THE INFLUENCE OF OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE ON INTELLECTUAL  CAPITAL OF LISTED NON-FINANCIAL FIRMS IN NIGERIA

Authors

ADEBAYO Aderemi Olalere Department of Accounting, Osun State University, Osogbo, Nigeria
ABIDOYE Latifat Adesola Osun State University, Osogbo, Nigeria
ADEOYE Lukman Adewale Osun State University, Osogbo, Nigeria
OJELEYE Ayodele David

This study investigated the influence of ownership structure on intellectual capital of listed Nigeria

non-financial firms from the period of 2011 to 2020. Seventy-one (71) firms were selected for this

study. Panel fixed effect model, correlation matrix and descriptive statistics were employed in the

estimation. The estimation of the fixed effect model shows that foreign ownership and institutional

ownership have negative but insignificant impacts on intellectual capital evidenced by t-statistics

and p-value of (-1.10, -1.35) and (0.273, 0.182) respectively. Also, managerial ownership and firm

size were found to have a positive and significant impact on intellectual capital evidenced by t

statistics and p-values of (2.31, 2.23) and (0.24,0.029). The research indicates that the ownership

structure, particularly the level of managerial ownership, can affect intellectual capital, but

foreign and institutional ownership doesn't have a significant impact due to their limited

involvement in non-financial firms in Nigeria. The study therefore recommends that that higher

managerial shareholdings must be encouraged in Nigeria's corporate environment to align the

manager’s interest with that of the principal and thus improve intellectual capital disclosure.

Furthermore, increasing the participation of foreign and institutional investors in Nigerian non

financial firms can boost intellectual capital disclosure rates.