The survey assessed the strategies that could effectively improve the application of the participative leadership model in CSR infrastructure delivery in the Niger Delta with a quantitative research design approach. Through multi-stage sampling, a total of 125 participants comprising CSR officers, project managers, site supervisors and community liaison representatives, invited from the core Niger Delta states, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa, responded to structured, cross-sectional questionnaires as a survey instrument. Data were descriptively analysed using frequency and percentage, while inferential statistics used the Kruskal-Wallis H test. The survey findings indicate 'Relevant training on adoption and implementation of a participative approach', 'Establishment of an organised community project office and non-permanent advisory committees', and 'Allocation of resources for participative engagement and commitment' as key strategies to enhancing the effective application of a participative approach to CSR infrastructure delivery. These strategic variables for fulfilling corporate responsibility are also a panacea for the effective application of the participative model. The study concludes that entrenching these variables would curb the current fragmented application of the model. Additionally, it would strengthen participative engagement and move CSR delivery from mere passive consultation to active partnership for sustainable regional progress and stability, fostering mutual trust and improving corporate-community relationships.

This study examines the dimensions of learning organization essential in enhancing Human Resources (HR) effectiveness towards the attainment of the strategic objectives of commercial banks operating in Nigeria. This study adopted a survey research design following a quantitative approach for data collection and analysis procedure. The respondents (professional bankers) were selected using a convenience sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was designed and administered to 305 respondents in the participating commercial banks. The data was analysed using a variance-based structural equation modelling via SmartPLS, version 3.2.9. The results showcased specific learning dimensions to consider in designing learning and development interventions for HR effectiveness in commercial banks. There is a dearth of literature on the specific learning dimensions that play a prominent role in ensuring HR effectiveness in the banking industry in developing countries, particularly in Nigeria. The outcomes of this study contribute to the extant literature and assist HR business partners in adding value to commercial banks through HR effectiveness.

The study investigated how public funds promote maternal and child health indicators in Nigeria from 1978 to 2023. The study adopted a generalized method of moments (GMM) in the analysis. The empirical results revealed that health expenditure positively and significantly impacted maternal and child health in Nigeria. The study concluded and recommended that the government should focus on increasing allocation to the health sector year in and year out to improve maternal and child health rather than relying on international funding, as an increase in health expenditure reduces the maternal and child mortality rate in Nigeria.

In today's investment climate, the integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors into strategic decision-making is essential, particularly in industry performance analysis. The article employs Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to calculate and contrast ESG efficiency for a broad variety of industries represented in companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Through adopting three other DEA methods—the Constant Returns to Scale (CCR) model and input- and output-oriented Banker, Charnes, and Cooper (BCC) models—we provide a comprehensive framework to analyze how ESG inputs are allocated across different industries to achieve stock price appreciation. The results have important variations in different sectors. For example, the Technology & Telecom, Financial Services, and Retail & Consumer Goods industries have efficiency scores calculated much higher using the input-oriented BCC approach (INBCC) compared to when the scores are derived from the CCR model. This indicates very efficient management of resources that is masked under the constant return assumption. In contrast, industries like Media and Entertainment have efficiency scores that are high across different models, while others like Aerospace and Defense perform better once, they change their priority to output maximization. The results show that the selection of DEA methodology has a strong impact on efficiency scores and that the impact differs by industry. These findings provide industry-specific benchmarks for corporate practitioners, investors, and policymakers in return for fostering sustainable practices and enhancing portfolio selection strategies.

In developing economies like Nigeria, where government expectations on firms intensify amid underdeveloped institutional frameworks, the performance implications of fiscal obligations and voluntary transparency remain poorly understood. This study investigates whether government expectations influence firm performance and whether non-mandatory disclosure moderates this relationship among 80 listed Nigerian firms from 2011 to 2023. Using panel data regression techniques—specifically fixed and random effects models, the study analyzes how fiscal pressure and voluntary environmental, social, and governance disclosures jointly shape firm performance. The findings reveal that higher government expectations are significantly and negatively associated with firm value, suggesting that increasing tax burdens diminish corporate performance. Contrary to theoretical assumptions, non-mandatory disclosure was also negatively associated with firm performance under fixed effects estimation, indicating that voluntary ESG transparency may be perceived as costly or symbolic rather than performance-enhancing in Nigeria’s capital market context. More critically, the interaction between government expectations and non-mandatory disclosure shows a significant negative moderating effect, implying that the combination of tax pressure and voluntary disclosure jointly exacerbates performance erosion rather than mitigating it. These results suggest that without institutional support, investor maturity, and stakeholder awareness, even well-intentioned disclosures may backfire. The study recommends that firms embed ESG practices into core business strategy rather than treat them as compliance rituals, and that policymakers harmonize tax and disclosure policies to avoid disincentivizing transparency. Investors are encouraged to evaluate the strategic substance behind disclosures rather than their volume alone. Future research should explore sector-specific dynamics, stakeholder interpretations of voluntary disclosures, and cross-country comparisons to uncover when and how ESG transparency translates into sustainable firm value under fiscal constraint.

