CEO Demographical characteristics and financial reporting timeliness in Nigeria: Moderated by research and development investment

Lawal, Ahmad Muhammed; Amran, Noor Afza; Shafai, Nor Atikah Article CEO Demographical characteristics and financial reporting timeliness in Nigeria: Moderated by research and development investment Cogent Business & Management Provided in Cooperation with: Taylor & Francis Group Suggested Citation: Lawal, Ahmad Muhammed; Amran, Noor Afza; Shafai, Nor Atikah (2024) : CEO Demographical characteristics and financial reporting timeliness in Nigeria: Moderated by research and development investment, Cogent Business & Management, ISSN 2331-1975, Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, Vol. 11, Iss. 1, pp. 1-18, https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2331090 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/326168 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Cogent Business & Management ISSN: 2331-1975 (Online) Journal homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/oabm20 CEO Demographical characteristics and financial reporting timeliness in Nigeria: Moderated by research and development investment Ahmad Muhammed Lawal, Noor Afza Amran & Nor Atikah Shafai To cite this article: Ahmad Muhammed Lawal, Noor Afza Amran & Nor Atikah Shafai (2024) CEO Demographical characteristics and financial reporting timeliness in Nigeria: Moderated by research and development investment, Cogent Business & Management, 11:1, 2331090, DOI: 10.1080/23311975.2024.2331090 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2331090 © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Published online: 25 Apr 2024. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 1634 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=oabm20 Accounting, corporAte governAnce & Business ethics | reseArch Article Cogent Business & ManageMent 2024, VoL. 11, no. 1, 2331090 CEO Demographical characteristics and financial reporting timeliness in Nigeria: Moderated by research and development investment Ahmad Muhammed lawal , noor Afza Amran and nor Atikah shafai tunku Puteri intan safinaz school of accountancy (tissa-uuM), College of Business, universiti utara Malaysia, sintok, Malaysia ABSTRACT the international Accounting standard Boards highlighted financial reporting timeliness (Frt), as one of the qualitative attributes taken into consideration when measuring financial reporting quality (FrQ). considering that the board is the main internal corporate governance (cg) mechanism, the attributes of chief executive officers (ceos) are predicted to be associated with the Frt. the study aims to analyse the impact of ceo demographic characteristics on the Frt of non-financial listed companies in nigeria. the sample consisted of 86 listed non-financial companies’ annual reports on the nigeria stock exchange (nse) for 2015–2021. Multiple linear regressions were used in analysing the collected data via stAtA software. results revealed that 6 out of 10 hypotheses were significantly related to Frt. Findings indicated that ceo characteristics may encourage managers to reduce reporting lag, increase the quality of financial reports, and signal good news to shareholders, which may significantly affect the company’s performance. it is recommended that stakeholders review cg and accounting standards reform to improve Frt and deter managers from late submission of financial statements to the nse. the study contributes to stakeholders like managers, regulatory bodies, policymakers, and professional bodies to enhance current standards, and regulations in nigeria. Finally, agency theory and upper echelons theory were used to delve into new findings based on the nigerian setting and enhance the rigour, coherence, and impact of this study within its academic or practical domain. 1. Introduction the timeliness of financial reports is one of the qualitative factors used to measure the quality of financial reporting (Aifuwa & saidu, 2020; givoly & palmon, 1982). According to pradipta and Zalukhu (2020) and Muhammad (2020), timely reporting helps create an environment of trust in the financial markets. Azubike and onukwube, (2019) posit that timely reports convey a favourable indication to decision-makers and prospective shareholders regarding the performance of a company and financial reporting timeliness. however, the increased attention regarding the financial reporting timeliness has been motivated by the collapse of many large corporations in the early 1990s in europe and the united states, such as in the case of enron in 2002, when the performance of giant companies began to witness a decline in their productivity and have made investors lose confidence (Bala, etal., 2020; omer et al, 2020). corporate scandals have affected not only developed countries but also the developing economy (Bala, 2019; ozili, 2020). notably, recent corporate failures in developed economies have spread to developing nations like nigeria, raising concerns about the effectiveness of corporate governance. Meanwhile, the