Part 3: Moderating Effect Of Big4 On Audit Committee Characteristics And Financial Performance Of Quoted Nigerian Industrial Goods Companies- By Emmanuel Huleji Daudu, Edogbanya, Adejoh Ph.D.

Test of Hypotheses

The decision rule here is that if the calculated p-value is lower than or equals to the critical value of 0.05, the null hypothesis formulated should be rejected or if the calculated p-value is higher than the critical p-value of 0.05, the hypothesis should be accepted.
Ho1 Audit Committee Diligence has no significant effect on Financial Performance of Industrial Goods Companies in Nigeria.
The decision rule is to reject the null hypothesis if the p. value is less than 0.05 or accept the null hypothesis if the p. value is greater than 0.05.
Table 9 Results of Analysis
Variable Coeff. Std. Err t. value p. value
Audit Committee
Diligence (ACD) 0.0462 0.0265 1.74 0.083
Table 9 above reveals that Audit Committee Diligence (ACD) has an insignificant (0.083) positive (1.74) effect on Return on Asset (ROA) which measures Financial Performance of Industrial Goods Companies in Nigeria from 2011-2020. Based on the decision rule, the null hypothesis One (Ho1) is accepted.

Ho2 Audit Committee Financial Expertise does not have significant effect on Financial Performance of Industrial Goods Companies in Nigeria.
The decision rule is to reject the null hypothesis if the p. value is less than 0.05 or accept the null hypothesis if the p. value is greater than 0.05.
Table 10 Results of Analysis
Variable Coeff. Std. Err t. value p. value
Audit Committee
Financial Expertise (ACD) -0.0052 0.0044 -1.17 0.212
Source: Table 4.5 above.
Table 4.3.2 above indicates that Audit Committee Financial Expertise (ACFE) has an insignificant (0.212) negative (1.17) effect on Return on Asset (ROA) which measures Financial Performance of Industrial Goods Companies in Nigeria from 2011-2020. Based on the decision rule, the null hypothesis Two (Ho2) is accepted.
Ho3 Audit Committee Gender Diversity display no significant effect on Financial Performance of Industrial Goods Companies in Nigeria.
The decision rule is to reject the null hypothesis if the p. value is less than 0.05 or accept the null hypothesis if the p. value is greater than 0.05.
Table 11 Results of Analysis
Variable Coeff. Std. Err t. value p. value
Audit Committee
Gender Diversity (ACD) 0.0118 0.0047 2.51 0.011
Source: Table 4.5 above.
Table 11 above also reveals that Audit Committee Gender Diversity (ACGD) has a significant (0.011) positive (2.51) effect on Return on Asset (ROA) which measures Financial Performance of Industrial Goods Companies in Nigeria from 2011-2020. Based on the decision rule, the null hypothesis Three (Ho3) is rejected.

Discussion of Findings
Result from Table 6 above shows that Audit Committee Diligence (ACD) has an insignificant positive effect on Financial Performance of Industrial Goods Companies in Nigeria measured by Return on Asset (ROA) from 2011-2020 with a coefficient of 0.0462, a t-value of 1.74 and a p. value of 0.083 (insignificant at 5% level), such that, a unit increase in the number of meetings held by the Audit Committee members brings about an insignificant increase in their Financial Performance.
The table also shows that Audit Committee Financial Expertise (ACFE) has an insignificant negative effect on Financial Performance of Industrial Goods Companies in Nigeria measured by Return on Asset (ROA) from 2011-2020 with a coefficient of 0.0052, a t-value of -1.17 and a p. value of 0.212 (insignificant at all levels), such that, a unit increase in the number of members of Audit Committee with sound knowledge of accounting and finance brings about an insignificant reduction in their Financial Performance.
Table 6 above reveals that Audit Committee Gender Diversity (ACGD) has a significant positive effect on Financial Performance of Industrial Goods Companies in Nigeria measured by Return on Asset (ROA) from 2011-2020 with a coefficient of 0.0118, a t-value of 2.51 and a p. value of 0.011 (significant at 5% level), such that, a unit increase in the number of female members of Audit Committee engenders a significant increase in their Financial Performance.
Big 4 is found to strengthen the positive relationship between audit committee characteristics and financial performance. The result shows that big4 strengthens the positive relationship between audit committee gender diversity and financial performance. Big 4 is also found to moderate the relationship between audit committee characteristics and financial performance.

5. Conclusion and Recommendations
   Audit Committee Diligence has shown to be a weak factor in terms of its effect on financial performance of the industrial goods companies that in Nigeria as it has positive but insignificant effect on ROA. Audit Committee Financial Expertise slightly diminish financial performance largely because of the overriding role the experts may allocate to themselves and which they may not have enough time to handle. The more female members are appointed to the Audit Committees of Industrial goods companies, the better as the presence engenders significant financial performance. Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are made.
   i. Management of Industrial Goods companies in Nigeria should not regard number of times audit committee as a useful factor in improving their financial performance since Audit Committee Diligence has an insignificant but positive effect on Financial Performance.
   ii. The inclusion of members with sound finance and accounting knowledge should be at the minimum because their presence have negative although insignificant effect on Financial Performance.
   iii. Industrial Goods companies should ensure that female members constitute al least two-third of the committee since add value to committee proceedings and exert significant positive effect on financial performance.

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