The mediating effect of risk factor management on the relationship between economic literacy and performance of public Universities in Southwestern Nigeria

Nigerian universities face economic and funding challenges, resulting in infrastructural deficits, low rankings, and limited human capital development despite administrative autonomy. Studies on economic literacy and organizational behaviour in educational contexts remains underexplored, particularly in developing countries like Nigeria, where studies predominantly focus on non-educational sectors and emphasize financial literacy, a subset of economic literacy. This study investigates the mediating role of risk factor management in the relationship between economic literacy and university performance in Southwestern Nigeria. It measures the levels of economic literacy, risk factor management, and university performance while analyzing the impact of economic literacy on both risk factor management and university performance. Additionally, it assesses the effect of risk factor management on university performance and their mediating role in the relationship between economic literacy and university performance. Grounded in Cobb-Douglas production function, Resource-Based View, and Enterprise Risk Management theory, the study adopts a survey research design. Data were collected from 662 university administrators across fifteen public universities in Southwestern Nigeria using a proportionate sampling approach. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed for data analysis and the data indicate no evidence of common method bias. The findings reveal significant relationships between economic literacy and risk factor management (_=0.489, t-value=16.630, p