This study examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting, board gender diversity (BGEND) and real earnings management (REM). It also investigates how the relationship between CSR reporting and REM differs between gender-diverse and non-diverse firms. Content analysis was used to measure CSR reporting. The ordinary least square regression is used to examine the relationships for a sample of 475 firm-year observations listed on the Amman Stock Exchange during 2011–2016. The results show that CSR reporting is significantly and negatively associated with REM in the Jordanian market. Nevertheless, BGEND is negatively and significantly related to REM. More importantly, the results show that BGEND moderates the CSR-REM relationship. Further, when the sample is split into board gender-diverse and non-diverse firms, the CSR-REM significant negative relationship is evident only in the former, corroborating the moderating role of the BGEND in Jordan. This study contributes to the literature on CSR, BGEND, and REM by offering evidence for the moderating role of BGEND on the CSR-REM relationship, supporting the view that females are more sensitive to ethics. Regulators and stakeholders should be aware of the potential effect of engagement in CSR reporting and the benefits of having a gender-diverse board on financial reporting quality.

Integrated reporting (IR) is the latest topic in corporate reporting that has raised interest in the disclosure literature. Although the board’s role in IR practice has received significant attention in developed countries, this effect is still unexamined in an emerging market like Malaysia. Thus, this study sought to fill this gap in the IR literature by investigating the impact of the board of directors’ characteristics on the quantity and quality of IR disclosure. The study also examined whether the existence of a sustainability committee affects the board-IR relationship. The study used all listed companies in Bursa Malaysia that applied IR strategy from 2017 to 2020 to test the hypotheses. It employed a content analysis technique to measure the quantity and quality of IR using an index with 100 items based on the International Integrated Reporting Council guidelines. Multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was applied to examine these relationships. The analysis showed that board size, independence, gender diversity, and non-executive remuneration were positively and significantly related to greater IR disclosure, suggesting that the board of directors has a monitoring role in reducing agency problems and protecting stakeholders’ interests. However, multiple directorships did not affect IR disclosure. The analysis also showed that the presence of a sustainability committee positively affected IR disclosure, and had a moderating effect on the board-IR disclosure relationship. Our result was robust to alternative measures of the corporate board and an alternative regression model. This study is among the first to provide empirical evidence of the board and sustainability committee’s significant role in enhancing IR strategy. The findings may benefit regulatory bodies, policymakers, company managers, investors, and researchers in better understanding how directors’ characteristics influence companies’ IR practices.

This study aims to measure the level of corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRDL) in an emerging market, Jordan. It also aims to investigate the effect of audit committee (AC) features on CSRDL. The study’s data, obtained from annual reports, comprises 576 company-year observations from industrial and services companies listed on the Amman stock exchange for the period 2011 to 2016. Content analysis is used to measure CSRDL, and multiple regression techniques to test the proposed relationships. The results show that CSRDL among Jordanian listed companies is low, suggesting that companies have less incentive to disclose CSR practices. Additionally, AC independence and AC ownership positively influence CSRDL. The findings from this research have limited generalisability due to the specific characteristics of the sample, which is from a developing country. However, they have implications and value for policymakers and different stakeholders interested in improving CSR initiatives. The findings are also significant in reducing agency costs and enhancing corporate transparency. Within the limits of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first to provide preliminary evidence on the effect of AC features on CSR disclosure in an emerging market context, specifically in Jordan.

This study investigates the relationship between the Chairman’s characteristics (age, title, tenure, and ownership) and the firm’s operating performance (measured by profitability and liquidity), and whether the Chief Executive Officer’s (CEO) effectiveness (a combination of non-duality, age, and tenure) strengthens or impairs this relationship. Based on a total sample of 267 observations, we use Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression to investigate the hypotheses established for the top 89 non-financial firms listed on the Malaysian Main Market during 2017 to 2019. The findings show that Chairman age is positively and significantly associated with the firm’s profitability but not with liquidity. Conversely, Chairman ownership is positively and significantly associated with liquidity but not with profitability. These findings suggest that the age and ownership of the Chairman may significantly boost operating performance. However, Chairman tenure is negatively and significantly associated with operating performance (profitability and liquidity), suggesting that long-tenured Chairmen are associated with poor operating performance. Chairman title is insignificantly related to operating performance. Importantly, the results also show that CEO effectiveness strengthens the relationship between Chairman tenure and liquidity. However, CEO effectiveness impairs the relationship between Chairman title and profitability and Chairman ownership and liquidity. Additional analysis is conducted to further check the validity of the main results and to avoid any possible effect of endogeneity issues. To our knowledge, this paper is the first to investigate the impact of Chairman characteristics on operating performance with the moderating effect of CEO effectiveness, specifically in a developing economy.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating effect of slack resources (namely, profitability and cash holdings) on the relationship between corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) and firm market value. The authors test the hypothesis through performing panel data analysis for a sample of 95 non-financial Jordanian firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange from the period 2011 to 2016. Content analysis was employed to evaluate the level of CSRD based on an index of 42 items and four themes. While the findings show no significant relationship between CSRD and firm market value, higher slack resources were found to positively moderate this relationship. The outcomes therefore suggest that slack resources accentuate the effect of CSRD on firm market value. The use of Jordanian firms is distinctive and provides valuable insight into contexts in which the market tends to place less weight on a firm's CSR activities.