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As an essential component of Islamic governance for ensuring religious compliance, Shari’ah annual reports (SARs) play an important role in providing communication between Shari’ah board (SB) members and stakeholders. This paper aims to determine the ethical disclosure in SARs to identify how close the Shari’ah disclosure to the standards set by AAOIFI and also substantive morality of Islam. The research also aims to examine the factors determining disclosure performance.

Two disclosure indices are developed to generate data from the SARs: the AAOIFI standards for Shari’ah governance index for form related approach, an Islamic ethicality augmented index reflecting on substantive morality approach. The sample consists of 41 Islamic banks from 15 different countries for the period of 2007–2014. Sampled 305 SARs were examined through disclosure analysis in line with the two indices developed for this study. The econometric analysis was run to identify the factors determining disclosure performance.

The findings suggest that AAOIFI guidelines have an influence on the level of disclosure, even if Islamic banks have not adopted them. However, the level of disclosure for the ethically augmented index is found to be very limited with reliance on general statements in most of the cases. As part of determining factors, the popularity of Shari’ah scholars is significant for both indices, while the existence of an internal Shari’ah auditing department holds some explanatory power. The adoption of AAOIFI standards at the country level, the regulatory quality and the duration of Sharīʿah-compliance are particularly deterministic factors in terms of complying with AAOIFI standards for SARs.

Although SB is the most crucial division of corporate governance in Islamic banks in terms of securing the “Islamic” identity of these institutions, their most important communication instrument, namely, SAR, has not been explored sufficiently, alongside an insufficient attempt to constitute Islamic corporate governance. Initially, this study attempted to constitute an Islamic corporate governance framework as a theoretical construct, which provides context for the empirical part of the research and this should be considered a novel approach. Second, the empirical part of the research aims to fill the gap observed in the literature such as small sample size and index construction-related matters. This research is conducted with a larger sample size as compared to the available studies in the literature and it has developed two indices for disclosure analysis along with developing an Islamic morality-based index beside an index based on AAOIFI standards.

The number of Shari’ah Compliant companies is tremendously increasing year by year in Malaysia. In an attempt to win the trust and confidence of its Muslim investors and stakeholders, the Shari’ah Compliant companies must portray their sincerity and earnestness in complying with Islamic values which may have implications on winning the trust of Muslim investors largely from oil-rich Arab Gulf Region which have flush of funds currently. Thus, the purpose of the study is to gauge the extent of the corporate ethical identity (CEI) that is being incorporated by the Shari’ah Compliant companies in Malaysia.

This study used the content analysis to develop CEI by adding all the items covering the four themes, which were underlying philosophy and values, interest-free and Islamically acceptable activities, developmental and social goals and environment theme. This CEI index was developed by using the dichotomous, which the score of ‘1’, if the company disclose the items and ‘0’, if it is not. The process will add all the scores and equally weighted.

The study showed that the level of communicated ethical identity disclosed in annual reports of Shari’ah Compliant companies for the year ended 2008 is relatively low with average of 23.66%. Overall, the findings of the study showed that the Shari’ah Compliant companies revealed more communicated ethical identity on Theme 1 (underlying philosophy and values) in the annual reports for the year ended 2008. In addition, in the year 2008, the findings showed that the dimension of developmental and social goals has the most influence towards the ethical identity index of Shari’ah Compliant companies.

The source of data in this study is limited to companies’ annual report. In other words, the extent of communicated ethical identity index is constructed limited to company’s annual report. The study has shown that annual reports is not the only means or medium of disclosure. Hence, studying other forms of disclosure on communicated ethical identity could possibly complement and add value to any investigation on the nature and extent of communicated ethical identity through annual reports in the future.

The study is expected to alert the Securities Commission with regard to the definition of Shari’ah Compliant companies which should not just include ‘good public perception and image company’ but also the extent of the application of Islamic values in the conduct of their businesses.

The study provides a new benchmark of an ideal Islamic communicated CEI index based on Shari’ah principles and also past literatures. The study developed a checklist from preliminary checklist with 88 items based on Berrone, Surroca, and Tribo (2005), Haniffa and Hudaib (2007) and Roshima, Yuserrie and Hasnah (2009). In order to develop the checklist, the researchers also look on the definition of Islamic ethics defined by Khan (2009).

This paper aims to determine the role governance plays in the voluntary adoption of Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) Disclosure Standards by Islamic insurance (takaful) operators in the Southeast Asia (SEA) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) regions.

This study uses a sample of 44 takaful operators in the SEA and the GCC regions. While corporate governance (CG) strength is measured by the use of the frequently examined variables of the board of directors and audit committee, Shari’ah governance strength is measured by the characteristics of the Shari’ah Supervisory Board (SSB). Content analysis is used to extract disclosure items from the 2014 annual reports. Agency theory, stakeholder theory and political economy theory are argued to support the hypotheses.

