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Empirical evidence on the benefits of international ownership for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) financial performance is either not available for most African and Middle Eastern countries or presents mixed results. In this paper, we investigate this further by examining the effects of ownership structure on firm performance, using financial data covering SMEs in 60 African and Middle Eastern countries, for the years 2006–2015. Results from pooled ordinary least squares and random‐effects estimations indicate that international ownership is significantly positively correlated with firm performance for (most of) Africa and the Middle East. Examining the interaction of international ownership with capital resources, we find that internationally owned firms do not use capital more efficiently than locally owned firms, implying that internationally owned firms use international resources—other than capital—more efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines if both market frictions and stock mispricing provide better explanation of the momentum premium, compared to the conventional asset pricing models. Using a large sample of 3727 companies listed on the Chinese stock market, we show that winner stocks are associated with larger market frictions and stock mispricing. Our findings reveal new empirical evidence that momentum premium can be attributed to market friction risk‐factor but additionally explained by a mispricing component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims at exploring and investigating whether disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on Twitter signals true CSR performance or merely is a greenwashing tool to conceal and compensate for inferior CSR performance. Based on a sample of 167,908 tweets posted by the constituents of the FTSE 350 Index, topic modelling—a natural language processing technique based on unsupervised learning—is utilized to identify CSR disclosure on social media. Our empirical evidence based on several regression models shows association between firms' CSR performance and disclosure, which supports the signalling story, and hence, casts doubt on the greenwashing behaviour among UK firms on social media. Our findings suggest several implications for researchers, shareholders, and practitioners as the relation between CSR disclosure on influential, widely reached platforms such as social media and CSR performance carries important indications about the credibility of the content of such disclosure, the extent to which it reflects actual CSR performance, and hence its usefulness for all stakeholders interested in CSR. The true motive behind CSR disclosures can greatly influence how stakeholders perceive such information and the extent to which they can rely on it for decision making purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: Md. Mostaque Hussain, Ehab K. A. Mohamed, Mazhar M. Islam, Mawdudur Rahman The major objectives of regulating the banks are to reduce the risk of failure and to achieve some desired social goals. Regulations are designed to prevent commercial banks from becoming too risky and to maintain public confidence in the country's financial system. The economic argument for such regulation is that banking, by its very nature, is prone to market failure. In recent years, the central monetary authorities of six GCC countries have made many regulatory changes in order to achieve certain social and economic goals. The monetary authorities of GCC countries have strengthened prudential norms. Asset classification and provisioning norms have moved closer to international standards. Banks are required to maintain capital to risk weighted assets ratios of at least 8% required by the BIS. Local banks use International Accounting Standards. Overall, the Central Monetary Authorities in these countries are very proactive in terms of supervising and monitoring their regulations on banking sectors.

The announcement of a certain event taking place may be important and impactful with regard to the stock market and share prices, even more than the effectiveness and significance of the event itself. The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of financial event announcements via social media, specifically Twitter, on share returns of stocks on the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index. Our research questions were tested on a sample of 833 event observations retrieved from official Twitter accounts for two years (1 January 2014 - 16 February 2016). The test was concerned with tracking stock return behavior on the event day (day 0), the pre-event window and the post-event window using the event-study methodology. This study found that there is a significant relationship between share prices and the events announced via Twitter, the type of tweets, news categories and tweeting intensity of the company involved. Classifying based on the industry of the announcing company had no significant relationship to stock return behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of board structure on voluntary corporate disclosure via social media among the top 150 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.Design/methodology/approach A disclosure index comprising of a set of items that encompass two facets of disclosure, namely corporate disclosure via social networks and social media sites, is developed and used. Binary logistic regression is used to test the research hypotheses.Findings The results of this study reveal the underlying relations between board composition and control variables as the determining factors of corporate disclosure, i.e. board size, board activism, board independence and board diversity (gender and ethnicity). The gender of the board can affect the corporate disclosure via a social network. The results of this study indicate that an increase in the number of female in the board members leads to higher corporate disclosure using social network. Moreover, firm size has a positive effect on corporate disclosure indicating that large firms tend to disclose more information on their websites and social networks.Practical implications The paper provides new insights into the role played by the non-executive female directors in monitoring and controlling managerial processes related to corporate disclosure using social media.Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that examines the role of board structure in monitoring and controlling management decisions and managerial processes in the area of corporate disclosure via social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims at exploring the status of integrating Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in higher management education in the Arab region. The universities in the Arab region have lately emphasized internationalization in their educational policies, aiming at improving their regional and global presence, as a major part of their national reforms. Such transformations will never take hold if education systems are not reformed to foster citizenship, ethics, and social responsibility. Therefore, the study adopted qualitative content analysis of the top 40 business schools that are ranked based on the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) University Rankings in the Arab Region in 2016, as well as schools acting as signatories of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). To analyze the integration of ESD at all educational levels, the relevant literature commonly emphasized upon the adoption of Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Sustainability (ECSRS). Hence, the content analysis involved critical identification of pre-selected keywords under the ECSRS theme throughout the sampled universities' online content and "Sharing Information on Progress" reports, in light of institutional, curricular, and instrumental levels, expanding the work of Setó-Pamies and Papaoikomomou (2016). The results revealed that ECSRS is outlined in the sampled universities' strategies mainly through their mission statements. ECSRS is incorporated to a great extent in the curriculum of undergraduate and postgraduate programs in the form of