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The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of a curvilinear relationship between governance structure and nonfinancial risk disclosure. This paper also examines the moderating role of ethical values on the governance structure and nonfinancial risk disclosure relationship.

The sample of this paper contains 71 nonfinancial firms listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange from 2013 to 2020 (568 firm-year observations). The authors use OLS regressions to test the hypotheses.

The authors find there is a U-shaped relationship between governance structure and nonfinancial risk disclosure. Moreover, they show that ethical values moderate the relationship between governance structure and nonfinancial risk disclosure.

The findings of this study offer implications for policy makers and firm managers in Saudi Arabia which there should periodically assess and adapt their governance frameworks due to potential fluctuations in the optimal level resulting from internal or external disruptions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in Saudi Arabia that provides new empirical evidence on the curvilinear relationship between governance structure and nonfinancial risk disclosure and the moderating role of ethical values on this relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the herding behavior in GCC Islamic stock markets.

The authors followed the methodology developed by Chiang and Zheng (2010) to test herding behavior. Cross-sectional tests have been considered in this paper. The authors use both OLS and GARCH estimations to examine herding behavior by using a sample of GCC Islamic stock markets.

By applying monthly data for the period between January 2006 and February 2016 for five Islamic GCC stock returns (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE), results suggest a significant evidence of herd behavior in Saudi and Qatari Islamic stock markets only. When the authors take into account the existence of asymmetry in herd behavior between down- and up-market periods, evidence of herding behavior during down market periods in the case of Qatar and Saudi Arabia was found. In addition, the authors found that Kuwaiti and Emirates Islamic stock markets herd with the local conventional stock market, showing the interdependencies between Islamic and conventional markets.

In this paper, the authors found an absence of herding behavior in some Islamic stock markets (Bahrain, Kuwait and Emirates). This is not the result of Shariah guidelines in these Islamic markets, but this is mainly due to the weak oscillations of returns which are very close to zero. In our future research, the authors could apply daily data and compare the results to those obtained in this paper by using monthly data.

This paper provides a practical framework in order to analyze the herding behavior concept for GCC Islamic stock markets. Its originality consists of linking the herding behavior to ethics and morality to verify whether the properties and guidelines of Islam are respected in Islamic stock markets. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other paper has treated the case of herding behavior in Islamic stock markets and taking into account the possible influence of the conventional market on the Islamic stock market that may impact herding behavior.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of corporate environmental disclosure on earnings management and to further examine whether this relationship is moderated by female board.

Our sample includes 264 European companies listed on the STOXX eUROPE 600 for the period 2010 to 2022. We excluded financial companies (banks and insurance companies) due to their specific capital structure and regulatory requirements, and companies with missing data. Feasible Generalized Least Square (FGLS) regression method is used to estimate the econometric models. For robustness analyses, the authors included the alternative measure of the dependent variable, and they applied the simultaneous equation model for the endogeneity test.

Using discretionary accruals as a proxy for earnings management, the results obtained indicated a negative effect of corporate environmental disclosure on earnings management. The results suggest also that women on boards are effective in their monitoring role. Indeed, findings show that the effect of corporate environmental disclosure on earnings management is particularly stronger with the presence of women directors on the companies’ boards.

This study has two limitations. Firstly, the sample size is relatively small, which may limit the generalizability of our findings. Secondly, our earnings management indicator, based on estimates of accruals, may not perfectly reflect all streams of earnings management. Therefore, to reduce potential bias in these estimates, it would be useful to use other indicators, such as real earnings management.

The findings have several implications for regulatory, investors and academic researchers. For regulators, it is appropriate to promote several standards related to corporate environmental disclosure and earnings management. The results advise also the worldwide policy maker to give the importance of female roles to improve engagement firms in corporate environmental disclosure, so to be more transparent in their accounting practices to ensure that they are not engaging in unethical or fraudulent behavior. For investors, the results show that the existence of female directors on the board reduces earnings management. For academic researchers, it is interesting to explore the relationship between corporate environmental disclosure, women on the board, and earnings management.

This paper extends the existing literature by examining the moderating effect of women directors on the relationship between corporate environmental disclosure and earnings management in the European context.