Empirical evidence of Spanish banking efficiency: The stakeholder theory perspective

Abstract

Over recent years the structure of Spanish banking has been changing rapidly and a primary motivation, at least theoretically, has been the search for greater efficiency. This study aims to contribute to the established literature by using the frontier methodology to estimate and compare the economic, social and overall efficiency for the population of Spanish savings banks and banks in 2005 and 2009. The perspective used is based on the Stakeholder Theory because of the differentiation in terms of stakeholder participation between savings banks and banks. The results obtained indicate significant differentiation between these two groups of financial institutions in relation to social and economic efficiency, even though Spanish savings banks are not less efficient globally than banks. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.