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Culture and financial reporting quality in GCC countries: what do we know about tribal culture?

Saeed Rabea Baatwah (Accounting, Shaqra University, Afif, Saudi Arabia) (Accounting, Seiyun University, Seiyun, Yemen)
Khaled Salmen Aljaaidi (Accounting, College of Business Administration, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia)
Ehsan Saleh Almoataz (Accounting, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia)
Zalailah Salleh (Accounting, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus, Malaysia)

International Journal of Emerging Markets

ISSN: 1746-8809

Article publication date: 25 May 2021

Issue publication date: 21 March 2023

756

Abstract

Purpose

Although the effect of culture on financial reporting practices has been addressed in earlier studies, the existing empirical evidence totally neglects an important dimension in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets: tribal culture. The authors fill this gap in the literature using Oman as the setting.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collect data for 583 company-year observations for companies listed on the Omani capital market, 2007–2014. The authors run a two-way fixed effects panel data regression to test their hypothesis.

Findings

Tribal culture has a negative effect on financial reporting quality (FRQ), measured by both accrual-based and real earnings management. The findings are robust under a variety of sensitivity analyses. In additional analysis, the findings confirm that tribal culture negatively moderates the effectiveness of internal monitoring mechanisms and is associated with low-quality auditing. Further, the authors find tribal culture associated with delayed financial information.

Originality/value

To the authors' knowledge, the study makes several contributions to the literature because it is the first archival evidence linking tribal culture with FRQ. It is the first to show that the effect of corporate governance mechanisms on FRQ is moderated by tribal culture. The study has valuable implications for policymakers, regulators, boards of directors and auditors in GCC countries as well as in countries with similar cultures.

Keywords

Citation

Baatwah, S.R., Aljaaidi, K.S., Almoataz, E.S. and Salleh, Z. (2023), "Culture and financial reporting quality in GCC countries: what do we know about tribal culture?", International Journal of Emerging Markets, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 788-821. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOEM-04-2020-0439

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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