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The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical evidence concerning the influence of Corporate governance and voluntary disclosures in annual reports: a post-International Financial Reporting Standards adoption evidence from an emerging capital market.

Data were collected from the annual reports of all 22 listed non-financial firms over a five-year period. Using content analysis, the audited annual reports of the firms were scored on the extent of overall and four specific types of voluntary disclosures made. The panel data obtained were analyzed using a generalized ordinary least squares regression model.

The findings of the study show that voluntary disclosures among the firms are low even after the adoption of IFRS. Corporate governance attributes of board size and board leadership structure are significant determinants of the extent of voluntary disclosures made by the firms. However, board independence and auditor type exhibit only a significant positive effect on voluntary financial and forward-looking information disclosures.

Firms’ voluntary information disclosure and governance variables were restricted to those in annual reports, which may partially reflect the reality of firms’ disclosure and governance practices.

The present study offers useful insights to regulators of the capital market to strengthen monitoring of firms to ensure strict adherence to corporate governance best practice guidelines as a means of improving information environment.

This study is one of the very few ones in Africa, especially in the context of Ghana Stock Exchange, to use post-IFRS data and examine a disaggregated voluntary disclosure by firms.

This paper aims to highlight resolution of Islamic finance dispute by common law-oriented courts in Nigeria with respect to Sharīʿah non-compliance and legal risks thereof, as well as the lesson to learn from Malaysia in that regard. This is with view to ensuring Sharīʿah compliance and legal safety of Islamic finance practice as prerequisites for sustainability of the Nigerian Islamic finance industry.

A qualitative method was used; interviews were conducted with different categories of experts and primary data collected in relation to Sharīʿah non-compliance and legal risks in adjudicating Islamic finance dispute by civil courts and the role of expert advice as basis for court referral to Financial Regulation Advisory Council of Experts. A doctrinal approach was adopted to analyse relevant legislative provisions and content analysis of secondary data relevant to applicable provisions in matters of finance before civil courts.

The paper discovers an indispensable role of conventional financial regulations in sustaining Islamic finance industry. Appropriate laws for Islamic finance under the conventional framework foster legal safety and Sharīʿah compliance of Islamic finance activities in related cases handled by courts. Nigeria civil courts can aid sustainability of Islamic finance when so equipped and enabled by laws that address apparent Sharīʿah non-compliance and legal risks in judicial dispute resolution. Inadequate legal provisions for dispute resolution breeds Sharīʿah non-compliance and legal risks in Islamic finance, undermine its prospects and stand inimical to its sustainability.

This research is limited by its focus on Sharīʿah non-compliance and legal risks alone, which emanate mainly from judicial resolution of Islamic finance dispute by Nigerian civil courts.

This research seeks to motivate a determined and deliberate regulatory action and change in approach towards addressing apparent risks associated with Islamic finance while resolving disputes therein by civil courts. It has implications on common law jurisdictions generally that adopt similar approach as Nigeria's while introducing Islamic finance into their conventional finance framework.

Dispute resolution and other regulatory functions of civil courts are important to Islamic finance though apparently overlooked while introducing Islamic finance in Nigeria as in other emerging jurisdictions. This research ascertains the role of the civil courts as indispensable for Islamic Financial Institution (IFIs) operations and demonstrates that such courts are needed for the development and sustainability of Islamic finance industry. The research demonstrates the end-to-end requirement of Sharīʿah compliance of Islamic financial transactions as absolute and needs be ensured and guarded at dispute resolution level by properly equipped courts.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between the composition of Sharīʿah supervisory boards (independence and frequency of meetings) and the performance of Islamic banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

The study developed a multiple linear regression model, and data were collected from the annual reports of 48 standalone Islamic banks listed in the GCC countries covering the period between 2013 and 2017.

The results showed a statistically significant and negative relationship between the composition of the Sharīʿah supervisory boards and the performance of Islamic banks.

As the current study used only one indicator, that is Return on Assets to measure performance, it is recommended to expand the framework of this study, through the addition of market-based performance indicators such as Tobin’s Q.

This study recommends the GCC countries to follow a more proactive Sharīʿah governance model to strengthen their frameworks from both regulatory and non-regulatory aspects.

