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The study aims to investigate the relationship between E-government and corruption. It also examines the moderator role of national culture through Hofstede’s dimensions on the association between E-government and corruption.

In addition to panel regression techniques, the authors use the random forest method to assess the order of importance of all significant variables in determining corruption. The sample of this study consists of 55 countries during 2008–2020 period.

The results show that E-government is negatively correlated with corruption. The authors also find that both economic and cultural variables play an important role in determining corruption. However, religion has no impact on corruption. The results can potentially assist regulators and policy-makers when trying to control corruption as they should take into consideration the cultural background of citizens when making rules and procedures that aim at reducing corruption.

The current study uses random forests model, which allows the regression of variables based on the construction of a multitude of decision trees. The main contribution of using this model compared to the other regression models used in prior studies is to extract the relative importance of each significant variable. More precisely, it evaluates the rank of importance for each significant variable that drives corruption rather than merely identifying variables that drive corruption regardless of their relative importance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the mandatory adoption of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) on firm’s stock liquidity.

Using a random-effects model, this study examines the impact of the mandatory adoption of XBRL (ADOPXBRL) on firm’s stock liquidity of 980 companies pertaining to 13 countries for a period from 2000 to 2016.

This paper finds that the mandatory ADOPXBRL affects negatively and significatively Amihud’s (2002) illiquidity ratio. Therefore, mandatory XBRL adoption enhances the firm’s stock liquidity. In addition, this paper finds that the impact of the mandatory ADOPXBRL on firm’s stock liquidity is more pronounced in civil law countries than in common law countries.

This paper contributes to the literature on the advantage of XBRL especially for the civil law countries by examining the impact of the mandatory ADOPXBRL on firm’s stock liquidity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether corporate governance mechanisms affect the reporting of loan loss provisions by managers in Islamic banks in the Middle East region.

This empirical study uses balanced panel data from 20 Islamic banks, from seven Middle East countries for the period 2007 to 2011. The regression model is estimated using random effects specifications.

The empirical results show that discretionary loan loss provisions (DLLP) are negatively related to board size and the existence of an audit committee. Results also report a positive relationship between sharia board size and DLLP. This indicates that small sharia supervisory boards are more effective than larger ones, which could be due to the higher costs and negative effects of large groups on decision-making. Results also highlight that the existence of scholars with accounting knowledge sitting on the sharia board reduces discretionary behavior. Additional results provide evidence that an external sharia audit committee is also found to reduce discretion in Islamic banks. The conclusions are found to be robust to endogeneity issues and potentially omitted variables.

The findings are potentially useful for regulators and shareholders. Regulators could use the findings to focus on corporate governance mechanisms that restrain earnings management practices in Islamic banks and implement regulations to strengthen them. Additionally, this study gives shareholders further insight which enables them to better monitor the actions of managers and thus increase their control over their investments.

This study provides two contributions to the literature on Islamic banking. First, to the authors’ knowledge, this study is only the second piece of research focused on the impact of corporate governance on earnings management in Islamic banks. Second, the authors have examined the effect of some new corporate governance mechanisms that have not been studied previously in the research literature.

The study aims to examine the effect of multiple directorships on accrual-based earnings management and real earnings management. It analyses whether earnings management practices in the Saudi context increase or decrease with the average number of multiple directorships.

The study uses the approach by Roychowdhury (2006) to capture the level of real earnings management and uses the cross-sectional model by Jones (1991) to measure accrual-based earnings management.

The paper provides partial evidence supporting the “busyness” hypothesis where earnings management practices increase with the number of multiple directorships. The evidence shows that multiple directorships have a positive and significant effect on real earnings management in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. However, we find no significant impact of multiple directorships on accrual-based earnings management.

This is the first study that empirically investigates the relationship between multiple directorships and earnings management in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The paper contributes to the limited literature on multiple directorships in developing countries by examining their impact on opportunistic real earnings management.

This study aims to compare the value relevance of accounting numbers prepared under the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) standards with those produced under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for Takaful companies (TC).

The authors assess the value relevance of accounting numbers using the Easton and Harris (1991) and Ohlson (1995) return and price models. They also use 54 insurance companies from 10 developing countries in Asia and the Middle East from 2006 to 2015.

The analysis shows that book value is significantly related to stock price under AAOIFI and IFRS. It also shows that TC adopting AAOIFI accounting standards have a more significant effect on stock price. This suggests that AAOIFI standards are more value relevant than IFRS.

TC and their stakeholders can use the findings to determine which accounting standards (IFRS or AAOIFI) produce the more relevant accounting information. This study is useful for investors that consider Islamic ethical practices to make their investment decisions for the standards-setting bodies that focus on establishing accounting standards for the Takaful industry.

The authors investigate a new aspect of the topic of value relevance. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, they believe this is the first paper examining the value relevance of TC’ accounting information prepared under AAOIFI and IFRS.

The purpose of this interdisciplinary cross-country study is to investigate the influence of cultural tightness-looseness on money laundering.

The authors rely on tightness-looseness theory as the basis for their predictions. The authors use the Basel Anti Money Laundering Index to operationalize financial crimes. They use dynamic panel data regressions spanning from 2012 to 2018 across 66 countries.

