reactions and changes in the CEQ. (…) Collectively, these results suggest that the CEQ conveys information that is useful to investors. (…) We have tried to make the case that the CEQ measure/ proxy is the best measure capturing firm ethical behavior employed to date.

Mesurer les performances extrafinancières, Gunther Capelle-Blancard, Aurélien Petit, Revue française de gestion 2013/7 (N° 236), p. 109-125. DOI 10.3166/RFG.236.109-125

La responsabilité sociale des entreprises est un concept fondamentalement multidimensionnel. Cet aspect estlargement ignoré alors qu’il pose de redoutables problèmes théoriques et pratiques. Les chercheurs, comme les praticiens, ont ainsi souvent recours à des indicateurs composites, résultant de l’agrégation de plusieurs critères. Dans cet article, les auteurs rappellent les hypothèses (contestables) de fongibilité et de commensurabilité sous-jacentes à ces approches. Ils montrent également que celles-ci tendent à niveler la mesure des performances extrafinancières.

Corporate Codes of Conduct: The Effects of Code Content and Quality on Ethical Performance, Patrick M. Erwin, Journal of Business Ethics, April 2011

Researchers in this study first compiled benchmarking analyses by the Ethisphere Institute, which included 392 international companies from 15 industries and evaluated codes of conduct based on 8 categories of performance. They then compared these companies with companies on “best of” lists related to sustainability, corporate citizenship, ethical practices, and consumer perception. To include companies who were not on any of the four lists, they also analyzed companies that had both ethical ratings and code of conduct benchmarking in the 2008 Covalence Ethical Rankings. Lastly, the researchers compared each company’s code of conduct grade with its ethical performance rating.