IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/envmet/v36y2025i2ne2893.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Multidimensional Spatiotemporal Clustering – An Application to Environmental Sustainability Scores in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Caterina Morelli
  • Simone Boccaletti
  • Paolo Maranzano
  • Philipp Otto

Abstract

The assessment of corporate sustainability performance is extremely relevant in facilitating the transition to a green and low‐carbon intensity economy. However, companies located in different areas may be subject to different sustainability and environmental risks and policies. Henceforth, the main objective of this paper is to investigate the spatial and temporal pattern of the sustainability evaluations of European firms. We leverage a large dataset containing information about companies' sustainability performances, measured by MSCI ESG ratings, and geographical coordinates of firms in Western Europe between 2013 and 2023. By means of a modified version of the Chavent et al. (2018) hierarchical algorithm, we conduct a spatial clustering analysis, combining sustainability and spatial information, and a spatiotemporal clustering analysis, which combines the time dynamics of multiple sustainability features and spatial dissimilarities, to detect groups of firms with homogeneous sustainability performance. We are able to build cross‐national and cross‐industry clusters with remarkable differences in terms of sustainability scores. Among other results, in the spatio‐temporal analysis, we observe a high degree of geographical overlap among clusters, indicating that the temporal dynamics in sustainability assessment are relevant within a multidimensional approach. Our findings help to capture the diversity of ESG ratings across Western Europe and may assist practitioners and policymakers in evaluating companies facing different sustainability‐linked risks in different areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Caterina Morelli & Simone Boccaletti & Paolo Maranzano & Philipp Otto, 2025. "Multidimensional Spatiotemporal Clustering – An Application to Environmental Sustainability Scores in Europe," Environmetrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(2), March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:envmet:v:36:y:2025:i:2:n:e2893
    DOI: 10.1002/env.2893
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/env.2893
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/env.2893?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter C. B. Phillips & Donggyu Sul, 2009. "Economic transition and growth," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(7), pages 1153-1185, November.
    2. Zhang, Dongyang & Meng, Li & Zhang, Jintao, 2023. "Environmental subsidy disruption, skill premiums and ESG performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    3. Peter C. B. Phillips & Donggyu Sul, 2007. "Transition Modeling and Econometric Convergence Tests," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(6), pages 1771-1855, November.
    4. Mattera, Raffaele & Franses, Philip Hans, 2023. "Are African business cycles synchronized? Evidence from spatio-temporal modeling," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    5. Monica Billio & Michele Costola & Iva Hristova & Carmelo Latino & Loriana Pelizzon, 2021. "Inside the ESG ratings: (Dis)agreement and performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(5), pages 1426-1445, September.
    6. Yujuan Wu & Jacquline Tham, 2023. "The Impact of Executive Green Incentives and Top Management Team Characteristics on Corporate Value in China: The Mediating Role of Environment, Social and Government Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-23, August.
    7. Wang, Qishu, 2023. "Herding behavior and the dynamics of ESG performance in the European banking industry," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PD).
    8. Marie Chavent & Vanessa Kuentz-Simonet & Amaury Labenne & Jérôme Saracco, 2018. "ClustGeo: an R package for hierarchical clustering with spatial constraints," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 1799-1822, December.
    9. Florian Berg & Julian F Kölbel & Roberto Rigobon, 2022. "Aggregate Confusion: The Divergence of ESG Ratings [Corporate social responsibility and firm risk: theory and empirical evidence]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1315-1344.
    10. Yalin Mo & Yuchen Che & Wenqiao Ning, 2023. "Digital Finance Promotes Corporate ESG Performance: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-23, July.
    11. Qian, Shuitu & Yu, Wenzhe, 2024. "Green finance and environmental, social, and governance performance," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PA), pages 1185-1202.
    12. Gianluca Gucciardi & Elisa Ossola & Lucia Parisio & Matteo Pelagatti, 2024. "Common factors behind companies' Environmental ratings," Working Papers 536, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics.
    13. Niranjan Chipalkatti & Quan Vu Le & Meenakshi Rishi, 2021. "Sustainability and Society: Do Environmental, Social, and Governance Factors Matter for Foreign Direct Investment?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-18, September.
    14. Zhang, Dongyang, 2022. "Environmental regulation and firm product quality improvement: How does the greenwashing response?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    15. Billio, Monica & Costola, Michele & Hristova, Iva & Latino, Carmelo & Pelizzon, Loriana, 2022. "Sustainable finance: A journey toward ESG and climate risk," SAFE Working Paper Series 349, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    16. Xiaoling Yu & Kaitian Xiao, 2022. "Does ESG Performance Affect Firm Value? Evidence from a New ESG-Scoring Approach for Chinese Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-40, December.
