The Moderating Effect of Social Factors on Firm Attributes and Value Relevance of Listed Financial Firms in Nigeria

This study investigates the effect of board diversity, political connections, and firm value on the listed financial services firms in Nigeria. Firm value, proxied by Tobin's q and computed as the ratio of the firm's market value of equity to its book value of total assets, is the study's explained variable, while board gender diversity, board nationality, board ethnic diversity, and political connections are the study's explanatory variables. The study’s population consists of 51 listed financial service firms on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as of December 31, 2020. Thirty-five (35) of these firms made up the sample size for a period of nine years (2012–2020). Data was gathered from the annual reports of the sampled companies and analyzed using the feasible generalized least squares regression (FGLS) approach. According to the study, board gender diversity, board nationality, and board ethnic diversity have a positive and significant effect on the firm value of listed financial service firms in Nigeria, whereas political connections have a positive but insignificant effect. According to the findings, the boards of directors of listed financial service organizations in Nigeria should ensure that females are considered for directorship seats on the boards, as suggested by the resource dependency theory.Also, the board should be made up of foreign directors in order to lure foreign investors to the firm and enhance its value. In addition, the boards of directors of listed financial services firms in Nigeria should consist of a mix of both northerners and southerners to leverage national spreads and improve firm value.

This study examined the ownership structure's effect on the firms' value of quoted manufacturing firms (consumer goods) in Nigeria for 2010-2018. The total numbers of quoted consumer goods firms in the Nigeria stock exchange as of 31st December 2018 were twenty-one (21). A judgmental sampling technique was used to sample nineteen (19) consumer goods firms for the study. The study sought to examine whether ownership structure proxy by managerial Ownership, Institutional Ownership, foreign Ownership, and ownership concentration affect firms' values of quoted consumer goods in Nigeria. Data were collected from secondary sources through the annual reports and accounts of sampled consumer goods firms in Nigeria. The study adopted a panel regression technique as a tool of analysis. The result showed a negative effect of managerial ownership on firm value. While institutional Ownership, foreign Ownership, and Ownership concentration all positively affect the firm value of consumer goods firms in Nigeria. Therefore, the study recommends that the numbers of shares held by management should be reduced to increase the firm value of the listed consumer goods companies in Nigeria.

This study investigated the effect of firm attributes on corporate financial distress of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The specific objectives of this study was to investigate the relationship between six dimensions of firm characteristics (profitability, financial leverage, tangibility, liquidity, operating capacity and firms size) and corporate financial distress of manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design and a cross sectional time series secondary data covering the period of one hundred and fifty observations (2018-2022) was extracted from the audited financial statement of thrifty (30) manufacturing firms listed on the floor of Nigerian exchange group. The data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) of regression analysis. The result from the regression analysis indicated that profitability does positively and significantly affect corporate financial distress; financial leverage does negatively and significantly affect corporate financial distress; tangibility does positively and insignificantly affect corporate financial distress; liquidity does positively and insignificantly affect corporate financial distress; firm size does positively and insignificantly affect corporate financial distress and operating capacity does positively and insignificantly affect corporate financial distress of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Based on the findings, the study generally concluded that firm attributes impact on corporate financial distress of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Hence, it was suggested that corporate managers need to determine and maintain the appropriate level of profitability to ensure smooth operation and continual survival of the organization in term of short run but should be careful in evaluating the long term profitability.

The study investigated the effect of financial leverage on firm values of listed Consumer goods firms in Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to examine the effect of debt ratio, debt to equity ratio, interest coverage ratio, debt to EBITDA ratio, and debt to capital ratio (which are proxies for financial leverage) on firm values (proxied by market capitalization) of listed Consumer goods firms in Nigeria. The study adopted ex-post facto research design and secondary data were extracted from the annual reports of sampled Consumer goods firms in Nigeria for the period 2013 – 2022. The panel regression and correlation analysis were used for data analysis. Findings showed that debt ratio has a non-significant negative effect on the market capitalization of Consumer goods firms in Nigeria, Debt to equity ratio has a non-significant negative effect on the market capitalization of Consumer goods firms in Nigeria, interest coverage ratio has a non-significant positive effect on the market capitalization of Consumer goods firms in Nigeria. Debt to EBITDA ratio and Debt to capital ratio have a significant positive effect on the market capitalization of Consumer goods firms in Nigeria. The implication of the findings is that the financial leverage ratios studied have a significant effect on the firm value of the Consumer goods companies in Nigeria. The study concluded that financial leverage ratios have a significant effect on firm value in the sector. The study recommended that firms in the Consumer goods sector should ensure that the proportion of leverage to equity should be properly managed and controlled to prevent the result of diminishing effects on their firm’s value.

