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This paper aims to examine the impact of corporate governance (CG) on sustainability disclosure (SD) from the perspectives of resource dependence, agency and stakeholder theories in the context of Jordan.

The analyses were based on 405 observations from non-financial firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange, spanning the period of 2014–2018. The CG that influences SD was examined using panel data regression models.

The results of the current study show a positive and significant relationship between the extent of SG and the audit committee and board of directors’ effectiveness. In terms of ownership structure, both institutional and foreign ownerships yielded an insignificant relationship with the extent of SDs.

The analyses have implications for practitioners, policymakers, top management and corporate executives. Firms are encouraged to restructure their board of directors to enhance the effectiveness of the board to better monitor and support better SD.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the determinants of SD in Jordan firms. This paper adopted a newly developed global reporting initiative-based reporting index that identifies companies with good sustainability practices. This adds value to the existing sustainability literature.

Although the effect of culture on financial reporting practices has been addressed in earlier studies, the existing empirical evidence totally neglects an important dimension in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets: tribal culture. The authors fill this gap in the literature using Oman as the setting.

The authors collect data for 583 company-year observations for companies listed on the Omani capital market, 2007–2014. The authors run a two-way fixed effects panel data regression to test their hypothesis.

Tribal culture has a negative effect on financial reporting quality (FRQ), measured by both accrual-based and real earnings management. The findings are robust under a variety of sensitivity analyses. In additional analysis, the findings confirm that tribal culture negatively moderates the effectiveness of internal monitoring mechanisms and is associated with low-quality auditing. Further, the authors find tribal culture associated with delayed financial information.

To the authors' knowledge, the study makes several contributions to the literature because it is the first archival evidence linking tribal culture with FRQ. It is the first to show that the effect of corporate governance mechanisms on FRQ is moderated by tribal culture. The study has valuable implications for policymakers, regulators, boards of directors and auditors in GCC countries as well as in countries with similar cultures.

This paper aims to identify the effects of some corporate governance (CG) mechanisms and Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB) strength on the voluntary use of internal audit function (IAF) by Islamic banks in Sudan.

Based on Agency and Stakeholder Theories, this paper hypothesizes that IAF is likely used by Islamic banks with strong CG and Shariah governance systems. To test these hypotheses, we examine the annual reports of 14 Sudanese banks for a period of five years following the global financial crisis in 2008, using logistic regression analysis.

This paper found that IAF is likely used by Islamic banks with higher CG disclosure (CGD) and strong SSB. While the findings showed that the audit committee and IAF are likely used as substitutes, this paper also indicated that there is a negative association between levels of Unrestricted Investment Account Holders’ (UIAH) ownership and the use of IAF. However, the evidence of this study did not find any impact for the board of directors’ strength on the use of IAF.

There may be better measures for some variables in the study model. Additionally, the restriction of the study sample to Sudanese banks may limit the generalization of the results. Therefore, future studies may refine the model and expand the sample to Islamic banks in other countries.

This paper highlights the importance of IAF for Shariah governance in Islamic banks. Moreover, the insignificant association between the use of IAF and the strength of board of directors has important implications for the board’s effectiveness in Islamic banks.

This is the first study to investigate the factors associated with the use of IAF by Islamic banks.

A number of highly publicised scandals such as Enron, Lehman Brothers, Parmalat, Satyam, Toshiba and 1MDB (to name a few) have heightened the awareness of the effects of fraudulent financial reporting. While enormous measures have been taken to curb the fraudulent activities among large and small businesses, the issues are still alarming worldwide. Thus, this study aims to explore the extent to which the prevalence of fraud risk in state-controlled companies and to enhance understanding of the underlying reasons of the fraudulent activities.

As this study is a descriptive and exploratory in nature, an exploratory case study method was used in four state-controlled companies. Using the fraud triangle theory to underpin this study, the qualitative face-to-face interviews were carried out with top management of the companies.

The study reveals a high risk of fraud occurrence at state-controlled companies that involve dealing with various suppliers, governments, customers and shareholders, even when standard operating procedures and rules and regulation are in place. The apparent reason for this phenomenon is attributed to not only opportunities but also incentives and rationalisations in engaging fraudulent activities.

As there are relatively few qualitative studies conducted in this area specifically among Malaysian state-controlled companies, this study extends the fraud literature by examining risk exposure and reasons underlying the fraudulent activities. The findings demonstrate that to a certain extent, the fraud triangle theory explains the motivations behind the fraudulent activities. The finding from this study is relevant to regulators, investors, companies and academicians in understanding, preventing and combating fraud.

This paper aims to examine the association between new audit committee characteristics – attendance of audit committee members at meetings and changes of members through the demission or appointment of members of the audit committee during the year – and earnings management. Its objective is to contribute new evidence that extends studies on audit committee characteristics in reducing earnings management.

The sample comprises 370 observations obtained from the annual reports of 74 companies listed on the Muscat Securities Market for the years 2008-2012. The panel data are analysed using a fixed effects model to validate the hypotheses and model.

This study finds a negative association between earnings management and members’ attendance at the audit committee meetings. Additionally, there is a positive significant relationship between earnings management and changes to members through demission or appointment.

This study broadens the scope of audit committee characteristics by providing empirical evidence of the relationship between new audit committee characteristics and earnings management and may assist policymakers and regulators in determining ways to enhance audit committee characteristics and improve financial reporting quality.

This study aims to assess the effect of director board and audit committee attributes and ownership structure on firm performance. In general, resource dependency and agency theories have underlined the superior performance of firms equipped with stronger Corporate Governance (CG) versus those of deficient governance. Concurrently, the study delineated the provisions of ownership structure provision, specifically foreign ownership and institutional ownerships, thus describing the component denoting the structural significance in explicating firm performance.

