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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relative value relevance of accounting measures based on Chinese Accounting Standards (CAS) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in relation to both A‐share and B‐share markets during three distinct phases (1994‐1997, 1998‐2000 and 2001‐2004) over which CAS were progressively harmonized with IFRS.

Using data for 86 Chinese listed companies which issued both A‐ and B‐shares, the authors employ the price model to test for the association between CAS‐based and IFRS‐based accounting information, and A‐share and B‐share prices. The J‐test was employed to determine the relative value relevance of the information based on the two sets of accounting standards.

Overall, the authors find that for both the A‐share and B‐share markets, both CAS‐based and IFRS‐based accounting information are value relevant, but IFRS‐based information is more value relevant than the CAS‐based information. However, the magnitude of the differences between the explanatory powers of the CAS‐ and IFRS‐based accounting information narrowed significantly in the 2001‐2004 period in both the A‐share and B‐share markets. The results are robust to the deflator used and the stock exchange on which the companies are listed.

The results have implications for China and other transitional economies attempting to integrate IFRS with a uniform accounting system.

The paper provides the first comprehensive empirical evidence as to whether or not the progressive harmonization of CAS with IFRS improved the value relevance of CAS‐based accounting in China and contributes to the debate on the (ir)relevance of IFRS in emerging and transitional economies.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the extent of adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) within three major South Asian countries – India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Design/methodology/approach – We selected 566 non-financial listed companies for the financial year 1997–1998. Fifty-two measurement practices and 72 disclosure practices were drawn from 15 commonly adopted IFRS.

Findings – We find that the overall level of adoption of IFRS regarding measurement and disclosure practices is higher in Pakistan compared with India and Bangladesh. We also find that the adoption level is high for inventories, income statement for the period, research and development costs, retirement benefit costs, foreign currency translations, business combination and accounting for investment in associates, whereas the adoption level is low in the areas of cash flow statements, taxes on income, property, plant and equipment, accounting for leases, accounting for government grants, borrowing costs and consolidated financial statements.

Originality/value – Adoption of IFRS issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) by listed companies has been a subject of immense interest among accounting standard setters, practitioners and academics throughout the world. South Asian countries have adopted IFRS, either fully or with minor modifications, with a view to improving the quality of financial reporting. This article is one of few that examines this important issue and concludes with some suggestions for improving the adoption levels within South Asia.

The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have been adopted by 140 countries around the globe, including the G20 countries. Most of the prior literature focuses on adoption issues in developed countries. Due to the paucity of research on implementation issues in developing countries, the purpose of this paper is to explore the impediments of IFRS implementation in a developing country from 1998 to 2014 based on the auditors’ perceptions and documentary analyses.

Three rounds of interviews (2010, 2012, and 2014) from a total of 75 auditors (including 12 internal auditors and 13 external auditors) were conducted and enforcement documents from 1998 to 2010 were evaluated. The purpose of the three rounds of interviews was to explore the reflection on the changes which the interviewees have experienced over a five-year period.

Using institutional isomorphism, the results suggest that policy makers should focus on several factors to implement IFRS effectively, including low audit fees, a lack of qualified accountants, a lack of interest in IFRS by managers of some companies, a culture of secrecy, and a family-based private sector. Surprisingly, chartered accountancy firms are able to continue their work because of a culture of non-punishment for violating rules and the absence of any reliable exercising of due care or professional ethics in Bangladesh. Regulators such as the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh are not inclined to enforce actions against corrupt chartered accountant firms. This raises question about the professional integrity of auditors as well as regulators. Unlike, Albu et al. (2011) (World Bank as coercive) and Hassan et al. (2014) (western influence as coercive), the findings of this study imply that coercive isomorphism (regulatory authorities in Bangladesh) should be more proactive to ensure a successful implementation of IFRS.

This study has some limitations, including transcribing information from Bengali to English and some enforcement documents were not available on the BSEC website. This last limitation is mitigated by the fact that a substantial number of enforcement releases (1,647 enforcement notices for a 13-year period) are analysed and three rounds of interviews were conducted.

The findings of this study contribute to, and advance the incremental knowledge of IFRS implementation issues and auditing literature in a developing country’s experience to policy makers (e.g. World Bank, IMF, Basel Committee, G20, IOSCO, and IFAC). The findings may be generalised to other developing countries that are facing effective implementation of IFRS.

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between two corporate governance (CG) mechanisms, namely, the board of directors and the audit committee (AC) and the compliance level with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) mandatory disclosure requirements across 12 African countries.

This paper uses a self-constructed checklist of 140 items to measure the compliance with IFRS mandatory disclosure requirements (here after, COMP) of 202 non-financial listed firms during the 2012–2016 period. This paper applies panel regressions.

The findings reveal that CG mechanisms play an important role in enhancing compliance with IFRS in the African context. The results show that board independence, AC independence and the number of meetings held by the AC are positively associated with COMP. Regarding expertize, this paper find that AC industry expertise along with accounting financial expertise is associated with a higher level of COMP than accounting financial expertize alone. These results show the importance of the CG mechanisms to enforce African companies to fully comply with IFRS required disclosures.

