Sustainability Reporting and Firm Value: Evidence from Listed Manufacturing Firms in Nigeria

Abstract

The relationship between sustainability reporting and firm value has produced mixed empirical evidence, particularly in emerging economies like Nigeria where disclosure quality remains inconsistent. Furthermore, most existing studies treat sustainability reporting as a composite construct, masking the distinct effects of its economic, environmental, social, and governance dimensions. This study examined the effect of sustainability reporting on firm value among listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The population comprised 71 manufacturing firms listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group, from which a purposive sample of 44 firms with complete data from 2015 to 2024 was selected. Panel data were analyzed using fixed effects regression following a significant Hausman test result. The findings revealed that social sustainability reporting has a positive and statistically significant effect on firm value, indicating that disclosures relating to employee welfare, labor practices, community engagement, and stakeholder relations substantially enhance market valuation, while economic sustainability reporting, environmental sustainability reporting, and governance sustainability reporting exhibited insignificant effects. Based on the findings, the study recommended that manufacturing firms should prioritize and expand social sustainability disclosures relating to employee welfare, community engagement, and stakeholder relations, as these directly enhance firm value. Regulatory authorities should enforce standardized sustainability reporting frameworks to improve the quality and comparability of economic, environmental, and governance disclosures, while firms should strengthen board oversight to enhance the credibility of all sustainability reports.