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This paper aims to investigate firm-level variations in the extent of mandatory disclosures and address the drivers of mandatory disclosure using data from the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region.

The extent of mandatory disclosure is examined using a disclosure index created with reference to 24 International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs).

The authors find that the extent of mandatory disclosure required by applicable IFRSs/International Accounting Standards increases with international presence, group firms, the level of voluntary disclosure, firm age and the education level of company financial controllers. It decreases with firm size and the proportion of institutional share ownership. The degree of board independence is positively related to the level of mandatory disclosure in firms with no state ownership. Profitability positively affects the level of mandatory disclosure to a greater extent in more liquid GCC firms. The results confirm that there is a greater sensitivity of mandatory disclosure to loss than to profit. Loss increases, whilst profit decreases, the extent of mandatory disclosure.

The results promote further understanding of international financial reporting differences in an emerging country setting.

The findings provide a detailed insight to investors, financial analysts, practitioners and academics.

The authors develop a highly granular mandatory disclosure index in a developing country setting and identify key drivers of such disclosure.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how Islamic banks' financing affects corporate investment efficiency.

To achieve the research purpose, an empirical model was constructed to describe the relationship between Islamic banks' financing and corporate investment efficiency. The empirical model was tested through generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique using a panel data of 163 Malaysian listed firms for the period 2007–2017.

This study provides evidence that Islamic banks' financing plays an important role in enhancing investment efficiency and that this positive effect comes mainly from non-PLS contracts. Moreover, the results show that the effect of Islamic banks' financing in preventing suboptimal investments is stronger in the financial crisis period. The results also reveal that the contribution of Islamic banks' financing in reducing suboptimal investments is more prominent when firms face over-investment problems.

This research contributes to the debate on the financial implications of Islamic banks' financing modes by exploring their effect on corporate investment efficiency.

From a managerial perspective, the research findings are beneficial to Islamic bank managers to the extent that they highlight the role of Islamic financial contracts in improving corporate investment efficiency. In addition, the lower effect of PLS contracts on investment efficiency implies that policymakers in Malaysia should multiply their efforts to further expand the PLS financing.

This paper offers some insights on the role of Islamic banks' financing in mitigating agency conflicts and reducing asymmetric information problems. It is the first attempt focusing on the role of Islamic financing in fostering corporate investment decisions.

This paper focuses on the disparity that exists between Arab and non‐Arab trading blocs and the potential that e‐commerce offers in narrowing this gap. The current Arab intra‐trade state of affairs is analyzed, targeting potential trade opportunities. These prospects are evaluated, along with the adoption of technology to render advantages to the Arab world. Many countries have and continue to benefit from the acceptance of e‐commerce; understanding its applicability and effectiveness beyond and within the Arab trading blocs is of vital importance to increase trade. Our analysis presents a perspective on regional trade and utilization of technology within the global community and broadening trade possibilities among Arab countries.

As the Internet revolution moves into full swing, those countries that have not embraced e‐commerce technology will face new hurdles as they seek to develop their economies. Standing in the path of these countries’ attempts to adapt e‐commerce technologies are several key issues that can be broadly defined as trust barriers. Rather than think of the trust issues as barriers one must think of them as assets. Presents a conceptual model and framework that highlight the key factors in business trust relationships within developing countries; information security, technical and industrial infrastructure, education, government, and socio‐cultural factors. These factors are considered in the light of different types of e‐commerce business transactions taking place within and across borders such as business‐to‐business (B2B), business‐to‐consumer (B2C), consumer‐to‐business (C2B), and consumer‐to‐consumer (C2C).

This study aims at examining the level of risk of disclosure practices and the effect of four board of directors' characteristics (board size, board meetings, CEO duality and board expertise) on these practices in the Jordanian context. This study also adds to the body of literature by examining the moderating effect of family ownership on the relationship between the board of directors' characteristics and the corporate risk disclosure.

The sample of this study contains the non-financial Jordanian firms listed on Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). 376 annual reports of the sampled firms over four years from 2014 to 2017 were used. The content analysis approach was used to collect data and to determine the level of risk disclosure by computing the number of risk-related sentences in the annual reporting. To test the study's hypothesis, the random effect model was employed.

The empirical results show that the total of the risk disclosure sentences for each firm ranges from a minimum value of 2 sentences to a maximum value of 61 sentences, and the mean of CRD is 28 sentences. The results also indicate that the board expertise is positively related with the level of risk disclosure. Conversely, CEO duality has a negative impact on the risk disclosure practices. However, the results failed to support that the board size and the board meetings have a significant effect on the level of risk disclosure. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that the family ownership moderates the relationship between the board of directors and the corporate risk disclosure.

The finding of this study is more likely be useful for many concerned parties, researchers, authorities, investors and financial analysts alike in understanding the current practices of the risk disclosure in Jordan, thus helping them in reconsidering and reviewing the accounting standards and improving the credibility and transparency of the financial reports in the Jordanian capital market.

