Sustainability Reporting and Economic Value Added: Empirical Evidence from Listed Manufacturing Entities in Nigeria
The essence of this study is to evaluate the effect of three aspects of Sustainability reporting on economic value addition of Nigerian listed manufacturing companies from 2013 to 2020. Ex-post facto research design was adopted while secondary data were sourced from annual reports and accounts of 37 sampled companies out of 73 listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria as at 30th September 2019. The panel data gathered for the study were subjected to empirical tests using panel regression techniques (random effect) at 5% level of significance. Evidence generated revealed among others that economic, social and environmental reporting aspects of sustainability reporting all had positive effect on economic value added over the period. However, the effects were found to be significant for economic and social reporting while the effect of environmental reporting was not statistically significant. Consequently, it was concluded that sustainability reporting has significant positive effect on economic value addition by listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. This study therefore recommends amongst others that business organizations should incorporate sustainability reporting in their reporting system to reap the associated benefit of economic value added which should also be measured and reported annually. By policy implication, government across countries should put in place, annual awards and recognition programmes for companies with highest disclosure scores for all indices of sustainability reporting to encourage a more sustainability-driven economy, this will indirectly promote economic value added by corporations.
