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This study aims to investigate the extent and characteristics of corporate internet disclosure via companies’ websites as well via social media and networks sites in the four leading English-speaking stock markets, namely, Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA.

A disclosure index comprising a set of items that encompasses two facets of online disclosure, namely, company websites and social media sites, is used. This paper adopts a data science approach to investigate corporate internet disclosure practices among top listed firms in Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA.

The results reveal the underlying relations between the determining factors of corporate disclosure, i.e. profitability, leverage, liquidity and firm size. Profitability in its own has no great effect on the degree of corporate internet disclosure whether via company websites or social media sites. Liquidity has an impact on the degree of disclosure. Firm size and leverage appear to be the most important factors driving better disclosure via social media. American companies tend to be on the cutting edge of technology when it comes to corporate disclosure.

This paper provides new insights into corporate internet disclosure that will benefit all stakeholders with an interest in corporate reporting. Social media is an influential means of communication that can enable corporate office to get instant feedback enhancing their decision-making process.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is amongst few studies of corporate disclosure via social media platforms. This study has adopted disclosure index incorporating social media as well as applying data science approach in disclosure in an attempt to unfold how accounting could benefit from data science techniques.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of board structure on voluntary corporate disclosure via social media among the top 150 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.

A disclosure index comprising of a set of items that encompass two facets of disclosure, namely corporate disclosure via social networks and social media sites, is developed and used. Binary logistic regression is used to test the research hypotheses.

The results of this study reveal the underlying relations between board composition and control variables as the determining factors of corporate disclosure, i.e. board size, board activism, board independence and board diversity (gender and ethnicity). The gender of the board can affect the corporate disclosure via a social network. The results of this study indicate that an increase in the number of female in the board members leads to higher corporate disclosure using social network. Moreover, firm size has a positive effect on corporate disclosure indicating that large firms tend to disclose more information on their websites and social networks.

The paper provides new insights into the role played by the non-executive female directors in monitoring and controlling managerial processes related to corporate disclosure using social media.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that examines the role of board structure in monitoring and controlling management decisions and managerial processes in the area of corporate disclosure via social media.

This paper aims to report on the quality of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in S&P Europe 350 companies. The paper also examines the impact of corporate governance structure and other firm-specific characteristics on the quality of CSR disclosure in European companies.

The paper uses a disclosure index adopted from Jizi et al. (2014). Moreover, the paper contributes to the CSR disclosure literature by developing a new index that includes all the aspects introduced by the Global Reporting Initiative version 4.The data of CSR reporting are manually collected from the firms’ reports. The population and sample of this study are related to 350 companies operating in 16 European countries. Tobit regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses.

The results reveal that directors’ ownership, the presence of a CSR committee and firm size positively affect the quality of CSR reporting. Further testing of the independent variables on each CSR sub-category is made. The CSR sub-categories used are, namely, community involvement, employees, environment, social product and service quality, supply chain sustainability and business ethics. The presence of a sustainability committee inside the company is the only factor that shows a strong positive effect on the disclosure of every CSR sub-category and the CSR inclusive index.

The limitations of this research are that it focuses exclusively on the effect of the internal corporate mechanisms on the quality of CSR reporting; disregarding the economic, institutional, political and cultural factors that can play a role in influencing sustainability reporting of the companies.

Better CSR disclosure leads to the firm having a better image in the society; this, in turn, has implications on firm performance, attracting funds, as well as recruiting and retaining high profile employees. Stakeholders are placing cumulative significance to corporate transparency particularly in the area of CSR. Managers should exert more efforts into not only improving the disclosure of the various facts of CSR but also into using the various media available for disclosure. Companies should take the initiative of establishing a CSR committee to ensure effective formation and implementation of CSR policies and disclosure of CSR activities.

The CRS research itself bears the merit of social implications. Moreover, the findings of this research pave the way for future researches to examine the effect of the adoption of global CSR initiatives and frameworks on the quality of CSR reporting.

This paper contributes to the CSR disclosure literature by developing a new index that includes all the aspects of CSR and exploring the relation between the rarely explored “presence of sustainability committee” and CSR disclosure, as well as testing a vast number of CSR sub-categories that is not extensively covered in previous studies. Moreover, the paper covers a large sample of companies across 16 European countries, in terms of their stand-alone sustainability reports, dedicated chapters of CSR in annual reports, integrated reports, website CSR information and any attachments/links provided on the websites for further CSR documents, brochures or data sheets.

This study aims to analyze the impact of corporate governance on firms’ external financing decisions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

The authors analyzed a unique set of panel data comprising 2,425 nonfinancial firms whose shares are traded on stock exchanges in countries in the MENA region. The authors fitted an ordinary least squares model to estimate the regression coefficients. The authors performed a sensitivity analysis using alternative measures of the critical variables and an endogeneity analysis using instrumental variable methods with plausible external instruments.

