Ethoscore is an analytical framework designed to document and analyze incident and response patterns observable in public records over time.
It examines how companies have responded when incidents became subject to public scrutiny—such as regulatory actions, legal proceedings, or widely reported matters—using publicly available documentation. Ethoscore does not evaluate intent, internal decision-making, effectiveness, or moral character. It does not determine whether a company is “good” or “bad.”
Instead, Ethoscore provides a structured view of documented response patterns, intended to support understanding rather than judgment. It is one analytical lens among many and should not be used in isolation.
Ethoscore operates within explicit and intentional constraints:
- It relies exclusively on publicly available documentation
- Private, confidential, or undisclosed actions may not be visible
- Public records are proxies, not complete representations of organizational activity
- Documentation volume may reflect transparency, scrutiny, or scale rather than underlying quality
These boundaries are central to interpretation and are not methodological flaws.
Ethoscore relies exclusively on verifiable public documentation, including:
- Regulatory and enforcement actions
- Legal proceedings and settlements
- Corporate disclosures and official public statements
- Documented governance or oversight changes
- Reporting from sources with established editorial standards and a demonstrated record of accuracy
Because Ethoscore is documentation-based:
- Documented events do not imply intent
- Undocumented actions may still exist
- Public records are treated as observational inputs, not definitive accounts
Ethoscore organizes analysis around documented incidents, rather than isolated metrics or point-in-time assessments.
Incidents include matters documented in regulatory actions, legal proceedings, or verified reporting that enter the public record. Each incident is analyzed in relation to other documented incidents involving the same entity, in order to avoid over-weighting any single event.
Ethoscore emphasizes patterns over time, not individual outcomes.
Pattern analysis considers:
- Recurrence of similar documented incident types
- Characteristics of publicly documented responses
- The type and scope of documented organizational changes (such as governance, policy, or operational updates)
- Consistency of observable response behavior across time
These patterns are treated as descriptive signals, not predictions. Ethoscore documents what has been publicly observable to date and does not forecast future behavior.
Ethoscore produces a score that summarizes patterns in documented public incidents and responses, paired with a confidence indicator reflecting documentation depth.
Key principles:
- Scores reflect patterns over time, not single-point assessments
- Confidence indicators reflect data availability, not certainty or correctness
- Small score differences should not be over-interpreted
- Scores may change as new public information emerges
Ethoscore scores do not indicate:
- Total organizational ethical standing
- Private or confidential remediation efforts
- Future behavior or risk
- Comparative quality across all dimensions of organizational conduct
- Compliance with all applicable laws or norms
Scores describe documented public information only, within defined analytical boundaries.
When using Ethoscore, readers should consider that:
- Scores reflect public documentation, not full organizational reality
- Disclosure requirements and enforcement intensity vary by jurisdiction
- Larger or more visible organizations may generate more public records
- Patterns may reflect transparency, regulatory focus, or industry risk profiles
Ethoscore is most informative when viewed comparatively and longitudinally.
For methodological clarity:
- Incident: A matter documented in regulatory action, legal proceedings, or verified investigative reporting
- Response: Publicly documented organizational actions, statements, or changes following an incident
- Pattern: Recurrence of similar documented incidents or response characteristics across time
Ethoscore is an evolving framework.
Its methodology is periodically reviewed to improve clarity, accuracy, and resilience. Material updates are versioned internally, and public explanations are updated to reflect meaningful methodological changes.