This study investigates the effect of board gender diversity, board ethnic diversity, and firm value on the listed financial service companies in Nigeria. Firm value, measured by Tobin's q and computed as the ratio of the firm's market value of equity to its book value of total assets, is the study's explained variable, while board gender diversity and board ethnic diversity are the study's explanatory variables. The study’s population comprises fifty-one (51) listed financial service firms on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as of December 31, 2020. Thirty-five (35) of these firms made up the sample size for a period of nine years (2012–2020). Data was acquired from the sampled companies' annual reports and analyzed using the feasible generalized least squares regression (FGLS) approach. According to the study, board gender diversity and board ethnic diversity had a significant positive impact on the firm value of listed financial services firms in Nigeria. According to the findings, the boards of directors of listed financial service organizations in Nigeria should ensure that females are considered for directorship seats on the boards in order to increase their value, as suggested by the resource dependency theory. In addition, the boards of directors of listed financial services firms in Nigeria should consist of a mix of both northerners and southerners to improve firm value.

Financial reporting quality connotes the accuracy with which financial reports of a firm reflect its operating performance and how useful they are in forecasting future cash flows. Indeed, the financial reporting quality has repeatedly been an area of interest for regulators, pollsters, proprietors of firms and the accounting profession as a result of its significance in having credible and reliable financial information for users’ consumption. This study investigated the effect of firm attributes on the financial reporting quality of selected manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The study used a descriptive and ex-post facto research design; the sample size was twenty (20) firms, while data for the study were sourced from secondary sources, specifically annual reports and accounts of the selected manufacturing firms. Two categories of variables were used in this study: the dependent variable, financial reporting quality, and the independent variable, firm attributes, which were proxied by firm structure (Firm size) and board structure (Board size).Data generated for this study were analyzed using the First Difference Fixed Effects method of E-Views 10. Analyses were carried out using kurtosis, skewness, and mean. The study revealed that firm structure has a significant negative effect on the accounting reliability quality of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Furthermore, it also revealed that board structure has a insignificantly positive effect on the accounting reliability quality of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Firm size: at level (current) is –0.266, statistically significant at 5% (p-value = 0.0025). This indicates a negative significant short-term relationship between firm size and conservative quality of accounts. While Board size: at (1st Diff.) is 0.665, statistically insignificant at 5% (p-value = 0.0810). This indicates a positive inconsequential short-term relationship between firm size and conservative quality of accounts. In conclusion, the study affirmed that firm attributes, such as firm size and board size, play a significant role in shaping financial reporting quality in the Nigerian manufacturing sector. Thus, it is recommended that manufacturing firms should avoid overly aggressive policies that incentivize rapid firm expansion in short run without complementary effective firm monitoring attributes. As well as ensure that they come up with support policies that promote a large-moderate board size of independent members with financial expertise to enhance financial prudency.

In this study, the researcher examined green accounting and the firm value of healthcare companies in Nigeria. The study's objective was to investigate the effect of greenhouse gas emission accounting and renewable energy accounting sources on the earnings per share and market capitalization of healthcare firms in Nigeria. The descriptive research design was adopted. Data on six (6) healthcare firms listed on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) were used in the study with variables cost associated with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and investments in renewable energy used as proxies for green accounting, and Earnings per Share (EPS), and market capitalization used as indicators of firm value. The data was collected from the annual reports and financial statements of the listed healthcare firms in Nigeria. The data covered 14 years (2010-2023). The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. The findings revealed that costs associated with greenhouse gas emissions have a positive effect on earnings per share (EPS) and market capitalization of healthcare firms in Nigeria. Also, investments in renewable energy have a positive effect on earnings per share (EPS) and market capitalization of healthcare firms in Nigeria. It was concluded that green accounting has a positive effect on the value of healthcare firms in Nigeria. Recommendations made include the need for healthcare firms to sustain their green accounting practices in Nigeria and for the relevant supervisory institutions to sustain the enforcement of this practice to enhance the value of healthcare firms in Nigeria.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the influence of intellectual capital potency on firm value of non-financial firms in Nigeria. This study uses analysis technique to measure ICD. Secondary data were obtained from the Audited account reports of selected non financial firms and Nigerian exchange factbook for the period 2011-2020.This study selected 76 firms out of 107 quoted firms in non-financial sector of Nigerian economy using simple purposive sampling method. The 76 firms were analyzed using regression analysis. The results shows that there is negative influence of capital employed efficiency on firm value while human capital employed efficiency have positive but no significant influence on firm value. The moderating variables of firm size (FISZ) have negative and significant influence, while firm age (FIRA) has positive and non significant influence on firm value of non- financial firms in Nigeria. The findings enhanced the knowledge base of intellectual capital in emerging economies such as Nigeria. Based on the findings this study recommended that, the human capital component of intellectual capital should be trained and educated regularly, innovated, nurture capacity, creativity, know-how and previous experience, teamwork capacity, employee flexibility, tolerance for ambiguity, motivated, satisfied, so as to enhance the usefulness of its output to total input. Also firm specific growth and sustainability policy should strongly placed using corporate governance code and other enhanced internal structural innovative processed to ensure that the firm does not extinct.

