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The purpose of this paper is to examine the value relevance of accounting information in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) region with an emphasis on the potential impact of IFRS adoption. This paper aims to not only examine the value relevance of accounting information in the MENA region but also draw comparisons between Gulf countries (GCC) and non-GCC country firms to determine whether there are distinct differences across the two regions.

To investigate the value relevance of accounting information in the MENA region, two pooled regression models are used based on the Ohlson (1995) model. The first regression model is conducted for the GCC and non-GCC regions separately. A second regression model is conducted using a pooled sample of the MENA region collectively with dummy and interaction variables to further explore the potential differences between the two regions in terms of the value relevance of accounting information.

The empirical results show that the measures of accounting information have a highly significant positive relationship with the market value per share for firms in the MENA region, thereby indicating that accounting information in the MENA region is value relevant. Although book value per share and earnings per share are significant determinants of value relevance in both GCC and non-GCC country firms, operating cash flows per share is only a significant determinant of value relevance in non-GCC country firms. The research findings of the study also show a significant negative impact of IFRS adoption on the value relevance of accounting information in the MENA region.

This research paper provides important insights for investors and regulators by providing evidence that accounting information is value relevant in the MENA region, and that IFRS adoption does not necessarily lead to a greater degree of value relevance. In fact, investors and regulators should be aware that the adoption of IFRS in MENA country firms results in diminished value relevance of accounting information. This finding is of particular significance to policymakers attempting to improve accounting disclosure.

The paper expands the value relevance of accounting information literature in the context of developing economies, in general, and the MENA region, in particular. There is a paucity of research into the value relevance of accounting information for MENA country firms, particularly in the case of the impact of IFRS adoption. Thus, this paper provides an important contribution in terms of expanding the value relevance literature in relation to IFRS adoption in the MENA region.

This paper aims to examine the value relevance of accounting information from an emerging country perspective.

The study adopts Ohlson (1995) Price model to examine the extent to which accounting information explain variation in stock prices of listed firms on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

The study reveals that earnings and book value of equity exhibit a positive and significant relationship in stock prices. Earnings explain higher variation in stock market values on the Ghana Stock Exchange compared to book value of equity. The study however finds that despite the introduction of the International Financial Reporting Standards in Ghana, the value relevance of book value and earnings have declined significantly over the period 2005-2014.

A key implication is that regulators of capital markets, standards setters and accounting practitioners need to consistently improve upon the quality of financial reporting disclosures which will boost the confidence of users in their reliance on financial statements as the basis for choosing among alternative use of scarce resources. The authors adopted only the price model in testing the hypotheses. However, to provide comprehensive understanding of value relevance of accounting information, future studies can combine both the price and the return models.

The authors extend prior literature in the Ghanaian context with recent data. Finally, the study adds to the efficient market hypothesis by showing how share prices reflect accounting information produced by Ghanaian firms.

Motivated by the lack of research on the value relevance of accounting information in the emerging markets of Middle Eastern countries, and the unique institutional and accounting setting in Egypt, this paper aims to investigate the relation between capital market and accounting information in the emerging market of Egypt. Specifically, based on Egyptian data, this study examines the value relevance of earnings, cash flows from operations and book values.

To examine the value relevance of the above accounting measures, this study uses statistical associations between accounting information and capital market values: the association between earnings and annual returns; the association between cash flows and accruals, and annual returns; and the association between earnings and book values of equity, and stock prices.

The results show that, first, earnings have value relevance. However, earnings changes are significantly more successful than earnings levels in explaining security returns. These results suggest that changes in earnings are largely permanent; hence, earnings follow (close to) a random walk model. Second, contrary to what is stated in the literature, cash flows from operations are not successful in explaining stock returns. This result suggests that cash flows are less important and not value relevant in Egypt compared to the USA or the UK. A possible explanation is that cash flows in Egypt are very volatile (high variance) and not persistent, so the market does not rely on them. Third, individually, both earnings and book values significantly explain stock prices; however, jointly, earnings have incremental explanatory power beyond book values for stock prices whereas book values do not. These results suggest that in Egypt the income statement is much more important than the balance sheet for valuation purposes. Overall, these results are interesting because they do not completely replicate the results from other countries.

The existence of value relevance for earnings despite the apparent lack of value relevance for cash flows can be interpreted as indicating that accruals are designed to offset and smooth cash flows’ volatility and low value relevance, so that earnings are relatively more persistent and relevant. These results show that earnings potentially are a much more important and informative measure of a firm’s value than cash flows from operations in Egypt. However, we certainly need the cash flows information as an ex-post validation of the prior earnings. Overall, it appears that the investors in Egypt are looking at the accounting data when evaluating the value of the firm, which is a good sign. However, the empirical findings of this paper are discussed.

