A preliminary study for developing perceived ESG scale to measure public perception toward organizations’ ESG performance

ESG has arisen as a key priority of investors in making sustainable investment decisions. Despite its growing popularity in the business and investment sectors, ESG has yet gained momentum in public relations research. The purpose of this study is to develop a Perceived ESG Scale (P-ESG), a valid and reliable measure to examine public perceptions of an organization’s ESG activities. Following a legitimate procedure of scale development, this study developed a three-dimensional P-ESG scale with 26 items. A series of measures (i.e., content validity, construct validity, concurrent validity, and predictive validity) were implemented to test the validity of the scale. The results indicate that the P-ESG is a reliable and valid assessment tool that can be applied to examine public’s perception on organizations’ ESG performance. The present study also revealed the superiority of the P-ESG model over the corporate social reliability (CSR) model in predicting attitudinal as well as behavioral outcomes of the public (i.e., corporate reputation, purchase intention, investment intention). The Perceived ESG Scale would aid PR research on ESG, providing theoretical insight into how an organization's ESG initiatives lead to concrete behavioral results and business achievements. Such research can highlight the importance of incorporating PR into an organization's ESG outcomes by determining whether key stakeholders and the public endorse the organization's ESG initiatives and achievements.