ABSTRACT Sustainability has become central to corporate strategy, yet firms still differ markedly in the breadth and maturity of ESG disclosure. This study examines what explains variation in ESG disclosure breadth across large Russian firms in the 2022 reporting period. Using an open dataset of 109 companies and publicly available nonfinancial reports, we assess aggregate and pillar‐specific disclosure patterns across environmental, social, and governance dimensions. The analysis combines descriptive benchmarking, firm‐level case interpretation, and regression modeling controlling for headcount, revenue, and sector. The results show pronounced unevenness in ESG maturity and transparency. Organizational scale, measured by employee headcount, is the most consistent predictor of disclosure breadth, whereas revenue is not significant and sector effects are generally weak, except for limited governance‐related differences. The findings suggest that ESG institutionalization in Russia is driven more by internal organizational capacity than by sectoral pressures alone. The study highlights persistent disclosure gaps and points to the need for targeted support instruments.
Kuzmin et al. (2026) studied this question.