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The contribution of the banking industry to the financial crisis of 2007/8 has raised public concerns about the financial soundness of banks around the world with many countries still suffering the backlogs of this crisis. The continuous emergence of such crises at both national and international levels increases governments', bank regulators' and financial market participants' need for reliable tools to assess the financial soundness of banks. In this context, this study investigates the financial soundness of the Kazakh banking sector, which is ranked by the World Bank as the first in the world in terms of the percentage of nonperforming loans (NPL) to total gross loans in 2012.

Using data about all Kazakh banks over the period January 01, 2008 to January 01, 2014, the study identifies a number of accounting indicators that influence the financial soundness of banks using principal component analysis (PCA). Then, it uses the outcomes of the PCA in a cluster analysis and groups the Kazakh banks into sound, risky and unsound banks at two points in time: January 01, 2008 and January 01, 2014. This methodology was further tested against a ranking system of banks and proved to be more reliable in detecting risky banks.

Fifteen financial ratios were initially selected as accounting indicators for the assessment of bank financial soundness. Using PCA, twelve indicators were isolated, which explain five principal components of capital adequacy, return on assets, profitability, asset quality, liquidity and leverage. Then using the “k-means” method, the results suggest a structure of the Kazakh banking sector on January 01, 2008 that includes two groups of banks: sound and risky banks. On January 01, 2014, this structure of the banking system has changed to include three groups of banks: sound, risky and unsound banks. Thus, in 2014 a new group of banks has emerged, i.e. financially unsound banks.

The proposed cluster-based methodology has proven to be a reliable tool to detect the financial soundness of Kazakh banks, which makes us advocate its employability for bank monitoring and supervision purposes.

This study is the first to employ a cluster-based methodology to assess the financial soundness of a banking sector. This methodology can be used at a micro-level to determine the structure of a banking sector. Also, it can be used to monitor any changes in the structure of a banking sector and provide early warning signals about the financial health of banks.

This paper seeks to examine the association between corporate voluntary disclosure and systematic (market or beta) risk for a sample of Egyptian listed companies.

Using panel data analysis, beta is regressed on the level of voluntary disclosure and the following control variables: dividend payout, asset growth, gearing, firm size and book‐to‐market ratio.

The results generally show a negative relationship between voluntary disclosure level and beta, consistent with predictions of a differential information model and theories about the economic consequences of increased disclosure. The results are dependent on the specification of the model and the market index used to estimate beta, suggesting a need for further research on the link between risk and voluntary disclosure in the context of emerging markets.

The main implication of these results is that more voluntary information about listed companies seems preferable to less in order to reduce the perceived riskiness of a company. This should act as an incentive for listed companies to enhance public disclosure.

This is one of the first studies to explore the economic consequences of increased disclosure in an emerging capital market using panel data analysis. Another distinctive feature is that market betas are estimated using different measures to obtain greater confidence in the overall conclusions.

This study aims to investigate the impact of country-level corruption and firms’ anti-bribery policies on analyst coverage. Analyst coverage has been identified as a powerful tool to detect fraud and should equally act as a possible tool to reduce corruption.

This study used a negative binomial count regression method on a longitudinal data set of a sample of S&P Global 1200 companies for the years 2010-2015. To control for potential endogeneity bias and improve the reliability of the estimation, both country-level corruption and firms’ anti-bribery policies variables were instrumented.

After controlling potential endogeneity bias, the results show that the adoption of anti-bribery policies at firm level attracts more analysts to follow a firm. The results for corruption at country level show that analyst coverage increases in less corrupted countries indicating that the costs of corruption exceed its potential benefits. When the variables corruption at country level and anti-bribery policies are interacted, the relationship is positive and highly significant.

Given the potential important role played by anti-corruption measures, firms are encouraged to adopt them to reduce the incidence of corruption and to increase analyst coverage, which will reinforce the benign effect of monitoring.

Although the literature on corruption at the country level is rich, it is geared towards the determinants of corruption in contrast to its consequences, and fewer studies have focused on the impact of corruption at firm level because of data limitations. This paper addresses this gap and contributes to the literature on the consequences of corruption at firm level.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain financial analysts' views regarding the usefulness of a number of items of accounting information via a postal survey. This usefulness is explored in the context of the Egyptian capital market. In addition the usefulness of different types of information is researched, namely: historical vs forward‐looking information; mandatory vs voluntary information; and quantitative vs non‐quantitative information.

This paper uses descriptive analysis to investigate the views of a sample of 23 financial analysts regarding a number of items of accounting information. Analysts' ratings are obtained via a postal questionnaire, most of which are collected by hand. Fifteen out of 23 responses are collected in person, which offer the opportunity to ask follow‐up questions about the information which the analysts see as valuable.

The findings indicate that different items of information are valued differently. In the context of the Egyptian market, financial analysts tend to value: mandatory disclosure more than voluntary disclosure; quantitative information more than non‐quantitative information; and historic information more than forward‐looking information. This type of preference reflects the information environment in Egypt, where mandatory disclosure is comprehensive and detailed based on International Accounting Standards but where compliance is an issue. Voluntary disclosure is limited and other sources of information are less common. Since mandatory information in Egypt tends to be historic and quantitative in nature, this may explain the preference for these types of disclosures.

The findings suggest that the importance of different types of information may be affected by the degree of maturity of the market and how rich the information environment is.

The results should be useful in informing companies and market regulators about the types of information that financial analysts find useful for investment decision making and the areas of disclosure where financial analysts suggest that improvement is needed.

This paper contributes to the literature by investigating the views of a sample of financial analysts regarding the usefulness of accounting information and different types of disclosure in the context of an emerging capital market where a dearth of studies exist.

Healthcare environments are highly complex and full of variation and inefficiency. However, variation and inefficiency can be measured and improved, providing better quality care at a lower cost. This study aims to report the application of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in a haematology laboratory in a university hospital in Egypt.

The authors used case study research. Applying the define, measure, analyse, improve and control phases of the DMAIC methodology together with lean tools, the problem was identified, the process mapped, the causes analysed and improvements implemented.

Results show that LSS can be successfully implemented in challenging public sector healthcare settings. Management commitment, generating and implementing ideas from frontline staff, using a variety of quality tools and previous LSS training were all key to success. This is evidence that the LSS methodology is adaptable to any process, people or place.

There are no publications on LSS implementation in health care in Egypt. This study demonstrates the successful use of LSS in a university hospital (public sector) in a developing country, sharing insight into the facilitators and barriers in a real context with others in the healthcare field.