Gender diversity, corporate social responsibility and real earnings management for policy management decision: evidence from emerging market

PurposeThe study aims to examine whether board gender diversity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) affect real earnings management (REM) practices of public companies in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThe study analyzes data of public companies for the period of 2011 through 2020. Data on board gender diversity, CSR and REM were collected from audited financial statements.FindingsThe empirical findings show that companies with greater diverse board are effective in restraining REM, thus supporting the theoretical framework of the study. Also, the result provides strong evidence of association between CSR performance and REM for policy management decision.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is constrained by not considering all public companies in the country. Furthermore, it considered only gender among numerous important board attributes and environmental, social and governance (ESG) among numerous CSR attributes. Hence, future studies should consider other important attributes on REM and important attributes of board diversity and CSR on real earnings management.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the relationship between heterogeneous board gender diversity, CSR via ESG and REM in emerging markets such as Nigeria. Therefore, it provides appropriate treatment of CSR with science and technology via EGS viewpoint of organizational operations and behavior of managing earnings. Therefore, developing better policy management for sustainable development