The results show that CG strength has a positive and significant effect on the voluntary adoption of AAOIFI Disclosure Standards by takaful operators, indicating that CG plays an important role in the disclosure of information in the annual reports of takaful operators. However, the results show a lack of association between SSB strength and voluntary adoption of AAOIFI Disclosure Standards. Our results suggest that the SSBs may not be as involved as the other CG mechanisms (such as a board of directors and audit committees) in reviewing financial reports. On another note, the level of the political right and civil liberties has a negative and significant effect on the voluntary adoption of AAOIFI Disclosure Standards, providing an indication that stakeholders in a community with greater freedom tend to be more active in pressuring takaful operators to provide more information to justify their existence in the community. Similar to SSB strength, the legal system is also found to have no significant association with the voluntary adoption of the AAOIFI disclosure standards.

This study provides stakeholders with a tool to evaluate the effectiveness of the governance role in increasing the transparency of takaful operators by examining the governance factors using a self-constructed disclosure index.

Our study is among the first to provide an in-depth analysis of voluntary adoption of AAOIFI Disclosure Standards for takaful operators in these two regions; therefore, this study has implications for regulators and standard setters. The findings of this study are expected to provide information to regulators and standard setters on the role of governance in improving the transparency of takaful operators.

This chapter assesses the effects of corporate governance (CG) variables on the level of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure (CSRD), Shari'ah Supervisory Board Disclosure (SSBD), and Financial Disclosure (FD) for Islamic banks. This study, based on a sample of 95 Islamic banks, assessed this in 2013. The findings suggest that CG mechanisms, firm's age, auditor and shari'ah auditing department are effective in influencing SSBD, CSRD, and FD practices in Islamic banks. This chapter encourages regulators to improve CG mechanisms in their Islamic banking systems through the optimization of ownership structure (dispersed ownership) and the board's characteristics in order to promote transparency and disclosure. Moreover, the findings support theoretical arguments that firms disclose CG information in order to mitigate information asymmetry and agency costs and to improve investor confidence in the reported financial statements. The empirical evidence of this study enhances the understanding of the CG disclosure environment in Islamic banks as a promoting new financial system.

The study aims to investigate the Shari’ah governance quality effectiveness, at the bank and national levels, on the value relevance of Islamic banks’ (IBs’) earning per share and book value per share.

Quantitative analyses are conducted using a panel of 40 listed IBs from 12 countries during 2012–2019. Data were retrieved from the Refinitiv Eikon database and banks’ annual reports.

The findings suggest that Shari’ah supervisory boards’ attributes negatively influence the value relevance of accounting information while the internal procedures positively impact it. The results also provide evidence of a complementary effect between Shari’ah governance mechanisms at the bank and national levels on the value relevance of accounting information.

IBs’ boards and managers need to be more aware of the role of Shari’ah governance and its impact on value relevance. The observed complementarity between Shari’ah governance systems at the bank and national levels may incite regulators to include comprehensive Shari’ah governance regulations in their best practices. Strengthening collaboration between regulators and the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) is also required to create an enabling environment for investors to rely on the AAOIFI accounting standards in their investment decision-making process.

Existing studies tend to ignore the effectiveness of Shari’ah governance quality at the bank level on value relevance. There is a similar lack of empirical research on the effectiveness of the centralized Shari’ah governance scheme on accounting issues.

The aim of this study is to investigate the quality of voluntary disclosure practices by Shari'ah compliant companies (ShCCs) in Malaysia. The study also examines factors influencing the quality of voluntary disclosures.

Using a weighted disclosure analyses approach, a self‐constructed disclosure checklist was developed to measure the quality of corporate voluntary disclosures (CVDs). The study examines the annual reports of a sample of 76 ShCCs selected from various sectors listed on Bursa Malaysia in the year 2009.

The results indicate that the quality of voluntary disclosures by ShCCs is in overall low consistent with prior studies that gauged the quality of CVDs in Malaysia. The multivariate regression analyses reveal that board size is significant in explaining the quality of CVDs at the 5 percent significance levels. Company size and leverage as control variables are also significant at the 1 and 10 percent significance levels in determining the quality of CVDs by ShCCs. The reduced regression model further indicates that government ownership is highly significant at the 1 percent significance level in explaining the quality of CVD by ShCCs while leverage is significant at the 5 percent levels.

The low level of corporate disclosures by the ShCCs in Malaysia suggests that these companies require awareness on matters relating to the concepts of accountability and full disclosures in becoming accountable to the community. Hence, the Shari'ah Advisory Council of the Securities Commission Malaysia should provide awareness on matters relating to accountability and transparency which could lead to socio economic justice. The commission may also introduce a detailed reporting guideline for the companies to follow.

This study provides useful insights on the disclosure quality of ShCCs in Malaysia which remained largely unexplored. The study also represents the first empirical investigation toward the association between voluntary disclosures by ShCCs and corporate governance attributes in the Malaysian context.

