The Impact of Triple Bottom Line Accounting on Firms’ Sustainability in Nigeria

Abstract

The era of reporting business activities solemnly based on financial performance is over. In addition to economic performance reporting, many organizations in the globe have been producing entities’ reports that disclose and account for the social responsibilities and environmental impacts of the entities. Also, the accounting financial reporting practice is considered socially and environmentally unfriendly.  This study therefore, examines the impact of triple bottom line accounting on firms’ sustainability in Nigeria by focusing on the perspective views of firms’ stakeholders. A survey research design was employed and the population of this study is made up of three selected money deposit banks in Nigeria. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample of 150 respondents. The primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire and the data gathered was analyzed using descriptive statistic and multiple regression models with the aid of SPSS version 20. Findings from this study indicate that p-value of 0.00 < 001. Therefore, the triple bottom line accounting has significant impact on firms’ sustainability in Nigeria. This study concludes that disclosure in form of TBL accounting becomes a necessity to satisfy the interest of varying stakeholder groups and to place firms’ sustainability objective at the fore front of present day business. This study therefore, recommends that firms should adopt transparent disclosure of quantifiable triple bottom line accounting encompassing social, environmental and economic performance as this would boost stakeholder’s confidence and improve the overall quality of their report. Also, the performance information reported by firms should be linked with their stated intentions and their strategic processes for achieving sustainability as these would ultimately capture their impact in the society and boost their reputation. Then as most of the developed countries have various forms of standards regulating social and environmental disclosure, the governments of developing countries especially Nigeria are encouraged along with standard setting bodies to develop standards that can guide every organization in accounting for social and environmental impacts and. Finally, additional education and training should be given to accountants on the key trends in the areas of economic, social and environmental disclosure so as to keep them abreast of changes in the profession.

Keywords: Accounting, Firms, Sustainability, Triple bottom line.

DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-9-06

Publication date:May 31^st 2020