nigerian government has set a limitation of 90 days for entities to issue and submit annual financial statements to the stock exchange. nevertheless, several listed companies still failed to © 2024 the author(s). Published by informa uK Limited, trading as taylor & Francis group CONTACT ahmad Muhammed Lawal ahmadmlaw[email protected] tunku Puteri intan safinaz school of accountancy (tissa-uuM), College of Business universiti utara Malaysia, 06010 sintok, Malaysia https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2331090 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. ARTICLE HISTORY received 22 December 2023 revised 13 February 2024 Accepted 11 March 2024 KEYWORDS ceo demographics; Financial reporting; nigeria; non-financial sectors; timeliness REVIEWING EDITOR nor shaipah Abdul Wahab, taylor’s university-lakeside campus, Malaysia SUBJECTS Accounting; Business, Management and Accounting; corporate governance 2 A.M. lAWAl, n.A. AMrAn, AnD n.A. shAFAi submit their financial reports on time. For instance, cadbury plc in 2006, and Ftn cocoa processors plc, Deap capital Management, and trust plc. in 2019, among others (itodo, 2019), failed to submit their audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019. this demonstrates their incapacity to adhere to current corporate governance best practices and regulations, which require them to submit their financial statements within 90 days of the end of the financial year. consequently, the nigerian stock exchange (2017) placed fines on some companies that fail to submit their audited reports for the period of their delay, leading to a loss in the value of shareholders’ investments (gbalam & uzochukwu, 2020). the companies comprised, but were not limited to, international Breweries n100,000 ($70.422), Meyer plc n2.1 million ($1,478.852), sovereign trust insurance n2.1 million ($ 1,478.852), Abbey Mortgage Bank n700,000 ($ 492.951), Fidelity Bank n2.7 million ($ 1,901.382), sterling Bank n2.1 million ($ 1,478.852), Wema Bank n800,000 ($ 563.372), and FcMB n100,000 ($70.422). these issues have raised severe concerns regarding the efficacy and dependability of corporate governance mechanisms and financial reports in safeguarding the interests of investors (Al-shaer, 2020; habib et al., 2019). in addition, it has been reported in the extant literature that most corpo nigeria rate financial report delay practices are perpetrated by the chief executive officer (ceo) (the nation Media group, 2021; nse, 2017). in nigeria, 25 ceos are reportedly involved in financial reporting delay practices in both non-financial and financial listed companies (sani et al., 2020). the extant literature has perceived academic and professional experience to play a crucial function in influencing the timeliness of financial information (laptes, 2020; rashid, 2020; Ma et al., 2019). in nigeria, it is obvious that professional accounting bodies offer education and training programmes that equip professionals with the necessary skills and knowledge to secure positions as top executives (chijoke-Mgbame et al., 2020). Based on the ceo’s gender diversity in nigeria, section 2.4 of the nigeria code of corporate governance (nccg, code 2018) states that, the board should promote diversity in its membership regarding a range of characteristics that are important for fostering improved governance and decision-making. Moreover, in the long term, highly educated ceos and managers might concentrate more on the business strategies of their companies (Qi etal., 2018; evert etal., 2018; suman & singh, 2021). As reported by Ma etal. (2019), companies with board chairs who have completed more education provide more accurate and timely financial reports. this study examines the effects of corporate governance practices, like the ceo demographics (i.e., academic experience, financial expertise, gender diversity, educational level, and working experience) and firm characteristics (firm size, firm age, and firm growth), regarding the timely submission of financial reports of non-financial companies in nigeria. Furthermore, previous studies have highlighted that research and development investment is an influential factor in investment decisions to obtain accurate information (gounopoulos & pham, 2018; Aldoser et al., 2021). in addition, previous studies on the relationship between ceo characteristics and financial reporting timeliness provide mixed findings, such as shen et al. (2020), rashid (2020), Ma et al. (2019), Abernathy et al. (2018), Michel and hambrick (1992), plöckinger et al. (2016) and Al-shaer (2020), because the extant studies were carried out in different contexts and constructs. therefore, this research investigates the effect of corporate governance (cg) mechanisms, that is, ceo characteristics and Frt. it also explores the moderating effect of research and development investment (r&D) on the correlation between ceo attributes and timely financial reporting. this study contributes to agency theory and upper echelon theory by presenting empirical findings on the correlation between