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The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of the relationship between female representation on the board and forward-looking information disclosures (FLIDs).

The study uses the content analysis to analyze the narrative evidence from the annual financial reports of non-financial Jordanian companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange. The final sample consists of 1,206 firm-year observations during the period 2008-2013.

The study provides evidence that gender diversity on boards positively affects the level of FLIDs. Further to this, the study reveals that family firms disclose more information than non-family firms.

Results of this study could be beneficial for a number of users of financial information such as, regulators, investors, auditors and lenders. The users might consider the findings of this study when they are using the company’s financial information. Consequently, users of this information could be better assisted to make right decisions.

This study contributes to the literature by identifying the role of gender on the level of FLID, particularly on family and non-family, a relatively little researched area.

First, the paper examines the short-term fiscal and budgetary responses of the South Asian governments to the COVID-19 pandemic. Next, it brings out the implications of such responses, focusing on India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The paper is based on multiple secondary data sources, including the viewpoints of experts and government officials. Data are analysed using the ideas of financial resilience.

South Asian governments' response to the pandemic shows a gap in understanding the magnitude of the problem and in developing financial resilience. This paper points out the importance of avoiding austerity, becoming more cautious in accepting lending conditions, rethinking public sector accountability and revitalising mutual collaboration through SAARC for developing financial resilience, both at individual country and regional levels.

The study offers some insights on policy implications for South Asian governments in terms of building financial resilience to deal with future crises.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of CEOs’ characteristics on the level of forward-looking information (FLI) disclosure. In particular, the study examines the effect of CEO age, gender and overconfidence on the disclosure of FLI in Jordan firms.

The study uses a disclosure index to measure the level of FLI disclosure and employs random-effect and panel data regressions to examine the relationship between CEOs’ characteristics and the level of FLI disclosure. The sample consists of 201 non-financial companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange for the period 2008-2013.

The results of the study show that the CEO age has a significant negative relationship with the level of FLI disclosure in annual reports of non-financial Jordanian companies, whereas gender and overconfidence have a significant positive association with FLI disclosure.

The single country context limits the generalisability of the findings.

The results of the study could be beneficial for the users of financial information, such as regulators, investors, auditors and lenders. These users might consider the findings of the study when they are using a company’s financial information. Accordingly, they may seek to extend the investigations and verify such reporting practices and consequently make better decisions. In addition, the findings provide empirical evidence that helps managers in assessing their financial transparency and accountability.

The relationship between CEO’s characteristics and the level of FLI disclosure is still ambiguous. This study contributes to the FLI disclosure literature by identifying the role of CEO characteristics on the level of FLI disclosure. Thus, it offers evidence that the level of FLI disclosure is driven by specific CEO characteristics.

The paper aims to re-interpret the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in limiting the extreme practices in earnings management (EM) by using evidence from large UK companies.

The study has used content analysis and disclosure index to measure the level of CSR. The authors measured EM based on discretionary accruals by using cross-sectional version of the modified Jones model.

The findings of this study reveal that companies with a higher commitment to CSR activities are less likely to manage earnings through accruals.

This study shed more light on the potential impact of CSR on earnings management in the context of the UK. Prior research on the impact of CSR on earnings management has used exclusively CSR scores, provided by CSR score indices. The manual measurement used in this study for CSR (disclosure index/content analysis) is considered to provide a more detailed and precise measure.

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.

This study aims to examine the effect of CEO’s personal characteristics on earnings management (EM) practices.

The authors use panel data for 201 non-financial companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) for the period 2008-2013. The authors use random effect models to test the hypothesis of this study and extent the analysis to family versus non-family.

The study finds a positive relation between CEO’s overconfidence and EM practices in Jordan. Moreover, the findings reveal that managers in family companies are more likely to engage in EM practices than non-family companies. The findings shed more light on the intricate relationship between CEO’s characteristics, the decision-making process and financial reporting.

Results of this study could be beneficial for a number of users of financial information such as investors, auditors, regulators, lenders, as well other players in the capital market to make right decisions.

A literature review finds that much less studies have investigated the relationship between EM practices and personal CEO characteristics (gender and overconfidence) in developing countries such as Jordan. Furthermore, no study yet has examined the influence of CEO age on EM practices. The authors extend previous literature by providing empirical evidence about effect of some personal CEO’s characteristics on EM practices.

