Corporate Governance Nexus Intellectual Capital Performance: Evidence from Listed Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria

Abstract

Lack of knowledge, experience, and governance supervision prevents many Nigerian manufacturing companies from measuring, managing, or reporting on intellectual capital in an acceptable manner. This discrepancy raises the possibility that the governance frameworks in existence are inadequate or inefficient at fostering the performance of intellectual capital. This study therefore examined how corporate governance affects intellectual capital performance of Nigerian listed manufacturing companies from 2014 to 2024. Board size (BS), board independence (BI), audit committee size (ACS), and board diligence (BD) were used to evaluate corporate governance, while human capital efficiency (HCE) was used to measure intellectual capital performance. Ex-post facto method was used as the study design. Data were Descriptive and correlation statistics, as well as diagnostic tests, were used to support the panel regression analysis of data taken from the annual reports of ten chosen listed manufacturing companies. The results showed that none of the corporate governance proxies (BS, BI, ACS, BD) have significant impact on HCE, according to regression results (p = 0.464, 0.443, 0.690, 0.929 > 0.05). It was concluded that corporate governance in Nigerian manufacturing firms is mostly symbolic and has minimal practical effect on the efficiency of human capital. In order to improve human capital efficiency, the study suggested that bolstering board independence, quality, and supervision are required, while urging manufacturing businesses to give organizational culture, technology adoption, and staff development top priority.