corporate governance mechanisms and Frt in nigeria. the results of the research will be valuable to investors and regulatory authorities responsible for monitoring managerial Frt. regulatory authorities could also use these findings for better cg compliance and Frt. section one encompasses the introduction of the study, including a general summary of the research paper, the background of the research, the statement of problem, the main objective, and the contribution of the research. section two begins with a literature review, a discussion of conceptual reviews, and a theoretical literature review on Frt. this section followed by an overview of the empirical literature on cg mechanisms and Frt, research and development investment (r&D investment), and the development of hypotheses based on pertinent theories. section three highlights the research methodology, method of data collection, sample size, and model specification. the instrumentation and measurement of the study variables are described in this section. section Four focuses on the analysis results, discussion, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and discussion of the results. section Five covers conclusions, recommendations, and limitations of the research. cogent Business & MAnAgeMent 3 2. Literature review 2.1. Financial reporting timeliness (timeliness) timeliness provides decision-makers with information before they lose their influence Zandi, and Abdullah (2019). stakeholders need quick and credible reports owing to increased information needs. the international Accounting standard Board (iAsB) defines timeliness as providing decision-makers with the information they need before it expires. According to iAsB (2008), financial reporting timeliness is a qualitative indicator of financial information quality (Aifuwa etal., 2020). As in previous study, timeliness refers to the number of days between a company’s financial year-end and the final release of its audited financial statements (owusu-Ansah & leventis, 2006). Baatwah (2016) defines the number of days between the fiscal year end and the release of the annual report in official publications or on the capital market site. the detrimental effects of insider trading are lessened by prompt reporting, which builds trust in capital markets, and gives decision-makers and investors a good signal or indication of a firm’s performance and earnings (oraka et al., 2019). Many researchers have studied the association between timeliness of financial reporting (Beaver, 1968; givoly & palmon, 1982; Delaney et al., 2013; Alsmady, 2018; Baatwah et al., 2018; eze & nkak, 2020; Alshaer, 2020). they claimed that companies delayed announcing their financial information when it was unfavourable news. however, when accounting figures show positive news, companies and managers rush to share it to benefit users of financial information. several empirical investigations contradict the premise that ‘businesses deliver good news than bad news’. For example, Basu (1995) hypothesises that businesses react better to negative news than to good news at present, since it affects the likelihood that potential customers will patronise the business. Moreover, every country has a different deadline set by the regulatory bodies. united state of America (usA) has reported a time of fifty-five (55) days, and the united Kingdom (uK) sixty-four (64) days, respectively (Aifuwa et al., 2018; Abernathy et al., 2018). For emerging countries, reporting lag for Malaysia was one hundred and three (103) days and egypt seventy-two (72) days (Khlif & samaha, 2016; Wahdan et al., 2023; raweh et al., 2021). in nigeria, according to the regulatory filing calendar maintained by the nse, the date by which corporations must submit their annual reports is 31st of March for each year and within a period of 90 days, as stipulated by the exchange. therefore, the nse has seriously monitored 13 businesses in 2020 because they did not submit their reports by the deadline of March 31, 2020. companies such as Aso savings and loans plc, Ftn cocoa processors plc, Dn tyre and rubber plc, and Deap capital Management and trust plc were among those involved in untimely financial reporting in nigeria. As stated by Muhammad (2020), financial reporting timeliness is defined as promoting transparency and providing a comprehensive yearly report with a high standard. this study applies the delay in total reporting as an example of how the high value of accounting information can be evaluated if it can be reached by many people, not just by board of directors and management. this measurement requires waiting time before management and auditors can deliver certified annual reports to the public (salleh et al., 2017). 