Impact of Board Diversity on Voluntary Disclosure of Intellectual Capital: Evidence from Listed Non-Financial Services Firms in Nigeria

Abstract

This study aims to examine the impact of board diversity on intellectual capital disclosure of forty-four listed non-financial services firms in Nigeria during the period of ten years from 2011-2020. The study analysed the data by means of descriptive statistics to provide summary statistics for the variables. Similarly, the study adopted Robust ordinary least square (OLS) regressions to test the study hypotheses using STATA software. The regression results revealed that board size has significant positive impact on intellectual capital disclosure. However, the finding of the study revealed that board nationality and board composition have significant negative impact on intellectual capital disclosure. Emphasis should be placed on the numbers and quality of members and their effectiveness in enhancing more intellectual capital disclosure of the firms. To protect the interest of foreign and other investors, there should be increase in the percentage of foreign members on the board of listed non-financial services firms in Nigeria. Additionally, foreign members on the board should ensure that they attend board meeting regularly. Finally, to enhance board independence and effectiveness in monitoring the management, there should be limit to the tenure of non-executive directors and their independence should be protected so as to improve their capacity and capability of monitoring management to disclose more information on intellectual capital voluntarily.