The current study contributes to the literature of risk disclosure because the previous research has paid little attention to this topic in Jordan. To the best knowledge of the researcher, this study is the first Jordanian study that focuses on examining the relationship between the board of directors' characteristics and the corporate risk disclosure in the non-financial sector. Furthermore, it is the first study that examines the moderating role of family ownership on such relationships. Consequently, the results of the current study draw attention to the CRD practices and the monitoring role of board of directors in Jordan.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of specific Islamic banks’ (IBs) corporate governance (CG) mechanisms on compliance with the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions’ (AAOIFI) governance standards (GSs) disclosure requirements.

Using an unweighted governance compliance index, the authors measure the extent of IBs’ compliance with 7 AAOIFI GSs’ disclosure requirements over the period 2009–2015 (372 bank-year observations). In addition, a multivariate regression analysis was used to test the four hypotheses.

This study’s results report substantial non-compliance (the mean of compliance level with AAOIFI’s GSs over the covered years for the entire sampled IBs is 52.1%). The findings reveal that the Shariah Supervisory Board’s (SSB) remuneration, SSB’s members with only industry expertise, SSB’s members with the combined industry expertise and accounting and financial expertise, the existence of internal Shariah Auditing Department and the level of investment accounts holders’ funds are positively associated with the level of compliance with AAOIFI’s GSs.

The existing studies focusing on the determinants of compliance with AAOIFI’s standards are in the early research stage, as to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is a paucity of empirical research testing this issue. The authors extend these studies by examining all the AAOIFI’s GSs and focusing on the specific IBs’ CG mechanisms. Furthermore, a major contribution of this study is the examination of the relationship between some SSB’s characteristics and compliance level. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research that has examined the effect of the SSB’s remuneration and expertise on compliance level.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of corporate governance mechanisms on the financial performance of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) listed firms.

Relying on a sample of 95 UAE listed firms affiliated to financial and non‐financial sectors, the paper performs a cross‐section regression analysis to test whether there is a significant relationship between governance mechanisms (voluntary disclosure, CEO duality, board size, board committee and audit type) and UAE firms' performance while controlling for firm size, industry type, firm listing years and leverage. The paper relies on data published on year 2008 and utilizes the accounting‐based measures of Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE) as well as the market measure (Tobin's Q) in order to measure the UAE firms' financial performance.

The empirical results show that voluntary disclosure, CEO duality and board size are significantly influencing the UAE accounting‐based performance measure, while none of the governance variables significantly affects firms' market performance measure. The results also reveal that firm size is the only control variable that significantly influences firms' performance. This paper provides evidence showing that the accounting‐based performance measures are more objective in the years where unstable economic conditions exist.

The paper's findings indicate that the underlying principles of corporate governance are applicable in emerging markets. The findings are important to regulators, investors, managers, and researchers aiming at developing new policies that establish better regulatory infrastructure that increases investors' confidence and attracting foreign investment.

The paper is one of very few studies that examine the relationship between corporate governance and firms' financial performance under economic turbulent in an emerging market economy, the UAE.

The study aimed to examine the effect of corporate governance mechanisms on the performance of Egyptian firms listed in the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) between 2014 and 2016.

We relied on agency theory and resource dependence theory to generate testable hypotheses and capture the empirical findings. We regressed various performance measures (Return on Assets; Asset Utilization Ratio, Tobin's Q) regarding governance mechanisms (institutional ownership, managerial ownership, board size, board frequent meetings, the presence of non-executive directors and female directors) while controlling for firm size, leverage, years of listing and market share. The study uses ordinary least square (OLS) and two stages least square (2SLS) regression analysis to address the possible endogenous impact of the firms' ownership structure.

Board gender diversity, the managerial ownership and frequent board meetings positively influence the Egyptian firms' efficiency measured by assets utilization, while the institutional ownership and board size have negative effects. When using Tobin's Q, the managerial ownership shows a negative effect while institutional ownership and board size present positive effects. When using 2SLS regression, findings remained stable whereas non-executive directors showed a significant negative association with assets utilization.

Policy makers are recommended to draft policies related to limiting the number of board members, diluting the government's indirect ownership of firms, empowering women in boardrooms and developing the skills needed for non-executive directors.

To the best of our knowledge, our study is one of very few that address firms' performance after a period of political instability accompanied by a greater role for females in the boardrooms of Egypt.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the UAE corporations‐specific characteristics, mainly – size, level of risk, industry type and reserves – and level of corporate risk disclosure (CRD).

Since the UAE is an emerging capital market, the paper relies on the positive accounting and the institutional theories to generate testable hypotheses and explain the empirical findings. The paper draws results depending on a sample of 41 corporations. A risk disclosure index – based on accounting standards, prior literature, and the UAE regulatory framework – has been crafted and calculated for each corporation in the sample. The relationship between the level of CRD and corporations' characteristics is examined using multiple regression analysis.

The results show that corporate size is not significantly associated with the level of CRD. However, the corporate level of risk and corporate industry type are significant in explaining the variation of CRD. Finally, in contrast with reserves‐CRD hypothesized relationship, corporate reserve is insignificant and negatively associated with level of CRD.

The risk disclosure index items reflect their existence in annual reports rather than their level of importance.

The empirical findings suggest that corporate reserve, as an explanatory variable, needs further investigation as explained in the paper.

The crafting process of the CRD index depends on the UAE regulatory framework. The paper seems to add to the extremely limited literature relating to CRD in Arab countries in general and the UAE in particular.