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

The Korean Society of Business Venturing (한국벤처창업학회)
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An Investigation of the Relationship Between Corporate Logo and ESG Evaluation

기업로고와 ESG 평가의 관계에 대한 고찰

  • Yujin Lee (Korea University Business School) ;
  • Daeil Nam (Korea University Business School)
  • Received : 2024.01.10
  • Accepted : 2024.04.15
  • Published : 2024.04.30
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Abstract

The corporate logo symbolizes the company's value, goals and vision as a visual symbol representing the company. It serves as a communication tool for companies by conveying different messages depending on design and color. As demands for ESG management have recently increased, companies have begun to implicitly demonstrate values such as environmental protection and corporate transparency through logos. Companies use logos as a strategy to visually emphasize the value they pursue and project the desired image as a signal. In this process, stakeholders who see the logo experience cognitive bias. Therefore, this study seeks to find out that ESG value can be indirectly communicated by the design of corporate logos, which can also affect a company's ESG evaluation. In addition, this study will examine the moderate effect that logos expect to encounter a greater bias effect as the companies actively include ESG-related issues in corporate disclosure data. This study conducted an analysis of 617 KOSPI-listed companies using ESG evaluation data from 2020 to 2022. The analysis confirmed the significant relation of the type of logo and ESG disclosure on ESG evaluation but found partially moderate effect of ESG disclosure.

기업로고는 기업을 대표하는 시각적 기호로서 기업의 가치, 목표, 비전을 상징적으로 나타낸다. 디자인과 색상에 따라 각각 다른 메시지를 전달하며 기업의 의사소통 도구 역할을 한다. 최근 ESG 경영에 대한 요구가 높아짐에 따라 기업은 로고를 통해 환경 보호, 기업의 투명성 등의 가치를 함축적으로 나타내기 시작했다. 기업은 추구하는 가치를 시각적으로 강조하며 원하는 이미지를 투영하는 전략적 신호로서 로고를 사용한다. 이러한 과정에서 로고를 보는 이해관계자는 인지 편향의 문제를 겪는다. 따라서, 본 연구는 기업로고의 디자인에 따라 간접적으로 ESG 실천 가치를 전달할 수 있으며, 이는 곧 기업의 ESG 평가에도 영향을 미칠 수 있음을 알아보고자 한다. 추가적으로, 기업이 ESG 관련 이슈를 기업공시 자료에 적극적으로 포함할수록 편향의 효과가 커질 것으로 예상하는 조절효과를 함께 살펴본다. 본 연구는 KOSPI 상장 기업 중 617개 대상으로 2020년부터 2022년까지의 ESG 평가자료를 활용하여 분석을 실시하였다. 분석결과, 로고와 ESG공시가 ESG평가에 미치는 유의한 영향을 확인하였지만, ESG공시의 조절효과는 부분적으로 유의하였다.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This research was partially supported by the Korea University Research Grant.

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