Performance Management and Dividend Yield of Listed Oil and Gas Companies in Nigeria

Abstract

Increasing shareholder value has become a strategically important part of the decision-making process. Recently, many companies have started to implement shareholder value principles from strategy development to performance measurement and these principles are implemented into all business units of the company. A dividend is the part of the earnings the company pays to its investors, and the dividend yield is how much the company pays out relative to its share price. Investors have different preferences concerning dividends. The failure of business leaders to prioritize dividend yields of shareholders has resulted in poverty, weak infrastructure, insecurity, poor governance, weak public sector, and corruption, which allows tax evasion, corporate exploitation, abuse of employment rights, environmental degradation and other corporate externalities. The study, therefore, examined the effect of enterprise performance management on the dividend yield of listed oil and gas companies in Nigeria. The study adopted an ex-post facto research design and the population consisted of 11 listed oil and gas companies. The sampling techniques were purposive and convenient. Data used were secondary data from financial statements of the 6 selected listed oil and gas companies. The validity and reliability were premised on a statutory audit of the financial statements. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that the Performance Management (PM) measure significantly affected the dividend yield of oil and gas companies listed in Nigeria (F-Stat/Wald Stat (Prob)= F_{(5, 114)} = 3.72  (0.0037), Adj. R²= 0.1037, P< 0.05). The study concluded that Performance management significantly affects the dividend yield of selected listed oil and gas companies in Nigeria. The study, therefore, recommends that the management of listed oil and gas companies in Nigeria should know the fundamental characteristics of performance management in each area of responsibility/business function/processes to improve the dividends yield of stakeholders.