A relação entre a performance ambiental e a performance financeira das empresas

This study examines the relationship between the environmental performance and the financial performance of Portuguese corporations, based on a sample of 35 stocks listed in the Euronext Lisbon stock exchange, for the period from 2000 to 2004. Corporate environmental performance is measured by an analysis of the environmental information disclosed in 2003 corporate annual financial reports. Stock market-based measures, such as return, risk and risk-adjusted return measures, are used to evaluate corporate financial performance, for the 5 years observation period. We use the portfolio studies and contingency tables methodology to evaluate the relationship between corporate environmental disclosures and corporate stock market performance. The empirical results suggest that companies that do not disclose environmental information have a superior financial performance – as measured by return, risk and risk-adjusted return – than those that disclose environmental information. In particular, companies with better environmental reporting, which disclose qualitative and quantitative environmental information, are the ones with worse financial performance. Nevertheless the differences found in financial performance are not statistically significant. The empirical results are thus adverse to the more recent view of environmental performance as a competitive advantage, maybe due to the still relatively small importance of environmental issues to companies and investors.

Measuring fund performance using multi-factor models: evidence for the Portuguese market

This paper examines the performance of Portuguese equity funds investing in the domestic and in the European Union market, using several unconditional and conditional multi-factor models. In terms of overall performance, we find that National funds are neutral performers, while European Union funds under-perform the market significantly. These results do not seem to be a consequence of management fees. Overall, our findings are supportive of the robustness of conditional multi-factor models. In fact, Portuguese equity funds seem to be relatively more exposed to smallcaps and more value-oriented. Also, they present strong evidence of time-varying betas and, in the case of the European Union funds, of time-varying alphas too. Finally, in terms of market timing, our tests suggest that mutual fund managers in our sample do not exhibit any market timing abilities. Nevertheless, we find some evidence of timevarying conditional market timing abilities but only at the individual fund level.

Performance of european socially responsible funds during market crises: evidence from France

This paper investigates the performance, investment styles andmanagerial abilities of French socially responsible investment (SRI) funds investing in Europe during crisis and non-crisis periods. Our results show that SRI funds significantly underperformcharacteristics-matched conventional funds during non-crisis periods, but match the performance of their peers duringmarket downturns. The underperformance of SRI funds during good economic states is driven by funds that use negative screens, since funds that use only positive screens performsimilarly to conventional funds across differentmarket conditions. SRI and conventional funds showsignificant differences in risk exposures during non-crisis periods but exhibit much more similar investment styles during crises. Furthermore,we find little evidence of significant differences inmanagerial abilities during bad economic states. Yet, during non-crisis periods, SRI and conventional fund managers exhibit significantly different style-timing abilities and these differences are also related to screening strategies.

The impact of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis on bond fund performance persistence: Evidence from a small market

We evaluate the impact of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis on the performance and performance persistence of a survivorship bias-free sample of bond funds from a small market, identified as one of the most affected by this event, during the 2001–2012 period. Besides avoiding data mining, we also introduce a methodological innovation in assessing bond fund performance persistence. Our results show that bond funds underperform significantly both during crisis and non-crisis periods. Besides, we find strong evidence of performance persistence, for both short- and longer-term horizons, during non-crisis periods but not during the debt crisis. In this way, the persistence phenomenon in small markets seems to occur only during non-crisis periods and this is valuable information for bond fund investors to exploit.

Bond Fund Performance During Recessions and Expansions: Empirical Evidence from a Small Market

This paper provides the first investigation about bond mutual fund performance during recession and expansion periods separately. Based on multi-factor performance evaluation models, results show that bond funds significantly underperform the market during both phases of the business cycle. Nevertheless, unlike equity funds, bond funds exhibit considerably higher alphas during good economic states than during market downturns. These results, however, seem entirely driven by the global financial crisis subperiod. In contrast, during the recession associated to the Euro sovereign debt crisis, bond funds are able to accomplish neutral performance. This improved performance throughout the debt crisis seems to be related to more conservative investment strategies, which reflect an increase in managers’ risk aversion.

