The Role of Intellectual Capital on the Relationship Between Female Gender Diversity and Sustainability Disclosure of Listed Firms in Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated female gender diversity and sustainability disclosures of firms listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group by examining how value-added intellectual capital influences the relationship between female gender diversity 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. Female Gender Diversity (FGD) measured as the proportion of female 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 female gender diversity was found to have positive and significant influences on the three components of the explanatory variable. These significances were found to be increasing at the higher quantiles. The findings also demonstrated that value added intellectual capital (VAIC) has no considerable favorable effect to moderate the relationship between female gender diversity and sustainability disclosure of listed firms. Thus, the study recommends amongst others that Increasing the number of female genders on the board will lead to growing level of economic sustainability transparency, attracting investors because smart investors currently include sustainability consideration into their plans to achieve positive an

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