Board Characteristics: An Empirical Study on Environmental Disclosure in Nigerian Oil and Gas Firms

Abstract

This study examined the effect of board characteristics on environmental disclosure of listed Oil and Gas firms in Nigeria for fourteen (14) years period ranging from 2008-2021.  Board Size, Board Independence, board gender diversity and board diligence were the proxies used to measure Board Characteristics while Environmental Disclosure served as the dependent variable. The study employed secondary data extracted from the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group fact books, annual reports and accounts, stand-alone sustainability reports of sample firms. The study adopted Ex-post facto research design while the panel data sets were analyzed using Descriptive Statistics, Pearson correlation matrix and Panel Least Square (PLS) Regression analysis via E-Views 10.0. The result found that board size has a significant and positive effect on environmental disclosure (β₁ = 0.042641; p-value = 0.0374); Board independence has a significant and positive effect on environmental disclosure (β₂ = 0.181430; p-value = 0.0000); Board gender diversity has a significant and positive effect on environmental disclosure (β₃ = 0.026707; p-value = 0.0000); Board diligence has a significant and positive effect on environmental disclosure (β₁ = 0.071875; p-value = 0.0000). Conclusively, this study holds that board characteristics have a positive effect on environmental disclosure of listed oil and gas firms in Nigeria at 5% level of significance.