The study contributes to the Sharīʿah governance and Islamic banking literature relating to the GCC countries as previous studies gave no attention to the composition of Sharīʿah supervisory boards.

The study aims to examine the independence and effectiveness of the Shariah department officers of the Islamic banks in Bangladesh as the Shariah supervisory board (SSB) provides the annual Shariah report and Shariah resolutions based on the reports of the Shariah department officers.

The study applied a qualitative case study to achieve the research objectives. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with the regulators, Shariah supervisory boards, Shariah department executives, and experts from the central bank and Islamic banks of Bangladesh.

The study illustrates that Shariah department officers/Shariah officers in Bangladesh seem to lack independence and decision-making authority in accomplishing ex-post Shariah governance functions (i.e. Shariah audit, Shariah compliance and Shariah review) as well as ensuring Shariah compliance. The Shariah officers cannot work spontaneously on practical issues without any interference. The Shariah officers also have to answer to the management regarding their Shariah functions and are not allowed to come up with any opinions without the authority’s authorization.

The study has significant contributions to the central bank and Islamic banks in Bangladesh. This research suggests that regulators, SSB, and Islamic banks should focus on ensuring Shariah compliance and protecting the independence of Shariah department officers as they are mainly related to practical monitoring of Shariah issues. It also suggests that Shariah department officers should directly report to SSB rather than the management regarding Shariah’s compliance and audit issues.

This study is unique in the context of Bangladesh and the global context as a whole for Shariah department officers.

This study is designed and directed to analyze the effect of board characteristics and audit committee attributes on the firm performance of publicly listed commercial banks of Bangladesh.

Thirty publicly listed commercial banks of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) have been taken as sample for this study. Data have been collected from annual reports between 2011 and 2017 of the assessed banks. Pooled OLS model has been used for running regression model of this study.

Board independence has a negative and significant relationship with ROA and Tobin's Q. However, Board Independence has a positive and significant relationship with Stock Return. On the other hand, Board Diversity has a negative and significant relationship with ROA and ROE, which implies inefficiency of diversified board members in the context of Bangladesh. Family duality has a positive and significant relationship with ROA and a negative and significant relationship with Stock return. Board Meeting has a positive and significant relationship with ROA. Audit Committee Size has a negative and significant relationship with Tobins' Q. Independence of audit committee chairman has a negative and significant relationship with Tobin's Q and Stock Returns. Presence of non-executive directors and number of audit meetings have no significant relationship with any of the predicted variables.

Among all variables of the board characteristics, role of independent directors and participation of female directors have conflicting results in this study. This has raised a question about the fair appointment independent directors and their objective view on the board. Female directors' role is not convincing in the context of Bangladesh as most of the commercial banks are family-owned. Policymakers can tighten and supervise the appointment of independent directors to ensure good governance in the banking sector. Moreover, role of audit committee and independence of audit committee chairman have generated conflicting results in terms of market-based performance measure.

Banking sector of Bangladesh experiences huge corruption in the form of excessive NPLs and poor management quality which results in low profit for the firm. This study has explored the problems of management quality and flaws of audit committee which is hampering overall growth of banking industry. Improvement of independent directors' appointment and audit committee formation and reporting will certainly help banking industry of Bangladesh to improve overall performance.

State ownership has been common especially in industries with restricted competition. In Russia, state-controlled firms represent around 41 percent of the market value of all listed firms (Deloitte, 2015). Yet, there is a significant gap in the literature regarding the effects of various forms of government control in listed firms. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by exploring the impact of the complexity of state ownership and competition on the performance of Russian listed firms.

The sample consists of data for 72 firms (360 firm-years) in the Russian MOEX broad market index during 2011–2015. The complexity of state ownership is captured by studying forms of state control including majority/minority, direct/indirect, federal/regional, mixed structures and golden shares.

The authors find significant differences in performance relating to different forms of state ownership. State control is negatively related to firm valuation and the sales/employees ratio. Performance is weakest when state ownership takes the form minority, regional or direct ownership. State control through golden shares typically outperforms other state-controlled firms. The authors find indications of employment prioritization beyond the economical optimum. In addition, the relation between state ownership and profitability becomes positive in sectors where state firms appear to enjoy lower competition.

