• ISSN: 2301-3567 (Print), 2972-3981 (Online)
    • Abbreviated Title: J. Econ. Bus. Manag.
    • Frequency: Quarterly
    • DOI: 10.18178/JOEBM
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HOME > Archive > 2026 > Volume 14 Number 3 (2026) >
JOEBM 2026 Vol.14(3): 275-278
DOI: 10.18178/joebm.2026.14.3.956

ESG Risk Profiles Among S&P 500 Companies: A Comparative Analysis of Low and High Risk Firms

Hongli Jiao
Hongli Jiao
Santa Margarita Catholic High School, Rancho Santa Margarita, California, USA
Email: jackyj1688@gmail.com

Manuscript received July 2, 2026; accepted September 18, 2026; published September 30, 2026.

Abstract—This study provides a transparent descriptive comparison of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) risk profiles among S&P 500 companies using a publicly available ESG Risk Ratings dataset. The downloaded file contains 503 company observations, of which 430 have a valid Total ESG Risk Score. The analytical sample is constructed mechanically by selecting the 25 firms with the lowest Total ESG Risk Scores and the 25 firms with the highest scores. The two groups are compared on total ESG risk, Environmental, Social, and Governance risk components, controversy measures, and sector composition. The Low-ESG-Risk group has an average Total ESG Risk Score of 10.46, compared with 36.51 for the High-ESG-Risk group. The largest component difference appears in Environmental Risk, while the two groups also differ substantially in sector composition: Real Estate and Technology are prominent in the low-risk group, whereas Energy and Industrials dominate the high-risk group. These findings are descriptive rather than causal and illustrate both the usefulness and the limitations of a simple, reproducible public-data approach to ESG analysis.

Keywords—ESG risk, S&P 500, environmental risk, social risk, governance risk, sector composition, sustainable investing

Cite: Hongli Jiao, "ESG Risk Profiles Among S&P 500 Companies: A Comparative Analysis of Low and High Risk Firms," Journal of Economics, Business and Management, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 275-278, 2026.

Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
 

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