Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship (벤처창업연구)

The Korean Society of Business Venturing (한국벤처창업학회)
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Exploring Domestic ESG Research Trends: Focusing on Domestic Research on ESG from 2012 to 2021

국내 ESG 연구동향 탐색: 2012~2021년 진행된 국내 학술연구 중심으로

  • Park, Jae Hyun (Yonsei University, Graduate School of Business Administration) ;
  • Han, Hyang Won (Kinaba Co., Ltd.) ;
  • Kim, Na Ra (Small and Medium Business Research at IBK Enterprise Research Institute)
  • 박재현 (연세대학교 일반대학원 경영학과) ;
  • 한향원 (주식회사 키나바) ;
  • 김나라 (IBK기업은행 여신기획부)
  • Received : 2021.11.10
  • Accepted : 2022.02.23
  • Published : 2022.02.28
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Abstract

As the value of highly sustainable companies increases, ESG(Environmental, Social, and Governance) has emerged as the biggest topic of discussion for companies around the world. In addition, as domestically, more research is being done on ESG in line with global trends, it is necessary to examine ESG research trends. Accordingly, ESG academic papers that have been published for the past 10 years were collected for each year, and frequency analysis was conducted using text mining techniques regarding key themes and thesis titles. This paper analyzed the number of selected publications by year and the cumulated number of studies through bibliometric analysis. The findings suggested that the number of ESG papers is increasing each year and that academic interest in ESG-related issues continues to abound. Next, according to the results of frequency analysis of the keywords and titles of the research papers, the words- "ESG", "company", "society", "responsibility", "management", "investment", and "sustainability"- were extracted. This analysis identified the research fields and keywords that have been relevant to ESG in the past 10 years. As a result of comparing the major ESG issues presented in recent overseas studies and the common factors of the ESG key keywords presented in this study, it was confirmed that the environment is the focus of recent studies compared to previous studies. Third, it was found that the data used by domestic ESG studies mainly include the KEJI index, the KRX index, and the KCGS ESG evaluation index. After identifying the main research subjects of ESG papers, research found that 8 out of 152 domestic ESG studies were focused on SMEs. Through this study, it was possible to confirm the ESG research trend and increase in research, and future researchers divided the research topics and research keywords and presented basic data for selecting more diverse research topics. Based on both, the arguments of previous ESG studies conducted on SMEs and the results of this study, there is a lack of studies on guidelines for ESG practice and their application to SMEs, and more ESG research regarding SMEs will need to be conducted in the future.

글로벌 지속가능성이 큰 기업들의 가치가 높아짐에 따라 ESG가 최대 화두로 주목받고 있다. 이러한 배경에서 전반적인 글로벌 흐름에 맞추어 국내 ESG에 관한 학문 연구도 급속하게 증가하고 있다. 이에 본 연구에서는 국내 ESG 연구 동향을 살펴보기 위해 체계적 문헌 고찰방법론을 활용하여 ESG 연구의 학문적 관심도 변화를 살펴보고 연구의 주요키워드들을 추출하였다. 이를 위해 지난 10년간 연구가 진행된 ESG 학술논문들을 연도별로 수집하고, 핵심주제어와 논문 제목을 활용하여 텍스트마이닝 기법으로 빈도분석을 하였다. 연구결과 첫째, 국내 ESG 학술논문들의 연도별 게재 수를 계랑 서지학 분석의 누적 수로 분석한 결과 해마다 ESG 연구논문들의 게재수가 증가하고 있으며 이를 통해 ESG 이슈에 대한 학문적 관심도의 지속적인 증가를 확인하였다. 둘째, 연구대상 논문들의 핵심주제어와 논문 제목의 빈도분석 결과로 ESG, 기업, 사회, 책임, 경영, 투자, 지속가능의 단어들이 추출되었다. 또한, 해외에서 체계적 문헌고찰로 진행된 연구를 바탕으로 국내외 ESG 주요키워드들이 공통으로 책임, 지속가능, 경영 임을 확인하였다. 그리고 최근 국외 연구에서 제시한 ESG 주요 이슈와 본 연구에서 제시한 ESG 핵심키워드들의 공통요소들을 비교한 결과 과거 연구들과 비교하면 최근 연구의 관심사가 환경임을 확인할 수 있었다. 셋째, 국내 ESG 연구들이 활용한 데이터들은 주로 KEJI 지수, KRX 지수, KCGS ESG 평가지수 등이 있음을 알 수 있었고, 그리고 중소기업을 대상으로 한 연구는 전체 152편 중 총 8편으로 현저하게 부족함을 확인하였다. 본 연구를 통해 ESG 연구 동향과 연구의 증가 폭을 확인할 수 있었으며, 향후 후속 연구자들이 연구주제 및 연구키워드에 대해 구분하고 더욱 다양한 연구주제 선정하는데 기초자료를 제시하였다. 또한, 중소기업 대상 학문 연구는 아직 미흡하거나 부족하여 이에 관한 관심과 연구가 강화될 필요가 있으며, 빠르게 급변하는 시장에서 실무적으로 접목할 수 있는 ESG 실천 지침 등을 고려한 후속 연구가 필요하다.

Keywords

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