The effect of board diversity, political connections and firm value of listed financial service firms in Nigeria is investigated in this study. Firm value, proxied by Tobin's q and computed as the ratio of the firm's market value of equity to the book value of total assets, is the study's explained variable, while board gender diversity, board nationality, board ethnic diversity, and political connections are the study's explanatory variables. The study’s population consists of fifty-one (51) listed financial service firms on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as at 31st December 2020. Thirty-five (35) of these firms made up the sample size for a period of nine years (2012-2020). Data was gathered from the annual reports of the sampled companies and analyzed using the feasible generalized least square regression (FGLS) approach. According to the study, board gender diversity, board nationality, and board ethnic diversity have a positive significant effect on the firm value of listed financial service firms in Nigeria, whereas political connections had a positive but minor effect. According to the findings, the boards of directors of listed financial service organizations in Nigeria should ensure that females are considered for directorship seats on the boards in order to increase their value, as suggested by the resource dependency theory. Also, the board should be made up of foreign directors in order to lure foreign investors to the firm and enhance its value. In addition, the boards of directors of listed financial services firms in Nigeria should consist of a mix of both northerners and southerners to improve firm value.

This study evaluated certain firm attributes (proxied by firm size and audit quality)on earning management of listed cement firms in Nigeria. Secondary data was extractedfrom annual financial statement. A quantitative research design was adopted in the study. The population of the study comprises of all the cement firms listed on Nigerian stock exchange as at 31st December, 2021. As December 31st, 2021, there are 3 listed cement firms in Nigeria: Dangote Cement Plc, BUA cement Plc and Lafarge Africa Plc. The idea behind sampling is to ascertain an adequate size that will represent the total population thereby saving costs and time wastage. The outcome of the study justified firm size (SIZE) has a positive and insignificant relationship with earnings management of listed cement firms (? = 0.0093, t= 1.44, p=0.168). In addition, the study established that audit quality (AQ) negatively and significantly effects on earnings management of listed cement firms in Nigeria (? =-0.0049, t= -2.40, p=0.027). The study recommended that the listed cement firms in Nigeria should consistently engage the services of big4 audit firms have a very huge incentive to maintain a high audit quality which assist in checkmating the operations of the managers and limit the instance of earnings management.

The case of this paper is the effect of firm attributes on taxation behavior of listed conglomerate firms in Nigeria over a period of seven years between 2015 and 2021. The studied firm attribute is based on profitability, leverage and size of the firm. The research design of the paper was ex- post facto to study the complicated role of firm attributes in relation to tax practices of the listed conglomerate firms in Nigeria. Panel Data Estimated Generalized Least Square was used to draw empirical knowledge in the study. Interesting patterns are reflected by result findings: profitability is shown to have a statistically significant and negative effect on effective tax rates, based on which, the higher the level of profitability, the lower the effective tax rates. This highlights the importance of tax efficient practices to increase after tax profits. There is a negative and statistically significant impact of leverage on the effective tax rates which agrees with the application of leverage as a tax shield strategy by large conglomerates firms in avoiding taxes. There is a statistically significant negative relationship between firm size and effective tax rates, which means that bigger conglomerate firms are in a better position to enjoy tax incentives and tax deductions as well as advanced tax avoidance schemes. The research study has added value to the knowledge base with regard to the complexity of the taxation system in the Nigerian conglomerate companies and highlighting on the importance of firm characteristics in the scenario. It indicates that strong tax management and optimization is one of the crucial elements of the financial performance of conglomerate firms. The implications of this paper to policymakers, tax practitioners and stakeholders are that, there is need to apply equitable taxation policy laws that take into consideration the diversity of conglomerate firms in Nigeria. The study recommends the need to extend the given empirical research on emerging markets in order to give meaningful findings to the field and the industry.

