• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.287-316
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• 2023

As global energy crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have emerged as social issues, there is a growing demand for companies to move away from profit-centric business models and embrace sustainable management that balances environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. ESG activities of companies vary across industries, and industry-specific weights are applied in ESG evaluations. Therefore, it is important to develop strategic management approaches that reflect the characteristics of each industry and the importance of each ESG factor. Additionally, with the stance of strengthened focus on ESG disclosures, specific guidelines are needed to identify and report on sustainable management activities of domestic companies. To understand corporate sustainability strategies, analyzing ESG reports and news articles by industry can help identify strategic characteristics in specific industries. However, each company has its own unique strategies and report structures, making it difficult to grasp detailed trends or action items. In our study, we analyzed ESG reports (2019-2021) and news articles (2019-2022) of six companies in the 'Finance,' 'Manufacturing,' and 'IT' sectors to examine the sustainability strategies of leading domestic ESG companies. Text mining techniques such as keyword frequency analysis and topic modeling were applied to identify industry-specific, ESG element-specific management strategies and issues. The analysis revealed that in the 'Finance' sector, customer-centric management strategies and efforts to promote an inclusive culture within and outside the company were prominent. Strategies addressing climate change, such as carbon neutrality and expanding green finance, were also emphasized. In the 'Manufacturing' sector, the focus was on creating sustainable communities through occupational health and safety issues, sustainable supply chain management, low-carbon technology development, and eco-friendly investments to achieve carbon neutrality. In the 'IT' sector, there was a tendency to focus on technological innovation and digital responsibility to enhance social value through technology. Furthermore, the key issues identified in the ESG factors were as follows: under the 'Environmental' element, issues such as greenhouse gas and carbon emission management, industry-specific eco-friendly activities, and green partnerships were identified. Under the 'Social' element, key issues included social contribution activities through stakeholder engagement, supporting the growth and coexistence of members and partner companies, and enhancing customer value through stable service provision. Under the 'Governance' element, key issues were identified as strengthening board independence through the appointment of outside directors, risk management and communication for sustainable growth, and establishing transparent governance structures. The exploration of the relationship between ESG disclosures in reports and ESG issues in news articles revealed that the sustainability strategies disclosed in reports were aligned with the issues related to ESG disclosed in news articles. However, there was a tendency to strengthen ESG activities for prevention and improvement after negative media coverage that could have a negative impact on corporate image. Additionally, environmental issues were mentioned more frequently in news articles compared to ESG reports, with environmental-related keywords being emphasized in the 'Finance' sector in the reports. Thus, ESG reports and news articles shared some similarities in content due to the sharing of information sources. However, the impact of media coverage influenced the emphasis on specific sustainability strategies, and the extent of mentioning environmental issues varied across documents. Based on our study, the following contributions were derived. From a practical perspective, companies need to consider their characteristics and establish sustainability strategies that align with their capabilities and situations. From an academic perspective, unlike previous studies on ESG strategies, we present a subdivided methodology through analysis considering the industry-specific characteristics of companies.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-25
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• 2023

ESG management is becoming a necessity of the times, but there are about 600 ESG evaluation indicators worldwide, causing confusion in the market as different ESG ratings were assigned to individual companies according to evaluation agencies. In addition, since the method of applying ESG was not disclosed, there were not many ways for companies that wanted to introduce ESG management to get help. Accordingly, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced the K-ESG guideline jointly with the ministries. In previous studies, there were few studies on the comparison of evaluation grades by ESG evaluation company or the application of evaluation diagnostic items. Therefore, in this study, the ease of application and improvement of the K-ESG guideline was attempted by applying the K-ESG guideline to companies that already have ESG ratings. The position of the K-ESG guideline is also confirmed by comparing the scores calculated through the K-ESG guideline for companies that have ESG ratings from global ESG evaluation agencies and domestic ESG evaluation agencies. As a result of the analysis, first, the K-ESG guideline provide clear and detailed standards for individual companies to set their own ESG goals and set the direction of ESG practice. Second, the K-ESG guideline is suitable for domestic and global ESG evaluation standards as it has 61 diagnostic items and 12 additional diagnostic items covering the evaluation indicators of global representative ESG evaluation agencies and KCGS in Korea. Third, the ESG rating of the K-ESG guideline was higher than that of a global ESG rating company and lower than or similar to that of a domestic ESG rating company. Fourth, the ease of application of the K-ESG guideline is judged to be high. Fifth, the point to be improved in the K-ESG guideline is that the government needs to compile industry average statistics on diagnostic items in the K-ESG environment area and publish them on the government's ESG-only site. In addition, the applied weights of E, S, and G by industry should be determined and disclosed. This study will help ESG evaluation agencies, corporate management, and ESG managers interested in ESG management in establishing ESG management strategies and contributing to providing improvements to be referenced when revising the K-ESG guideline in the future.