The results revealed that corporate governance characteristics of firms are strongly associated with their degree of leverage. They also showed that macrofinancial conditions, financial regulations, corporate governance enforcement and social conditions mitigate the impact of corporate governance on firms’ financing decisions.

A larger sample size will further improve the results; however, this is difficult and depends on the extent to which increasing disclosure practices allow more corporate information to reach international databases.

This study provides new evidence on the role of corporate governance on firms’ financing decisions and documents the essential mitigating role of institutions, alerting managers to consider them.

This study is a novel attempt. Based on information from different data sources, this study explored the predictive power of corporate governance, ownership structures and other firm-specific characteristics in explaining corporate leverage in MENA countries. Overall, the analysis provides new evidence of the association between corporate governance and capital structure in the MENA region, highlighting the critical role of institutions.

Information technology (IT) largely affected contemporary businesses, and accordingly, it imposes challenges on the auditing profession. Several studies investigated the impact of IT, in terms of the extent of use of IT audit techniques, but very studies are available on the perceived importance of the said issue in developing countries. This study aims to explore the impact of implementing IT on the auditing profession in a developing country, namely, Egypt.

This study uses both quantitative and qualitative data. A survey of 112 auditors, representing three of the Big 4 audit firms as well as ten local audit firms in Egypt, is used to gather preliminary data, and semi-structured interviews are conducted to gather details/qualitative-pertained information. A field-based questionnaire developed by Bierstaker and Lowe (2008) is used in this study. This questionnaire is used first in conducting a pre-test, and then, the questionnaire for testing the final results is developed based on the feedback received from the test sample.

The findings of this study reveal that auditors’ perception regarding client’s IT complexity is significantly affected by the use of IT specialists and the IT expertise of the auditors. Besides, they perceive that the new audit applications’ importance and the extent of their usage are significantly affected by the IT expertise of the auditors. The results also reveal that the auditors’ perception regarding the client’s IT is not affected by the control risk assessment. However, the auditors perceive that the client’s IT is significantly affected by electronic data retention policies. The results also indicated that the auditors’ perception regarding the importance of the new audit applications is not affected by the client’s type of industry. The auditors find that the uses of audit applications as well as their IT expertise are not significantly affected by the audit firm size. However, they perceive that the client’s IT complexity as well as the extent of using IT specialists are significantly affected by the audit firm size.

This study is subject to certain limitations. First, the sample size of this research is somehow small because it is based on the convenience sampling technique, and some of the respondents were not helpful in answering the surveys distributed for this research’s purpose. This can be attributed to the fear of the competitors that their opponent may want to gather information regarding their work to be able to succeed in the competition in the market so they become reluctant to provide any information about their firm. Even some people who were interested to participate were not having enough time because the surveys were distributed during the high season of their audit work and there was limited time for the research to be accomplished. Hence, it is difficult to generalize the results among all the audit firms in Egypt because this limits the scope of the analysis, and it can be a significant obstacle in finding a trend. However, this can be an opportunity for future research. Second, the questionnaire is long and people do not have enough time to complete it. This also affected the response rate. In addition to this, the language of the questionnaire was English, so some respondents from the local audit firms were finding difficulty in understanding some sophisticated IT terms.

This study makes some recommends/suggestions that can well be used to solve some practical problems regarding the issues concerned. This study focuses on accounting information system (AIS) training during the initial years of the auditors’ careers to help staff auditors when they become seniors to be more skilled with AIS expertise needed in today’s audit environment. Clear policy statements are important to direct employees so that IT auditors evaluate the adequacy of standards and comply with them. This study suggests increasing the use of AIS to enhance individual technical and analytical skill sets and to develop specialized teams capable of evaluating the effectiveness of computer systems during audit engagements. This study further recommends establishing Egyptian auditing standards in this electronic environment to guide the auditors while conducting their audit work.

Auditors should prioritize causes of risks and manage them with clear understanding of who receives them, how they are communicated and what action should be taken in a given community/society. So, they have to determine and evaluate all risks according to the client’s type of industry (manufacturing, non-financial services and financial). Auditors also have to continually receive feedback on the utility of continuous auditing (CA) in assessing risk. In particular, it is better for the auditor to determine how the audit results will be used in the enterprise risk management activity performed by the management. In addition, privacy has several implications to auditing, and so, it has to be reflected in the audit program and planning as well as the handling of assignment files and reports. Alike, retention of electronic evidence for a limited period of time may require the auditor to select samples several times during the audit period rather than just at year end.

