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The purpose of this paper is to explore whether any discrepancy exists between the disclosed in SSB reports of Islamic banks and the disclosure index which was based on stakeholders’ expectation.

This study uses contents analysis as the research method to explore Shariâ’ah audit reporting practices of Islamic Banks.

The study finds that the level of disclosures overall by IFIs in the sample is rather low compared to the stakeholder expectations.

This paper has important implication for policy makers as it contribute to the debate on that uniform disclosure standards across the globe need to be implemented to ensure a uniform level of disclosure by Islamic banks.

This study is amongst the few studies that examine and explore the nature and extent of Shari’ah Supervisory Board in Islamic banks.

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between accounting conservatism and executive compensation-performance sensitivity with a view to identify the influence of accounting conservatism on the efficiency of executive compensation contracts.

This study uses multiple regression models based on the approach of Iyengar and Zampelli (2010), Clarkson et al. (2011) and Huang and Kisgen (2013) with the data from all of China’s listed non-financial firms over the period of 10 years to test the relationship between accounting conservatism and the sensitivity of executive compensation-performance.

This study finds a positive association between executive compensation and accounting-based measure of performance. More importantly, it reveals that conservatism has a positive relation with the executive compensation-performance sensitivity after controlling for a number of firm-specific factors and control variables. This study shows that the sensitivity of executive compensation to firm performance is higher for firms with higher accounting conservatism.

This is one of the few studies to examine the relationship between accounting conservatism and executive compensation-performance sensitivity. It provides supportive evidence to the argument that accounting conservatism, being an efficient governance mechanism, can help mitigate information risk and moral risk for agency problems.

To identify the applicability of social auditing as an approach of engaging stakeholders in assessing and reporting on corporate sustainability and its performance.

Drawing upon the framework of AA1000 and the social auditing studies, this paper links stakeholder engagement, social auditing and corporate sustainability with a view to applying dialogue‐based social auditing to address corporate sustainability.

This paper identifies a “match” between corporate sustainability and social auditing, as both aim at improving the social, environmental and economic performance of an organisation, considering the well‐being of a wider range of stakeholders and requiring the engagement of stakeholders in the process. This paper suggests that social auditing through engaging stakeholders via dialogue could be applied to build trusts, identify commitment and promote co‐operation amongst stakeholders and corporations.

This research requires further empirical research into the practicality of social auditing in addressing corporate sustainability and the determination of the limitations of dialogue‐based social auditing.

Social auditing has been identified as a useful mechanism of balancing differing interests among stakeholders and corporations in a democratic business society. The application of social auditing in developing and achieving corporate sustainability has apparently practical implications.

This paper examines the applicability of dialogue‐based social auditing in helping business to move towards sustainability. Social auditing as a process of assessing and reporting on corporate social and environmental performance through engaging stakeholders via dialogue could be applied to build trusts, identify commitment and promote cooperation amongst stakeholders and corporations.

The emergence of lease markets in Eastern Europe provides a new menu of opportunities for inward foreign leasing investment by Western Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). The Eastern European markets, like other emerging markets, exhibit high expected returns as well as high volatility.

Illustrates the growth of foreign investment in China, which is most often dealt with through Chinese‐foreign equity joint ventures and discusses the business issues involved. Traces the development of the Chinese accounting system, which is now largely in line with international standards, and identifies four accounting issues for foreign partners in joint ventures. Warns that the evaluation of a proposition must take into account the different accounting standards applied to previous accounts, the time needed to get an investment running effectively and possible legal problems in the home country from personal favour. Points out that the consolidation of joint venture accounts is not straightforward and recommends that the accounting rules which apply to contracts should be specified.

In the past two decades, many emerging economies have been witnessed the strong growth of their life insurance industry. While research in the demand for life insurance has attracted much attention since the 1960s, most studies have focused on cross‐country studies or well‐established markets in developed countries. As a result of cross‐national variations in life insurance consumption, it has been argued in the literature that factors shaping the demand for life insurance are complex and varied from one country to another. This paper aims to examine key determinants of the demand for life insurance in China with a view to explaining the rapid growth of the life insurance industry in China since its economic reform in 1978. Empirical investigation using a time series data analysis has shown that the main factors which have influenced people in China to purchase life insurance products are directly associated with the successful economic reform leading people to progress to higher layers of economic security, the increase in the level of education and the change in social structure. However, this research has not found a negative effect of inflation on life insurance consumption, even China experienced high inflation in the mid‐1990s.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of audit committee meeting frequency in Chinese listed companies.

