Sustainable Development and Performance, Financial Position and Market Value of Nigerian Quoted Companies

Abstract

The study is against the background that sustainable development practices may involve financial outflows and hence, may be an unattractive investment to managers. This study evaluated the impact of corporate compliance with accounting standards that are deemed to enforce sustainable development practices and can, therefore, imply sustainable development practices by companies, on profitability, financial position and market value of companies. Forty-four companies that have existed since standardization began in Nigeria in 1984 were studied over five years, using Pearson product moment and spearman's rank correlation statistical techniques. The correlations compared compliance to financial reporting standards on the one hand with financial performance, financial position and market value on the other. Results showed that sustainable development practices of companies are rarely associated with profitability. The practices are, however, shown to associate a little with better asset worth and improved market values.