Article Type : Research Article
Authors : Iliemena-Ifeanyi RO and Uagbale-Ekatah R
Keywords : Audit committee size; Labour force participation; Legitimacy theory; corporate social performance; Social responsibility performance
This
study evaluated the effect of audit committee attribute on corporate social
impact as reflected in their corporate social performances. The population and
sample of study is 5 quoted conglomerates in Nigeria. This study adopts ex-post
facto research design in extracting data from annual reports of the companies
in the period from 2013 to 2022. Ordinary least square regression technique was
employed in testing the data so gathered. Results from the analysis revealed that
audit committee size has significant positive effect on corporate social
performance. Sequel to this, it is concluded that audit committee attribute
significantly affect corporate social impact. This study recommends that
particular attention should be given to audit attribute while constituting
audit committees as this has been revealed to have direct effect on the level
of impact a firm makes in the society.
Corporate social impact has over the years earned more
attention in academic, corporate environment, government and international
communities with the shift of emphasis from shareholder wealth creation to
stakeholder wealth creation through value creation. This is due to the fact
that financial performance emphasis by corporations has caused more harms than
good to the stakeholders [1,2]. Currently there is heightened focus on
sustainability performance of business entities than on how much a business
reports in its economic bottom-line. Corporate social performance is therefore
one of the nexus of sustainability performances which measures corporate social
impact of a company within its social environment. Corporate social
performances and corporate and corporate social responsibility have been used
interchangeably in past studies as they both aim to achieve certain obligations
and accountability towards the society [3]. Even though there are legal
requirements in some countries for social responsibility performances, firms
are still expected to voluntarily perform more than these expected requirements
which social performance disclosure is one of such in line with the performance
reporting Guidelines provided by the Global Reporting Initiatives [4,5]. This
study extends the frontiers of the relationship between corporate governance
and sustainability performance of firms.
The most critical role of corporate governance (CG) is to ensure good
reporting quality including disclosure of social performance information of a
firm [6].
Audit committee is one of the bodies that make up the
corporate governance structure of business entities. The Audit Committee is an independent
auditing body established to supervise management by controlling its reporting
activities, to improve the transparency and quality of information
disclosure. It is asserted that an audit
committee with the right attributes ensures that corporations adequately
involve in social responsibility performances and quality information
disclosure relating to such performances [7]. An effective audit committee is
therefore expected to curb under-performance and poor disclosure of social
performance, opportunities behaviour, facilitate the diffusion of innovative
practices and increase the credibility of annual performance reports [8-11].
Argued that firms with smaller audit committee size perform better in terms of
compliance with information disclosure. Some other studies have been conducted more
recently to explain the relationship between audit committee and corporate
social performances in Korea, European countries, China, Australia [12,13].
However, evidences from other countries may not be generally applicable to
underdeveloped economy like Nigeria where the monitoring of corporate social
performance is still debatable as these are noted to be affected by the
peculiarities of both social and cultural environment of each of the country in
which a firm operates. Sequel to this, this current study therefore extends the
research on the relationship between audit committee and corporate social
performance from the perspective of an underdeveloped economy, with particular
attention on Nigeria. This is achieved by investigating the extent to which
audit committee size affects the level of corporate social performance.
Audit committee
attribute
Audit committee is a committee of the Board of
Directors, charged with the responsibility to oversee financial reporting
processes and quality reporting. Corporate board of directors establishes an
audit committee to assist in discharging its fiduciary responsibilities. How
the committee fulfills that mandate varies according to its clarity of the
committee’s mission, the abilities of the committee’s members, and the tone set
at the top of the governance structure. An audit committee that operates
effectively is a key feature in a strong corporate governance culture, and can
bring significant benefits to the company. An effective audit committee
reflects a procedure which ensures that the external auditor achieves the
fundamental objective of obtaining reasonable assurance that the financial
report as a whole is free of material misstatement and that the financial
reporting system follows stipulated guidelines and meets stakeholders’
expectations. In order words, the primary role of an audit committee is to
conduct the internal audit of a business, including the financial reporting
quality and evaluation of areas where judgment and decisions are significant,
with the aim of minimizing information asymmetry between management and various
stakeholders [14]. Audit committee attributes are the qualities, factors or
characteristics which distinguish and describes a given audit committee. The
different measures of audit committee attributes as have been used in past
researches include, audit committee independence, audit committee gender
diversity, academic qualification of members of the committee, work
experiences, number of committee meetings and audit committee size.
