CEO Demographical characteristics and financial reporting timeliness in Nigeria: Moderated by research and development investment

Figures & data

Figure 1. Research Framework.

Source: Constructed by the Authors (2023).

Table 1. Composition of non-financial industries in a Nigerian stock exchange sample.

S/N	Industries	Companies
1	Agriculture	5
2	ASEM	4
3	Conglomerates	5
4	Construction/Real Estates	9
5	Consumer Goods	20
6	Financial sectors	55
7	HealthCare’s	10
8	ICT	9
9	Industrial Good	13
10	Natural Resources	4
11	Oil and Gas	12
12	Services	25
	Total Firms in Listed on the NSE	171
Less:	Financial service firms	(55)
	Non-financial sector in the NSE	116
	Companies with Non-available data	(30)
	Number of Observations	86
	Number of Years (2015 – 2021)	7
	Number of Observations (firms-year observations)	602

Source: NSE Financial Information: 2021 Audited Accounts https://ngxgroup.com/exchange/trade/equities/listed-companies/?filter=Main%20Board

Table 2. Measurement and source of study variables.

Variables	Measurements	Sources
Financial Reporting Timeliness	Number of days between the company year-end date, and the date of public disclosure.	(Owusu-Ansah & Leventis, 2006; Baatwah et al., 2018)
CEO Academic Experience	Managerial academic background indicator variable that equals 1 if CEO has academic background or experience, and 0 otherwise. Specifically, academic experience refers to the executive who has taught in universities or colleges.	(Ma, et al.,2019; Shen et al., 2020)
CEO Accounting Expertise	Dummy variable equals 1 if the CEO is an accounting expert with a degree in accounting or other related finance or management courses, or has ACCA, ICAN or ANAN otherwise, 0.	(Rashid 2020; Ebrahim Al-Matari et al., 2023)
CEO Gender Diversity	An indicator variable that holds the value of 1 if the firm has a female chief executive, and 0 otherwise.	(Ullah et al., 2019; Na & Hong, 2017)
CEO Educational Level	Measured on a five-point scale based on the highest degree earned by a CEO. 1 High school, 2 College Certificates, 3 Undergraduate degree, 4 Master’s degree, 5 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). The educational level is equal to 1 for the CEO with a high school certificate, 2 for the CEO with a college certificate, and so on.	(Datta & Rajagopalan, 1998)
CEO Working Experience	Years in service of CEO (How many years of CEO experience)	(Al-Matari, 2020)
Research and Development Investment	Measure as the firm’s R&D investment disclosure. Is assigned a value of one (1) if there are disclosures in the financial statements, the statement of comprehensive income, the notes to the financial statements, or the note on income tax about R&D expenditures or R&D activities, and zero otherwise.	(Nelson et al., 2010)
Firm Size	Natural logarithm of total assets.	(Aifuwa & Saidu, 2020)
Firm Age	Number of years since incorporation.	(Wati et al., 2020)
Firm Growth	Market value of shares/book value of equity.	(Shamil et al., 2014)

Source: Compiled by the Authors (2024).

Table 3. Descriptive Statistics between CEO Characteristics, RD, and Financial Reporting Timeliness.

Variable	Units	Obs	Mean	Std. Dev	Min	Max
FRT	Number	516	118.211	103.342	31	1335
CAE	Dichotomy	516	.482	.500	0	1
CFE	Dichotomy	516	.435	.496	0	1
CGD	Dichotomy	516	.102	.302	0	1
CEL	Number	516	3.721	1.066	0	5
CWE	Number	516	5.412	.987	2	13
RD	Dichotomy	516	.267	.443	0	1
FSIZE	Ratio	516	6.964	1.475	0	9.698
FAGE	Number	516	41.314	19.717	0	97
FGROWTH	Number	516	35.052	6.914	−8.005	79.140

Note: FRT = financial reporting timeliness; CEO_AE = CEO academic experience; CEO_FE = CEO accounting expertise; CEO_GD = CEO gender diversity; CEO_EL = CEO educational level; CEO_WE = CEO working experience; FSIZE = firm size; FAGE = firms’ age; FGROWTH = firms’ growth.

Table 4. Matrix of Correlations Analysis.

Variables	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)	(10)
(1) FRT	1.000
(2) CAE	−0.044	1.000
	(0.320)
(3) CFE	−0.004	0.514*	1.000
	(0.920)	(0.000)
(4) CGD	0.066	0.024	0.121*	1.000
	(0.135)	(0.596)	(0.006)
(5) CEL	0.015	0.190*	0.088*	0.012	1.000
	(0.743)	(0.000)	(0.050)	(0.792)
(6) CWE	−0.011	0.061	−0.003	−0.121*	0.244*	1.000
	(0.818)	(0.206)	(0.958)	(0.013)	(0.000)
(7) RD	−0.004	−0.014	−0.052	−0.203*	−0.001	−0.124*	1.000
	(0.923)	(0.753)	(0.239)	(0.000)	(0.985)	(0.010)
(8) FSIZE	−0.016	−0.015	−0.087*	−0.005	−0.063	−0.079	0.048	1.000
	(0.721)	(0.726)	(0.050)	(0.907)	(0.159)	(0.105)	(0.277)
(9) FAGE	0.047	−0.233*	−0.347*	−0.036	0.051	−0.049	0.038	0.180*	1.000
	(0.288)	(0.000)	(0.000)	(0.423)	(0.258)	(0.311)	(0.393)	(0.000)
(10) FGROWTH	−0.028	−0.086	−0.067	−0.043	0.121*	−0.098*	0.160*	−0.003	0.055	1.000
	(0.519)	(0.052)	(0.129)	(0.330)	(0.007)	(0.043)	(0.000)	(0.941)	(0.208)

*** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1

Note: FRT: financial reporting timeliness; CAE: CEO academic experience; CFE: CEO accounting expertise; CGD: CEO gender diversity; CEL: CEO educational level; CWE: CEO working experience; FSIZE: firm size; FAGE: firms’ age; FGROWTH: firms’ growth

Table 5. Direct relationship regression results.

Constructs	Coef	Drisc/Kraay Std. Err	t	p>|t|	Hyp	Decision
CEO_AE	11.284	8.943	1.26	0.263	H1	Not supported
CEO_FE	−14.214	5.230	−2.72	0.042**	H2	Supported
CEO_GD	14.691	10.634	1.38	0.226	H3	Not Supported
CEO_EL	1.641	1.486	−3.15	0.007**	H4	Supported
CEO_WE	−.092	.318	−0.29	0.785	H5	Not Supported
RD	1.681	3.504	0.48	0.652	H6	Not Supported
FSIZE	−3.826	1.742	−2.20	0.079**	H7	Supported
FAGE	−.383	.182	−2.11	0.089**	H8	Supported
FGROWTH	−.452	.427	−1.06	0.338	H9	Not Supported
_CONS	−19.202	3.490	−5.50	0.003
	R Square		0.227
	Linktest(F-Stats)		14.15
	(p-value)		0.022
	(hatsq)		0.66(0.211)
	Hettest (P-Value)		5.041(0.0000)
	Hausman Test		10.00(0.5009)
	LM Test		82.80(0.0000)
	Observation		516

Source: Stata 16 Output (2024).

Table 6. Indirect relationship regression result (Moderating Effect of Research and Development Investment).

FRT	Coef	Drisc/Kraay Std. Err	t	p>|t|	Hyp	Decision
CEO_CA*RD	.921	.059	15.66	0.000***	H6	Supported
CEO_CF*RD	−.431	.051	−8.54	0.000***	H7	Supported
CEO_GD*RD	003	.008	0.45	0.504	H8	Not Supported
CEO_EL*RD	.194	.032	6.08	0.002***	H9	Supported
CEO_CW*RD	−.005	.000	−9.96	0.000***	H10	Supported
	R Square			0.555
	Linktest (F-Stats)			611.67
	(p-value)			0.000
	(hatsq)			−0.95(0.341)
	Hettest (p-Value)			7.105(0.0000)
	Hausman Test			15.11(0.5878)
	LM Test			29,80(0.0000)
	Observation			516

Notes: CEO_CA*R&D: CEO academic experience * R&D investment; CEO_CF*R&D: CEO accounting expertise* R&D investment; CEO_GD*R&D: CEO gender diversity* R&D investment; CEO_EL* R&D: CEO education level* R&D investment; CEO_CW* R&D: CEO working experience* R&D investment.

Table 7. Robustness test for regression results.

		Robust Result
FRT	Coef	St.Err	t-value	p-value	[95% Conf	Interval]	Sig
CAE	14.508	10.092	1.44	.151	−5.272	34.288
CFE	−18.225	8.776	−2.08	.038	−35.426	−1.024	**
CGD	7.674	12.752	0.60	.547	−17.32	32.668
CEL	4.841	4.587	1.06	.291	−4.15	13.833
CWE	−.31	.529	−0.59	.557	−1.346	.726
RD	−6.56	14.348	−0.46	.648	−34.681	21.56
FSIZE	−2.09	1.233	−1.70	.09	−4.506	.326	*
FAGE	−.129	.291	−0.44	.657	−.699	.441
FGROWTH	−.757	.526	−1.44	.15	−1.787	.273
CONSTANT	−15.471	24.823	−0.62	.533	−64.123	33.182
Mean dependent var		−24.954	SD dependent var			81.959
Overall r-squared		0.026	Number of obs			516
Chi-square		16.634	Prob > chi2			0.055
R-squared within		0.004	R-squared between			0.063

*** p<.01, ** p<.05, * p<.1

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Data availability statement

The data substantiating the findings of this study are obtained in the Nigerian audited published financial statements from the Nigerian Stock Exchange official website of at (https://ngxgroup.com/exchange/trade/equities/listed-companies/?filter=Main%20Board), and from the University Utara Malaysia (UUM) library data Stream (Thomson Reuters Database) at (https://library.oum.edu.my/molec/db/Universiti%20Utara%20Malaysia%20).