Conditioning information in mutual fund performance evaluation: Portuguese evidence

We estimate and compare the performance of Portuguese-based mutual funds that invest in the domestic market and in the European market using unconditional and conditional models of performance evaluation. Besides applying both partial and full conditional models, we use European information variables, instead of the most common local ones, and consider stochastically detrended conditional variables in order to avoid spurious regressions. The results suggest that mutual fund managers are not able to outperform the market, presenting negative or neutral performance. The incorporation of conditioning information in performance evaluation models is supported by our findings, as it improves the explanatory power of the models and there is evidence of both time-varying betas and alphas related to the public information variables. It is also shown that the number of lags to be used in the stochastic detrending procedure is a critical choice, as it will impact the significance of the conditioning information. In addition, we observe a distance effect, since managers who invest locally seem to outperform those who invest in the European market. However, after controlling for public information, this effect is slightly reduced. Furthermore, the results suggest that survivorship bias has a small impact on performance estimates.

Offshore outsourcing in large companies: motivations and risks perceived

When companies opt for information systems (IS) outsourcing, within the set of contracted services, they can contract their entire service needs to onshore suppliers or to offshore companies, or part of these services can be contracted to onshore suppliers and the other part to offshore suppliers. The offshore outsourcing reveals itself nowadays as an important strategic option to IS management optimization. This paper presents and discusses the main results of a survey that was carried out in Portugal to determine several aspects of offshore practice in large companies. It allowed the identification of the services more frequently contracted, the most common motivations for choosing offshore suppliers and the main risks perceived by companies. This research contributes to a better understanding of the IS offshore market, enabling client companies and vendors to improve their strategic business action.

The perceived potential of business social networking sites

Business social networking is a facilitator of several business activities, such as market studies, communication with clients, and identification of business partners. This paper traduces the results of a study undertaken with the purpose of getting to know how the potential of networking is perceived in the promotion of business by participants of the LinkedIn network, and presents two main contributions: (1) to disseminate within the business community which is the relevance given to social networking; and (2) which are the social networks best suitable to the promotion of business, to support the definition of strategies and approaches accordingly. The results confirm that LinkedIn is the most suitable network to answer the needs of those that look for professional contacts and for the promotion of business, while innovation is the most recognized factor in the promotion of business through social networking. This study contributes to a better understanding of the potential of different business social networking sites, to support organizations and professionals to align their strategies with the perceived potential of each network.

The impact of the digital divide on the perceived interest of an e-Marketplace to support healthcare and social care services

In a Europe increasingly aging, it is now recognized the importance and potential of the service industry for ageing well based on information and communication technologies (ICT), as exemplified by the electronic market of social services and health care, the GuiMarket, proposed by the authors. However, this new range of services requires that individuals have advanced digital skills to fully participate in society. Based on the results of a survey made on a sample of 315 individuals, this paper discusses the importance granted GuiMarket and the intended frequency of use, concluding there is a close relationship between ICT access and use that respondents anticipate making of GuiMarket and alike services.

The conditional performance of euro bond funds: evidence from Portugal during the debt crisis

This paper evaluates the performance of a survivorship bias-free data set of Portuguese funds investing in Euro-denominated bonds by using conditional models that consider the public information available to investors when the returns are generated. We find that bond funds underperform the market significantly and by an economically relevant magnitude. This underperformance cannot be explained by the expenses they charge. Our findings support the use of conditional performance evaluation models, since we find strong evidence of both time-varying risk and performance, dependent on the slope of the term structure and the inverse relative wealth variables. We also show that survivorship bias has a significant impact on performance estimates. Furthermore, during the European debt crisis, bond fund managers performed significantly better than in non-crisis periods and were able to achieve neutral performance. This improved performance throughout the crisis seems to be related to changes in funds’ investment styles.