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This paper aims to investigate the influence of company-specific attributes on capital structure decisions of Islamic banks (IBs) in Gulf Cooperation council (GCC) countries during the period 2009-2011.

To improve the econometric estimates’ efficiency, the paper uses the generalized least square (GLS) regression model to increase the levels of freedom and reduce collinearity.

The empirical results indicate that bank size, liquidity and corporate age are positively associated with the leverage ratio of GCC IBs, supporting the trade-off theory. Inconsistent with theoretical predictions, it is found that the profitability, tangibility and growth have positive insignificant relationship with the level of leverage, suggesting these determinants are not important in capital structure decisions. Furthermore, gross domestic product (GDP) and non-debt tax shield have negative effects on the leverage ratio and significant for GDP.

Overall, the evidence provided in the study highlights the significance of company-specific characteristics in determining and affecting the capital structure decisions of IBs in GCC countries. It is useful to use these variables in the analysis of IBs’ capital structure in the GCC region before the financial crisis in 2007. One limitation for this study is that the sample is restricted to only the Islamic banking sector. Future research could include all Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) operating within the Gulf region. Second, the study only concentrates on GCC countries to the neglect of other countries. Finally, the study controls for the country level only and does not account for firm factors. Future research could consider all these limitations. Another possible avenue is by examining other variables, such as corporate governance mechanisms.

Despite that most previous studies investigated the determinants of the capital structure of financial conventional industries, research on Islamic banking is almost non-existent. Moreover, the extant literature on Islamic finance has been theoretically explored, and the empirical research regarding capital structure is still in the infancy stage. Accordingly, it is evident that based on the Islamic trade-off perspective, theoretical hypotheses and empirical findings provide a novel addition to the capital structure theory for IFIs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between board structure (consisting of board size, board composition, CEO role duality and chairman composition), investment account holders (IAHs) and social contribution and the bank performance in one of the fastest-growing industries, Islamic banking.

A generalized least square (GLS) regression model was used to investigate such relationship applying data from a sample of 40 Islamic banks operating in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries over the period of 2008 until 2011.

The results show that both size and composition of the board have a negative effect on bank performance. On the other hand, the separation of CEO and chairman roles and the IAHs have no effect, while the chairman independence has a positive impact. As for the control variables, bank size positively influences bank performance whereas leverage has a negative effect. Zakah and gross domestic product produce no significant effect on bank performance.

Even though the model has explained the significant part of the variation in performance, there are other factors considered as noise in the model which are unexplained due to the lack of data. As such, other mechanisms of corporate governance (CG) comprising attributes of the remuneration and nominating committees and ownership structure may be used in future research. The sample size is also limited; thus, in future research, the sample size could be increased by including Islamic banks operating in all Middle East countries.

The results suggest that to yield a better bank performance, Islamic banks should enhance the effectiveness of CG through the board of directors (BODs), whereby any decisions made by the BODs would lead to greater investors’ confidence in the market. The results suggest that policymakers should impose new mechanisms that could impact the effectiveness and compliance of BODs on the code of CG and guidelines of micro-finance, in general, and among Islamic banks, in particular. The community also has the right to know up to what extent are the Islamic banks are in compliance with Shariah principles and rules and the impact of their transactions on the society’s welfare.

BODs’ failures are the primary reason for the recent financial collapses, and Islamic banks are not spared from these events. Even though many studies have examined the influence of BODs effectiveness on the performance of conventional banking industry over time, studies on the Islamic financial institutions are quite scarce. In addition, the results obtained by the studies on conventional banks may not be applicable to Islamic banks. This is because the BODs of Islamic banks discharge their responsibilities and duties along with the existence of the Shariah supervisory board (a multi-layer structure), which is quite different from the CG structure in conventional banks that is dependent on the BODs (a single-layer). Therefore, this research attempts to fill the gap in the literature by addressing this issue in the Islamic banking industry by using a stakeholder theory based on Islamic perspective which has not been used yet in previous studies.