DETERMINANTS OF PRODUCT AND PROCESS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORTING AMONG LISTED NIGERIAN MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

Abstract

The dynamic nature of Nigeria environment and its associated cost to humanity has generated concerns of stakeholders. Despite the destructive impacts such as of pollution and other environmental hazards caused by the activities and operations of these companies, these companies seem not to disclose their impact in proportionate to their negative impact caused by their operations. Based on this, the study provides empirical evidence on the determinants (Foreign listing and Firm’s age) of product and process environmental impact reporting of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The study employed Ex-post facto research design with the population consisting of seventy-six (76) listed manufacturing companies, fifty-five (55) companies were chosen as the sample size using Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table. Descriptive and Robust Least Square (RLS) estimation techniques were employed in the analysis of data collected from annual reports and accounts of the sampled listed manufacturing companies for five (5) years (2013-2017). The study found that the firm’s age is an important predictor of product and process related environmental disclosure of listed manufacturing companies (β=0.001, P=0.024) at 5% level of significance. This implies that the age of the firms plays important roles in motivating companies to disclose their environmental information. The study also revealed that foreign listing has an insignificant effect on environmental disclosure of listed Nigerian manufacturing companies (β=0.013, P=0.188). The study therefore concluded that the firm’s age has a significant positive influence on corporate environmental disclosure of listed manufacturing companies while foreign listing has no significant effect. Therefore, the study recommends that regulatory bodies such as the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should mandate environmental reporting for all corporate entities in Nigeria.