Measuring the economic performance of socially responsible companies

The aim of this research is to use different economic variables to establish whether there are differences in economic performance between companies as a result of their inclusion in the sustainability index. This paper presents a one-dimensional exploratory study which compares the socially responsible companies included in the Spanish sustainability index, FTSE4Good Ibex, with the rest of the indices in the IBEX family. Parametric testing was used to study whether there are differences between the two types of companies. The results demonstrate that there are no statistically significant differences in economic performance between the two groups. Morover, it is confirmed that companies with good practices are as profitable as the rest, but it also demonstrates that the economic-financial behaviour is not better as a result of being in the sustainability index. The basic conclusion is that adhering to social and environmental standards does not harm a firm’s competitive position and, therefore, provide support for the development policy of responsible practices so that they become a tool to help improve the resilience of the economy and investor trust.