Spanish Stock Exchange Research Articles

Materiality analysis in sustainability reporting: Insights from large Spanish companies

AbstractDespite the significance of materiality, its implementation has been perceived as ambiguous, opaque, and heterogeneous. This study focuses on analyzing materiality reporting among companies that utilize GRI and are listed on the Spanish stock exchange between 2018 and 2021. First, it examines the disclosure of materiality analysis by introducing a materiality disclosure assessment index (MDA) and exploring its determinants. Additionally, it investigates the alignment of material topics with GRI Topic Standards, analyzing the cross‐cutting nature of material topics. Our results indicate that MDA reached slightly over half of its maximum value. We found evidence that MDA is positively associated with membership in the IBEX 35, as well as with five out of the seven industries comprising the stock index. Furthermore, the years of disclosure experience in two industries significantly influenced MDA. Companies considered 20% of material topics as cross‐cutting, while another 20% had no direct correspondence with GRI standards. This study builds upon previous empirical findings on GRI materiality disclosure and provides valuable insights for research, practice, and standard setting.

Public and Private Sanctions for Corporate Misconduct: Evidence From Listed Companies

Abstract This paper aims to evaluate the impact that the application of competition legislation exerts on financial markets. The sanctioning process is classified into three key moments: the announcement of an investigation when a case of corporate misconduct is suspected; the imposition of a fine, if applicable; and, finally, the rectification or ratification of the sanction. The impact of these announcements on share prices between 2013 and 2021 is analyzed using the event study methodology. This research focuses on companies listed on the Spanish stock exchange, yielding 22 firms with 95 observations. The results show a negative and significant market reaction to the series of announcements. While this reaction intensifies if the fine is ratified, the response becomes positive when the sanction is rectified and annulled. In conclusion, the evidence found allows us to state that the market does in effect penalize corporate misconduct. Furthermore, the public sanction imposed by the competent authority is then followed by a private sanction, which manifests itself as a drop in market value. This is consistent with a hypothetical effect of reputational loss, especially in those cases in which the sanction is more significant in relation to the company’s market value.

Application of text mining to the analysis of climate-related disclosures

In this article we apply text-mining techniques to analyse the TCFD recommendations on climate-related disclosures of the 12 significant Spanish financial institutions and of the companies comprising the IBEX11The IBEX 35 is a Spanish stock index that measures the behavior of the 35 most negotiated companies within the four Spanish stock exchanges (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia). The study includes the 35 companies except one (ArcelorMittal), which did not have enough reports available for the period of analysis. 35 stock market index using publicly available corporate reports from 2014 until 2020.In our analysis, applying our domain knowledge, first we create a taxonomy of concepts present in disclosures associated with each of the four areas described in the TCFD recommendations. This taxonomy is then linked together by a set of rules in query form of selected concepts. The queries are crafted so that they identify the excerpts most likely to relate to each of the TCFD's 11 recommended disclosures. By applying these rules we estimate a TCFD compliance index for each of the four main areas for the period 2014–2020 using corporate reports in Spanish. We also describe some challenges in analysing climate-related disclosures. The index gives an overview of the evolution of the level of climate-related financial disclosures present in the corporate reports of the Spanish banking sector compared to the sectors represented in the IBEX 35 index. The results indicate that the quantity of climate-related disclosures reported is growing each year. Besides, our study also suggests that some disclosures are only present in reports different than annual and ESG reports, such as Pillar 3 reports in the case of the banking sector or reports on remuneration of directors in the case of publicly traded companies.

Soft gender diversity regulations for boards of directors: the moderating role of firm ownership and control structure

ABSTRACT Women are significantly underrepresented worldwide on corporate boards of directors, leading to board gender diversity regulations. Drawing from agency and socioemotional wealth theories, we investigate the moderating effect of ownership structure, shareholder identity and shareholder control on how gender diversity codes and soft quotas influence women’s representation on boards. We analyse our sample of Spanish Stock Exchange firms using panel data Tobit models. The results show that a single large shareholder enhances the positive impact of regulations, while multiple blockholders diminish it. Blockholder identity also matters: family control of board seats and families as the sole large shareholders reduce the positive impact of board gender diversity regulations on women’s board representation. In family firms, the balance of power between family and non-family shareholders also affects the impact of regulations. Our findings highlight the need to consider firm ownership and control structure when developing regulations to promote board gender diversity.

