IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v74y2025ics1544612325000224.html

Generative AI-assisted evaluation of ESG practices and information delays in ESG ratings

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Qishu

Abstract

We explore the time-lag effects of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices’ integration within firms from the NASDAQ 100 index, analyzing how this information is reflected over time through Generative AI. By employing ChatGPT-4 to assess ESG progress from 2011 to 2022 in their annual 10-K reports, we identify significant time-lagged effects between the AI-generated evaluations and the ESG ratings, particularly pronounced in the Environmental and Social pillars among firms with mid-range ESG ratings. Our evidence suggests that such information delay in ESG ratings is plausibly driven by reputational herding among firms in their ESG practices, along with potential greenwashing.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Qishu, 2025. "Generative AI-assisted evaluation of ESG practices and information delays in ESG ratings," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:74:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325000224
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.106757
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325000224
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.106757?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lian, Yonghui & Ye, Tao & Zhang, Yiyang & Zhang, Lin, 2023. "How does corporate ESG performance affect bond credit spreads: Empirical evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 352-371.
    2. Emiel Duuren & Auke Plantinga & Bert Scholtens, 2016. "ESG Integration and the Investment Management Process: Fundamental Investing Reinvented," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 525-533, October.
    3. Robert G. Eccles & Mirtha D. Kastrapeli & Stephanie J. Potter, 2017. "How to Integrate ESG into Investment Decision†Making: Results of a Global Survey of Institutional Investors," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 29(4), pages 125-133, December.
    4. Wang, Qishu, 2023. "Herding behavior and the dynamics of ESG performance in the European banking industry," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PD).
    5. Cheng, Mei & Neamtiu, Monica, 2009. "An empirical analysis of changes in credit rating properties: Timeliness, accuracy and volatility," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1-2), pages 108-130, March.
    6. Li, Donghui & Zhang, Zhanxiang & Gao, Xin, 2024. "Does artificial intelligence deter greenwashing?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PB).
    7. Ko, Hyungjin & Lee, Jaewook, 2024. "Can ChatGPT improve investment decisions? From a portfolio management perspective," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    8. Yu, Ellen Pei-yi & Luu, Bac Van & Chen, Catherine Huirong, 2020. "Greenwashing in environmental, social and governance disclosures," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    9. Albort-Morant, Gema & Leal-Millán, Antonio & Cepeda-Carrión, Gabriel, 2016. "The antecedents of green innovation performance: A model of learning and capabilities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 4912-4917.
    10. Pinches, George E & Singleton, J Clay, 1978. "The Adjustment of Stock Prices to Bond Rating Changes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 33(1), pages 29-44, March.
    11. Yuan, Xueying & Xu, Jinhua & Shang, Lixia, 2024. "Exaggerating, distracting, or window-dressing? An empirical study on firm greenwashing recognition," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PB).
    12. Liao, Feimei & Sun, Yinghao & Xu, Shulin, 2023. "Financial report comment letters and greenwashing in environmental, social and governance disclosures: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PB).
    13. Han, Jungsuk & Sangiorgi, Francesco, 2018. "Searching for information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 342-373.
    14. Omri Even-Tov & Naim Bugra Ozel, 2021. "What moves stock prices around credit rating changes?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(4), pages 1390-1427, December.
    15. Zwiebel, Jeffrey, 1995. "Corporate Conservatism and Relative Compensation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(1), pages 1-25, February.
    16. Beaver, William H. & Shakespeare, Catherine & Soliman, Mark T., 2006. "Differential properties in the ratings of certified versus non-certified bond-rating agencies," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 303-334, December.
    17. Wang, Juxian & Ma, Mengdi & Dong, Tianyi & Zhang, Zheyuan, 2023. "Do ESG ratings promote corporate green innovation? A quasi-natural experiment based on SynTao Green Finance's ESG ratings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    18. Amir Amel-Zadeh & George Serafeim, 2018. "Why and How Investors Use ESG Information: Evidence from a Global Survey," Financial Analysts Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 74(3), pages 87-103, July.
    19. Oleksandr Romanko & Akhilesh Narayan & Roy H. Kwon, 2023. "ChatGPT-based Investment Portfolio Selection," Papers 2308.06260, arXiv.org.
    20. Welch, Ivo, 1992. "Sequential Sales, Learning, and Cascades," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 695-732, June.
    21. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Hirshleifer, David & Welch, Ivo, 1992. "A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change in Informational Cascades," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 992-1026, October.