This study measures audit committee characteristic
using audit committee size. The numbers of persons that are members of an audit
committee make up audit committee size. Committee size is an attribute
considered pertinent to the successful discharge of a company’s reporting
duties (Cadbury Committee 1992; CIMA 2000). As contained in Companies and
Allied Matters Act, the audit committee size for a Nigerian public company
should have five (5) members comprising three shareholders and 2 non-executive
directors one of which must belong to a professional accounting body [15]. This
is however in line with the provisions of the Nigerian Code of Corporate
Governance 2018 which also requires one of the members of an audit committee to
be a financial expert. The essence of the professional and financial background
of the committee is to help in identifying relevant disclosure requirements and
applicable standards, thus, ensure effective and efficient delivery of the
expected duties. In addition, it will help the committee keep abreast of
information regarding additional performance or disclosure requirements and
Guidelines like the current demand for sustainability reporting which includes
corporate social performance reporting. Before the enactment of CAMA 2020, the
earlier version required the committee to be made up of 6 members as committee
size equally comprised of directors and shareholders. The contentious issue
here is whether the size of audit committee has any effect on delivery especially
as it relates to corporate social performance and its disclosure. Some
researchers have tried to provide answers to this but the outcomes remain
inconclusive. Larger audit committees are perceived as having increased
organizational status and authority [16]. It is also possible that an audit
committee can become too large to effectively carry out its duties because of
process losses and diffusion of responsibility. In a study, it was reported
that higher number of directors in the audit committee aid faster resolution of
internal issues relating to reporting, including corporate social
responsibility performance reporting [17]. Opines that “A large-size audit
committee possesses more members to gather information and expend monitoring
effort. It is also more difficult for the management to exercise influence over
a large-size audit committee”. In another study, found that required
disclosures in financial statement reporting were higher for companies with
smaller audit committees. Found support for the efficiency of smaller
committees when they showed that companies with smaller audit committees were
more likely to make earnings forecasts than those with larger committees [18].
Therefore, audit committees require sufficient members to generate a critical mass,
but become ineffective if they are too large. Emanating from this, our
hypothesis for this study is developed as;
Ho: Audit committee size has no significant effect on
corporate social performances.
Corporate social impact
Corporate social impact is a term reflective of a
business ability to operate its activities with the least negative impact while
creating maximum value for the stakeholders. It reconciles the social
performance of an enterprise with its corporate social responsibilities. Corporate social performance is the
deliberate actions of a business towards its stakeholders (people within and
outside the business, including the business environment) as backed by
organizational rules and principles. Corporate social performance is a broad
term which includes stakeholder relations and corporate social reporting. This
reporting aspect of corporate social performance is where the audit committee
comes into play as an effective audit committee prevents the reporting of social
activities that do not reflect a true and fair view of the relationship between
the business and its stakeholders. The concept of corporate social performances
stems from corporate social responsibilities. Corporate social responsibility
is a concept which allows corporate organizations to integrate social and
environmental concerns into their business operations and external relations
with stakeholders. Developments in social responsibilities overtime with the
introduction of the sustainability management into business management have
standardized the concept of corporate social responsibilities, hence the focus
on corporate social performance. Social responsiveness is viewed by as
involving the “intra organizational factors affecting the implementation of
social performance within firms and make it possible to carry out wide- scale
business models”. In a release by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI, 2019),
on sustainability disclosure, Corporate Social Performance (CSP) is considered
as business performances revolving around: labour force participation and
employee welfare, abolition of child labour and forced labour, security
practices, protection of rights of
indigenous people, impact assessments, remediation of human right violations,
social safety of local communities, corruption, public policy, anti-competitive
behaviour, compliance with laws and regulations, assessment of product health
and safety, product or service labelling, etc. Emanating from these, this study
chooses to measure corporate social performance using their performance metrics
as Labour force participation and Employment distribution.
Legitimacy theory
In organization’s perspective legitimacy has been
defined by Lindblom (1994; as cited in Deegan, 2007) as a condition or status which
exists when an entity’s system is congruent with the value system of the larger
social system of which the entity is a part. When a disparity, actual or
potential, exists between the two value systems, there is a threat to the
entity’s legitimacy. Legitimacy theory is derived from political economy theory
and relies on the idea that the legitimacy of a company to operate in society
depends on an implicit social contract between the company and society.