Family Ownership, Corporate Governance and Risk-Taking

This paper analyses the effect of family ownership and the characteristics of the board of directors on the risk assumed by Spanish non-financial companies. The sample consists of 176 Spanish non-financial companies listed on Spanish stock exchanges during the period 2012–2015. The results show that the level of family ownership concentration affects the level of exposure to risk non-linearly and confirms the importance of the characteristics of the board of directors in risk-taking.

Disclosure of gender policies: do they affect business performance?

Disclosure of gender equality policies and their effect on business profitability is a relevant area of research due to the existence of a gap in the academic literature and the need to decrease the gender gap in companies (5th Sustainable Development Goal of the United Nations). To demonstrate the effect of disclosure of gender policies on business profitability, this study analyses the Social Responsibility Reports of 91 companies listed on the Spanish stock exchange for the period 2016–2018. Information on gender equality policies is extracted by using the content analysis technique. A positive association between disclosure of gender equality policies and the accounting profitability obtained by companies is confirmed by applying a panel data approach. Therefore, this research confirms that it is not only necessary to reduce inequalities, but it also has positive financial effects for companies and is a source of competitive advantage. The findings obtained have significant implications for business management.

A new look at the meeting clustering effect

PurposeThe study aims to test the existence of a meeting clustering effect in the Spanish Stock Exchange (SSE).Design/methodology/approachThis paper studies the relationship between the clustering of annual general meetings and stock returns in the SSE. A multivariate analysis is carried out in order to analyse the relationship between monthly returns and the clustering of general meetings in the SSE.FindingsThe authors show that meeting clustering exists and that some months exhibit significant and positive additional returns related to the holding of ordinary or extraordinary general meetings.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors have explored some possible explanations for the meeting clustering effect, such as a potential link with the “Halloween” effect or the presence of higher-than-normal levels of volatility, trading volumes or investor attention. However, none of these can explain the meeting clustering effect that emerges as a new anomaly in the SSE.Practical implicationsThe authors have documented significant and positive abnormal returns in some months that coincide with the holding of general meetings. Therefore, the holding of ordinary and/or extraordinary meetings in some months involves the release of relevant information for investors.Originality/valueThis study complements the financial literature because it is focused on the clustering of meetings and its effect on a stock market whose legal order is based on civil law. This fact allows us to shed new light on meeting clustering and its effect on other types of markets.

COVID-19 impact on the Spanish stock exchange with mean-variance and diversification-based portfolios

ABSTRACT This paper examines the out-of-sample performance of thirteen portfolio strategies in the Spanish financial market (Ibex 35) during the COVID-19 pandemic (considering four different periods) by using three standard financial metrics. The main findings of the study are as follows: (i) the only methods outperforming Ibex 35 are those based on risk parity or diversification; (ii) unstable period data caused underperformance of strategies that require a previous estimation of certain hyper-parameters in their formulations.

Private benefits from control block trades in the Spanish stock exchange

A control block trade can be explained by the expectation of financial gains, shared by all shareholders, or by the expectation of private benefits, exclusive to the buyer and possibly at the expense of other shareholders’ rents. The market for corporate control contributes to social welfare when it improves the efficiency of the allocation of resources. When the objective of a block transaction is private benefits, social welfare may be negatively impacted as minority shareholders could withdraw from the market. Therefore the estimation of private benefits would allow the efficiency of the market for corporate control to be assessed. Specifically, the aim of this paper is to calculate private benefits in the Spanish market for partial control. Using a sample of partial control transactions over the period 1990–2016, we find that the median of private benefits is negative, therefore it appears that there is no inefficient use of resources in the Spanish partial control market as a whole, however private costs are detected. The variability of private benefits is explained in a significant way by variables related to the control structure of the target firm, such as the controlling position of the buyer after the transaction, the contestability of control and the cross-shareholdings between the buyer and large shareholders. Performance and the size of the firm are significant as well.

