BOARD GENDER DIVERSITY AND SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING: MODERATING EFFECT OF FIRM AGE OF NIGERIAN INDUSTRIAL GOODS FIRMS

Abstract

The numerous activities and unethical attitude of organizations which have been linked to climate change and other environmental disaster have made disclosure of the impact of organizational activities on the society and the environment imperative. In view of this, this study examined the effect of board diversity on sustainability disclosure, with moderating effect of firm age in the Nigerian industrial goods firms. This study is for a period of 11 years (2009 – 2019). The population of this research work are all the 14 listed industrial firms in Nigeria of which 2 companies were filtered out due to lack of comprehensive data for the period of study indicating 12 listed companies as the sample size. The data were generated from the annual and sustainability reports of the sampled firms using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) checklist as a yardstick. One hundred and thirty-two (132) set of reports were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Results from the data analysis revealed a significant positive effect of board gender diversity on sustainability disclosure. A further analysis revealed a strengthening effect of the moderating variable (firm age) on the relationship between board gender diversity and sustainability disclosure. This study therefore, concluded that firm age significantly moderates the relationship between board gender diversity and sustainability disclosure. This study recommends that more female directors should be encouraged on the boards of Nigerian firms (both young and old) because of their sensitivity to the environment and people generally which usually help them make decisions that will favour the environment and the generality of the people leading to more sustainability activities and disclosure.