This paper examines the association of the presence of royal family members on the board of directors with audit committee effectiveness. The sample of this study consists of 444 listed manufactured firms in Saudi Arabia for the period 2012-2019. Using the Pooled OLS regression, the result of the study shows that royal family ownership is associated with audit committee effectiveness, giving support to the substitution hypothesis. The result indicates that members from the royal families are good monitors imposed into the companies' managements as both taking the role of decision makers and owners who may substitute the effectiveness of the audit committee. The presence of royal family members on the board has an alternative for the effectiveness of the audit committee. The marginal effect of audit committee effectiveness as an internal corporate governance mechanism is substituted by the presence of royal family members on the board. This study provides insightful evidence to regulators and policy makers at the company and country levels on the relationship of royal family ownership and audit committee effectiveness.

Continuous improvement of accounting policies coincides with the increase and development of earnings management. Several studies focus on this topic, and it became subject to many investigations. This paper deals with current literature focused on several axes of earnings management like motives for practicing earnings management, earnings management types, developed models to discover earnings management, factors affecting earnings management, and the consequences of earnings management practices. Besides, this research focuses on earnings management in Saudi Arabia in particular. In the recent period, Saudi Arabia is going through changes in the Saudi economy and changes in accounting systems, such as adopting the IFRS standards, which provides opportunities for expanding research into earnings management in the Saudi Arabia context. Several studies conclude that Saudi companies' earnings management practices are done in several ways and affected by many factors.

This study aims to estimate and predict the effect of stock prices on profit volatility, net profit, and comprehensive income on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the period 2014-2019. The study uses quantitative analysis with secondary data consisting of 98 banking companies on the Indonesia stock exchange from 2014 to 2019. The results prove that the share price has a significant effect on net income and comprehensive income but does not have a significant effect on profit volatility, so that net and comprehensive income has relevance to the share price and investors can make both variables in conducting further fundamental research. Previous studies measured the level of volatility of earnings, net income, and comprehensive income on the share price, but when trialing other approaches by causality, share prices affect net income and comprehensive income but not for profit volatility. In this study, however, the change includes detailed income variables due to Financial Accounting Standard No. 1, a shift in terms from profit and loss statements to systematic profit and loss statements.

This paper examines the potential determinants associated with a firm’s decision to use a corporate website. The probability of web-based corporate reporting adoption was measured by using a dichotomous variable, where one is given if the firm has a website and zero otherwise. Based on a sample of 1217 US listed firms, it was found that 950 firms have a website and 267 do not. Those firms with a website are larger, more profitable and have a larger board size with more female directors when compared with firms without websites. In addition, the results of the regression analysis revealed that firm size, profitability, leverage, board size and the percentage of female directors in the boardroom have a significant positive impact on the probability of a firm having a website. However, firm age has a significant negative impact on the probability of web-based corporate reporting adoption. A weakness in the previous literature has been the neglect of firms without an online presence, which implies a potential selection bias. Consequently, this research contributes to the international accounting literature by expanding our understanding in relation to the probability of firms adopting web-based corporate reporting and the economic consequences of them doing so through reducing asymmetric information, which acts as an incentive to encourage investment.

The COVID-19 outbreak has affected the entire global financial market in an unprecedented way. Due to disruptions in the global market, the Jordanian financial market also responded to the pandemic and observed sudden volatility. The outbreak of the virus has led the management of the Jordanian market (Amman Securities Exchange / ASE) to halt trading on the secondary market during the period 17 March 2020 – 9 May 2020. Hence, using daily closing prices of listed firms, this paper empirically examines the market’s liquidity cost before its closure (2 January 2020 – 16 March 2020) and after (10 May 2020 – 31 December 2020). The premise of this objective rests on the fact that the trading activity on the secondary market, following the resumption of trading is carried- out within uncertain circumstances. The data used in this study comes from the daily trading reports published by ASE. All listed companies are included in the analysis. Based on the daily closing bid and ask prices, we calculate the daily spreads during two sub-periods (2 January 2020 – 16 March 2020 and 10 May 2020 - 31 December 2020). We then regress the daily spreads on daily stock prices, number of daily contracts, risk, and where the companies list their shares (first or second market). The main findings of this paper are threefold. First, liquidity cost in the ASE is relatively high. Second, following the resumption of trading on the secondary market, liquidity cost has increased. Third, other known determinants of liquidity cost are significant and have the expected coefficient signs. The fact that liquidity cost in the ASE is high, and higher even after the resumption of trading, necessitates some clear policy measures. These include a reduction in the currently used minimum tick.