Temporal optimisation of signals emitted automatically by securities exchange indicators

Stock exchange indicators deliver buy/sell signals that enable analysts to improve the results of a strategy based strictly on fundamental analysis. Nonetheless, since the automatic implementation of signals as they appear may not yield optimal returns, the present paper analysed the suitability of using a series of technical indicators as guidance for portfolio results. A second aim pursued was to study how delaying the implementation of indicator signals may enhance profitability. A simulation was performed for the years 2005-2016 using the most representative index for the Spanish stock exchange, the IBEX35 and all its constituent securities, along with seven indicators (RoC, RSI, SMA, EMA, MACD, Bollinger bands and Stochastic Oscillator) and a total of 81 combinations of buy/sell lag times. The definition of three non-overlapping sub-periods to guarantee the reliability of the findings yielded a total of 61 236 simulated portfolios. The conclusion drawn from the results was that for certain combinations of indicators, delaying the implementation of buy/sell signals improves returns. More specifically, optimal lag times identified for RSI and EMA signals were shown to deliver statistically significant improvements in portfolio returns, irrespective of the period studied. Those findings were consistent the results of an alternative simulation in which the five securities that were both the most liquid and had the greatest impact on the index were not considered, to rule out the possible effect of the relative weight of securities on either portfolio returns or their normalisation.

The Link between Board Structure, Audit, and Performance for Corporate Sustainability

The economic and social transformations, the bankruptcies recorded, and the financial crisis affecting all economies have increased the interest for the corporate governance concept. Our intention in this paper was to study the impact of corporate governance attributes on performance given the information published by the entities listed on five stock exchanges from Europe, namely the main market from Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) in Romania, the Athens Stock Exchange(ATHEX) main market in Greece, Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index (FTSE 100) from Great Britain, Spanish Stock Exchange 35 Index (IBEX 35) from Spain, and Warsaw Stock Exchange 20 Index (WIG 20) from Poland, between 2016–2018. Through mathematical modeling and multiple linear regression, we aimed to determine the extent to which corporate governance characteristics, firm characteristics, industry and stock market fixed effects, and random effects influence the performance of 226 entities included in our sample. The empirical findings revealed that CEO duality, the number of non-executive directors and women on board, audit committee, and audit opinion influenced performance measured by the Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) indicators. The ideas highlighted and the results obtained in this research contribute to the literature that analyzes the extent to which an effective governance determines the increase in performance, needed for a sustainable development.

Voluntary pre-trade anonymity and market liquidity

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the effects on liquidity of voluntary pre-trade anonymity in the trading process. We confirm previous studies showing that market liquidity improves immediately after anonymous trading. Using the daily percentage of effective volume traded anonymously, we show that the anonymity–liquidity relationship presents a non-linear U-shape. We focus on the voluntary concealment of broker identification introduced by the Spanish Stock Exchange in October 2015. We conclude that, in our sample, anonymity increases stock liquidity but at a decreasing rate; when a considerable part of the effective volume is traded anonymously, additional percentages of anonymous trading deteriorates stock liquidity.

Análisis de la presencia de mujeres en el consejo de administración y en la alta dirección en el periodo 2015-2017 en las empresas cotizadas en la Bolsa española

La presencia de la mujer en los máximos órganos de administración y dirección de las empresas se ha constatado, en numerosos estudios realizados en distintos países, que es baja. En este trabajo se analiza en el período de 2015 a 2017 la situación en España. Los resultados muestran que la presencia de las féminas ha aumentado en el consejo de administración y en la alta dirección de las empresas que cotizan en la Bolsa española, siendo el incremento mayor en el primero que en el segundo. Sin embargo, todavía hay compañías que no tienen presencia femenina en ninguno de estos dos órganos.

Ownership, board, and enterprise risk management

This paper analyses the effect of family ownership and the characteristics of the board of directors on the implementation level of enterprise risk management (ERM) in Spanish non-financial companies. The sample consists of 162 Spanish non-financial companies listed on Spanish stock exchanges and markets during 2012–2015. The results obtained show that the relationship between the level of family ownership concentration and the implementation level of an ERM system has a non-linear structure. Therefore, a reduction in implementation for moderate ownership levels is observed, although this increases with high ownership values. Regarding corporate governance, our study confirms the importance of certain characteristics of the board of directors, such as the size and the figure of the shareholder director in the implementation of formal ERM systems.

Hybrid fuzzy neural network versus backpropagation neural network: An application to predict the Ibex-35 index stock

The use of neural networks has been extended in all areas of knowledge due to the good results being obtained in the resolution of the different problems posed. The prediction of prices in general, and stock market prices in particular, represents one of the main objectives of the use of neural networks in finance. This paper presents the analysis of the efficiency of the hybrid fuzzy neural network against a backpropagation type neural network in the price prediction of the Spanish stock exchange index (IBEX-35). The paper is divided into two parts. In the first part, the main characteristics of neural networks such as hybrid fuzzy and backpropagation, their structures and learning rules are presented. In the second part, the prediction of the IBEX-35 stock exchange index with these networks is analyzed, measuring the efficiency of both as a function of the prediction errors committed. For this purpose, both networks have been constructed with the same inputs and for the same sample period. The results obtained suggest that the Hybrid fuzzy neuronal network is much more efficient than the widespread backpropagation neuronal network for the sample analysed.

