Sustainability Reporting Practices and the Pricing of Consumer Goods: Empirical Evidence from Manufacturing Firms in Lagos State, Nigeria

This study examines the effect of sustainability reporting practices on the pricing of consumer goods among manufacturing firms in Lagos State, Nigeria. Although sustainability reporting has attracted considerable research attention, existing Nigerian studies have concentrated on its links with profitability, earnings quality, and firm value, leaving its implications for product pricing largely unexplored. A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was adopted. Data were obtained from 213 employees of twenty consumer goods manufacturing companies in Lagos State through a structured, five-point Likert-scale questionnaire administered electronically. The instrument demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.863 for sustainability reporting practices; α = 0.889 for pricing of consumer goods). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation, and simple linear regression. Sustainability reporting practices exhibited a moderate, positive, and statistically significant relationship with the pricing of consumer goods (r = 0.487, p < 0.001). Regression results confirmed that sustainability reporting practices significantly predict consumer goods pricing (β = 0.487, t = 8.10, p < 0.001), accounting for 23.7% of the variance in pricing (R² = 0.237). The null hypothesis was therefore rejected. Managers of consumer goods firms may leverage credible sustainability disclosure as a basis for product differentiation and pricing strategy, while regulators should strengthen and standardise sustainability reporting requirements to improve the comparability and credibility of disclosures. The study offers one of the first firm-level survey-based examinations of the sustainability reporting–pricing nexus in a developing economy, extending the application of Legitimacy Theory, Stakeholder Theory, and the Resource-Based View to pricing decisions in the Nigerian consumer goods sector.