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This study aims to examine the relationship between the three dimensions of Web 2.0 disclosure (Shariah, content and presentation) and the firm value of listed Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) stock exchanges.

A checklist of 118 items was used to measure the level of Web 2.0 disclosure for the IFIs that are listed on the GCC stock exchanges. Data were gathered from the websites of the IFI samples, where researchers looked for annual reports, RSS, widgets, web-casting and the layout and design of the websites.

Based on the results, the level of the Shariah dimension by GCC IFIs was 74.93%, the level of the content dimension was 76.33%, the level of the presentation dimension was 78.03% and the level of the overall Web 2.0 disclosure was 75.73%, and a positive and significant relationship between the content dimension and Tobin’s Q.

In addition to other reforms, this study recommends IFIs to improve their regulations, risk management and standardization.

This study offers a new contribution as it adds a new perspective to the online financial disclosure literature, which is the Shariah dimension. Furthermore, this study provides empirical evidence for interested parties in the Islamic banking industry such as users and regulators in the GCC countries concerning the importance and usage of Web 2.0 applications for disclosure and its positive impact on adding a premium to IFIs.

The purpose of this study is to identify the effectiveness of risk management and corporate governance (CG) practices followed in Islamic banks (IBs) of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Hence, they are considered as critical performance indicators for financial institutions and IBs. Though the IBs are growing, there are still challenges associated with their operations because of Shariah noncompliance risks, governance, capital adequacy ratio and other risks.

This study uses a mixed-method approach, gathering qualitative data from senior risk managers of chosen IBs via semi-structured interviews and quantitative data from selected IBs financial reports using capital IQ resources. The information was gathered for a considerable time (2013–2019), and the CAMELS rating system was used to analyze it.

The results showed that GCC IBs manage their business risks well through effective CG except in certain areas like asset quality management and liquidity.

The result of this study can provide support to the banks’ top management, chief executives, regulators and government, in all practices related to risk assessment, management and mitigation.

This study contributes to the existing knowledge in risk management and CG practices. Furthermore, this study is a new attempt in knowing the risk management and CG practices followed in IBs in GCC countries using the mixed-method approach.

The purpose of this paper is to present the evidence of accounting undergraduates’ attitude toward entrepreneurship, in particular, whether entrepreneurial skills developed in accounting education engender cognition of skills and intentions of starting a business.

The study uses a χ² test statistic used to evaluate a logistic regression to gauge the effect of delivering six entrepreneurial skills (risk taking, critical thinking, problem solving, innovation, autonomy and need for achievement) on entrepreneurship attitudes (cognition of skills and intentions). Data consist of questionnaire responses obtained from 668 undergraduates attending Egyptian and Bahraini universities.

The results reveal that accounting students perceive the following four entrepreneurial skills as a key for starting their own business: risk taking, critical thinking, problem solving and innovation. In addition, Egyptian students incline toward cognition, whereas Bahraini students head toward intentions.

Some changes to accounting curricula are proposed to enhance entrepreneurial intention.

This paper offers a new contribution as it focuses on the challenges and the considerations in the Arab World Universities.

The purpose of this paper examines the development of entrepreneurial skills amongst accounting students in public and private universities and its impact on career pathways, including self-employment. Also, the paper explores what skills have an effect on self-employment intentions.

This study uses a quantitative approach to measure the entrepreneurial skills developed by accounting students in business schools and whether these skills direct them to choose to start their own business. A questionnaire was developed and a sample of 583 Egyptian and Bahraini accounting students was used.

The study concludes that in private universities, there is no difference in the development of entrepreneurial skills and subsequent self-employment practices between students in Egypt and Bahrain. When it comes to public universities, students in Bahrain develop better entrepreneurial skills and subsequent self-employment practices than students in Egypt. In addition, private universities are better than public universities in representing the relationship between entrepreneurial skills and self-employment practices.

This study and its conclusions fill a gap in the literature in comparing public and private universities to highlight the relationship between developing accounting students’ entrepreneurial skills and their self-employment practices. This study is the first to compare universities in Egypt and the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and report on the extent and firm characteristics that determine the practices of online financial disclosure (OFD) by the Islamic banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

Data were collected using the websites of 48 Islamic banks listed on the stock markets in the GCC countries. Moreover, the study used the websites of the stock markets to get more financial information which was not found on the websites of the banks. The study covered a period of three years from 2015 to 2017. A checklist was used to compute the total level of OFD.