While the effects of state ownership have been studied on many markets, there is a lack of studies on the effects of different forms, or the complexity, of state ownership beyond direct and indirect ownership. The authors contribute to the literature on the performance effects of state ownership by studying a multitude of forms of governmental ownership as well as the role of competition in Russia. Especially the profitability of state-controlled firms is significantly affected by industry characteristics. Implications of the results are discussed both from firm and policy maker perspectives.

The purpose of the study is to determine the relationship between bank efficiency in terms of corporate governance guidelines and the extent of practice of earnings management (EM).

Archival data of listed private commercial banks of Dhaka Stock Exchange over the period of 2007–2016 relating to corporate governance and earnings management are collected and analyzed using parametric and non-parametric methods (efficiency analysis) and applying panel regression analysis.

The same distribution pattern and have low degree of the correlation (0.248) among them. It is found that private commercial banks of Bangladesh, on average, display efficiency level of 80.84%. The average value of discretionary loan loss provision (i.e. measure of earnings management) is 0.4249 and this indicates the presence of earnings management. The relation between earnings management and efficiency score in both cases of two-step system generalized methods of moments (GMMs) and difference GMM are found to be negative. The negative coefficients (−0.7969 and −0.57) indicate that as the efficiency increases, the practice of earnings management by the private commercial bank reduces. By estimating efficiency based on corporate governance guidelines and detecting the existence of EM, the major contribution of the study is establishing the relationship between bank efficiency based on compliance with corporate governance guidelines and managerial practice of earnings management in Bangladesh. Empirical results of the study have also established the fact that the more efficient the management of the banks are, the less likely it will practice earnings management under the compliance of corporate governance guidelines in Bangladesh.

This research study has some limitations. Only conventional banks are considered for the study, with the exception of Islamic banks. Comparison between conventional banks and Islamic banks could have been done.

Based on the literature study, the effectiveness of corporate governance aligns with decreasing agency conflict, protection of shareholders' interests and restrain management from self-serving activities (i.e. practice of earnings management). The empirical results of the study established these facts. Regulators should give more emphasis on effective implementation of good governance.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this may be the first to empirically determine the relationship between efficiency estimation based on corporate governance and earnings management in case of listed commercial banks of Bangladesh.

Prior studies on Islamic finance provide a limited linkage between organizational theory and the complex Shariah governance framework embraced by Islamic banks worldwide. This paper aims to show the relevance of the application of “institutional theory” in the Shariah governance framework of Islamic banks.

This study applied library research to investigate the application of institutional theory in the Shariah governance framework of Islamic banks. The authors also critically reviewed prior empirical and review papers for accomplishing the research objectives.

Based on the critical review, the authors found that institutional theory is the most influential in progressing Shariah governance as it contributes toward the organizational image, helps to achieve religious legitimacy, and inspires a more robust regulatory environment. In addition, a well-designed Shariah governance framework is driven by institutional theory and that could assist in providing guidelines, strategies and procedures for Islamic banks to better conduct; monitor and control their social, religious and accountability obligations. The authors also highlighted the societal, economic and legal environment of Islamic banks in relation to the propositions of institutional theory. They emphasize that a well-designed Shariah governance framework driven by institutional theory could assist in providing guidelines, strategies and procedures for Islamic banks to better conduct, monitor and control their social, religious and accountability obligations.

This study highlights institutional theory to serve best the development of operational strategies and structures of Islamic banks including the roles, functions and powers of the various stakeholders including regulators and those involved in the Shariah governance process of Islamic banks. The authors recognize the institutional theory to perform a key role in enriching the structural framework of Islamic Financial Institutions. This study is heavily dependent on prior research rather than empirical investigations. The authors did not cover other Islamic finance areas (such as Islamic insurance, Islamic microfinance and Halal industries). Thus, future researchers can apply institutional theory in Shariah governance practices and implementations of setting up rules by the regulators and respective institutions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that attempts to show the importance of the application of institutional theory in Shariah governance of Islamic Banks. Thus, this study, therefore, adding a novel dimension to the literature by arguing why institutional theory, is more pronounced (as compared to the other theoretical frameworks) in the formation and discharge of the roles, powers and functions by the different governance organs (such as regulators, the board of directors, management and Shariah supervisory board) operating in this unique corporate governance landscape.