Construct Validation for Vendor Environmental Compliance Scoring: A Design-Based Research Approach to Measure Corporate Environmental Misrepresentation

• Abi cit

  Lautech

  Author

Vendor environmental compliance scoring systems have proliferated across supply chain management, yet their construct validity remains largely unexamined. Existing research identifies persistent methodological fragmentation in ESG and climate rating systems, with poor correlation among scores ostensibly measuring similar constructs . This study addresses the research gap by developing and validating a vendor environmental compliance scoring framework that integrates the tripartite construct of compliance, performance, and misrepresentation detection. Using a design-based research approach combining retrospective analysis of publicly available environmental disclosure data (n = 412 vendor-year observations) with prospective simulation, the study develops and validates a hybrid scoring model. Findings demonstrate an overall classification accuracy of 89.4% (AUC = 0.873, p < .001), with peer-relative disclosure variance and regulatory violation history emerging as the strongest predictors. The validated framework provides procurement practitioners and sustainability officers with a replicable, evidence-based tool for vendor assessment, while contributing to academic literature a construct-validated instrument that explicitly distinguishes genuine compliance from misrepresentation. The study concludes that vendor environmental compliance scoring requires multidimensional construct definition to avoid the greenwashing detection failures documented in existing rating systems .

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