Dataset on environmental, social and governance information firms and their merger and acquisitions activities

The increasing salience of sustainability concerns in financial markets has led to growing demand by financial institutions, regulatory authorities and other stakeholders for information on the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) credentials of companies. To address these demands, private firms providing ESG data and related products have expanded in size and in number. Reflecting the increased importance of ESG data, academics, sustainable finance practitioners and financial regulators have surveyed the emerging industry of these ESG information firms. However, to date no structured dataset on the characteristics of ESG information firms is available. The ESG Information Firms Dataset (ESGFiDa) presented in this article is a first step to address this gap. ESGFiDa consolidates the findings from the academic and gray literature on the ESG information industry and augments these with additional data gathered through desk research. Based on this multi-stage data collection process, the dataset provides 1) a meta-analysis of existing accounts of ESG information firms from a variety of sources and 2) consolidated and augmented data about 128 ESG information firms. The meta-analysis part of the dataset contains amongst others information on different estimates regarding the size of the ESG information industry that have been proposed in the literature. The second part of ESGFiDa provides data on 128 ESG information firms that have been identified from the literature and consists of five variables (Name, Type, Country, Continent, Year of incorporation, and Headquarters). In addition, mergers and acquisitions among the 128 ESG information firms are recorded in a dated and geolocated edgelist with 65 entries. These relational data can be used for network analysis. In summary, ESGFiDa offers a first systematized description of the dynamics of the emerging ESG information industry. As such, it can be of interest to students of sustainable finance from fields including finance and economics, political science, organization studies, sustainability studies and financial geography. Moreover, practitioners from financial institutions interested in the backgrounds and differences of ESG information firms as well as policymakers and financial regulators tasked with overseeing and regulating the emerging ESG information industry might find the presented dataset useful.