FIRMS STRUCTURAL CHRACTERISTICS AND FINANCIAL REPORTING QUALITY OF LISTED SERVICE FIRMS IN NIGERIA

Poor financial reporting quality has been the root cause of corporate scandals involving earnings management, improper disclosure and other manipulations of financial reports in many sectors of the Nigerian industry. This study examined the effect of firms’ structural characteristics on financial reporting quality of listed service firms in Nigeria from 2013 to 2022. The independent variable pf the study being firms’ characteristics was proxied by capital structure, ownership structure and asset tangibility while the dependent variable being financial reporting quality was measured using the IASB Conceptual Framework qualitative characteristic model. The research design adopted in this study was ex post facto, secondary data were used and the population of study was 23 listed service firms in Nigeria and the sample size of 13 were purposively selected. The hypotheses of the study were tested using pool ordinary least square regression analysis and the statistical package employed was E-views version 10. The result of the analysis revealed that capital structure has an insignificant negative effect on financial reporting quality. Ownership structure has a significant positive effect on financial reporting quality. Assets tangibility has an insignificant positive effect on financial reporting quality of listed service firms in Nigeria .It was thus concluded that firm structural characteristics have some level of impact on financial reporting quality of listed service firms in Nigeria. Based on this, it was recommended among others that the management of listed industrial goods firms are encouraged to take up additional shares as higher managerial ownership can be beneficial for enhancing financial reporting quality. Boards of directors and remuneration committees should consider incorporating ownership incentives, such as stock-based compensation or share ownership guidelines, to align managers' interests with long-term value creation and financial transparency goals.