Becoming Sustainable Together: ESG Data Commons for Fintech Startups

Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) reporting has become an important instrument for the sustainable transition of the next generation of business-startup. Nonetheless, poor ESG data quality impedes effective reporting, especially in domains such as Fintech where top-down ESG metrics may overlook pertinent material issues. This action research study applies a design probe in the form of the notion of an ESG data commons to explore possible strategies to improve ESG data quality in Fintech startup. By reporting on the initial results of an ongoing study of a Danish Fintech startup cluster, we develop a practice-based approach that highlights the changing processes, teleoaffective structures, and sociomaterial dynamics of ESG data commons. We contribute to information systems (IS) research in two areas. First, we contribute to the call for a data-driven approach to ESG reporting. Second, the study extends the IS design literature by applying data commons as a design probe.