2.2. CEO demographical characteristics and timeliness of financial report According to a growing body of research (Ma etal., 2019; shen et al., 2020), the attributes of executive managers may account for an important portion of the variation in company policy. upper echelons theory (uet) by hambrick and Mason (1984) opined that a top executive’s perceptions, values, and cognitions significantly impact a firm’s choices and outcomes. Because executive values, perceptions, and cognitions are hard to quantify, the upper echelons theory proposes that the executive qualities are suitable proxies to be applied in the study (carpenter etal., 2004). According to hambrick and Mason (1984), empirical research reveals that ceo traits reliably influence organisational activity outcomes. carpenter et al. (2004) propose that the decision-making process of a ceo is most likely to represent the configuration of his various traits, which has been explored in past studies. the evidence presented above from the management literature points to a significant connection between ceo attributes and firms’ financial reporting timeliness. research on top executives has shown that ceo characteristics are critical components of cg that influence both the timeliness of managers’ reports and the timeliness of financial reports. the ceo’s demographic characteristics include 4 A.M. lAWAl, n.A. AMrAn, AnD n.A. shAFAi academic experience, financial expertise, gender diversity, educational level, and working experience, which are explained in the following paragraph. 2.2.1. Academic experience Based on the ceo’s academic experience, Ma (2019) postulates that academics have comparatively higher moral and social standards. Ma et al. (2019) defined top executive academic experience as having held a faculty position at a college or university or as a research associate at a research organisation. shen et al. (2020) identified executives with academic experience and documented that firms with former academic experience perform significantly better than businesses without these executives. however, this is in contrast to Ma et al. (2019), who found that top academic management team members do not affect firms’ financial reporting timeliness. ozili (2020) is among the studies that examine the roles and impacts of academic experience on the timeliness of financial reporting. this creates gap for future research. hence, this study fills the gap by analysing the effect of ceo academic experience on financial reporting timeliness in nigeria. Based on upper echelons theory, the research hypothesis is being formulated. H1: ceo academic experience has a significant impact on the timeliness of financial reports of non-financial listed firms in nigeria. 2.2.2. Accounting expertise Accounting expertise can considerably affect a firm’s Frt (Abernathy et al., 2017). given its significance, is essential to determine the variables influencing Frt levels. oradi etal. (2020) opined that the accounting expert of the ceo has experience working as an auditor, holds a qualification in accounting, or the chief financial officer (cFo), holds other accounting-related positions. thus, prior studies have identified top executive officers with accounting expertise as a good cg mechanism to mitigate delays of financial reports and enhance Frt (rashid, 2020; lapteș, 2020; Yu et al., 2019; Abernathy et al., 2014). the vast knowledge and skills that professional accountants acquire via their education and training programmes provided by esteemed accounting organisations such as the international Federation of Accountants (iFAc) can be utilised in executive positions (Ado et al., 2020; Berg, 2007). this is the result of the vital role of top executives and how their knowledge of finance may impact a company’s Frt (Ma et al., 2019). however, extant literature shows a dearth of literature to date in developing countries that studies the association between the financial expertise of a ceo and the Frt (ismail et al., 2020). From the previous discussion, the subsequent hypothesis was formulated: H2: ceo accounting expertise has significant effect on the timeliness of financial reports of non-financial listed firms in nigeria. 2.2.3. Gender diversity regulators and governments worldwide have mandated women to sit on committee boards and hold senior management positions (ismail etal., 2020). some governments have established voluntary requirements requiring all publicly listed companies to have a woman in management positions and on the board (suman & singh, 2021). this was done to help the women reach the top management level. hunt (2018) studied financial reporting timeliness in european organisations and their impact on gender diversity. Australian companies have the highest percentage of women in executive posts (21%) and nigeria (14%) compared to the us (19%) and the uK (15%). the most robust connections were observed between executive team gender diversity and efficient financial reporting timeliness across geographical areas Quarato etal. (2017) explored how senior management team diversity affects italian fashion and upscale corporations’ performance. the findings indicate that greater gender diversity in ceos is linked to improved company performance. consequently, companies with greater board gender diversity are more effective in mitigating the financial reporting lag (suman & singh, 2021). uyioghosa and Amede (2019) carried out a study in nigeria to examine whether ceo gender attributes are significantly related to financial reporting timeliness. the findings reveal that ceo gender is significantly related to financial reporting timeliness. Based on the findings, it was recommended that females be considered more for the position of ceo in nigeria. therefore, this study considers the gender diversity of ceos and examines cogent Business & MAnAgeMent 5 their likely influence on Frt in nigeria. Based on upper echelons theory and past studies, the hypothesis is formulated as follows: H3: ceo gender diversity has a significant impact on the timeliness of the financial reports of non-financial listed firms in nigeria. 