Waste Accounting and Market Value of Listed Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria: The Moderating Effect of CEO Academic Qualification

Unsustainable business practices and inefficient waste management and disclosure practices have made investors to lose confidence which leads to dwindling market prices of these companies. The main objective of this study was to examine the moderating role of CEO academic qualification on the effect of waste accounting on market value of listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. The research design adopted for the study was ex post facto, secondary data were employed and purposive sampling technique was adopted to select 29 out of 62 listed manufacturing companies. The panel least square regression analysis was used to analyse the data and the statistical package employed was STATA version 17. The results from the analysis revealed that carbon disclosures (coeff. = 10.544[0.042]) have significant positive effect on earnings multiple; effluent and water disclosures (coeff. = -2.488[0.621]) have no significant effect on earnings multiple; waste recycling disclosures (coeff. = 7.730[0.129]) have no significant effect on earnings multiple; CEO academic qualification strengthens the relationship between waste accounting disclosures and market value of listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. It was thus concluded that investors value firms that are environmentally responsible in terms of their waste management and disclosure practices with CEO academic qualification significantly strengthening this effect. Based on these findings it was recommended among others that manufacturing companies should integrate waste recycling disclosures into annual reports or sustainability reports with verifiable metrics as this may help attract environmentally conscious investors and further boost their market values.