    22. Moh. Riskiyadi, 2023. "Detecting future financial statement fraud using a machine learning model in Indonesia: a comparative study," Asian Review of Accounting, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(3), pages 394-422, September.
    23. Kerkemeier, Marco & Kruse-Becher, Robinson, 2022. "Join the club! Dynamics of global ESG indices convergence," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    24. Oleksandr Romanko & Akhilesh Narayan & Roy H. Kwon, 2023. "ChatGPT-Based Investment Portfolio Selection," SN Operations Research Forum, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 1-27, December.
    25. Scharfstein, David S & Stein, Jeremy C, 1990. "Herd Behavior and Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(3), pages 465-479, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Trotta, Annarita & Piluso, Fabio & Strano, Eugenia & Ceraso, Danilo, 2026. "Exploring the climate resilience of ESG and conventional ETFs: Evidence from the European region," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    2. Ali, Hassnian & Zafar, Muhammad Bilal & Aysan, Ahmet Faruk, 2025. "Generative AI in finance: Replicability, methodological contingencies, and future research directions," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PF).
    3. Congluo Xu & Jiuyue Liu & Ziyang Li & Chengmengjia Lin, 2025. "DeepGreen: Effective LLM-Driven Greenwashing Monitoring System Designed for Empirical Testing -- Evidence from China," Papers 2504.07733, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2026.
    4. Dou, Jie & Chen, Dongjing & Zhang, Yuchen, 2025. "Towards energy transition: Accessing the significance of artificial intelligence in ESG performance," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    5. Douae Youbi & Abdessamad Ouchen, 2026. "Artificial intelligence in green finance: Insights from a PRISMA-driven bibliometric analysis in R," Post-Print hal-05504935, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Peiwen & Chen, Minghua & Wu, Ji & Yan, Yuanyun, 2023. "Do peer effects matter in bank risk? Some cross-country evidence," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. A. Corcos & J-P Eckmann & A. Malaspinas & Y. Malevergne & D. Sornette, 2002. "Imitation and contrarian behaviour: hyperbolic bubbles, crashes and chaos," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(4), pages 264-281.
    3. Celiker, Umut & Chowdhury, Jaideep & Sonaer, Gokhan, 2015. "Do mutual funds herd in industries?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1-16.
    4. Frederik König, 2014. "Reciprocal social influence on investment decisions: behavioral evidence from a group of mutual fund managers," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 28(3), pages 233-262, August.
    5. Wang, Xinru & Kim, Maria H. & Suardi, Sandy, 2022. "Herding and China's market-wide circuit breaker," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    6. Xue, Qinyuan & Jin, Yifei & Zhang, Cheng, 2024. "ESG rating results and corporate total factor productivity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PA).
    7. Camara, Omar, 2017. "Industry herd behaviour in financing decision making," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 32-42.
    8. Li, Weiping & Mao, Zhuowei & Ren, Xiaohang & Liang, Jing, 2025. "Retail investor attention: Guardian of corporate ESG integrity or catalyst for greenwashing?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    9. Gumbel, Alexander, 2005. "Herding in delegated portfolio management: When is comparative performance information desirable?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 599-626, April.
    10. Qian, Binsheng & Poshakwale, Sunil & Tan, Yusen, 2024. "‘E’ of ESG and firm performance: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    11. Welch, Ivo, 2000. "Herding among security analysts," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 369-396, December.
    12. Ali-Rind, Asad & Boubaker, Sabri & Jarjir, Souad Lajili, 2023. "Peer effects in financial economics: A literature survey," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    13. Devenow, Andrea & Welch, Ivo, 1996. "Rational herding in financial economics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 603-615, April.
    14. Dang, Ha V. & Lin, Mi, 2016. "Herd mentality in the stock market: On the role of idiosyncratic participants with heterogeneous information," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 247-260.
    15. Angela E. Chang & Shubham Chaudhuri & Jith Jayaratne, 1997. "Rational herding and the spatial clustering of bank branches: an empirical analysis," Research Paper 9724, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    16. Li, Menghan & Chen, Qi, 2024. "Executive pay gap and corporate ESG greenwashing: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PA).
    17. Chang, Eric C. & Cheng, Joseph W. & Khorana, Ajay, 2000. "An examination of herd behavior in equity markets: An international perspective," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(10), pages 1651-1679, October.
    18. Schneider, Constantin J. & Yilmaz, Yahya, 2025. "Stock portfolio selection based on risk appetite: Evidence from ChatGPT," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    19. Saad, Mohsen & Samet, Anis, 2020. "Collectivism and commonality in liquidity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 137-162.
    20. Puput Tri Komalasari & Marwan Asri & Bernardinus M. Purwanto & Bowo Setiyono, 2022. "Herding behaviour in the capital market: What do we know and what is next?," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 72(3), pages 745-787, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:74:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325000224. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.