The authors find a positive and significant effect of national culture on money laundering financial crime. This suggests that financial crimes increase in countries with higher levels of cultural looseness orientation. Moreover, the authors show that the absence of violence, control of corruption, political stability and voice and accountability has a significant and negative influence on money laundering financial crime.

Formal institutional factors are not the only factors that can help curb financial crimes, but policy regulators should also consider the degree of cultural tightness-looseness.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first research ever to examine the effects of cultural tightness-looseness on the level of financial crimes.

The authors examine the effect of climate risk on accounting conservatism for a sample of listed companies operating in 26 developing countries.

The authors employ the Climate Risk Index (CRI) developed by Germanwatch to capture the severity of losses due to extreme weather events at the country level. The authors use different approaches to measure firm-level accounting conservatism.

The authors find that greater climate risk leads to a lower level of accounting conservatism. The results hold even after using different estimation methods.

Although the authors' analysis is limited to the period 2007–2016, it could be helpful for standard setters such as International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and International Sustainable Standards Board (ISSB) as they may consider the potential effect of climate risk in their international standards.

The negative impacts of climate risk on the quality of financial reporting as proxied by accounting conservatism could trigger regulators and standard setters to require disclosure of information relating to climate risks and to incorporate climate-related risks in their risk management systems. In addition, for policymakers, incorporating accounting conservatism as a financial quality reporting standard could help promote greater transparency, accuracy and reliability in financial reporting in the context of climate risk.

The authors add to the literature on international differences in accounting conservatism by showing that climate risk significantly affects unconditional and conditional conservatism. The authors' results provide fresh evidence of the dark side of climate change. That is, climate risk is shown to decrease financial reporting quality.

Despite the growing literature on integrated reporting (IR) adoption and the emphasis on integrated thinking capitals, prior research works only focused on the financial and non-financial reporting rather than the cornerstones of IR. In order to fill this gap, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the value relevance of organizational capital (OC) after the mandatory adoption of IR in South Africa over the period 2006–2015.

The authors have used quantitative methods to test the hypotheses. The South African context is unique since the Johannesburg Stock Exchange is the first to mandate listed firms to adopt IR following King III report in March 2010.

The findings provide the first evidence, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, on the positive and significant impact of IR adoption on the value relevance of OC.

The authors contribute to IR literature by providing new insight on the value relevance of one capital from a new perspective addressing the importance of resources as inputs to the business model highlighted by integrated thinking in the IR framework. The findings derive various implications for the International Integrated Reporting Council, managers, decision makers and the research community.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying assumptions of economic development theories that may support or constrain accounting standard-setting strategies related to IFRS adoption and their potential effects on emerging stock markets (ESMs) development. The authors investigate the country-level association between the extent of IFRS adoption and ESMs development.

The empirical analysis is based on a dynamic panel model using the generalized method of moments for 50 emerging economies over a period spanning from 2001 to 2007.

The authors find that a higher level of IFRS adoption affects positively and significantly stock market development (SMD). More specifically, full IFRS adoption for listed firms is substantially associated with SMD. However, the authors find that partial adoption of IFRS might be not only inappropriate and irrelevant, but also significantly harmful to ESMs development. In addition, it is shown that local GAAPs shaped on the basis of IFRS with major changes are at the origin of such counter-intuitive relationships.

This paper has some policy implications for developing countries. In order to enhance ESMs development, it is important to improve financial information quality through full adoption of IFRS. In a global economic system, it is essential to standard-setters as well as market regulators in non-adopter developing countries to require full IFRS adoption.

This paper extends previous work of Larson and Kenny (1996) in establishing relationships between standard-setting strategies faced to IFRS and theories of economic development. The authors investigate the effects of these standard-setting strategies on SMD using a sample of 50 emerging economies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the board structure and process disclosure (henceforth BSPD) level on corporate performance, depending on the Anglophone vs Francophone business culture prevailing in African emerging markets.

The BSPD score is measured by searching 220 annual reports (year ended 2006) for information of 35 items provided by S&P's template in 11 emerging markets in Africa. The empirical model builds on multiple regressions and assumes interaction between the Anglophone/Francophone business culture and BSPD level to affect corporate performance.

African companies from countries having historical links with Great Britain exhibit substantially higher BSPD scores than those from countries having historical links with France. The influence of BSPD level on corporate performance is more pronounced for financial Anglophone African companies than non‐financial Anglophone African companies.

Providing BSPD levels for African emerging markets helps to a better understanding of the board of directors' activity and characteristics that prevail in both Anglophone and Francophone African companies. The implications are potentially useful for regulators, market authorities and standard setters in order to provide new requirements on corporate governance narrative reporting in African emerging markets. BSPD scores obtained for African emerging markets can also serve for comparison with other emerging markets in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

This paper is one of the first to examine the effect of BSPD level on corporate performance in African emerging markers. This study contributes to asserting the role of Anglophone vs Francophone business culture in shaping the level of disclosure on board structure and activity and its influence on corporate performance in Africa.