2.2.4 Educational level regarding ceo’s educational levels, highly educated top executives can acquire new ideas and implement better strategies because of their cognitive complexity (Ma etal., 2019; omer, 2020; Fujianti, 2019). An educational degree indicates executive abilities and talents, based on research using upper echelons theory (hambrick, 2007). Managers with greater levels of educational attainment possess enhanced cognitive capacity for processing and assessing information, which enables them to resolve organisational issues and make wiser decisions (Qi et al., 2018). higher educated top executives are generally thought to be more cognitively complex, able to assimilate new information, and capable of executing more successful strategies (omer etal., 2020). the nigerian code of corporate governance (nccg, 2018) states that, in order for the board to attain the appropriate balance of expertise, abilities, background, diversity, and independence to effectively fulfil its governance role and obligations in an unbiased and effective manner, it must take responsibility for its composition by establishing its goals and approving the rules and regulations. this hypothesis was formulated as follows: H4: ceo education level has a significant impact on the timeliness of financial reports of non-financial listed firms in nigeria. 2.2.5 Working experience Decisions made by ceos with work experience may deviate from the expected utility theory. expected utility theory points out that people do not have access to whole outcome distributions; instead, they are limited to accessing just samples of previous outcomes. (hertwig, 2012). psychology literature shows that experience influences decision-making (Dittmar & Duchin, 2015). the nccg (2018) requires a combination of diversity, abilities, expertise, and background (including gender and prior experience) to guarantee that the committees within the board perform effectively without compromising competence, independence, and integrity. interestingly, the rising finance literature studies how individual experiences affect investment behaviour (Ma et al., 2019; shen et al., 2020). nigerian public service rules (2008) stated that ceo job experience is important, but there is little empirical evidence substantiating the correlation between work experience and Frt. Dittmar and Duchin (2015) examined how managers’ experiences affect companies’ financial policies. the results indicate that policies change according to managers’ experiences and careers. Managers with financial experience may comprehend that late financial reports annihilate their firm’s future success (Abernathy et al., 2015). in view of the above, this study investigates the effect of the work experience of the ceo on Frt in nigeria. consequently, the hypothesis is formulated as follows: H5: ceo work experience has a significant effect on the timeliness of financial reports of non-financial listed firms in nigeria. 2.3 Moderating effect of research and development investment on the relationship between CEO characteristics and financial reporting timeliness studies related to ceos have yielded varied and inconclusive results. some researchers see that ceo traits are a major factor in financial reporting timeliness (Zheng et al., 2020). other studies have found that ceos are less likely to reduce financial reporting latency and are more likely to be involved in agency conflict (Ma et al., 2019). thus, there is a gap in research and development investment. According to percy (2000), research and development investment occurs when one party has an informational advantage over the others. Financial reporting is important for internal and external stakeholders (Bala, 2019). this will help investors make efficient investment decisions (Adekoya et al., 2021). 