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This paper aims to examine the development of Islamic accounting education and discuss the main challenges facing this specific type of accounting education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The paper uses institutional theory to analyze the development of Islamic accounting education in the UAE. The collection of information in this study is based on secondary data available from published sources and websites.

This study identifies three types of institutional pressures. First, coercive pressures that were directed by the government, the UAE's Central Bank and other professional bodies [e.g. Accounting and Auditing Organization of Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI)] involved in the Islamic banking industry have contributed to the development of Islamic accounting education in the UAE. Second, mimetic pressures exerted by other countries that have already established Islamic accounting training and programs (e.g. Indonesia, Iran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan) have incentivized the UAE business schools to implement Islamic accounting training and programs to meet Emirati Islamic banking industry expectations. Third, normative pressures are exerted by Big 4 auditors who have an active position as faculty members, influencing status in AAOIFI and a dominant position in the Islamic banking industry’s audit market. The paper also discusses the main challenges facing Islamic accounting education in this country.

This paper contributes to accounting literature in general and accounting education literature in particular in the following two ways. First, this study applies an institutional analysis to Islamic accounting education in the UAE to gain more understanding about the current status of the development of Islamic accounting education in the UAE. Second, by identifying the factors that may constrain the development of Islamic accounting education in the UAE, this study provides recommendations to financial and higher education authorities to undertake proactive actions to position the UAE as a leading center in Islamic accounting education and training.

This paper aims to investigate the economic substance of Islamic banks’ transaction as perceived by the employees and regulators of banks and the effect of such substance on the need for special accounting standards for Islamic banks. If there is a distinctive “Islamic economic substance”, then special accounting practices may be necessary such as the standards of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions.

A qualitative inquiry on one of the leading Islamic banks in the Middle East was conducted to investigate the economic substance of the bank’s main two transactions; the deposit system and Murabaha financing, as perceived by informants within one of the earliest Islamic banks and its regulators.

It is found that despite the belief that the transactions under examination were different from equivalents within conventional banking, practice within the bank was not consistent with such a belief. Informants largely perceived the economic reality of the investigated transaction as being not different from conventional banks’ transactions, and this would affect the need for special accounting and regulatory frameworks.

This investigation is confined to informants working within one Islamic bank; their views and perceptions may not coincide with those working in other Islamic banks in the world.

The results of this investigation provide policy implications for Islamic banks, regulators and standards setters in regard to the need for special accounting standards for Islamic banks.

The paper is one of the first papers that uses a qualitative inquiry on the main transactions of Islamic banks and the related need for special accounting practices. The paper provides a new perspective on the debate over whether Islamic banking is genuinely innovative or is merely a replicate for conventional banking.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the value relevance of accounting information for Islamic, conventional and hybrid banks. It also investigates the moderation impact of IFRS adoption and AAOIFI mandatory adoption on value relevance of accounting information.

Using value relevance models, The authors run panel data regressions on 47 Islamic banks, 112 conventional banks and 42 hybrid banks (conventional banks with Islamic windows). The study covers listed banks from 14 countries over the period 2010–2018.

paper offers three empirical evidences. First, the authors find that value relevance of accounting information is higher for Islamic banks, compared to conventional banks. Second, the authors find that IFRS framework strengthens the relevance of accounting information in Islamic banks, but the authors did not find the same for hybrid banks. Third, the authors find that the mandatory adoption of AAOIFI accounting standards has a moderation effect on value relevance of accounting information for both Islamic banks and hybrid banks. The robustness analysis shows that there is a significant contribution of compliance with Islamic Finance rules in IBs and HBs, which substantially reduces managers' opportunistic behavior to manage accounting information.

One limit of this research is the reduced number of sampled listed IBs since the authors deleted countries that do not have both listed Islamic and conventional banks.

The study is useful for investors that consider the Islamic ethical practices to make their investment decisions as well as for the standards-setting bodies that focus on establishing accounting standards for the Islamic banking industry.

The authors contribute to the value relevance literature by providing novel evidence on the value relevance in fully-fledged Islamic, fully-fledged conventional and hybrid Banks. The authors also provide new evidence on the moderating role of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions standard (AAOIFI) for the value relevance of accounting information.

This study aims to evaluate Islamic bank compliance with the accounting and auditing organisation for Islamic financial institutions (AAOIFI), assess the impact of multiple accounting standards in Islamic banking, examine the need for private accounting standards and assess international financial reporting standards (IFRS) compatibility with Islamic banking and analyse financial leasing accounting in Islamic banking compared to IFRS 16.

A combination of comparative theoretical analysis, physical examination, and semi-structured interviews has been used as a research methodology. These methods are interconnected and complement each other to provide a comprehensive approach to address the research questions.

Islamic banks in various countries show varying compliance with AAOIFI accounting standards. Some fully comply, while others adopt a hybrid approach combining AAOIFI and IFRS. Differences in accounting treatments can result in conflicts, asset inflation and financial statement discrepancies. Challenges and criticisms faced by AAOIFI standards include violating the matching principle and lacking faithful representation. Collaboration among academics, standards-setting bodies and organisers is crucial for guiding the reporting of Islamic financial statements.

The research identifies gaps in implementing Islamic accounting standards and proposes strategies to enhance compliance, improve performance and increase transparency in Islamic financial institutions. It highlights the importance of a harmonised and universally accepted accounting framework for Islamic banking, considering the compatibility between IFRS and Islamic principles.

Social implications have arisen regarding the global acceptance of Islamic finance, which leads to an increase in socially Islamic finance exchange.

This research examines the consequences of using multiple accounting standards in the Islamic banking industry and discusses the need for private accounting standards and compatibility with IFRS.

