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The study investigates the influence of corporate governance on environmental disclosure of non-financial firms listed in Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), anchoring on “trinity theory” (agency, stakeholder and legitimacy theories). 86 firm-year observations across 86 companies listed in Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) using content analysis, cross-sectional data, OLS regression techniques were used to analyze the influence of board characteristics on the extent of overall environmental disclosure (OED). The results show that board independence, board meeting and the environmental committee were statistically significant while audit committee independence and board size were insignificant. Among the three company attributes used to mitigate spurious result only Firm size significantly influence the quantity of overall environmental disclosure of the sample companies. Auditor type “big 4” (Ernest Young, Deloitte, KPMG and PWC) and industry membership show insignificant relation to environmental disclosure. The findings indicate that the level of environmental disclosure of nonfinancial companies in Nigeria is quite insufficient at an average of 10.5 %. It is not surprising that environmentally sensitive industry and auditor type had no significant influence on the extent of environmental disclosure. This buttress the point that the environment the companies operate is institutionally and legally weak. Hence it calls for improvement on environmental law and implementation as well as harmonized environmental reporting infrastructure and standard to aid comparison.

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The aim of this study was to compare the influence of corporate board characteristics on the extent of environmental disclosure quantity of listed firms in two leading emerging economies in Africa, South Africa (integrated reporting framework) and Nigeria (traditional reporting framework). Methods: The sample was comprised of 303 firms including environmentally sensitive companies purposively selected for content analysis study in South Africa (213) and Nigeria (90). We used both descriptive, multivariate and regression models to comparatively analyze the differences about corporate board characteristics as determinants of the extent of their environmental disclosure quantity. Results: The results reveal a more significant positive association between board characteristics and environmental disclosure in South Africa and less relevant association in Nigeria. Also, the results support that board independence arrangement may serve as bonding mechanisms in weak reporting environments, suggesting a substitutive relationship between board independence and the regulatory framework. Quiet revealing a board with environmental committee show a higher tendency to be ecologic transparent in both countries. However, in a traditional reporting framework, the environmental committee is not enough; its effect was insignificant and highly significant in the integrated reporting framework. Further revealed is the significant positive effect of industry membership influence on environmental disclosure. In all estimated models of South Africa sample show that 45% of environmentally sensitive industries significantly influence environmental disclosure, while 51% is environmentally polluting industries in Nigeria show less concern on environmental disclosure. Interestingly, Audit firm size (Big4) positively and statistically significantly associated with overall environmental reporting in both countries. The results are consistent with stakeholder theory, agency theory, institutional and legitimacy theory suggesting that a strong board size, independent members of the board with auditing experience, the active environmental committee in conjunction with solid audit reputation may reduce information asymmetry. Our findings will be helpful for policymakers and other regulators who are interested in environmental impact reporting.

The fight against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has called for corporate social responsibility (CSR). Thus, Nigerian businesses, such as in the petroleum and financial industries, have provided hospital donations and $30 million assistance among others to mitigate COVID-19. We investigated the moderating role of negative earnings in firm size–CSR relationship. We used content and logistic panel regression analyses on a sample of 100 firms listed on Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). First, we confirmed a positive firm size–CSR relationship (stakeholders’ expectation hypothesis). Second, we found that earnings loss negatively affects stakeholders’ expectation hypothesis. The study suggests that big firms are likely to negatively respond to the clarion call for donations for COVID-19 due to negative earnings. However, our robustness test revealed that old firms positively respond to CSR activities despite earnings loss. Our study results contribute important insights into the current debate concerning the effect of earnings loss on CSR activities. Corporate managers are encouraged to participate in social activities by contributing their resources for human race sustainability and community development, hence enabling stakeholders to highly value their work, money, support, and societal acceptance.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between aggregate accounting earnings of quoted Nigerian firms and (un)employment changes. This study examined the influence of selected macroeconomic variables on the relationship between aggregate earnings and (un)employment change. This study analyzes aggregated earnings of 101 quoted firms and (un)employment rate data from the year 2006 to 2017. Aggregated earnings yearly observations were used in this study, with each yearly observation equal to the cross-sectional sum of sample firms’ yearly earnings. Results show that corporate aggregate earnings growth is (negatively) positively and significantly associate with (un)employment changes. Selected macroeconomic indicators statistically and significantly influence the aggregate earnings growth association with (un)employment changes. Robustness of our analysis in this study allowed us to document in strong terms that in an emerging economy, corporate aggregate earnings significantly associated with (un)employment (i.e., as corporate earnings increases, more investment will be made, and job seekers will be employed thereby reducing the unemployment rate). One implication of our results is that aggregate accounting earnings contain information about (un)employment changes in Nigeria. Our results suggest that effective monetary policies aimed at reducing inflation and interest rate as well as enabling economic policies encouraging and efficient mobilizing of fund from surplus side to deficit side of the economy will reduce unemployment and lead to employment.