6 A.M. lAWAl, n.A. AMrAn, AnD n.A. shAFAi According to gerpott et al. (2008), revealing r&D investments could be a strategy to close the information gap between managers and investors. As a result, many businesses provide information regarding the amount of money they spend on research and development (r&D) to enhance investors’ understanding of their businesses. it also influences investors’ interpretations of financial performance and evaluations of a company’s prospects. Accordingly, r&D investments are seen as a proxy for knowledge asymmetry and can be associated with ceo and financial reporting timeliness. Aboody and lev (2000) and cai et al. (2015) found that the percentage of r&D-intensive companies that publish their financial information in a timely manner is much greater than that of organisations without r&D investments. they concluded that r&D was a major contributor to information asymmetry, and that investing in r&D, in general, would minimise the influence of the interaction between ceos and the time gap in financial reporting in nigeria. Based on past studies and agency theory, this study hypothesises the following: H6-10: research and Development investment (r&D) moderates the relationship between ceo demographic characteristics and financial reporting timeliness of non-financial listed firms in nigeria. 2.4 Research framework the study framework in this research applies Agency theory and upper echelons theory. the variables in this study are consistent with the main objectives of the study. the motivation of the study is based on past studies that have evidenced limited studies carried out in nigeria related to ceo demographic characteristics and the timeliness of reporting in the non-financial sector in nigeria. however, very few studies have incorporated ceo characteristics (e.g. academic experience, accounting expertise, gender diversity, education level, and working experience) in nigerian non-financial firms. therefore, this study is necessary in nigeria. therefore, this research is among the studies that examined the moderating effect of research and development investment between ceo demographical characteristics and Frt, as shown in Figure 1 below. 3.1 Research methodology 3.1. Sample size and data collection As of December 31, 2021, the population consisted of 171 companies trading on the nigerian stock exchange. Because of the different financial rules, and regulations, 55 financial institutions were excluded from the selection. the research excluded newly listed and delisted non-financial companies that occurred throughout the time frame of the study because the companies do not have complete data. in addition, companies that were unable to provide adequate yearly reports or supply the necessary amount of complete data were not included in the analysis. the total sample encompassed 86 different companies. resulting in a total of 602 observations covering 2015 to 2021. the steps for selecting the samples are outlined in table 1. in addition, data on ceo demographic characteristics (academic experience, financial expertise, gender, education level, and working experience) were acquired manually from the audited annual reports of companies and through the companies’ websites and nigerian stock exchange (nse). these reports contain information on ceos’ academic experience, financial expertise, gender, education level, and working experience. At the same time, information from the thomson reuters Database was used to gather data on financial reporting timeliness and other financial data pertinent to the control variables. 3.2. Model specification A panel data analysis was used in this study. Financial reporting timeliness (Frt) is the dependent variable as a function of explanatory variables, chief executive officer characteristics, research and development investment (r&D investment), and control variables. in accordance with Borgi et al. (2021) and Baatwah et al. (2016), this study applied the delay of the total financial reports. this is because financial information and records may be highly informative when it reach a wider variety of decision-makers as opposed to board of directors and management. this metric calculates the length of time between the completion of audited annual reports and their release to the public. therefore, it is determined by cogent Business & MAnAgeMent 7 calculating the number of days between the fiscal year end and the day annual reports are made available to the public on the website. Model 1 highlights the main regression analysis of the research using the proxies in table 1. this explains the relationship Amidst dependent and independent variables. Model 1: Direct effect F RT CEO AE CEO FE CEO GD CO EL CEO it it it it it =+ + + ++ − − −−− ββ β β β β 01 2 3 4 5 WWERDFSIZEFAGEFGRWTH it it it it it ++++ + ββββ ε 67 8 9 (1) Where: Frt = financial reporting timeliness, ceo_Ae = ceo academic experience, ceo_Fe = ceo financial expertise, ceo_gD = ceo gender diversity, ceo_el = ceo educational level, ceo_We = ceo working experience, FsiZe = firm size, FAge = firm age, and FgrWth = firm growth. the moderating effect of research and development investment is a proxy for r&D investments cost, as indicated in Model 2: Figure 1. Research Framework. source: Constructed by the authors (2023). Table 1. Composition of non-financial industries in a nigerian stock exchange sample. s/n industries Companies 1 agriculture 5 2 aseM 4 3 Conglomerates 5 4Construction/Real estates 9 5Consumer goods 20 6Financial sectors 55 7 HealthCare’s 10 8 iCt 9 9industrial good 13 10 natural Resources 4 11 oil and gas 12 12 services 25 total Firms in