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This research paper investigates the economic impact of China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative on its historical trade partner, Egypt, within a landscape shaped by global interconnectedness.

The paper employs an augmented gravity model with a random-effects estimator and robust standard errors to analyze the impact of the OBOR initiative on China–Egypt bilateral trade from 1960 to 2022.

The findings reveal a significant increase in trade volume following the implementation of OBOR. The model confirms the continued importance of gross domestic product (GDP) and geographic proximity in facilitating trade. Additionally, the research highlights Egypt’s strategic positioning within the OBOR due to its location and existing infrastructure, such as the Suez Canal.

These results offer valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders seeking to optimize bilateral trade strategies and strengthen economic cooperation under the OBOR framework.

This study contributes to the existing literature by providing a fresh perspective on the impact of OBOR, employing a robust econometric approach and focusing on a specific yet crucial regional trade relationship.

This study aims to revisit the relationship between Shariah-compliant firms and earnings management. Specifically, the authors examine whether Shariah-certified firms have lower earnings management than non-Shariah-certified firms and how often a firm must hold its certification to observe considerably reduced earnings management. This study also explores how senior management ethnic dualism affects the association of Shariah certification and earnings management.

The authors analyze the hypothesized association between Shariah certification and earnings management using a panel regression model and several robustness tests, including the Heckman selection model. The sample consists of 547 nonfinancial firms listed on the Bursa Malaysia stock exchange, with 5,478 firm-year observations over the 2001–2016 sample period.

Shariah certification is found to mitigate earnings management, particularly for firms that consistently retain their Shariah status. The longer firms retain their Shariah certification continually, the lower the earnings management. Additionally, the results indicate that the negative impact of Shariah certification on earnings management is driven by ethnic duality when a specific ethnic group dominates the top management.

Firms’ commitment to religious-based screening and continuation of certification plays a significant role in improving earnings quality. Firms are committed to abiding by the Shariah code of conduct instead of using the Shariah status for reputation purposes to attract investors.

For investors, the continuous compliance status is a crucial indicator of a firm’s commitment to comply with Shariah principles and to mitigate earnings management. Regarding policy implications, Shariah-compliance guidelines can constrain earnings manipulation, especially among firms lacking ethnic diversity.

The study shows that Shariah certification must be maintained consecutively to reduce earnings management. Shariah certification’s governance function is crucial in ethnically homogeneous firms, primarily when one ethnic group dominates the senior management.

This study aims to assess the board of directors’ effectiveness in curbing earnings management (EM) in Jordan, a country where Islamic religious values strongly influence corporate practices.

Using a sample of 51 Amman Stock Exchange-listed firms from 2012 to 2022, generalised least squares regression is used to examine the association between board characteristics and EM.

Most board characteristics do not significantly affect EM. Interestingly, board activity is significantly and positively associated with EM, suggesting that the board’s monitoring function has been relegated to a secondary role.

Formal corporate governance mechanisms may prove ineffective, as their effectiveness in limiting EM is undermined by informal rules.

Regulators should adapt corporate governance rules to the context in which they are embedded. Greater attention to religious dynamics could improve board oversight effectiveness.

This study provides a new perspective to analyse the relationship between corporate governance and EM. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is among the first studies to explore this issue within the context of Islamic countries.

Prior studies on blockholders involvement in earnings management behavior have given rise to alignment and entrenchment perspectives. The alignment perspective states that blockholders are an effective control to reduce earnings management behavior. In contrast, the entrenchment perspective states that blockholders act opportunistically and encourage earnings management behavior. Firms in Indonesia generally have concentrated shares, which is probably in line with the entrenchment perspective. Therefore, this study aims to examine the influence of blockholders on earnings management and the role of religiosity as a moderator of the influence of blockholders on earnings management.

This study uses multiple linear and multi-group regression to analyze 2,238 firm-year observations for firms listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange period 2015–2021. Multi-group regression is used to test the effect of religiosity on the relationship between blockholders and earnings management.

The finding of this study is that religiosity can mitigate the involvement of blockholders in earnings management, where blockholders positively influence earnings management in non-religious but not religious firms. This finding is expected to solve the agency problem between management with shareholders and the majority with minority shareholders.

Firms should apply religious values in their business activities to prevent or minimize profit manipulation. Another implication is that investors can glance at Sharia stocks when investing because they have lower earnings management or higher-quality financial reports.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study may be the first to investigate the role of religiosity by comparing the effect of blockholders on earnings management between religious and non-religious firms. This study proves that religiosity is a new alternative to mitigating blockholders involvement in earning management and agency problems.

The present study aims to assess the key institutional settings for earnings management (EM) in emerging economies (EE). The unique social, cultural and regulatory environment of EE provides a relevant framework for the review.

The study combines systematic literature review (SLR) with bibliometric analysis to analyse 251 articles extracted from the Scopus database, covering the period from 2001 to 2023. Further, cluster analysis using bibliographic coupling of highly cited articles is undertaken to ascertain key themes on EM in EE.

The study deciphers the influence of institutional transitions and differences in EE on (1) ownership structures, (2) the efficacy of accounting, auditing and governance reforms, (3) environmental and social disclosures and (4) audit quality at the firm level in defining the EM practices in these economies. It also identifies region/country-wise institutional similarities and divergences across the EE that drive the EM practices in these economies.

The key findings of the review provide essential guidelines for policy formulation concerning rationalization of the ownership structures, strengthening infrastructure relating to accounting and auditing practices and formalizing social and environmental practices and disclosures for effectively constraining EM in EE. The review also identifies key factors to be considered by potential investors in EE.

The study is one of its kind as it identifies unique country-specific institutional drivers for EM in EE and highlights region/country-wise resemblances and differences in the key institutional determinants of EM.