    17. Erwin Saraswati & Abdul Ghofar & Sari Atmini & Ayu Aryista Dewi, 2024. "Clustering of Companies Based on Sustainability Performance using ESG Materiality Approach: Evidence from Indonesia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 14(2), pages 112-125, March.
    18. Qihang Xue & Huimin Wang & Caiquan Bai, 2023. "Local green finance policies and corporate ESG performance," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 23(4), pages 721-749, December.
    19. Xingshuai Wang & Ehsan Elahi & Zainab Khalid, 2022. "Do Green Finance Policies Foster Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance of Corporate?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-15, November.
    20. Zhao, Xiaoxia & Cai, Lianghui, 2023. "Digital transformation and corporate ESG: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PA).
    21. Montero, Pablo & Vilar, José A., 2014. "TSclust: An R Package for Time Series Clustering," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 62(i01).
    22. Barbara Rocha Gonzaga & Marcelo Cabus Klotzle & Talles Vianna Brugni & Ileana-Sorina Rakos & Ionela Cornelia Cioca & Cristian-Marian Barbu & Teodora Cucerzan, 2024. "The ESG Patterns of Emerging-Market Companies: Are There Differences in Their Sustainable Behavior after COVID-19?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-41, January.
    23. Javier Amores‐Salvadó & Gregorio Martin‐de Castro & Elisabeth Albertini, 2023. "Walking the talk, but above all, talking the walk: Looking green for market stakeholder engagement," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 431-442, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Caterina Morelli & Simone Boccaletti & Paolo Maranzano & Philipp Otto, 2024. "Multidimensional spatiotemporal clustering -- An application to environmental sustainability scores in Europe," Papers 2405.20191, arXiv.org.
    2. Patroklos Patsoulis & Demetra Demetriou, 2024. "Assessing the convergence process of ESG metrics: a research note on the role of economic freedom," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Michele Rubino & Ilaria Mastrorocco & Giovanni Maria Garegnani, 2024. "The influence of market and institutional factors on ESG rating disagreement," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 3916-3926, September.
    4. Teti, Emanuele & Etro, Leonardo L. & Pausini, Lorenzo, 2024. "Does greenwashing affect Company's stock Price? Evidence from Europe," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    5. Jin, Xuanxuan & Qi, Hanying & Huang, Xin, 2024. "Green financial regulation and corporate strategic ESG behavior: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    6. Mihály Borsi & Norbert Metiu, 2015. "The evolution of economic convergence in the European Union," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 657-681, March.
    7. Christopoulos, Konstantinos & Eleftheriou, Konstantinos, 2020. "Premature mortality in the US: A convergence study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    8. Delgado Narro, Augusto Ricardo, 2020. "The Process of Convergence among the Japanese Prefectures: 1955 - 2012," MPRA Paper 100361, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Tirtha Chaterjee & A. Ganesh Kumar, 2014. "Neighborhood and Agricultural Clusters across States of India," Working Papers id:6272, eSocialSciences.
    10. Carlos Mendez & Mitsuhiko Kataoka, 2021. "Disparities in regional productivity, capital accumulation, and efficiency across Indonesia: A club convergence approach," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 790-809, May.
    11. Shana M. Sundstrom & Craig R. Allen & David G. Angeler, 2020. "Scaling and discontinuities in the global economy," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 319-345, April.
    12. Ferriani, Fabrizio, 2023. "Issuing bonds during the Covid-19 pandemic: Was there an ESG premium?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    13. Sulekha Hembram & Souparna Maji & Sushil Kr. Haldar, 2019. "Club Convergence among the Major Indian States During 1982–2014: Does Investment in Human Capital Matter?," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 20(2), pages 184-204, September.
    14. Liu, Xiangqiang & Yang, Qingqing & Wei, Kai & Dai, Peng-Fei, 2024. "ESG rating disagreement and idiosyncratic return volatility: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PB).
    15. Cutrini, Eleonora & Mendez, Carlos, 2023. "Convergence clubs and spatial structural change in the European Union," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 167-181.
    16. Rughoo, Aarti & Sarantis, Nicholas, 2014. "The global financial crisis and integration in European retail banking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 28-41.
    17. Saima Javed & Yu Rong & Babar Nawaz Abbasi, 2024. "Convergence analysis of artificial intelligence research capacity: Are the less developed catching up with the developed ones?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(4), pages 2172-2192, May.
    18. Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & John Inekwe & Kris Ivanovski, 2023. "Has the COVID-19 pandemic converged across countries?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(5), pages 2027-2052, May.
    19. Rughoo, Aarti & You, Kefei, 2016. "Asian financial integration: Global or regional? Evidence from money and bond markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 419-434.
    20. Shang, Hua & Jiang, Li & Pan, Xianyou & Pan, Xiongfeng, 2022. "Green technology innovation spillover effect and urban eco-efficiency convergence: Evidence from Chinese cities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).

    More about this item

    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:wly:envmet:v:36:y:2025:i:2:n:e2893. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/1180-4009/ .

    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.