Listed on the nse 171 Less: Financial service firms (55) non-financial sector in the nse 116 Companies with non-available data (30) number of observations 86 number of Years (2015 – 2021) 7 number of observations (firms-year observations) 602 source: nse Financial information: 2021 audited accounts https://ngxgroup.com/exchange/trade/ equities/listed-companies/?filter=Main%20Board 14 A.M. lAWAl, n.A. AMrAn, AnD n.A. shAFAi Authors’ contributions every author made contributions to the conceptualization and design of the study. Ahmad Muhammed lawal performed material preparation and data collection, analysis, and discussion by Ahmad Muhammed lawal, prof. Dr noor Afza Amran, and Dr. nor Atikah shafai. Ahmad Muhammed lawal wrote the first draft of the manuscript, all contributors provided feedback on prior versions. the final manuscript was read and approved by every author. All authors unanimously accept responsibility for all parts of the work. Disclosure statement the authors’ research, "ceo Demographical characteristics and Financial reporting timeliness in nigeria: Moderated by research and Development investment," declares no conflicts of interest. We affirm adherence to ethical guidelines and regulatory standards. Data were sourced publicly and analysed transparently. While efforts were made for accuracy, inherent uncertainties exist. the opinions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the institution. Feedback is welcomed for further discussion and research. About the authors Ahmad Muhammed Lawal is currently pursuing his phD in Accounting at the tunku puteri intan safinaz school of Accountancy (tissA-uuM), college of Business, universiti utara Malaysia. he completed his Master of science (M. sc) degree with honors in Accounting and Finance at Ahmadu Bello university (ABu) nigeria, in 2018, and received his B.sc. degree in Accounting from Kaduna state university (KAsu) nigeria, in 2012. Additionally, he obtained a postgraduate Diploma in education (pgDe) from the national teachers’ institute (nti) in Kaduna, nigeria, and a diploma certificate in computer applications. he has authored various publications in the areas of accounting, finance, and management, and is an esteemed member of several professional organizations including the Association of national Accountants of nigeria (AnAn), the institute of certified public Accountants of nigeria (icpAn), the chartered institute of information and strategy Management (ciisM), the chartered institute of public Diplomacy and Management (cipDM), the nigerian institute of Management (chartered) (niM), the institute of professional Managers and Administrators of nigeria (ipMA), the teachers registration council of nigeria (trcn), and the institute of chartered Accountants of nigeria (icAn) (in-view). he has participated in various local and international conferences and workshops. Furthermore, he has worked as a senior accounts officer in both the public and private sectors in nigeria, amassing nearly 10 years of experience. Moreover, he possesses extensive knowledge of international Financial reporting standards (iFrs) and international public sector Accounting standards (ipsAs), as well as considerable expertise in using accounting software and electronic payments and collections platforms. Noor Afza Amran is a professor of tunku puteri intan safinaz school of Accountancy (tissA), college of Business, universiti utara Malaysia (uuM coB). her Area of expertise is corporate governance, Auditing, Fraud, Women studies, sustainability and Financial reporting Quality. Nor Atikah Shafai of tunku puteri intan safinaz school of Accountancy (tissA-uuM), college of Business universiti utara Malaysia, 06010 sintok, Kedah, Malaysia. her Area of expertise is corporate social responsibility, corporate governance (including Accountability, ethics, integrity), Financial reporting, (including Accounting regulation, Accounting standards, Accounting theory, standard setting process, Financial reporting in private and public sector organisations). ORCID Ahmad Muhammed lawal http://orcid.org/0009-0000-7804-735X noor Afza Amran http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5519-2295 Data availability statement the data substantiating the findings of this study are obtained in the nigerian audited published financial statements from the nigerian stock exchange official website of at (https://ngxgroup.com/exchange/trade/equities/ listed-companies/?filter=Main%20Board), and from the university utara Malaysia (uuM) library data stream (thomson reuters Database) at (https://library.oum.edu.my/molec/db/universiti%20utara%20Malaysia%20). References Abernathy, J. l., Barnes, M., stefaniak, c., & Weisbarth, A. (2017). An international perspective on audit report lag: A synthesis of the literature and opportunities for future research. International Journal of Auditing, 21(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijau.12083 cogent Business & MAnAgeMent 15 Abernathy, J. l., Beyer, B., Masli, A., & stefaniak, c. 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