The findings should give a signal to supervisory authorities that more effort is necessary to enforce IFRS across African countries if the introduction of IFRS is to bring the expected benefits to investors and other users. Hence, the lack of full compliance should remain a concern for regulators, professional accounting bodies and policymakers.

This study contributes to the literature by providing further insights that, within the African region an understudied context, extend current understanding of the association between CG mechanisms and COMP.

The purpose of this paper is to review a synthesis of theories and empirical studies dealing with the adoption of and compliance with IFRS in developing countries in an attempt to provide directions for future research.

The review focusses on four main streams including: first, the motives for IFRS adoption; second, corporate characteristics and the degree of compliance with IFRS; third, the economic consequences of IFRS adoption and finally; fourth, the use of regulation as an enforcement mechanism to monitor compliance with IFRS. The authors review empirical studies specifically devoted to developing countries.

Regarding the first stream relating to IFRS adoption, the macroeconomic decision of adopting IFRS in developing countries can be justified by two main theories which are: the economic theory of network (Katz and Shapiro, 1985) and isomorphism (DiMaggio and Powell, 1991), however, empirical evidence in developing countries to confirm these theories is limited. Regarding the second stream relating to corporate characteristics and the degree of compliance with IFRS, the authors find that the results are mixed. Regarding the third stream relating to the economic consequences of IFRS adoption, it seems that the evidence is still limited in developing countries especially with respect to the impact of IFRS adoption on foreign direct investment, cost of equity capital and earnings management. Regarding the fourth and final stream in relation to regulation, enforcement and compliance with IFRS, the authors find that research is very limited. It was evidenced in the very few research studies conducted, that global disclosure standards are optimal only if compliance is monitored and enforced by efficient institutions.

The author’s study attempts to provide a foundational knowledge resource that will inform practitioners, researchers and regulators in developing countries about the relevance of the different theories that exist in the accounting literature to explain the adoption of and compliance with IFRS.

Compared to developed countries, the four streams outlined remain under-researched in developing countries. Therefore, researchers should examine these topics in developing countries to inform practitioners, regulators and the capital market about the effects of adopting IFRS and their relevance to developing countries. In addition, researchers should embark on identifying new theories to explain the adoption of and compliance with IFRS in developing countries that take into consideration the socioeconomic culture of these settings.

This study aims to assess the effect of director board and audit committee attributes and ownership structure on firm performance. In general, resource dependency and agency theories have underlined the superior performance of firms equipped with stronger Corporate Governance (CG) versus those of deficient governance. Concurrently, the study delineated the provisions of ownership structure provision, specifically foreign ownership and institutional ownerships, thus describing the component denoting the structural significance in explicating firm performance.

The current study implemented an empirical approach involving the construction of extensive CG measures thus, subjected to 81 non-financial firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange spanning the period of 2014–2018.

The current study identified the positive and significant relationship between the board of directors and audit committee characteristics with the firm performance measures tested, namely, return on equity (ROE) and Tobin’s Q. In terms of ownership structure, both foreign and institutional ownerships yielded a significant and positive relationship with ROE. Meanwhile, Tobin’s Q led to an insignificant and negative relationship between both ownership types and firm performance measures.

The analytical outcomes substantiate the possibility of enhanced performance shown by growing global firms because of the implementation of CG mechanisms, specifically because of the practices resulting in minimised agency costs.

The current study offers novel evidence detailing the impact of CG effectiveness towards performance and its implementation in emerging markets following the minimal amount of scholarly efforts on the topic. It is a timely contribution towards the current understanding of the relationship linking governance and performance for the purpose of ensuring the adoption and imposition of a strong corporate governance code by the government.

This study aims to explore the corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) practices of the Islamic banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries during the period 2010-2014 and examines the determinants of CSRD and its effects on firm value.

Based on the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions Governance Standard No. 7 guidelines and using content analysis, the paper develops a comprehensive CSRD index for GCC Islamic banks. The study applies ordinary least squares regression analysis for hypothesis testing and for finding determinants of respective dependent variables.

The results show a very low level of CSRD among the sample Islamic banks in GCC countries. When using corporate governance characteristics to examine the determinants of CSRD, this study provides evidence of a significant positive association between board size and CSRD practice in Islamic banks and a significant negative relationship of chief executive officer (CEO) duality with CSRD, as per expectation. For the economic consequences of CSRD, the study documents an inverse performance effect of CSRD while board size, board composition and CEO duality indicate significant positive effects on firm value.

The relatively small sample size of GCC Islamic banks may limit the application of the findings to other Islamic financial institutions such as Takaful and the Islamic unit trust company.

The findings of this study initiate the global debate on the need for corporate governance reform in Islamic banks by providing insights on the role played by corporate governance mechanisms in encouraging and enhancing CSRD practices among Islamic banks. The findings also have important implications for investors, managers, regulatory bodies, policymakers and Islamic banks in the GCC countries.

The results of the study do not support the idea that Islamic banks operating on Islamic principles can meet their social responsibilities through promoting corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and by differentiating themselves from non-Islamic banks.

This is the first study to examine the determinants of CSRD in GCC Islamic banks using comprehensive CSRD and corporate governance variables and, therefore, adds value to the existing CSR literature in banking.