Title: Board leadership and firm capital structure decision in Nigeria: an examination of CEO and chairperson's characteristics

Authors: Sani Saidu

Addresses: Department of Accounting, Faculty of Management Sciences, Bauchi State University Gadau, 751105, Nigeria

Abstract: Prior studies on firm capital financing ignored the importance of the leadership characteristics. As a result, this study investigates the impact of board chairperson and CEO characteristics on firm debt financing in Nigeria. The study draws data on 54 listed firms and analysed using regression estimator in testing the hypotheses of the relationship between the board leaders' characteristics and firm capital structure. The finding from the analysis shows that firms secure more debt financings when the board leaders have ownership stakes in the firm. This study presents the original result of the relationship between CEO and chairperson characteristics and firm capital structure decision which were ignored in prior studies. The study shows how powerful the board leadership is in determining capital structure which prior study linked to firms outcomes.

Keywords: board structure; CEO; chairperson; debt financing; firm performance; Nigeria.

DOI: 10.1504/AJAAF.2024.137535

African Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, 2024 Vol.8 No.3, pp.217 - 234

Received: 08 Sep 2022
Accepted: 08 Dec 2022
Published online: 22 Mar 2024 *

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