Managers continually attempt to ensure that their company complies with its
social contract by operating within society’s expectations. This suggests that
managers have incentives to disclose information that indicates that the
company is not in breach of the norms and expectations of society (Deegan &
Blomquist, 2006 as cited in Kent & Stewart, 2008). Organizational
legitimacy is summarized by Lindblom (1983, as cited in Mathews & Perera,
1996) as not synonymous with economic success or legality but determined to
exist when the organization goals, output, and methods of operation are in
conformance with societal norms and values. Its challenges are related to size
of the organisation and to the amount of social and political support it
receives with the more visible being most likely to be challenged. Legitimacy
challenges may involve legal, political or social sanctions. Mathews and Perera
states further that the implications which the notion of organisational
legitimacy have for the management of corporation include better communication
with society. This enlarged accounting or accountability may be essential for
the continued existence of the corporation in its present form. Guthrie &
Parker (1989 as cited in Naser, Al-Hussaini Al-Kwari & Nuseibeh (2006)
emphasize that under legitimacy theory therefore, the company attempts to
maintain its survival and continuity by voluntarily disclosing detailed
information to society to prove it is a good citizen. In line with this, the
audit committee is expected to focus on ensuring the proper reporting of social
performances within stipulated Guidelines.
Empirical reviews
The profusion of empirical studies in line with our
concepts of study include the work which examined the relationship between
audit committee, Corporate Social Responsibility and Earnings Quality of firms
in Korea. The multiple regression analysis carried out on generated data showed
that earnings management in areas of social performances is restrained. The
study also reported that audit committee is more effective when they are made
up of independent directors, active participation and relative power (large
number is assumed to strengthen the committee). Investigated the moderating
role of audit quality in the relationship between ESG factors and financial
performance of 620 firms in Western European countries (Austria, France,
Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Monaco, Europe and Switzerland from
2010 to 2019. The panel data regression analyses revealed that audit quality
has significant effect of CSR but no relationship with financial performance. Examined
the role and relationship of audit committees in social responsibility with
environmental disclosures of Chinese energy firms. A balanced panel data set
was used in the study and tested using fixed-effect models and regression
analysis. Findings from this study indicated that female representation has
significant positive effect on the likelihood of firms to issue social
responsibility reports. Further evidence shows that audit committee
independence, effectiveness has no positive effect on corporate social
responsibility performance and disclosure. However the variables used in the
study failed to cover audit committee size and its effect on CSR performance
and disclosure. Investigated the impact of audit committee characteristics on
biodiversity disclosure of listed Chinese firms using secondary data from 2012
to 2018. Fixed- effect panel data regression was used in testing the formulated
hypotheses and it was shown that committee size, number of meetings, financial
expertise and gender diversity significantly and positively impact biodiversity
disclosure. Investigated the relationship between audit committee
characteristics and CSR disclosures of firms in Australia. Committee size,
gender sensitivity (combination of male and female genders in composition),
independence and frequency of audit committee meetings were used to measure
audit committee characteristics. The data for the study were gathered from 300
listed firms in Australia. The regression analysis revealed that size, gender
sensitivity, and others, have significant positive influence on CSR performance
and disclosure.
Researched on the social and environmental aspects of
business investment and financing that are becoming increasingly important.
They contended that most studies on corporate social responsibility (CSR) focus
on analysing the relationship between company performance in the financial and
social fields. However, the results obtained have not been conclusive, mainly
due to the variables used to measure CSR. In order to simplify its measurement,
they used an empirical analytical method to determine possible differences
between the financial variables of firms considered being socially responsible
and those not considered to be such. The results obtained show that socially
responsible corporations obtain higher profits for the same level of systematic
risk and show greater sensitivity to market changes, leverage levels and
company size. Examined whether business performance is affected by the adoption
of practices included under the term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by
examining the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and certain
accounting indicators. The study
specifically investigated the differences in performance indicators between
European firms that have adopted and firms that have not adopted Corporate
Social Responsibility accounting and disclosure. The effects of compliance with
the requirements of CSR were determined on the basis of firms included in the
Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), and specific accounting indicators were
applied to measure performance. They selected one group of firms belonging to
the DJSI and another comprised of firms quoted on the Dow Jones Global Index
(DJGI) but not on the DJSI. The sample was made up of two groups of 55 firms,
studied for the period 1998–2004. Empirical analysis supports the conclusion
that differences in performance exist between firms that belong to the DJSI and
that these differences are related to CSR practices. They find that a short-term
negative impact on performance is produced.
