Effect of Corporate Charcteristics on Triple Bottom Line Reporting of Quoted Commercial Banks in Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated effect of ‘corporate characteristics (cc) measured by Firm Size (FS), Firm Age (FA) and Firm Leverage (FLEV) on Triple Bottom Line Reporting measured by Environmental Bottom Line Reporting (EBLR), Social Bottom Line Reporting (SBLR) and Return on Assets (ROA)’. An ex-post facto research design approach was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprises of 13 quoted commercial banks in Nigeria. The study used panel data from the period of eleven (11) years (2006-2015) and 13 quoted commercial banks were chosen as the sample size using purposive sampling technique. The study utilized secondary data obtained from the annual reports of quoted commercial banks listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the period 2010-2020. Content analysis was applied in measuring disclosure, descriptive statistics and panel regression Analysis using Eview version 8 was applied in testing hypotheses. The study result revealed that there was positive (t-statistics, 0.380644) but non-significant (p-value, 0.7040) effect of Firm Size on Environmental Bottom Line Reporting (EBLR) of commercial banks. Also there was a negative (t-statistics, -1.239531) but non-significant (p-value, 0.2172) effect of Firm Age (FA) on SBLR quoted commercial banks. Finally there was a positive (t-statistics, 3.131350) but significant (p-value, 0.021) association between Firm Leverage (FLEV) and ROA. This implies that the level of environmental & social performance and reporting does not depend on the size or age of company. Based on the findings, the study recommended among others, that the Central Bank Nigeria and those charged with governance in commercial banks should initiate policies to improve sustainable social and environmental performance practices especially in the area of afforestation, erosion control, mother – child health care and pandemic sensitization and support.