The paper aims to examine the impact of Shari'ah governance quality on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance in Islamic banks.

The study's sample consists of 66 Islamic banks from 14 countries over 2015–2019. The research uses the Heckman model, which is a two-stage estimation method to obtain unbiased estimates, as ESG scores are only observable for 17 Islamic banks in Eikon Refinitiv database at the time of the analysis.

The analysis shows that Shari'ah governance has a beneficial role to achieve ESG performance. The analysis also shows that enhanced profiles of Shari'ah supervisory boards' (SSB) attributes are more efficient than the operational procedures to promote ESG performance. In addition, the analysis shows that enhanced SSBs' attributes strengthen the bank's corporate governance framework, while sound-designed procedures increase the bank's social activities by emphasizing their roles to ensure Shari'ah compliance. Finally, the analysis sheds light on the failure of Shari'ah governance to promote environmental performance.

The existing databases providing companies' ESG-related information still do not offer sufficient data to conduct an international study with a larger sample of Islamic banks (IBs) having ESG scores for a more extended period.

The research provides policy insights to Islamic banks' stakeholders to promote social and governance performance in the Islamic finance industry through improving Shari'ah governance practices. However, raising environmental awareness is imminent among all actors implicated in the Shari'ah governance processes to help overcome the anthropogenic risks.

The research complements the governance-banks' ESG performance literature by examining the role of Shari'ah governance. The research also extends the literature on Islamic banks' sustainability by pointing to the Shari'ah governance failure to enhance environmental performance and thus achieve Maqasid al-Shariah regarding the environment.

The concept of corporate governance is not new for institutions and organizations. The topic came into light after the financial crisis and frauds done by the companies. The topic of Islamic finance also gained momentum. Islamic Financial Services Board, Accounting and Auditing Organization of Islamic Financial Institutions, regulatory authorities of Islamic financial institutions and Islamic financial institutions themselves paid attention to the topic of corporate governance. Governance have critical place in Islam as human beings are answerable to Allah (swt) for acts, deeds, and fulfillment of responsibilities as vicegerent. This chapter focuses on the importance of corporate governance and differences between the corporate governance from conventional and Islamic point of view. How the topic of governance was discussed during the time of Holy Prophet (PBUH), different examples of the countries focusing on corporate governance are shared in this chapter.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the literature on Islamic banking by examining their ethical dimension using transparency, placement of assets, guarantees and participation from Radical Affinity Index.

To this end, a sample of 20 Islamic banks from 13 countries (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Kuwait, Tanzania, Great Britain, Oman, Iraq, Egypt, Bangladesh and Qatar) was used.

The results are robust to ethical effects. The evidence suggests that among Islamic banks, at least some of them could improve their ethical requirements of the Sharia; they obtained lower scores than ethical banks in terms of RAI variables (transparency, placement of assets, guarantees and participation).

It is used a random sample rather than population with the limitations that entails. The variables in the index are based on ethical perspective; then, the index is applied in Islamic banking but with the ethical view limitation.

The Islamic banks have the option to increase their transparency including further information regarding the beneficiaries of the benevolent funds; moreover, it would offer a clearer view about their ethical and social commitment towards society.

Additionally, this paper broadens the scope of the literature by analysing the determinants of Islamic banking around ethical dimensions of financial entities.

Given the relative importance of the Shari’ah supervisory boards (SSBs) in Islamic banks’ (IBs’) performance, this study aims to examine the impact of SSB diversity on IBs’ performance from the stakeholders’ perspective in the context of Pakistan.

Random-effects model and generalized method of moment are used to investigate the impact of SSB diversity on IBs’ performance across a panel data of 22 Islamic banks in Pakistan from 2005 to 2020 inclusive.

The findings of this study show that SSB size, SSB relevant educational background diversity, bank’s size and bank’s stability have a positive impact on IBs’ performance. In contrast, SSB age, nationality and cross-membership diversities have a negative impact on IBs’ performance. Moreover, SSB gender, tenure and general educational diversities have no significant impact on IBs’ performance.

SSB diversity and IBs practices are different across different jurisdictions. This study is conducted on IBs in Pakistan because of data constraints; thus, the results of this study may not be generalizable to other countries' IBs.

In structuring the SSBs’ framework, the regulatory authorities and policymakers should consider mandating an ideal SSB size and hiring relevant qualified members with low cross-membership to improve IBs' performance. Thus, the structure potentially attracts Muslim stakeholders, enhances their satisfaction and improves IBs' performance.

Having diversified members in the SSB, IBs equally benefit both individual and group stakeholders in society. Diversity in SSB members enhances IBs' performance and the social welfare of various stakeholders in society.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical research that examines comprehensively the impact of SSB structural and demographic diversities on IBs' performance in the context of Pakistan. This paper contributes to the unique Shari’ah governance structure in the context of Pakistan. Additionally, this study may serve to assist IBs’ stakeholders in better comprehending the SSB practices of IBs in Pakistan.