Working Capital Management entails the management of current assets and current liabilities to enhance the profitability and liquidity of businesses. The researcher observed that there is a paucity of literature in this area hence this study examined the relationship between working capital management and the performance of a quoted non–financial firms (QFFs) in Nigeria. Descriptive ex post facto research design was adopted. Purposive and cluster sampling techniques were used to select 95 out of 111 quoted non-financial firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Data were obtained from the annual reports of the firms and the NSE fact book for 2019. Pearson’s product correlation analysis was used to analyse the data. The result showed a diverse significant relationship between working capital management and the financial performance of QNFFs. The study recommended that for the quoted non-financial firms in Nigeria to survive and maintain stability in performance, they should manage their working capital components efficiently.

This study examined the disclosure of social footprint on firms’ value in Nigeria. In other to achieve the targeted objective, perceptual data on social footprint and firms’ value were collected from seven (7) oil and gas firms listed in the Nigerian Exchange Group(NEG) from 2012 to 2021. The 7 companies selected formed a sample representation of the population and also created 70 observations as panel data. The sampling technique used for this study was non-probability sampling since the study data was secondary data, and also purposive and quantitative. Social footprint which is the independent variable was proxy as Community disclosure (COMD), employee relation disclosure (EMPD), and customer complaint disclosure (CCCD), while firm value (the dependent variable), was measured using Tobin Q (TOBQ). Findings indicate that community disclosure significantly improves the firm value of listed oil and gas firms in Nigeria. Therefore, this result implies that positive variations in the firm value of listed companies in Nigeria are accounted for by community-related information disclosed by such firms. More so, the result of Hypothesis Two tested shows that employee relation disclosure insignificantly decreases the firm value of listed oil and gas firms in Nigeria. Therefore, employee relation disclosure does not decrease the value of listed firms in Nigeria. This also supports the view that a good association with employees can result in better productivity, thereby reducing lawsuits and related expenses that will ultimately lead to higher profit. Furthermore, the result obtained from hypothesis three shows that customer complaints disclosure significantly improves the firm value of listed oil and gas firms in Nigeria. This implies that positive variations in firms’ value of listed companies in Nigeria are also accounted for by customer complaints disclosures. Overall, these findings suggest that responsible business practices toward primary stakeholders can be profitable and beneficial to firms in Nigeria.

The growth in the number of internet users and disclosed information has had a major impact on the performance of different legal and economic frameworks globally. This study aims to examine the relationship between online corporate reporting and financial performance of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria during pre- and post-IFRS implementation. The population of research was comprised of all one hundred and two (102) publicly traded manufacturing companies in Nigeria as of December 2018. Secondary data were collected from the sample of thirty-one (31) publicly traded manufacturing companies for a period of 10 years, divided into 2009 to 2013 (pre-IFRS) and 2014 to 2018 (post-IFRS. The data collected were analysed using multiple regression analysis. The findings from the study show that online corporate reporting, and firm size positively affects firm value (FV), whereas firm age negatively affects firm value during pre-IFRS periods. The results also show that online corporate reporting and firm age inversely related to firm value, while firm size positively affects firm value (FV) after-IFRS adoption. The research outcome further reveal that negative relationship exists between internet corporate reporting, company size and earnings per share (EPS), meanwhile, firm age has positive influence with earnings per share (EPS) of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria during pre-IFRS periods. It was discovered that for post-IFRS period, internet corporate reporting and leverage are positively significant with earnings per share (EPS), whereas company size and age do not. Furthermore, the study found that a negative relationship exists between internet corporate reporting and return on equity (ROE) for both pre-IFRS and post-IFRS period, while firm size has a positive relationship with return on equity (ROE) of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria during pre-IFRS periods only. The regression results also reveal that return on equity (ROE) is negatively affected by leverage during post-IFRS periods. The study recommends that management of Nigerian quoted manufacturing companies should continue using internet as a platform in disseminating company financial information to the stakeholders since the internet corporate reporting positively improve the value of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. It is also recommended that the management of Nigerian quoted manufacturing companies should embrace the internet as a tool for communicating with stakeholders in order to improve value of their earnings per share and shares prospects in the market.

This paper examines the effect of stable dividend policy on the value of listed healthcare firms in Nigeria. The study used correlation research design and utilized secondary data collected from the annual reports and accounts of the sampled companies for a period of 13 years (2008-2020). The population of the study constitutes all the ten (10) listed healthcare firms in Nigeria out of which a sample of eight (8) healthcare firms was drawn. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis. Robustness tests were conducted to validate the result. The finding of the study reveals that stable dividend policy has significant positive effect on firm value. Therefore, the study concludes that, accordance with the dividend relevance theory, stable dividend policy of listed Nigerian healthcare firms influences their value. The study recommends that for an increased in firm value, listed healthcare firms in Nigeria should stabilize their dividend policy.