Title:
Human Capital Disclosure, Business Model and Firm Value: Empirical Evidence from Kenya and South Africa

Authors:
Samwel Ndaita Bangara, Joshua Wafula Chesoli, Christopher Ngacho, Andrew Songoro Nyanga’u, Kenya

Abstract:

High volatility and decline in firm value has been spotted for listed companies in Kenya as revealed by large deviations between market-to-book value ratios. This has prompted organisations to adopt integrated reporting to enhance accounting information disclosures that has long been linked with firm value. However, studies examining this form of reporting and its contribution to the value of the company and its variant stakeholders remain scanty in the context of Africa. The purpose of this research is to investigate and demonstrate the relationship amongst human capital disclosure, business model and value of listed companies in Kenya and South Africa. The study was braced on the Stakeholder and legitimacy theories. The research design was both exploratory and confirmatory. Secondary data was collected from 137 purposefully selected companies for the period 2018-2020. An unweighted disclosure index was used to measure human capital disclosure, whilst, firm value was measured using Tobin’s Q ratio. Frequency tables were used for data presentation and descriptive statistics was conducted to summarize and describe the data. Pearson correlation analysis was used in measuring the strength and direction of relationships between variables, while, stepwise regression analysis method was applied in testing for mediation effects. The results depict that human capital disclosure has a statistically significant effect on firm value. However, the effect was negative for Kenya and South Africa revealed a positive effect. Human capital disclosure and business model evinced a positive and significant relationship. Human capital transmitted part of its effect on firm value through the entity business model, with Kenyan listed firms revealing inconsistent mediation, whereas, South African companies reported full/complete mediation. The study recommends mandatory disclosures of human capital and business model aspects of integrated reporting by Kenyan listed companies due to its effect on firm value.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.51505/IJEBMR.2024.8912