This study found that the overall level of OFD in the GCC by Islamic banks is 72.4 percent. The results also report a significant and positive relationship with firm size. On the other hand, the results show an insignificant relationship with profitability (ROE and ROA), leverage and age.

The paper provides awareness regarding OFD that might prove beneficial to the various stakeholders of the banks including investors, regulators and preparers of financial statements.

This paper is an important contribution to filling the gap in the literature, as there are a negligible number of studies dealing with OFD from an Islamic perspective.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between selected board characteristics and ownership elements and the performance of firms listed in the Muscat Securities Market (MSM30). The examination focused on how the firm financial performance was affected by the board size, the number of board meetings and the ratio of the independent board of directors along to the ownership concentration types (i.e. institutional, state and concentrated individual ownership).

Data were extracted from the annual reports available online on the MSM30 website over a period of seven years (2009–2015). The sample consisted of 14 firms belonging to the non-financial sector. The data were of a balanced type and there were 98 observations. The analysis was conducted using the ordinary least square in STATA with the use of the robustness technique of standard error.

The findings of this study provide evidence that the selected elements for board characteristics and ownership influence firm performance. Nevertheless, such influence has its interpretation that differs to some extent from other securities markets in the developing countries. For instance, the ratio of the independent board of directors, the number of board director’s meetings, state ownership and concentrated individual ownership were inversely affecting the firm performance. However, institutional ownership and board size were found to have a positive effect on firm performance.

Studies on the influence of corporate governance and ownership structures in the context of Oman are still scarce. MSM30 received little attention, even though such an index encompasses the most liquid and the most profitable firms. MSM30 is an important index for investors in Oman looking for capital gains. Accordingly, this present study contributes to the knowledge body by providing new findings related to Oman and compares it with the other markets within Gulf Council Countries (GCC) and around the world. This will provide more understanding of the Omani context. Moreover, the authors anticipate that the outcomes of this research, which so far is the most comprehensive study in the Omani context in terms of the impact of corporate governance and ownership structure on firm financial performance can significantly shape corporate governance discourse, practices and policies in Oman, in particular, and in other GCC countries in general, to improve financial performance and corporate sustainability.

This study aims to examine the impact of intellectual capital (IC) efficiency on bank’s operational, financial and market performance.

The study examined 59 banks for 5 years to ends up with 295 observations. The independent variable is the modified value added IC component; the dependent variables are performance indicators (return on assets [ROA], return on equity [ROE] and Tobin’s Q [TQ]).

The findings deduced from the empirical results demonstrate that there is a positive relationship between intellectual capital efficiency and financial performance (ROE) and market performance (TQ).

The results of this study may give a wake-up call for banks to examine the reasons of imperfect relationship between the IC and asset efficiency (ROA).

Managers claim that fresh graduates are unequipped to meet market demands. The aim of this study is to investigate the perception of employers in retail Islamic banks of Bahrain on newly graduated business students. The Singaporean Model of Employability Skills was implemented, to ascertain the mean ratings of employability skills in terms of their importance and the competency of business graduates.

This deductive research approach initiated with a literature review that identifies research gap and a model that was tested via a self-administration adopted survey by collected data from 220 senior employees at retail Islamic banks of Bahrain

The systematic of convenience sampling technique was used in selecting 161 samples and the researcher received only 85 completed questionnaire forms. Findings initiate that employers appreciated the importance of teamwork, risk management and decision-making skills. Their main recommendation was that employers should establish a durable bond with universities to enhance employability skills.

Because the researcher gathered all data from employers of different Islamic banks in Bahrain, this sector in addition will get the advantage of the results that banks will formulate their strategic plans accordingly to tackle the business graduates’ weaknesses. Likewise, universities and researchers might be motivated to look into new innovative methods that assist graduates to accommodate with market conditions.

This study aims to examine the relationship between online financial disclosure (OFD) and profitability of Islamic banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

An extensive review of the literature was carried out and a checklist of 90 items (71 for content and 19 for presentation) was adopted to measure the level of OFD for the Islamic banks that are listed on the GCC stock exchanges. Additionally, the study used three indicators to measure profitability, namely, return on equity, return on assets and earnings per share.

The findings show that the overall OFD by Islamic banks in the GCC is 72.5 per cent, and a negative and insignificant relationship between OFD and profitability.

The study recommends that regulatory bodies should develop a guideline of disclosing information through the internet to enhance the transparency and performance among Islamic banks, which leads to reasonable economic decision-making.

The study contributes to the financial reporting and the Islamic economy literature relating to the GCC countries as previous studies gave no attention to Islamic banks.