obligatory and elective courses. Yet, student extracurricular activities did not receive equivalent devotion. As for ECSRS research, over half of sampled universities had dedicated research centers mainly focusing on environmental sustainability, in addition to issuing sporadic publications on various ECSRS topics. Integrating ECSRS in university outreach is still considered marginalized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Information technology (IT) largely affected contemporary businesses, and accordingly, it imposes challenges on the auditing profession. Several studies investigated the impact of IT, in terms of the extent of use of IT audit techniques, but very studies are available on the perceived importance of the said issue in developing countries. This study aims to explore the impact of implementing IT on the auditing profession in a developing country, namely, Egypt.Design/methodology/approach This study uses both quantitative and qualitative data. A survey of 112 auditors, representing three of the Big 4 audit firms as well as ten local audit firms in Egypt, is used to gather preliminary data, and semi-structured interviews are conducted to gather details/qualitative-pertained information. A field-based questionnaire developed by Bierstaker and Lowe (2008) is used in this study. This questionnaire is used first in conducting a pre-test, and then, the questionnaire for testing the final results is developed based on the feedback received from the test sample.Findings The findings of this study reveal that auditors’ perception regarding client’s IT complexity is significantly affected by the use of IT specialists and the IT expertise of the auditors. Besides, they perceive that the new audit applications’ importance and the extent of their usage are significantly affected by the IT expertise of the auditors. The results also reveal that the auditors’ perception regarding the client’s IT is not affected by the control risk assessment. However, the auditors perceive that the client’s IT is significantly affected by electronic data retention policies. The results also indicated that the auditors’ perception regarding the importance of the new audit applications is not affected by the client’s type of industry. The auditors find that the uses of audit applications as well as their IT expertise are not significantly affected by the audit firm size. However, they perceive that the client’s IT complexity as well as the extent of using IT specialists are significantly affected by the audit firm size.Research limitations/implications This study is subject to certain limitations. First, the sample size of this research is somehow small because it is based on the convenience sampling technique, and some of the respondents were not helpful in answering the surveys distributed for this research’s purpose. This can be attributed to the fear of the competitors that their opponent may want to gather information regarding their work to be able to succeed in the competition in the market so they become reluctant to provide any information about their firm. Even some people who were interested to participate were not having enough time because the surveys were distributed during the high season of their audit work and there was limited time for the research to be accomplished. Hence, it is difficult to generalize the results among all the audit firms in Egypt because this limits the scope of the analysis, and it can be a significant obstacle in finding a trend. However, this can be an opportunity for future research. Second, the questionnaire is long and people do not have enough time to complete it. This also affected the response rate. In addition to this, the language of the questionnaire was English, so some respondents from the local audit firms were finding difficulty in understanding some sophisticated IT terms.Practical implications This study makes some recommends/suggestions that can well be used to solve some practical problems regarding the issues concerned. This study focuses on accounting information system (AIS) training during the initial years of the auditors’ careers to help staff auditors when they become seniors to be more skilled with AIS expertise needed in today’s audit environment. Clear policy statements are important to direct employees so that IT auditors evaluate the adequacy of standards and comply with them. This study suggests increasing the use of AIS to enhance individual technical and analytical skill sets and to develop specialized teams capable of evaluating the effectiveness of computer systems during audit engagements. This study further recommends establishing Egyptian auditing standards in this electronic environment to guide the auditors while conducting their audit work.Social implications Auditors should prioritize causes of risks and manage them with clear understanding of who receives them, how they are communicated and what action should be taken in a given community/society. So, they have to determine and evaluate all risks according to the client’s type of industry (manufacturing, non-financial services and financial). Auditors also have to continually receive feedback on the utility of continuous auditing (CA) in assessing risk. In particular, it is better for the auditor to determine how the audit results will be used in the enterprise risk management activity performed by the management. In addition, privacy has several implications to auditing, and so, it has to be reflected in the audit program and planning as well as the handling of assignment files and reports. Alike, retention of electronic evidence for a limited period of time may require the auditor to select samples several times during the audit period rather than just at year end.Originality/value As mentioned, this study is conducted within a developing country’s context. The use and importance of IT is reality of time. However, very few studies are devoted to explore the use/importance of IT in auditing in developing countries, and thus, this study carries a significance to have better understanding about it. Moreover, knowledge of how IT is used, the related risks and the ability to use IT as a resource in the performance of audit work is essential for auditor effectiveness at all levels including developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metabolism of high dietary fructose induces insulin resistance and metabolic adaptation including changes in gene expression. The present study was designed to elucidate the effects of L-Carnitine (CA) on the renal alterations as well as gene expression such as inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase (iNOS). Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1), insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) in kidney tissues of rats fed on high fructose diet. 24 male Wister rats of body weight 120-160 g were divided into 3 groups of 8 rats each. Group 1 received control diet, while group 2 and 3, rats received high fructose diet (60 g/100 g diet). Group 3, after 2 weeks of fructose feeding animals were treated with CAR (300 mg/kg body weight/day i.p). At the end of the experimental period (30 days), serum levels of glucose, insulin, Triacylglycerol (TG) and cholesterol were determined. Renal contents of cholesterol, triacylglycerol, Malondialdehyde (MDA) and nitric oxide products were determined. Gene expressions of iNOS, IGF-1 as well as IRS-1 were also assayed in kidney tissues of the experimental rats feed on high fructose diet. Rats fed on high fructose diet showed disturbance in insulin action and formed an animal model of insulin resistance. Fructose fed rats showed increase in renal gene expression of iNOS and decrease in both IGF-1 mRNA and IRS-1 receptor compared to control rats. The administration of CA to rat model of insulin resistance, mitigated the adverse effects of fructose load. Thus the observed abnormalities in gene expression associated with fructose feeding were brought to near-normal levels as compared with untreated rats. Conclusion: L-carnitine normalized the serum and renal lipid alterations as well as gene expression (iNOS, IGF-1) and IRS-1 in this nutritional experimental model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]