Very little is known about the effect of dividend announcements on stock prices in Nigeria, despite the country’s unique institutional environment. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to provide empirical evidence on this issue by investigating the stock price reaction to cash dividends by companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Standard event study methodology, using the market model, is employed to determine the abnormal returns surrounding the cash dividend announcement date. Abnormal returns are also calculated employing the market-adjusted return model as a robustness check and to test the sensitivity of the results to β estimation. The authors also examine the interaction between cash dividends and earnings by estimating a regression model where announcement abnormal returns are a function of both dividend changes and earnings changes relative to stock price.

The study find support for the signaling hypothesis: dividend increases are associated with positive stock price reaction, while dividend decreases are associated with negative stock price reaction. Companies that do not change their dividends experience insignificant positive abnormal returns. The results also suggest that both dividends and earnings are informative, but dividends contain information beyond that contained in earnings.

The sample for the study includes only cash dividend announcements occurring without other corporate events (such as interim dividends, stock splits, stock dividends, and mergers and acquisitions) during the event study period. The small firm-year observations may limit the validity of generalizations from these conclusions.

The findings are useful to researchers, practitioners and investors interested in companies listed on the Nigerian stock market for their proper strategic decision making. In particular, the results can be used to encourage transparency and good governance practices in the Nigerian stock market.

This paper adds to the very limited research on the stock market reaction to cash dividend announcements in Nigeria; it is the first of its kind employing a unique cash dividends data.

This paper aims to understand household’s latent behaviour decision-making in accessing financial services. In this analysis, the determinants of the choice of the pre-entry Mzansi account by consumers in South Africa is looked at.

In this study, 102 variables, grouped in the following categories: basic literacy, understanding financial terms, targets for financial advice, desired financial education and financial perception. Using a computationally efficient variable selection algorithm, variables that can satisfactorily explain the choice of a Mzansi account were studied.

The Mzansi intervention is appealing to individuals with basic but insufficient financial education. Aspirations seem to be very influential in revealing the choice of financial services, and, to this end, Mzansi is perceived as a pre-entry account not meeting the aspirations of individuals aiming to climb up the financial services ladder. It was found that Mzansi holders view the account mainly as a vehicle for receiving payments, but, on the other hand, are debt-averse and inclined to save. Hence, although there is at present no concrete evidence that the Mzansi intervention increases access to finance via diversification (i.e. by recruiting customers into higher-level accounts and services), this analysis shows that this is very likely to be the case.

The issue of demand-side constraints on access to finance have been largely been ignored in the theoretical and empirical literature. This paper undertakes some preliminary steps in addressing this gap.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an additional insight into the dividend puzzle by investigating the field practice of dividend policy in an emerging market such as Nigeria. It also aims to contribute to the literature on industry-related dividend effect by examining whether managerial views on dividend policy vary between financial and non-financial firms.

The study employs semi-structured interviews with the financial managers of 21 Nigerian listed firms. The interviewees were divided into two broad groups of financial vs non-financial firms based on the industry classification of the firms.

The findings suggest that, despite differences in institutional environment, the dividend-setting process in Nigerian companies is similar in many extents to those in the USA and other developed markets. Nigerian companies exhibit dividend conservatism and typically focus on current earnings, stability of earnings and availability of cash when determining their current dividend levels. However, unlike in prior studies, the interviewees suggest that their companies do not have a target payout ratio; instead, they target the dividend per share when determining the disbursement level. Nevertheless, views regarding these issues vary significantly between financial and non-financial firms.

This paper adds to the extant literature that has examined the behavioural aspects of dividend policy using interviews, especially in the context of less-developed markets such as Nigeria. The study also updates and extends prior evidence on an industry-related effect on managerial perceptions of dividend policy.

This paper aims to investigate whether firm-level corporate governance has an influence on the equity financing patterns in an emerging economy such as Bangladesh.

The regression framework uses a questionnaire survey-based corporate governance index (CGI) comprising five dimensions – ownership structures, shareholder rights, independence and responsibilities of the board and management, financial reporting and disclosures and responsibility towards stakeholders. In addition, a number of semi-structured interviews have been carried out with the relevant stakeholders.

The results suggest a statistically significant positive relationship between CGI and equity capital and, thus, confirm the prediction of the agency theory.

This study does not address endogeneity and reverse causality issues with respect to the relationship between CGI and equity finance.

Firms should improve their legal compliance and voluntary activism in corporate governance matters to ensure increased access to equity finance.

This study is among the first to examine the relationship between overall corporate governance quality and equity finance of a firm from the perspective of a bank-based emerging economy.