Board Gender Diversity and Financial Reporting Quality in Nigeria: Moderating Role of Auditor Quality
Keywords:
Audit fees, audit quality, board gender diversity, Audit feefinancial reporting quality, leverage, profitabilityAbstract
Arising from renewed interest on studies on gender exemplification on board, coupled with mixed
findings noticeable therein, this study contributes to literatures, especially in emerging economies, on
relationship between women representation on board and financial reporting quality (proxied with accrual and
real earnings management) in Nigeria. Besides, the role of audit quality in moderating the aforementioned
connection is also examined. Data were collected from annual reports and audited accounts of 50 quoted nonfinancial
firms that were purposively selected for 7 years (2014-2020). While random effect OLS regression
result provides no evidence of nexus between female directors and accruals earnings management, fixed
effects OLS regression supports female representation on board, in order to hinder incidence of real earnings
manipulation by management. However, this paper could not provide empirical evidence on the moderating
role of audit quality, in both cases. Therefore, more women representation on board should be sustained, and
improved upon, perhaps, through legislation on quota, to curb managers’ opportunistic behavior in
undertaking real manipulating of earnings, thereby enhancing quality of financial reporting. Besides, this is
another sure way to building women entrepreneurs and innovators.
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