Moderating Effect of Value-Added Intellectual Capital on the Nexus Between Board Independence and Sustainability Disclosure of Listed Firms in Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated board independence and sustainability disclosures of firms listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group by examining how value-added intellectual capital influences the interaction between board independence and sustainability disclosure of listed firms. The study made use of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) disclosure index to extract environmental, social and economic disclosure information from the corporate sustainability reports of 50 firms listed on Nigerian Exchange group. An ex post facto research design was adopted, data was sourced and collected from annual report of sampled firms for a period of eleven (11) years spinning across 2012-2022. Board independence (BIND) measured as the proportion of non-executive directors on the board was used to determine the effect on sustainability disclosure {Environmental sustainability (ENSD), Social sustainability (SSD) and Economic sustainability disclosure (ECSD)} of listed firms. To examine the effect described in the study, the method of moment quantile regression analysis was performed using stata 17 analytical software. Findings from the regression analysis reveals that board independence was found to only have an influence on SSD even though its effect was not sustained in the third (highest) quantile. The findings also demonstrated that value added intellectual capital (VAIC) has no considerable favorable effect to moderate the relationship between board independence and sustainability disclosure of listed firms. We therefore recommend amongst others that listed firms should increase the number of independent board members which will foster the increase in board monitoring quality while also working to meet the needs of stakeholder to advancing sustainability disclosure practices in Nigeria.

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