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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the motives (especially the agency motives) for corporate diversification from the perspective of corporate executives who make such strategic decisions and manage the diversified firms daily. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research approach was adopted, and 12 chief executive officers (CEOs) of diversified firms in Nigeria were interviewed for their perspectives on the motives for corporate diversification. Findings: Stewardship motives – diversification to use excess capacities in assets and resources to exploit opportunities in the market and defend against adverse environmental developments – were the most cited reasons for diversification. The relevant agency problem related to corporate diversification motive in Nigeria is the principal–principal (majority shareholder-minority shareholder) one. CEOs with substantial holdings in their firms indicated that they use diversification to reduce their investment risk and retain control of their portfolio. Practical implications: The findings suggest that in corporate environments such as Nigeria that feature blockholding prominently, the corporate strategy-related agency problem that policymakers should pay greater attention to is the principal–principal conflict rather than the traditional agent–principal problem that has influenced corporate governance over the years. There is also a need to revise the dominant view that diversification is a value-destroying strategy motivated by the self-seeking behavior of managers who have little or no shares in the companies they manage. Originality/value: The few studies on motives for corporate diversification that incorporated the perspectives of corporate executives did not address the agency motives of diversification. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that has done so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current economic realities of the business world require firms to focus on all areas of organizational activities necessary to implementing a chosen course of action. It has been asserted that deploying information technology strategy can be quite helpful in engendering sustainable growth, greener corporate environment, and promoting environmental consciousness. In corporate governance, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) are saddled with the responsibility of designing firm's strategies for competitiveness and they do this based on their assessment of risk involved, the long term nature, and uncertainty connected with IT strategies. This study therefore examined whether IT strategy moderates the nexus between CEO equity based compensation and firm's competitiveness. To investigate this, the study used firm-level secondary data of 106 quoted firms on the Nigerian Exchange Group for the period 2011 - 2020. Ordinary least square and panel data estimation techniques were used. The Hausman test conducted to choose between fixed effect and random effect models revealed the appropriateness of the random effect model. In the OLS and random effect models, the coefficient of CEO equity compensation was negative, implying that higher CEO compensation is not contemporaneous with higher firm's competitiveness. However, this estimate is not statistically significant and so the weight of this negative relationship is rather insignif icant. The introduction of IT strategy as a moderator into the model produced positive interaction effect on firm's competitiveness. Overall, there is the tendency for CEO compensation to enhance firm's competitiveness in the presence of IT strategy. Accordingly, IT enabled greener corporate environment encourages competitiveness and firm's sustainable growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research focuses on the annual report readability and agency cost of Nigeria's listed deposit money banks. The research aimed to study the connection between annual report readability and agency cost of Nigerian deposit money banks. It used secondary data derived from the annual reports of the selected banks. Two-panel OLS were carried out, along with a correlation matrix and some descriptive analysis. The results were positive, which indicated annual report readability had a significant relationship with agency cost and the study recommends the firms should employ proper procedures when preparing their reports and further research should be done on the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]