Since late 2019 and throughout 2020, the global economy has been experiencing difficult times due to the outbreak of the lethal Coronavirus (COVID-19). This study looks at the financial impact of this epidemic on the global economy using Malaysian market index i.e. FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI before and during COVID-19. Measuring the financial impact of this epidemic on the Malaysia economy may help policy makers to develop measures to avert similar financial catastrophic impacts on the global economy. The study uses Sharpe optimal and naïve diversification model to solve a scenario that factors in the level of corporate social responsibility(CSR) exhibited before and during the epidemic to measure the financial impact on the stock portfolio. The results show that the emergence of COVID-19exacerbated the already weak Malaysian economy. Our findings may help the policy makers in Malaysia to develop and maintain techniques and policies that may mitigate the negative financial impact and handle similar epidemics in the future. Future studies could cover the financial impact of CSR using variable scoring and apply the portfolio model with practical and prevailing constraints.

The present study empirically investigates the long-run nonlinear relationship between the shadow economy and financial development targeting developing small open countries, such as Jordan. The study applied the cointegration test as an estimation technique in order to achieve its aim. The data used were mainly taken from Jordanian economy during the period (1990-2019). According to the test of Johanson cointegration, the empirical results of this study showed evidence of a long run inverted U-shaped relationship between the shadow economy and financial development. The results also showed that there is a long run positive relationship between inflation and the shadow economy. Consequently, these results lead to a profound implication when adopting policies to reduce the size of the shadow economy.

Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) research reveals that corruption in Indonesia is mostly carried out by civil servants. An audit report from the Indonesian Supreme Audit Institution also finds local government internal control systems' weaknesses, especially controlling budget execution. This phenomenon is inseparable from the budget actors' decision-making process when preparing a budget. Budget decision making is a crucial process. Budget actors use their preference to choose among priorities and put the programs and activities which they have chosen into the budget. Social exchange such as trust and social ties can restrain budget actor distortion when making a budget decision and improve local government performance. Cultural context, in this research, refers to high context, affects individual behavior, and may influence the budget decision-making process. The result shows that decision making mediates trust and context culture to local government performance. Trust also proven can improve local government performance. Social ties, on the other side, do not have an influence both on decision making and local government performance. When trust has been intertwined among members, social ties no longer have a role in social exchange. Trust is the strongest form of social relation. Trust in this research is also formed because of the figure. A figure holds an important role in high context culture. This research pointed out that decision making by considering social values can make the decision-making process better and even improve local government performance.

This paper examines the selectivity and market timing abilities of Islamic fund managers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), since the empirical research has yet to explore the profitability and investment risk factors involved. We use a uniquely large set of data for 134 Islamic funds for a period from June 2002 to December 2019, and this was free from any survival bias. We found that Islamic fund managers in the KSA demonstrated good selectivity skills but no market timing ability. We also found that Islamic fund managers in the KSA tend to select companies with aggressive investment patterns despite their low profitability.

Innovative policy and regional management leverages should create the foundations for the “impulse” to form the Ukrainian market of natural gas and its distribution. Efficient and desirable economic reforms in the activity of the gas distribution companies of the Western region of Ukraine will contribute to increasing their competitiveness level by implementing innovative activities. The paper aims to make an integral estimation of the competitive positions of the gas distribution companies that function on the Western Ukrainian market of natural gas distribution among consumers and develop practical recommendations directed at forming and implementing the innovative policy of improving their competitiveness. To achieve the aim, the authors have developed the methodology of calculating the competitiveness level for the gas distribution companies that function on a certain natural gas distribution market of any scale. Based on the results of the conducted research, the paper shows that the competitiveness condition of most gas distribution companies of the Western region of Ukraine is either of critical – І or satisfactory – ІІ levels. Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that only AT “Chernivtsihaz” is characterized by the highest rate of competitiveness integral estimation among all the companies operating on the market of the natural gas distribution among consumers in the Western region of Ukraine. Therefore, it was identified as level ІІІ – “decent” level, which is the average competitive indicator.