ASSESSMENT OF ESG REPORTING AMONG MONGOLIA’S TOP 100 COMPANIES

Abstract

Abstract Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting is an internationally standardized framework for assessing corporate sustainability, social responsibility, and long-term value creation. According to IBM, ESG represents an integrated framework for sustainability assessment. In Mongolia, formal regulation of ESG reporting was introduced in 2022 following the revision of the Regulation on Public Information Transparency by the Financial Regulatory Commission and the Mongolian Stock Exchange, which established mandatory disclosure requirements for ESG-related information for publicly listed companies. In parallel, the ESG Sustainability Reporting Guideline approved in 2022 has been undergoing alignment with the international IFRS S1 standard during 2024–2025. The objective of this study is to evaluate the current level of ESG disclosure among Mongolia’s TOP 100 companies as identified by the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2024. Of the TOP 100 companies, 25 firms that publicly disclosed ESG reports were selected for analysis. A total of 375 qualitative assessments were conducted across 15 indicators grouped into the three core ESG pillars—Environmental (E), Social (S), and Governance (G). Following qualitative scoring, company rankings and quantitative statistical analyses were performed using SPSS, including Ranking, One-way ANOVA, Welch and Brown–Forsythe robust tests, and post hoc comparisons.   The One-way ANOVA results indicate no statistically significant differences in mean ESG scores across industry sectors (F(4,20)=0.98, p=.44). Levene’s test confirmed homogeneity of variances (p=.809), while the Welch (p=.65) and Brown–Forsythe (p=.49) robust tests similarly revealed no statistically significant inter-sectoral differences. Although the effect size (η²=.16) suggests a moderate practical effect, the absence of statistical significance may be attributable to the relatively small sample size and uneven distribution of firms across sectors. Post hoc analyses consistently grouped all sectors into a single homogeneous subset, further confirming the lack of statistically meaningful differences. The findings suggest that ESG reporting among Mongolia’s leading companies has not yet reached a level of sectoral differentiation, with systemic challenges related to data availability, reporting quality, and standard implementation remaining prevalent. Comparative analysis across ESG components shows that Environmental (E) disclosure scores highest, followed by Social (S) performance at a moderate level, while Governance (G) disclosure remains comparatively weak. As ESG reporting practices improve and data coverage expands, future research will enable more evidence-based assessments of sectoral policy implications, corporate governance quality, and social responsibility performance in Mongolia.