Green Accounting Practices and Investor’s Behaviour: A Study of Consumer Goods Firms in Nigeria (Published)
The disclosure of information on the practice of green accounting by firms is usually considered by stakeholders, particularly investors, as crucial signal that such firms are responsible corporate entities. This is usually reflected in the behaviour of investors towards such firms. This study was conducted to investigate whether the practice of green accounting has any effect on the behaviour of investors in consumer goods firms in Nigeria. Green accounting disclosure being an independent variable was proxied by waste management cost disclosure, environmental cleanup cost disclosure and community development cost disclosure; while the dependent variable being investor’s behaviour, was measured by market capitalisation. The population of the study comprised of 23 consumer goods firms listed on the floor of Nigerian Exchange Group, of which a sample of seven (7) was purposively selected. The data for the study were extracted from the annual reports and accounts of the sampled firms for the ten-year period of 2015 to 2024. The data were analysed with descriptive statistics and panel regression model (after testing for the assumptions of the model), with the aid of STATA version 10. The findings of the study revealed that waste management cost disclosure have a statistically significant relationship with market capitalisation; environmental cleanup cost disclosure have significant positive relationship with market capitalisation; while community development cost disclosure also exhibited a significant positive relationship with market capitalisation. Based on the findings, the study concluded that green accounting practices disclosure is a good predictor of investors’ behaviour in the consumer goods firms in Nigerian. The study recommended that consumer goods firms should devote a specific proportion of their earnings to promote environmental restoration.
Keywords: Community development, environmental cleanup, green accounting practice, investor’s behaviour, market capitalisation, waste management costs