In a different way from previous literature, took a new approach to
study the factors that affect audit opinion [19]. They examined the corporate
governance factors and its role in enhancing audit quality and in turn, the
likelihood of receiving qualified audit report. Using logistic regression and
matched pair design they tested the influence of ownership concentration, board
ownership, board size and number of family member in the board. The results of
study, in one hand support that higher insider ownership provides better
corporate governance leading to higher financial reporting quality, thus, the
less likelihood to received qualified opinion. It is because the degree of
alignment between shareholders and managers' interest which motivate mangers to
act in the interest of company and prepare financial statements that are less
likely to attract audit qualifications.
The population of study was 5 quoted conglomerates in
Nigeria and the study covered 10years from 2013 to 2022. The research design
employed in this study was the Ex-post Facto research design. The secondary
data that relates to relevant information were sourced from annual reports of
the companies for the relevant years. The subjected the data generated to
empirical testing using the Ordinary Least Square Technique aided with E-views
software (V.9). The below model guided the empirical test as formulated for the
purpose of this study;
LFPit = ?0 + ?1AUCit + Eit
- - - Equa- 1
Where:
?o = Constant term (intercept)
?it = Coefficients to be estimated for firm
? in period t
Eit = Error term/unexplained variable(s)
for firm ? in period t
LFP = Labour force participation/ Employment
distribution by company ? in period t
AUC = Audit
committee
Ho: Audit committee size has no significant effect on
social measures of selected quoted industrial goods firms in Nigeria.
LFPit
= ?0 + ?1AUCit
+
Eit
Interpretation of
regression results and discussions
The ordinary least square regression analysis in table 1 was conducted to test the effect of Audit committee size on labour force participation (Table 1). Adjusted R squared is coefficient of determination which tells us the variation in the dependent variable due to changes in the independent variable. From the above table, the value of adjusted R squared was 0.602, an indication that there was variation of 60% on the firm sustainability (Social Measures) of Industrial goods companies due to changes in AUC. This shows that only 60% changes in labour force participation of Industrial goods companies could be accounted for by changes in audit committee size. The Durbin-Watson Statistic of 1.484171 suggests that the model does not have serial correlation problem. The F-statistic of the regression is equal to 0.020339 and the associated F-statistic probability is equal to 0.000121. Since the result of the Prob (F-statistic) of 0.000121 is less than the critical value of 5% significance level, it implies that there is significant positive link between audit committee size and LFP at 5% significant level, hence our formulated hypothesis is rejected as results have shown that audit committee size has significant positive effect on labour force participation rate of selected quoted industrial goods firms in Nigeria.
Contrary to our apriori expectation, the result
generated is very much in agreement with recent evidences emanating from
advanced nations. In Korea, in examining the relationship between audit
committee size and corporate social responsibility reported that relative power
strengthens the committee. In China similarly reported that committee size
significantly affect the disclosure of corporate social impact (bio-diversity
disclosure). Further in line with our finding, in Australia also found that
committee size have significant positive influence on corporate social
performance and disclosure.
This study examined the effect of audit committee
attribute on corporate social impact from the point of social performance.
Corporate social performance was narrowed down to the aspect of labour force
participation and employment distribution. The findings generated above leads
the researchers to the conclusion that audit committee attribute have
significant positive effect on corporate social performance. The implication of
this is that small sized audit committee may not have the power to ensure
adequate performance and reporting of information relating to the social
impacts of a company’s activities. There is need to improve on corporate
governance practice in the West Africa to enhance the sustainability of the
institutions. By recommendation, regulatory authorities should ensure that
manufacturing firms in general, comply strictly with applicable corporate
governance codes on audit committee constitution and appropriate sanctions
should be meted to erring firms. It is further recommended that particular
attention should be given to audit attribute while constituting audit
committees as this has been revealed to have direct effect on the level of
impact a firm makes in the society.