The 16th Xi Xian Academic Luncheon, co-organised by IIDPF and the School of Public Finance and Taxation, was successfully held on 9 June 2022 in Conference Room 119, Wenqin Building. Prof. Yang Guochao, Professor of the School of Accounting and Director of IIDPF's Big Data Centre, was the keynote speaker of this academic luncheon and gave a talk entitled "A Study on ESG 'Greenwashing' Based on NLP Approach". The academic luncheon was hosted by IIDPF researcher Dr Wan Qian and attended by over thirty IIDPF faculty and students.
The "dual carbon" green goal and the strategic plan for common prosperity are inherent requirements for the high-quality development of China's economy, which requires micro-enterprise entities to practise ESG values and integrate environmental, social and governance factors into the consideration of corporate development. In this context, Mr. Yang Guochao used a semi-supervised theme identification method based on natural language processing to study the ESG "greening" behaviour of companies based on the actual ESG performance of listed companies and the text data disclosed in ESG reports. The study found that the "greenwashing" behaviour of ESG activities of listed companies in China cannot be generalised, but mainly exists in ESG activities that are difficult to verify.
Professor Yang Guochao's sharing attracted the audience of faculty and students. The discussion session was a lively and interactive exchange of views on variables, data, models and other issues. Professor Yang Guochao's research not only demonstrates the heterogeneous performance of companies' information disclosure on different attributes of ESG activities, but also provides a theoretical reference for how regulators can promote the implementation of ESG concepts.
