Firms Attributes, Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure and the Financial Performance of Listed Companies in Nigeria

Abstract

The legitimacy theory gives credence to why firms strive to ensure that their overall value system does not oppose those of the larger society in which they operate while simultaneously enhancing their performance and narrowing the presumed gap between their activities and societal expectations. Therefore, hinged on the legitimacy theory, this study focused on assessing the interrelationship between firms’ attributes, corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and measures of financial performance of firms. Secondary data were collated from the financial reports of a sample of 29 listed Nigerian firms in the financial service sector over a 10-year period (2009-2018). Estimation was based on the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. We observed that measures of firm performance, firm value and capital structure exert significant influence on CSR disclosure respectively; but the same was not the case for ownership structure and board attributes. We also found that firm value, capital structure, ownership structure and board attributes do not have significant influence on the financial performance of firms. We therefore recommend that while eschewing from financing asset acquisition through debts, reporting entities should be more involved in environmental engagements; and costs associated with such engagements should be reported alongside their respective mainstream financial reports.