A multiple linear regression model, derived from the logarithmic model proposed by Raghunandan and Rama, is used to examine the determinants and an unbalanced panel data fixed effects model was used for robust tests.

Based on 912 year‐firm observations, the authors found that audit committee meeting frequency was negatively associated with the proportion of shares owned by a majority shareholder and the number of audit committee meetings is less in stated‐owned firms than privately‐owned firms. Both audit committee and firm size were found to be positively associated with the frequency and there was a negative relationship between the proportion of independent directors on a board of directors and the number of audit committee meetings in China. However, no evidence was found of the associations of the frequency with the proportion of directors who are accounting experts on the audit committee, the CEO‐Chairman duality, management ownership, board size, BIG4 and profitability.

This is the first paper to present empirical evidence on the determinants of audit committee meeting frequency in Chinese listed companies. The paper looks into the impact of firm ownership on the meeting frequency in China and finds that the number of audit committee meetings is less in stated‐owned listed firms than privately‐owned listed firms.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to empirically evaluate the effectiveness of China's 2005 shareholding reform and investigate the relationship of the changes of state-owned shareholdings and the largest shareholdings with corporate performance.

Methodology/approach – This study uses a sample of 470 listed firms that were subject to China's 2005 shareholding reform with data from 2004 and 2006. First, we examine whether the reform has reduced state-owned shareholdings measured by ownership concentration and the largest shareholdings through comparing shareholder structures of the reformed listed companies prior to and after the reform. Second, regression analysis was used to explore the relationship between the change of ownership concentration and largest shareholdings and corporate performance of Chinese listed firms.

Findings – This study reveals the effectiveness of the shareholding reform as both ownership concentration and largest shareholdings decrease. This study presents evidence suggesting a positive impact of China's 2005 shareholding reform on corporate performance and endorsing the notion that state-owned shareholdings are detrimental to corporate performance.

Research limitations – ROE is used as a measure of corporate performance, which is influenced by the rules of accounting standards and corporate behavior.

Originality/value – This study provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of China's shareholding reform and shows a positive relation between the reduction of ownership concentration and corporate performance. This is the first study to examine this relation using the cases of Chinese listed companies. The findings have implications to regulatory bodies, public listed firms and investors in China in terms of corporate governance and shareholding configuration.

The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) introduced in the UK in 1992 has provided the framework for the completion of a large number of capital projects managed by public sector bodies. The objectives of the PFI included the promotion of greater efficiency and cost control in the management of large‐scale projects, the transfer of risks to the sector or organisation best able to manage them and the use of management skills available in different sectors of the economy to improve the effectiveness of publicly funded projects. Success and failure cases of the PFI discussed in this paper give some implications to policy‐makers in emerging economies in various areas including risk management, cost of capital measurement and transfer of risks. Overall, there is a need for a greater focus on long term budgets in making decisions about PFI and other methods of public service provision. The question of long term planning is likely to be more complicated in emerging economies with rapid growth rates. For many emerging economies, PFI is a new premise with fundamental differences from conventional public finance, not only in principles, but also in the contract process, risk consideration and decision making.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of Islam on corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) in Islamic financial institutions (IFIs).

Using the content analysis approach, the paper examines the influences of Islam on CSRD by looking into the annual reports of 21 conventional financial institutions (CFIs) and 21 IFIs operating in the Gulf region.

The results show significant differences in the level and the extent of the disclosure between IFIs and CFIs, largely due to the disclosure made by IFIs of religions related themes and information, including Shari'a supervisory board reports, the “Zakah” and charity donation, and free interest loan.

This paper's contribution to the literature is twofold: the paper reveals the actual difference of CSRD between IFIs and non‐IFIs, by comparing the disclosures made by IFIs and non‐IFIs; and the paper identifies the extent of influence of Islam upon the CSRD of IFIs.