Empirical Study of the Effect of Sustainability Accounting Disclosures on Financial Performance of Brewery Firms in Nigeria: Evidence from Nigerian Breweries PLC

Abstract

The main motivation of this study stemmed from the dearth of empirical evidence of the effect of sustainability accounting disclosure on financial performance of Brewery firms in Nigeria and also to provide empirical proof on “governance disclosure” as one of the explanatory variables of sustainability accounting disclosure. Consequently, this study ascertained the effect of sustainability accounting disclosure on financial performance of Brewery firms in Nigeria. An ex–post facto research design approach was adopted for the study. The population of this study comprised five (5) Brewery firms quoted on the floor of the Nigeria exchange group (NGX), and Nigerian Breweries Plc was purposively used as the sample size of this study. Secondary data were carefully sourced from the financial statement/annual reports and sustainability reports from 2013 to 2022 of the Brewery firms quoted on the Nigeria exchange group (NGX). Least regression analysis by aid of E-views 10.0 software was used to test for statistical significance of the effect of sustainability accounting disclosure on financial performance of Brewery firms in Nigeria. The results showed that Economic Sustainability disclosure indexes do not significantly affect Net Profit Margin of Brewery firms in Nigeria. The findings further revealed that Environmental Sustainability disclosure indexes significantly affect Net Profit Margin of Brewery firms in Nigeria. More so, results showed that Social Sustainability disclosure indexes do not significantly affect Net Profit Margin of Brewery firms in Nigeria. Finally, the result established also that Governance Sustainability disclosure indexes do not significantly affect Net Profit Margin of Brewery firms in Nigeria, this study recommends among others; that managers of Brewers in Nigeria should improve and sustain full disclosure practices on economic, environmental, social and governance disclosures following the guidelines of the Global Reporting Index(GRI) as they are capable of exerting significant effect on financial performance of firms in Nigeria.