This paper empirically assesses the relationship between Deposit Insurance Funds (DIF) and the quality of risk assets of listed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. The entire fifteen listed DMBs in the country as of 31st December, 2017 were focused on and the secondary data were subsequently sourced from the yearly financials of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) for a 29-year period covering from 1989 to 2017. The Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and the Vector Error Correction (VEC) estimation techniques were the basis of estimating the relationship between the variables of interest in this study. Evidence from our analyses indicates that the volume of total deposits and total loans and advances of DMBs have long run negative and statistically significant relationship with DIF. Conversely, the quality of risk assets of DMBs exhibits a positive and insignificant relationship with the target reserve ratio of DMBs. The study thus recommends that regulatory agencies in the banking sector (CBN and NDIC), amongst others, collaborate with listed DMBs to diversify and manage their risk assets by strategically intensifying the implementation of existing measures aimed at minimising incidences of loan default and the alarming levels of non-performing loans in the portfolio of Nigerian DMBs.

This paper explored the dynamics of monetary policy and its effect on private investment, using annual frequency data from 1981 to 2017. The paper employed autoregressive distributive lags methodology to estimate the link between private investment and some selected monetary indicators. Empirical finding shows that broad money supply increases private investment in the long run for the study area. Interestingly, our study shows inverse relationship between exchange rate and private investment. These findings are insightful for policymakers for strategic policy mix construction. Consequently, the study recommends, among other things, proper coordination of monetary and fiscal policies, good macroeconomic policies, proper channeling of financial resources to the private sector and proper measures for controlling inflation.

Although the relationship between resilience and career success has been well documented, very few studies relate these variables in developing economies, and especially in entrepreneurship in Nigeria. Additionally, how commitment actually shapes this relationship is conspicuously neglected. This empirical investigation was aimed at examining the influence of entrepreneurial career resilience on the three facets of entrepreneurial career success, i.e. career satisfaction, perceived career achievement and perceived financial attainment through the mediating role of entrepreneurial career commitment. The study used cross sectional data approach to collect data from 390 active entrepre-neurs. The participants were selected using purposive sampling technique. PLS-SEM statistical software (Smart-PLS 3) was used to test the formulated hypotheses. The findings suggested that; entrepreneurial career resilience was a positive predictor of the career satisfaction and perceived ca-reer achievement but it did not predict perceived financial attainment; that, entrepreneurial career resilience predicted entrepreneurial career commitment; that, entrepreneurial career commitment predicted career satisfaction, perceived career achievement and perceived financial attainment. Moreover, entrepreneurial career commitment significantly influenced the relationships of entrepreneurial career resilience and the two facets of entrepreneurial career success.

Resilience is one of the constructs which received less attention in the contemporary entrepreneurial literature. This paper explored the relationships among social capital, commitment and career resilience of entrepreneurs in Northern Nigeria. 576 active entrepreneurs were selected to participate in this study using cluster sampling approach and were served with questionnaires of which 390, representing 68% response, were retrieved. The data were analyzed using Smart-PLS 3 software of Partial Lease Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings suggest that bonding social capital influenced both career commitment as well as career resilience, but bridging did not. In addition, career commitment mediated the relationship between bonding social capital and career resilience, but did not mediate the relationship between bridging social capital and career resilience. Theoretical, practical and methodological implications were also provided.

Consumers’ consumption culture of the twentieth century has culminated into environmental degra-dation and its adverse consequences on health and the ecosystem. Despite these concerns, consumers still fail to purchase environmentally-friendly or green products due to the lack of awareness and belief about the benefits of such products. This study seeks to understand consumers’ attitude towards green products by investigating the effect of consumers’ green product knowledge, green product belief, environment affect and environmental concern on green product purchase intention drawing on the cognitive-affect-behaviour model. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyse the data from 348 Health workers from a South-eastern Health Institution in Nigeria and examined the proposed hypotheses. The result shows that green product purchase intention was significantly influenced by green product knowledge and environmental affect but no significant effect was found for green product belief and environmental concern. Environmental effects had the most im-pact on green product purchase intention. Therefore, it is recommended that marketers focus their marketing campaigns towards educating consumers on the availability and benefits of green prod-ucts by using eco-labels and emphasizing the health and environment benefits of green products; appealing to consumers’ morals and emotions in marketing campaigns for green products to spur consumers’ interest in green products and adopting a green lifestyle.