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The study aims to examine whether board gender diversity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) affect real earnings management (REM) practices of public companies in Nigeria.

The 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.

The 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.

The 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.

To 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

The study aims to examine the association between the sustainable development triangle and real earnings management (REM) and the moderating role of business innovation.

The study was based on the quadruple bottom line approach to measuring corporate sustainable development. For the REM, Roychowdhury model is used to identify the practices. The study used panel data using 740 firm-year observations from non-financial listed companies in the Nigerian market from 2011 to 2020, collected from the Nigeria Stock Exchange.

The study finds a negative influence on the association of economic, environmental, social and governance (EESG) on REM in related party transactions. Thus, by regressing the three different components of REM separately, then EESG will have strongest impact as well. The study suggests a bidirectional association between EESG and REM. Furthermore, the study finds that business innovation strengthens the negative association between EESG and REM. The study concludes that sustainable companies in the Nigerian public market are less liable to practice REM.

The study examines only non-financial listed companies quoted on the Nigeria Stock Exchange, which restricts the generalization of the findings.

The findings of the study should be of immense value to the investors who need comprehensive appraisal of earnings quality to enhance sustainable development strategies for sustainable business innovation among Nigeria firms. Thus, sustainability and innovation can serve as the principles for supporting developing countries impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and supporting a sustainable development.

The study will be of immense value to policymakers, regulators and standard setters who demand for facts insightful of business practices and reporting behaviors for sustainable development.

Existing studies have mainly focused on triple bottom line. This study adds to the existing body of literature on the Quadruple bottom line in an African market. More so, the study investigates the impact of business innovation on the relationship between economic, environmental, social and governance and real earnings management, which was rarely investigated in the prior literature.