Ethical commitment and governance in the IBEX-35: results from a SWOT analysis

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the adoption of business ethics among large Spanish companies listed on the IBEX-35 index from the perspective of sustainability and corporate citizenship, within the context of a new critical revision of the value-creation paradigm. Design/methodology/approach An anti-corruption perspective was adopted to evaluate the level of commitment to ethics and good governance through an ethical test. A SWOT-ethical analysis, based on a newly developed weighted ethical index, was conducted to assess companies at both individual and sectoral levels. In addition, a business ethics test was carried out using Rasch modeling. Findings The results reveal a concerning overall level of adherence to Good Ethical Practices among the analyzed companies, with the financial sector showing particularly weak performance. The analysis identifies critical weaknesses and threats, suggesting the need for sector-specific strategies to enhance ethical standards. Originality/value This study introduces a novel ethical index and incorporates Rasch modeling into the assessment of business ethics. It contributes to the literature by offering a multidimensional evaluation of ethical performance and proposing actionable insights for strengthening corporate governance and ethical commitment across key sectors.