Gusau Journal of Accounting and Finance (Apr 2022)
MEDIATING EFFECT OF AUDIT COMMITTEE ON BOARD DYNAMIC AND CREATIVE ACCOUNTING IN NIGERIAN FIRMS
Abstract
Several studies were conducted on corporate board dynamic and creative accounting and their findings were mixed. None to the researcher’s knowledge studied the mediating effect of audit committee on such relationship in an entire population of the listed non-financial companies in Nigeria for a period of 10 years (2011-2020). Secondary data was extracted from the annual reports and accounts, companies’ and directors’ profile of the firms. The data was analysed using structural equation model/partial least square regression. The study found among other things that corporate board dynamic and its proxies except board capability have significant impact on the creative accounting of listed firms in Nigeria. Moreover, audit committee has a mediating effect on the relationship between board gender diversity, board ethnicity, board reputation, board nationality, board risk and creative accounting of the firms. The audit committee has no mediating effect on the relationship between board capability and creative accounting. It is therefore, recommended that, the listed companies in Nigeria should ensure the constitution of sound and robust audit committees. They should also ensure the presence of diverse gender, diverse ethnic groups, directors with national honour and foreign directors on the boards. The firms should ensure the establishment of risk management committee in all the firms. They should ensure the presence of highly skilled, experienced, and knowledgeable directors on the boards as these will help in mitigating the creative accounting with the support of audit committee. The implication of the results of this study to literature is that the findings of the study are to be used by researchers in validating tokenism/critical mass theory, social capital theory. Also, to validate upper echelon theory, efficient contracting theory, resource dependency theory, signalling theory, human capital theory, behavioural theory of corporate boards and governance and agency theory.