This study aims to investigate the claim that there is no coherent and homogeneous body of concepts and practices that can be classified as “Islamic accounting”.

The study focuses specifically on Islamic accounting and uses a qualitative historical documentary analysis methodology to study an original manuscript from the 14th century.

The analysis of the manuscript argues that religious accounting can be seen as a value-based system for achieving social good and that in the context of Islamic accounting, it can be conceptualised as a coherent body of ideas and practices.

Firstly, the study conceptualises Islamic accounting as a homogeneous discipline with its own knowledge, concepts and practices. Secondly, it contributes to current accounting literature by examining an ancient manuscript from the 14th century, which serves as a foundation for understanding the Islamic accounting system within the context of accounting, religion and spirituality. The paper further contributes by arguing that this conceptualisation of religious accounting as a value-based approach enables its practitioners to evaluate their own accountabilities in delivering on socioeconomic objectives related to inter-human/environmental, social and financial transactions within the context of religious accounting practices.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of Auditing and Accounting Organization for Islamic Financial Institution (AOIFI) governance disclosure on the performance of Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) through systematic literature review approach.

This study is based on the review of literature related to the AAOIFI accounting standards downloaded from Scopus database. This study includes review of 126 research articles, 10 review papers, 9 book chapters and 5 conference papers related to different roles played by AAOIFI in providing standards for accounting, auditing, governance and ethics for global IFIs.

The findings of this study suggest that AAOIFI has played a critical role in developing the accounting standards for the IFIs and contributed positively to the overall growth of the Islamic finance industry.

AAOIFI has played a critical role in issuing and development of accounting and auditing standards and has contributed positively to the financial performance of IFIs. Research gaps are identified, and there is a need to work on these gaps.

This study will contribute to the understanding the role of AAOIFI in issuing and development of accounting and governance standards and future research agenda based on a thorough review of literature.

This study aims to analyse the level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting among accounting students in the Nigerian universities. Furthermore, the study also compares the students’ understanding of Islamic and conventional accounting.

The study used survey research design through the administration of questionnaire on a sample of university undergraduate and post-graduate accounting students across the north-west region in Nigeria. The data generated for the study was analysed using Cronbach’s alpha, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistics.

The study found that the accounting students have an adequate awareness and basic knowledge of Islamic accounting as they were able to contrast Islamic accounting from conventional accounting. Also, in their aspiration towards learning Islamic accounting, they agreed that Islamic accounting should be made a compulsory course in accounting curriculum.

This study focusses on north-west region of Nigeria. Hence, data and more in-depth analysis can be further improved by considering a whole country as diverse as Nigeria. Also, only a questionnaire was used by the study. Hence, further studies can use face-to-face interviews to fully extract the awareness and knowledge of the target respondents. Lastly, majority of the respondents are Muslims given the area where the study was conducted, hence, non-Muslims are not properly represented.

Despite its limitations, this study is still of importance in providing insights on both undergraduate and post-graduate students’ level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting. This course is unique as it is different in orientation compared with other existing courses on offer. This paper also provides an invaluable insight, therefore, National University Commission of Nigeria, Islamic institutions and professional bodies like Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and Association of National Accountants of Nigeria should make continues effort towards promoting the awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting by properly integrating same into academic and professional curricula and other training and sensitisation programs. In doing so, Islamic accounting subjects could be introduced as independent courses for selection by the student. Courses like Islamic Accounting and Finance, Accounting for Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs), Accounting for Waqf, Accounting for Zakat, Shariah auditing, Corporate Shariah Governance, Education and Ethics could be introduced across levels to enable students learn more of Islamic accounting.

Proper integration of Islamic accounting into academic and professional courses would greatly contribute to the production of experts most importantly ethical and God-fearing accountants for the growth and development of IFIs in Nigeria.

This paper examines Nigerian university undergraduate and post-graduate students’ level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting in the north-west region of Nigeria.

This study aims to explore the Islamic accounting literature and attempts to identify the worldwide research trends of accounting for Islamic financial institutions.

This study adopts a mixed review approach combining the bibliometric method with content analysis. Consulting Scopus database, the authors collect 195 documents (articles and reviews) relative to the Islamic accounting field from 1982 to 2020. VOSviewer, RStudio (biblioshiny) and Excel analysed the data.

The study revealed the influential scientific actors in the Islamic accounting field, categorising the intellectual structure into seven streams: accounting for Waqf, accounting for Zakat, Shariah auditing, corporate Shariah governance and screening, accounting for different modes of Islamic financing, education and ethics. The study further provides future research directions for researchers.

The findings highlight the efforts of academicians, researchers and practitioners in this emerging field. This effort provides awareness to different stakeholders on Islamic accounting, which will lead to better stewardship, accountability and information-based decision in line with Islamic economic principles.

This study is among the first Islamic accounting bibliometric papers that would help researchers stand on a firm basis concerning the development of the literature in this scientific domain.

Islamic financial institutions offer a different paradigm from conventional institutions. From corporate governance (CG) viewpoint, it embodies a number of interesting features since equity participation and profit-and-loss sharing arrangements form the basis of Islamic financing. These financial arrangements imply different stakeholder relationships and governance structures, and distinct from the conventional model since depositors have a direct financial stake in the bank's investment and equity participations. On top of that, the Islamic bank is subject to an additional layer of governance since the suitability of its investment and financing must be in strict conformity with Islamic law and the expectations of the Muslim community. Other form of governance such as accounting standards have also been an issue whether they have met the reporting requirement of Islamic financial institutions that carry title as “Islamic” as there is no uniformity. Therefore, there should be concerted efforts to revisit the existing good CG and accounting standards for Islamic financial institutions.