Economic and Financial Benchmarking as a Strategic Planning Tool

This paper aims to propose a new model for estimating companies benchmarking. The model has been applied to the media sector (identified by Industry Classification Benchmark with the code 5500 and composed by three subsector with codes: 5553 - broadcasting and entertainment, 5555 - Media Agencies and 5557 - Publishing). The model is based on the analysis of the financial and economic area of enterprises that together contribute to the elaboration of a total benchmark. We collected data for 217 listed companies for a time horizon of 10 years (2006-2015). The results show that most of the analyzed companies belong to the best or worst class. Deepening the analysis, the subsector 5555 - Media agencies has contributed most to the positive performance of the media sector while the subsector 5553 - broadcasting and entertainment is the worst. The model, applied to the media industry, can be extended to other sectors and unlisted companies.