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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between corporate governance and earnings management in US context and provide further insights on the effects of board of directors' characteristics on earnings management.

The paper uses a sample of three groups of US firms; where firms with relatively high negative, firms with relatively high positive, and those with low levels of discretionary accruals in the year 2004 are examined. Descriptive statistics, univariate analysis, multivariate analysis, board of directors' characteristics, and possible relationships between corporate governance variables and earnings management proxy provide the basis for discussion.

Firms with annually elected boards, small size boards, 100 percent independent nominating committees, and 100 percent independent compensation committees have more negative discretionary accruals. However, firms with 75‐90 percent independent board or firms with a board size of between nine and 12 have higher positive discretionary accruals.

Certain board characteristics may be the important factors associated with constraining the propensity of managers to engage in earnings management.

Results are limited by the accuracy of the models applied to isolate discretionary accruals. Additionally, the direction diverse of discretionary accruals may differ with selecting a time series of three or more years as a base for the analysis.

In contrast to prior literature, where board composition is defined as an insiders‐ or outsiders‐controlled board, this paper classifies board composition into seven discrete categories, using the same seven categories employed by Institutional Shareholder Services in evaluating and assigning corporate governance quotient scores to firms. The paper's major contributions to the existing literature are its findings that income‐increasing and income‐decreasing discretionary accruals have a different relationship with corporate governance practices and its expansion of the scope of corporate governance from board independence and audit committee independence to other corporate governance characteristics. This paper provides evidence that supports US regulators' initiatives that stronger corporate governance mechanisms provide greater monitoring of the financial accounting process and may be the important factors in improving the integrity of financial reporting.

The purpose of this paper is to constitute and test a framework of factors that might affect auditors' perceptions of the work needed to audit internet‐based financial reports (IBFR).

The paper conducts a questionnaire on practicing auditors from audit firms in Egypt in the year 2007 to examine their perceptions of the work needed to audit IBFR and factors that might affect their perceptions.

The paper portrays total auditors' perceptions as a function of four dimensions. First, auditor personal‐specific characteristics (consisting of three variables); second, audit fieldwork‐specific characteristics (containing one variable); third, audit firm‐specific characteristics (comprising five variables); and fourth, environmental‐specific characteristics (consisting of four variables). The analysis of empirical study provides evidence of a significant association between auditors' perceptions of the work needed to audit IBFR and the following factors: auditors' knowledge of inherent risks of internet reporting, quality systems, audit tenure, legal form of client, client industry group, user needs of financial information, and legislation environment.

The scope of the survey is limited to a small number of potential participants. Accounting and auditing standards setting environment in Egypt may restrict the generalization of the findings of this paper.

This paper enriches the literature on internet reporting and audit tasks by exploring factors that might affect auditors' perceptions of the work needed to audit IBFR. The paper provides evidence that supports Egyptian regulators' initiatives to issue guidelines that cover IBFR, and auditors' responsibilities and the work needed in the audit of IBFR in electronic business environments in an attempt to improve the integrity of financial reporting.

This chapter provides insight into the professionalisation of women football in the Arab region. In a traditionally conservative geographic area where men's football has only recently turned professional or remains semi-professional, the chances for the professionalisation of women football appear dim; yet some countries are already taking progressive strides. This chapter explores the practical and cultural barriers to women football professionalisation and provides examples of success stories, current efforts in the wake of global trends and the resilience of female footballers in the region. In doing so, the chapter challenges misconceptions and critically examines assumptions around what professionalisation ‘looks like’ within the context presented. The research takes a multi-sited approach, presenting evidence of the women footballing environment from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It utilises an intersectional and transnational lens for analysing women football experiences as shaped by a culmination of the athletes' gender, religion and cultural expectations and as situated within the international women footballing context. The author uses her professional field experience with over 18 years of involvement in elite Arab women football, connecting personal experiences to the study and providing richer interpretive opportunities to the data provided. Her professional participation as a local expert and researcher uniquely positions this study for engagement on the field and sense-making reflective practices and analysis. The study aims to further understandings on women football experiences from an area where there is a great dearth of scholarship on the matter and even less so from local researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the theme of this edition and to draw out the issues raised by the papers.

The editorial provides a context for the subject and examines some of the issues in auditing that have developed over the period since Journal of Applied Accounting Research (JAAR) was first published.

The editorial highlights the difficulty with some academic research and calls for a wider remit in auditing and accounting research in line with JAAR's editorial policy.

The editorial raises issues which are relevant both to academic and practitioner accountants and allows the reader to consider what research work may be possible and is required.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the global economy and, thus, the global construction industry. This paper aims to study the impact of COVID-19 on construction project performance in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This study adopted a qualitative and exploratory approach to investigate the impact of COVID-19 and its policies on project performance in the UAE construction industry in critical areas of the project management body of knowledge (e.g. schedule, cost, resources and contracts). Semi-structured interview questions were asked from ten construction professional to obtain valuable insights into the pandemic’s effects on the UAE construction industry and the effectiveness of policies implemented to rectify the damage and identify the industry’s new normal.

The findings indicate that the construction industry faced several challenges such as schedule delays, disrupted cashflows, delayed permits, approvals and inspections, travel restrictions, serious health and safety concerns, material and equipment shortages, among others which hindered the timely delivery of construction projects. It also indicates that efforts made by the government institutions and the construction industry of the UAE such as economic support programs, digitization of processes, fee and fine waivers, health facilities, among other statutory relaxations proved effective in supporting the construction industry against the adverse effects of the pandemic.