As mentioned, this study is conducted within a developing country’s context. The use and importance of IT is reality of time. However, very few studies are devoted to explore the use/importance of IT in auditing in developing countries, and thus, this study carries a significance to have better understanding about it. Moreover, knowledge of how IT is used, the related risks and the ability to use IT as a resource in the performance of audit work is essential for auditor effectiveness at all levels including developing countries.

This study aims to investigate factors affecting students’ satisfaction with online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study uses quantitative data. A survey of 280 respondents, representing undergraduate students in business schools in Cairo, Egypt is conducted. The survey includes both public and private universities. The participants are questioned about their opinions and attitudes toward satisfaction with online learning amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The findings of this study reveal that Egyptian university students prefer to use synchronous teaching methods using different platforms. Attending virtual sessions and real-time conference call classes are the most preferred mode of delivery as perceived by the respondents. Also, the results of this study found that the internet, platform, class time, loss of interest, motivation and self-motivation and use of online exams as an assessment can be considered as the factors that significantly affect students’ satisfaction with online learning in Egypt.

To the best of the knowledge, this study is among the first group of studies in Muslim emerging countries that explore the factors affecting students’ satisfaction with online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper aims to examine the effect of religiosity on the degree of auditor independence given the significance of symbolic gestures constructed by client economic conditions in different situations before and after considering the degree of auditors’ moral development.

The paper uses an experimental design based on running mixed factorial analysis of variance (SPANOVA) using mainly repeated measures GLM to test the interaction effects between (and within) variables on auditor independence.

The main findings indicate that there is a significant interactional effect between the degree of moral development and intrinsic religiosity on the degree of auditor independence, given the stimulating effect of the client’s economic gestures/conditions.

The Egyptian economy is growing and ensuring that auditor independence is paramount to sustaining the local, as well as foreign investors’ interest. Hence, this study is very important in highlighting factors that might lead to some impairment of auditors’ independence.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to test the interactional effect between the religious orientation rather than religious affiliation and moral development on the degree of auditor independence, such a relationship has not been tested before in the literature. Additionally and most importantly, it uses statistical measurement through its experimental design, as there is a lack of studies in terms of auditor independence in Egypt. The existing literature follows the perceptional assessment rather than the real measurement of the degree of auditor independence.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the inter-relations among the strength of investor protection institutions, earnings management (EM) and the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a proxy for EM, the authors use discretionary accruals measure, estimated using the modified Jones model (1991). As a proxy for the strength of investor protection institutions, the study uses the Investor Protection Index, extracted from the Global Competitiveness Reports. The sample consists of 5,519 firms listed in the Group of Twelve countries during 2015–2020.

The study shows that firms tend to engage less in EM during the pandemic period. The authors also find a significantly negative relation between the strength of investor protection institutions and EM practices, and interestingly, this negative relation was found to be more pronounced during the pandemic period.

For investors and practitioners, the findings help get insights into the behavior of firms in response of the pandemic shock in countries with solid institutional and legal protection. For policymakers, the findings reaffirm the critical role that institutional incentives and reforms can play, in influencing firms to exert more efforts to promote their financial reporting quality.

To the best of our knowledge, the study is one of the first attempts to examine the link between EM practices and investor protection during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings extend both the literature on the role of institutional factors in promoting the earnings quality and the literature on COVID-19’s effect on firm performance and practices.

Exam administration during the COVID-19 pandemic represents a challenge for most schools. This paper aims to document the experience of a business school in a developing country context.

This paper is conceptual in its approach highlighting how exam administration was handled during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Notably, exams were replaced by research assessments. This paper presents best practices and lessons learnt in this domain.

This practice paper represents one of the few research studies that highlighted the mechanisms underlying the replacement of exams with research projects during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate corporate financial disclosure via Twitter among the top listed 350 companies in the UK as well as identify the determinants of the extent of social media usage to disclose financial information.

This study applies an unsupervised machine learning technique, namely, Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling to identify financial disclosure tweets. Panel, Logistic and Generalized Linear Model Regressions are also run to identify the determinants of financial disclosure on Twitter focusing mainly on board characteristics.

Topic modeling results reveal that companies mainly tweet about 12 topics, including financial disclosure, which has a probability of occurrence of about 7 percent. Several board characteristics are found to be associated with the extent of Twitter usage as a financial disclosure platform, among which are board independence, gender diversity and board tenure.

The extensive literature examines disclosure via traditional media and its determinants, yet this paper extends the literature by investigating the relatively new disclosure channel of social media. This study is among the first to utilize machine learning, instead of manual coding techniques, to automatically unveil the tweets’ topics and reveal financial disclosure tweets. It is also among the first to investigate the relationships between several board characteristics and financial disclosure on Twitter; providing a distinction between the roles of executive vs non-executive directors relating to disclosure decisions.