Corporate Governance Mechanisms

This study investigates the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and circular economy disclosure level (CEDL) among listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria, against the backdrop of increasing global emphasis on sustainability, resource efficiency, and environmental accountability. Despite the growing importance of circular economy practices, corporate disclosure in this domain remains largely voluntary, inconsistent, and underdeveloped in emerging economies, raising concerns about transparency and accountability. This study addresses this gap by examining whether corporate governance mechanisms serve as effective drivers of circular economy disclosure within the Nigerian institutional context. The study adopts an ex post facto research design and utilizes panel data from forty-one (41) manufacturing firms listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group over a seven-year period (2018–2024). Circular economy disclosure is measured using a 18-item disclosure index adapted from established literature, while corporate governance variables include board size, board gender diversity, board independence, board tenure, board diligence, and the presence of a CSR committee, with firm size included as a control variable. Data were sourced from annual reports and analyzed using fixed effects panel least squares regression, with robust standard errors applied to address heteroskedasticity and serial correlation. The findings revealed that corporate governance mechanisms exert differential effects on circular economy disclosure. Specifically, board gender diversity has a positive and statistically significant influence on CED, indicating that firms with higher female representation on their boards demonstrate greater transparency in circular economy reporting. In contrast, board size exhibits a negative but weakly significant relationship, suggesting that larger boards may hinder effective CED-oriented decision-making. However, board independence, board tenure, board diligence, and the presence of a CSR committee are found to have no significant impact on CED, implying that these governance mechanisms may be largely symbolic rather than substantive within the Nigerian context. Firm size, however, shows a strong positive and significant relationship with CED. The study concludes that effective circular economy disclosure in Nigeria is less dependent on formal governance structures and more influenced by board composition and organizational capacity. It contributes to the literature by providing context-specific empirical evidence from an emerging economy, extending corporate governance and sustainability disclosure research into the circular economy domain. The findings have important implications for policymakers, regulators, and corporate stakeholders, particularly in designing governance frameworks that promote substantive, rather than symbolic, sustainability disclosure practices.

THIS study investigates the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and employee retention in health care firms listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group from 2014 to 2023. This study specifically examines how four key governance proxies board size, board independence, board gender diversity, and board of directors' share ownership affects employees’ retention. The objectives of the study were to; examine the relationship between board size and employee retention in the selected health care institutions in Nigeria; ascertain what extent board independence impact employee retention in the selected health care institutions in Nigeria; examine how board diversity influences employee retention in the selected health care institution in Nigeria and; examine the extent ownership structure affect employee retention in the selected health care institutions in Nigeria. This study adopts ex-post facto and descriptive research design, utilizing secondary data collected from annual financial reports of the sampled health care firms. The sample consists of five listed health care firms, selected based on their consistent submission of annual reports during the study period. This study employs random-effects robust regression analysis technique to test the hypothesized relationships between the governance variables and employee retention. The regression results reveal that board size has a significant positive effect on employee retention, indicating that larger boards are associated with better employee retention outcomes. Conversely, board gender diversity shows a significant negative effect, suggesting that increasing the representation of female directors, without meaningful integration into decision- making processes, might negatively impact employee retention. On the other hand, both board independence and board ownership demonstrate statistically insignificant relationships with employee retention, implying that these governance variables do not play a significant role in influencing employee retention within the health care sector. Thus, this study carefully recommends that stakeholders in the Nigerian health care industry should strategically increase board size to ensure a more diverse range of expertise and perspectives, as this has a positive impact on employee retention. It also suggests that efforts to enhance board gender diversity should go beyond mere representation by promoting the meaningful integration of female directors into decision-making roles. Further, given the statistically insignificant effect of board independence and board ownership on employee retention, the study advises stakeholders to focus on other governance factors that might more effectively influence retention, rather than emphasizing changes in these areas.