The current study implemented an empirical approach involving the construction of extensive CG measures thus, subjected to 81 non-financial firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange spanning the period of 2014–2018.

The current study identified the positive and significant relationship between the board of directors and audit committee characteristics with the firm performance measures tested, namely, return on equity (ROE) and Tobin’s Q. In terms of ownership structure, both foreign and institutional ownerships yielded a significant and positive relationship with ROE. Meanwhile, Tobin’s Q led to an insignificant and negative relationship between both ownership types and firm performance measures.

The analytical outcomes substantiate the possibility of enhanced performance shown by growing global firms because of the implementation of CG mechanisms, specifically because of the practices resulting in minimised agency costs.

The current study offers novel evidence detailing the impact of CG effectiveness towards performance and its implementation in emerging markets following the minimal amount of scholarly efforts on the topic. It is a timely contribution towards the current understanding of the relationship linking governance and performance for the purpose of ensuring the adoption and imposition of a strong corporate governance code by the government.

This study aims to investigate whether sustainability disclosures (SD) can improve financial, operational and market performance for businesses in Jordan. This research is based on the idea that firms that are open and transparent about their sustainability efforts tend to perform better than their competitors.

This study used an empirical approach for data collection and analysis. The independent variable was SD, and the dependent variables were performance indicators (i.e. Tobin’s Q, return on equity and return on assets). This study analyzed 81 non-financial companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange from 2014 to 2018.

The present study found a significant and positive relationship between corporate SD and operational, financial and market performance.

The analysis shows that implementing corporate SD may lead to better performance. Specifically, firms may benefit internally by becoming more aware of important actions to be taken internally and externally by understanding the sustainability-related desires of other stakeholders and regulators for better sustainable development.

This study offers new insights into the effect of SD on firm performance and its implementation in emerging markets, which has not been extensively studied in academia. This research provides new insights into the link between SD and performance, and is particularly timely in its contribution to this topic, which is important for the government’s adoption and implementation of a robust SD code.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of sustainability disclosure (SD) as a mediator for the relationship between corporate governance (CG) and the performance of firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE).

The study analysed 405 reports of firms listed on the ASE from 2014 to 2018. The direct and indirect impact of governance mechanisms on the firms' performance was examined using STATA 15. A four-step procedure for testing mediation was used to determine the mediating role of SD.

The results demonstrated that the board and audit committees' effectiveness positively and significantly influences the firm's performance. Additionally, the results demonstrated that SD partially mediates the relationship between CG and the firm's performance.

Research implications – This study supported the assumptions of agency, resource dependence and stakeholder theories as the basis to explain the relationship among board’s effectiveness, audit committee’s effectiveness, sustainability report and firm performance in developing economies. In addition, the results suggested that CG helps to enhance the firm's performance and sustainability reporting. Firms providing sustainable report are deemed more responsible and attract more returns to firms. Research limitations – The study only focused on reports from five years for non-financial firms listed on the ASE to test the assumed relationship between the variables.

This study contributed to the body of knowledge by examining the mediating role of SD between CG and firm performance. Investors, managers and regulators can obtain further insights, especially those seeking to improve a firm's performance in the emerging markets, through a sound CG system and extensive sustainability reporting.

This study focused on the direct and indirect impacts of CG and firm performance in an emerging and developing economy. The study used SD as the mediating variable in examining the indirect effect.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the characteristics of the audit committee (AC) chair affect audit report timeliness. In particular, the direct association between AC chair accounting expertise and audit report delay, and the moderating effect of other characteristics of AC chair on this association are examined.

To achieve the purpose of this study, the characteristics examined by this study are AC chair expertise, shareholding, tenure and multiple directorships. Furthermore, a sample of Malaysian companies during the period 2005–2011 and the fixed effects panel data method are utilized.

The results suggest that an AC chair with accounting expertise is associated with a reduction in audit delay. The reduction is more obvious when the chair holds shares in the company, but is weakened by longer tenure and multiple directorships. These results are robust after conducting several robust tests. Using mediating analysis, the authors also document that an AC chair with accounting expertise can enhance the timeliness of audit reports even when the quality of financial reporting is lower. The reported result is supported by additional analysis that finds that AC chairs with accounting expertise and AC chairs with accounting expertise and shareholding are significantly associated with shorter abnormal audit delay.

This study provides comprehensive analysis concerning the association between AC chair and audit report timeliness using a unique setting. It is among the limited evidence that reports the moderating effect of AC chair characteristics on the role of such chair on audit report timeliness.

Auditors’ self-efficacy (SE) represents their level of confidence in improving their audit performance. This may be a crucial factor for auditors to perform effectively during the health crisis of COVID-19. This study aims to build on a social cognitive perspective to assess the SE of auditors during the coronavirus of 2019 (COVID-19) and to anticipate that mastery experience, verbal and social persuasion, vicarious experience, physiological and emotional states and virtual audit are determinants of auditors’ SE during COVID-19.

Based on data from Saudi Arabia, this study surveyed all auditors using an online questionnaire and collected 193 useful responses. Thus, this study analyzed the data using primary statistical tests and a structural equation model of partial least squares.

This study observes that auditors feel confident in their ability to perform audit activities as well during COVID-19 as at other times. This study also documents that VEs, physiological and emotional states and virtual audits play significant roles in SE. In further analyses, this study observes that auditors who are affiliated with big4 audit firms moderate the positive association between virtual audit and SE. All these results are verified under several econometrical appraisals and held constant.

This study provides a number of theoretical and practical implications.