This study contributes to the limited research on value relevance of accounting information in the emerging market of Egypt.

The study aims to investigate the Shari’ah governance quality effectiveness, at the bank and national levels, on the value relevance of Islamic banks’ (IBs’) earning per share and book value per share.

Quantitative analyses are conducted using a panel of 40 listed IBs from 12 countries during 2012–2019. Data were retrieved from the Refinitiv Eikon database and banks’ annual reports.

The findings suggest that Shari’ah supervisory boards’ attributes negatively influence the value relevance of accounting information while the internal procedures positively impact it. The results also provide evidence of a complementary effect between Shari’ah governance mechanisms at the bank and national levels on the value relevance of accounting information.

IBs’ boards and managers need to be more aware of the role of Shari’ah governance and its impact on value relevance. The observed complementarity between Shari’ah governance systems at the bank and national levels may incite regulators to include comprehensive Shari’ah governance regulations in their best practices. Strengthening collaboration between regulators and the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) is also required to create an enabling environment for investors to rely on the AAOIFI accounting standards in their investment decision-making process.

Existing studies tend to ignore the effectiveness of Shari’ah governance quality at the bank level on value relevance. There is a similar lack of empirical research on the effectiveness of the centralized Shari’ah governance scheme on accounting issues.

The paper aims to examine the influence of financial disclosure (FD) level and time on the value relevance of earnings, book value, and cash flows relative to three share price proxies, namely average annual share price, annual closing share price, and share price after a three-month period following the financial year-end for Jordanian companies.

The paper employs price model to examine the influence of FD level and time on the value relevance of three accounting variables relative to three share price proxies for 91 Jordanian companies (consisting of 5,460 observations) within 2004-2009.

Relative to three share price proxies, the findings proved that FD level and time have a significant influence on the value relevance of book value, but not for cash flows. Also, FD level and time have a significant influence on the value relevance of earnings relative to annual closing share price, while they are not relative to share price after a three-month period following the financial year-end. FD time has a significant influence on the value relevance of earnings relative to the average annual share price. Annual closing share price is the most reliable in indicating value relevance of accounting information.

The paper confirms that there is a shift away from earnings towards book value as the basis for firm valuation. Market participants might be able to conclude the firm value through the value relevance of accounting information influenced by company's FD.

As an increasing number of business organizations around the world are engaged in the value relevance of accounting information, this study aims to assess the field of the accounting value relevance of book value and earnings in share prices of banks and financial institutions listed in the Tunisian stock exchange.

Using a sample of available banks and financial institutions listed in the Tunisian Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2015, this paper accommodates the documented accounting information in an emergent market context by using stock price of three months after year-end as a dependent variable. This study uses the panel regression technique on 24 banks and financial institutions during the study period.

The authors find that earnings and book value are statistically significantly associated with firm value. Also, using these variables together is positively related to the firm stock price share. Comparatively, these obtain evidence that book value is statistically more value-relevant than earning per share models; expectedly, the earnings explain a higher proportion of the stock price for the group of financial institutions than the group of banks.

A Web-based search is performed during the second quarter of 2016, locating the corporate websites of the sample firms, and the official site of the Datastream (worldscope) is identified. The sample period is 2010-2015 (144 firm-year observations).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative value relevance of accounting information arising from the adoption of converged and revised International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in East Africa.

The research applies “same firm year” design for identification of the effects of changes in accounting standards. A model similar to Ohlson’s price model and random-effects GLS are used to estimate R² of the regressions of share prices on book values and earnings.

The results show that accounting information prepared from revised and converged IAS/IFRS display higher value relevance and also increased following the revision and convergence of IAS/IFRS. The cross-product term is more significant in the post-revision/convergence period thus providing further evidence for increased value relevance after the revision of IAS/IFRS. The results are robust to various models and show that value relevance in East Africa is relatively lower than that of the developed markets.

The current study provides empirical evidence that value relevance increases with converged/revised IAS/IFRS based on quasi natural experimental setting in East Africa. The authors also extend the debate on whether value relevance is relevant in emerging markets, which are regarded as imperfect markets with few regulations, weak enforcement and limited sources of information. The results may be useful to accounting preparers, regulators, investors, standard setters and countries seeking to adopt IAS/IFRS in developing countries.

This empirical study’s primary goal is to examine the connection between accounting information and share price for financial companies listed on Jordan’s expanding Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) between 2014 and 2018.

The correlation between accounting data and share price was investigated using multiple regression analysis. In this vein, “pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effect and random effect” static panel data estimators were used. The OLS model was chosen as the best model after a series of diagnostic tests.