Women on corporate boards and firm's financial performance

The European Commission has proposed that member countries develop their national self-regulation and governance initiatives to increase the number of women on corporate boards with the aim of promoting gender equality in the processes of decision-making. This has provoked some controversial opinions, which in turn has led to the search for factual data which may support the legal initiatives. In order to shed more light on this topic, this study investigates the influence of a higher percentage of women on the board of directors of companies (excluding financial companies) included in the index of the Spanish Stock Exchange IBEX35 for a fifteen-year period: 2003–2017. To do this, we use a two-stage instrumental variables (IV) regression to address endogeneity and reverse causality problems. Moreover, we study the influence of a mandatory law on female presence on company boards by using a panel data methodology. The findings of this study show that the increasing number of women on boards is positively related to higher financial performance. Moreover, as expected, the gender mandatory law boosts the female proportion on boards of directors. Consequently, there are valid business as well as ethical arguments to support mandatory gender legislation.

Voluntary Pre-Trade Anonymity and Market Liquidity

This paper analyses the effects on liquidity of voluntary pre-trade anonymity in the trading process. We confirm previous studies showing that market liquidity improves immediately after anonymous trading. Using the daily percentage of effective volume traded anonymously, we show that the anonymity-liquidity relationship presents a nonlinear U-shape. We focus on the voluntary concealment of broker identification introduced by the Spanish Stock Exchange in October 2015. We conclude that, in our sample, anonymity increases stock liquidity but at a decreasing rate; when a considerable part of the effective volume is traded anonymously, additional percentages of anonymous trading deteriorates stock liquidity.

Análisis de los tipos de acoso y discriminación recogidos en los códigos de conducta de las empresas cotizadas en la Bolsa española en el mercado continuo a 31-12-2015

En este trabajo se analizan los diferentes tipos de acoso y discriminación recogidos en los códigos éticos de las empresas cotizadas en la Bolsa española a 31-12-2015. Los resultados muestran que las empresas incluyen una amplia variedad de tipos de acoso y discriminación en su código de conducta, entre los que destaca el rechazo a la discriminación por razón de sexo. Asimismo, el análisis por sectores pone de manifiesto que en todos los sectores no se da la misma importancia a los diferentes tipos de acoso y discriminación.
 Abstract
 In this paper we analyze the different types of harassment and discrimination included in the ethical codes of companies listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange on 12/31/2015. The results show that companies include a wide variety of types of harassment and discrimination in their code of conduct, among which the rejection of discrimination based on sex stands out. Likewise, the analysis by sectors shows that in all sectors, the different types of harassment and discrimination are not given the same importance.

Do work-life balance practices mediate in the relationship between female participation and financial performance?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the participation of women in companies with financial performance. However, this relationship does not arise directly. The authors argue that the participation of women in the company’s staff has a positive effect on the creation of work-life balance (WLB) practices, due to women have traditionally assumed family responsibilities, and subsequently these practices positively affect financial performance. WLB practices are a tool to balance employees’ professional and personal goals.Design/methodology/approachThis study aims to determine whether WLB practices mediate in the relationship between female participation in the workforce and financial performance on large companies listed in the Spanish Stock Exchange Index during the period from 2008 to 2013.FindingsThe main finding is that female participation in the workforce positively affects to the availability of WLB practices, but WLB practices are not a mediator to increase financial performance.Originality/valueThe study is a new contribution for academics and practitioners, since the WLB has a role of moderating variable; and the positive joint effect of female participation and WLB practices is tested over the company’s outcomes, instead of over the individual employee behaviour like in previous literature. In addition, this effect is studied in a country with economic recession where corporate WLB practices have increased in the last decade.

Retrenchment Strategies and Family Involvement: The Role of Survival Risk

This article analyzes retrenchment strategies that family businesses adopt during periods of crisis. From a socioemotional wealth perspective, we propose that the influence of family board members and family CEOs on retrenchment depends on survival risk. We collected empirical data from companies on the Spanish Stock Exchange (2008-2012). Our findings reveal that family involvement intensifies retrenchment when performance is declining, and that retrenchment intensifies when survival is at risk. We also demonstrate that family firms are able to implement retrenchment measures when required to improve their performance.