The research findings are limited to the literature review and ten semi-structured interviews seeking an expert’s opinion from industry professionals working in the UAE construction industry. The research team did not get access to project documents, contracts and project progress reports which may be required to validate the interview findings, and to perform an in-depth analysis quantifying the impact of COVID 19 on construction projects performance, which is a limitation of this research.

The implication is that, owing to the imposed lockdowns and strict precautionary measures to curb the rapid spread of the pandemic, smooth execution of the construction project across the country was affected. The government institutions and stakeholders of the construction projects introduced and implemented various techniques and solutions which effectively handled the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the construction industry of the UAE.

This study has identified the challenges faced by the construction industry of the UAE in the context of the management of project schedule, project cost, construction contracts, health and safety of construction employees and other related aspects of the construction projects. This study also identified the techniques and solutions adopted by various public and private institutions of the country and their implications on construction projects. Therefore, this study provides guidelines for policymakers and future research studies alike.

This study explores some central questions related to the connections between social media marketing efforts (SMMEs) and brand loyalty by seeking to understand the mediating role of social media customer brand engagement (CBE) in the airline context.

The research model was examined empirically by targeting 360 consumers who follow Royal Jordanian Airlines on Facebook pages. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data collected.

Using the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) theory and customer engagement model as the theoretical foundations, this study confirms that SMMEs are a strong predictor and play a vital role in developing and building social media customer engagement and brand loyalty. This study also found that the cognitive aspect of CBE is a key driver in enhancing brand loyalty. Furthermore, cognitive social media CBE positively mediated the relationship between SMMEs and brand loyalty. Contrary to expectations, emotional CBE had no mediating effect on the relationship between SMMEs and brand loyalty.

This study contributes to CBE literature by adding SMMEs as antecedents. In addition, the findings of this study add the mediation effect of the cognitive component of customer engagement, through which SMMEs influence brand loyalty.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of the determinants (pricing, type of structure, Shariah auditing, Shariah risk and Shariah documentation) and the sukuk legitimacy among Islamic financial institutions using a qualitative approach. The paper further explained the significance of the determinants on legitimacy, evaluated the relationship between sukuk characteristics and sukuk legitimacy and examined the moderating effect of Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB) on the relationship.

The study used a purposive sampling technique to select the target respondents required for the survey (semi-structured interview). This technique is applied by selecting members of SSBs among Islamic financial institutions. A total number of ten members are selected as the sample size for the study based on their experience and basic knowledge of Fiqh Al-Mua’malat and its application in Islamic financial institutions.

The findings revealed that the determinants have a significant impact on the sukuk legitimacy, meaning that there is a positive and significant relationship between the determinants and the sukuk legitimacy. In addition, this study indicates the empirical evidence of the moderating effect of SSB on the relationship between the determinants and the sukuk legitimacy.

This study has added to the literature by examining the determinants of sukuk legitimacy while evaluating the moderating effect of SSB on the relationship. Besides, this might add benefits to the numerous Islamic financial institutions relating to the amendment of its regulatory frameworks with the view to pushing the sukuk market investors to move toward asset-backed structure. In addition, the SSB in central banks must also focus its attention regarding the sukuk legitimacy and its application among the various Islamic financial institutions.

This study has added a new discussion to the body of knowledge, i.e. examining the sukuk legitimacy and its relationship with sukuk determinants; hence, an approach that is not widely discussed in the previous studies. Furthermore, conducting such research in the field of Islamic finance provides novelty in the literature among both emerging and developed economies including Malaysia. This is because to the best knowledge of the researchers, there was no empirical study (within the literature) that combined these variables and evaluated their empirical significance. Accordingly, this would enlighten the Islamic Ummah and propel the society’s intensity toward contributing to knowledge and might further provide clarification on the determinants and the sukuk legitimacy to prospective scholars, precisely on the moderating effect of SSB on the relationship between determinants and legitimacy of sukuk.

The purpose of this study is to apply the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in predicting the intention to participate in family takaful schemes (FTSs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). One area of concern for takaful operators is their untapped market and lower market share compared to those of their conventional insurance counterparts. It is possible that the investigation of direct and indirect (belief based) measures of TPB could shed some light on these concerns and possibly offer some assistance to takaful operators.

Interrelationships among attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral controls (PBCs) and intention to participate in FTSs were examined. The relationships between behavioral beliefs on attitudes, normative beliefs on subjective norm and control beliefs on PBC were also assessed to fully identify the structures underlying factors measuring intentions. The respondents consisted of 175 Muslims in the UAE. Data were collected using an online survey and analyzed using SPSS.

This study found that attitudes, subjective norms and PBCs contribute to the prediction of the intention to participate in FTSs. This study used standard multiple regressions to identify an extensive set of specific belief composites this can be used in the prediction of direct measures of TPB and the intention to participate in FTS.

The findings of this study provide useful information to takaful marketers on how to develop marketing strategies to increase FTS participation. This study suggests that informative and persuasive promotions can be used to improve the penetration rate of FTSs in the UAE.

This study provides insights into previously unaddressed FTS participation in the UAE. Prior work on determining FTS participation has not been applied to both direct and indirect measures of TPB to understand the phenomenon.