The multiple proxies of accounting information value relevance have a positive and considerable impact on the market value per share, according to panel data research. Comparatively, the authors find proof that among the other accounting data – earnings, dividends and cash flow from operations – book value is statistically the most value-relevant.

This empirical investigation was only conducted in Jordan. Because it is very likely to obtain different results in other nations, the findings cannot be applied to other business environments.

The findings of this paper may highlight the amazing relationship between accounting information and share price for policymakers, regulators and other stakeholders in developing nations, notably in Jordan. This could pave the way for effective accounting disclosures.

Seldom does empirical research on the relationship between accounting data and share prices from publicly traded companies on ASE exist. So, by demonstrating empirical findings from Jordanian companies, this study fills the gap in the existing literature and knowledge.

The study of developed capital markets suggests that information provided in financial statements has lost its value relevance to equity holders. The purpose of this paper is to explore this issue in the emerging market of Qatar.

Following other studies in the literature, the study examines the value relevance of earnings and book values using the price valuation model provided by Ohlson (1995). A total of 215 observations were collected from all firms listed on the Qatari Stock Exchange over a period of five years (2012–2016).

This study suggests that the value relevance of both earnings and book values has noticeably decreased over the sample period. However, its results show that the decline in the value relevance of earnings favored book values.

Like other studies, this one has limitations that suggest areas for future research. For example, in Qatar, like other emerging markets, a lack of data prevents the performance of deep analysis. Additionally, the authors only use Ohlson’s (1995) model as a framework for evaluation. It would be interesting to explore the changes when examining alternative valuation models. Another limitation is that the authors examine only two accounting measures: earnings and book values. Further research could explore changes in the value relevance of other measures, such as cash flow.

These findings provide empirical evidence regarding the value relevance of earnings and book values in an emerging market.

To the authors’ knowledge, this paper provides the first empirical evidence regarding the value relevance of earnings and book values in the emerging capital market of Qatar.

Share pledge is a popular way to raise funds in China, but it aggravates information asymmetry. As an indispensable information intermediary in the financial market, media coverage affects asset price and pricing efficiency and impacts information asymmetry. This study aims to explore the governance role of media coverage as an information intermediary in the share pledge context in China.

Moderating effect and mediating effect analyses are the primary methods used to test the governance role of media coverage. The ordinary least squares model was used to test the relationship between share pledge and market performance and then proved the moderating effect of media coverage toward the corporate market value of pledge firms. Accounting earnings value relevance models were explored to test the path of media coverage on firm market value by mediating effect analysis. At last, subgroup tests were used to verify the heterogeneity of the moderating effect of media coverage.

In the context of share pledge in China, the higher the share pledge ratio, the higher is the market value of listed firms, which verifies the motivation of controlling shareholders to avoid the transfer of control right and the motivation to tunneling. Media coverage has a significant negative moderating effect on the relationship between share pledge rate and corporate value and has a significant impact on the accounting earnings value relevance of share pledge firms. From the perspective of long-term earnings, media coverage reduces the market performance of share pledge firms by reducing the value correlation of accounting earnings information. From the short-term price point of view, media coverage reduces the market performance of share pledge firms by improving the value correlation of accounting earnings information. Furthermore, media coverage has a more significant moderating effect in state-owned share pledge firms and low information transparency and low information disclosure quality firms.

This paper does not distinguish the mode difference of spreading news and the impact of non-pledge media coverage. Also, this paper does not consider factors other than accounting information value relevance when exploring how media coverage affects the corporate market value. Share pledge firms should use media for publicity and play a role in media governance and should actively improve their information disclosure quality, strengthen communication with investors and reduce information asymmetry fundamentally.

This paper diversify the governance choices for share pledge firms and has important implications for firms, investors, information intermediaries and regulators. Media reports play an increasingly important role today, and any reports and predictions of major events may profoundly affect investors’ decisions. Although media reports can make up for the weakness of accounting information disclosure of equity pledge companies in some sense, it is still not a long-term strategy. Equity pledge companies should not only make use of media for publicity and play a role of media governance but also actively improve their information disclosure quality.

This paper focuses on share pledge firms to carry out in-depth research. Based on exploring the influence mechanism of share pledges, the authors find the importance of media governance. This paper expands the literature about the economic consequences of share pledges and provides empirical data for media governance of share pledge firms. This paper innovatively proves the governance role of media coverage from the view of accounting information value relevance. The main innovation point is the long and short-term perspective analysis of the influence of media coverage on the correlation of accounting earnings value. The heterogeneity effect analysis of media coverage also reflects the depth and strong practical guiding significance of this study.