This paper aims to examine the determinants of financial stability in Jordanian commercial banks based on annual data for the period from 2011 to 2018. Based on the pooled effect model, this study shows that SME loans and capital adequacy positively and statistically affect the stability of Jordanian commercial banks, while financial inclusion, liquidity risk and credit risk negatively and statistically affect the stability of Jordanian commercial banks. The study recommends increasing the directing of bank loans towards small and medium enterprises, and the necessity for bank managers to commit to capital adequacy requirements because of their positive impact on banks’ stability. This study recommends that banks experiencing financial stability accelerate the increase in the rate of financial inclusion because financial inclusion ratios are very low in most of these stable banks. On the other hand, Jordanian commercial banks that have relatively high rates of financial inclusion should reduce the operating expenses resulting from financial inclusion. Bank managers also have to maintain sufficient liquidity in their banks and enhance credit standards by increasing collateral requirement from customers.

Our current review paper aims to discuss the various issues pertaining to the future research avenues of CSR, and possible expansions that this scholarly field could have considering the growing interests from numerous academic disciplines and practitioners across the globe. In particular, we briefly discuss the work that has been performed on CSR, major theories that guided this area of research, and a summary of prior research findings. Then, we suggest future directions on specific drivers that motivate firms to engage in CSR activities. Specifically, we provide insights on how research should focus on within-firm variables, namely personality traits of TMTs and their possible impact on their firms’ stances towards CSR. We also briefly discuss the need for more advanced method of CSR rankings that takes into account consumers’ perception about the existing CSR rankings, such as KDL, and also consumers’ satisfaction and responses towards firms’ CSR. Finally, we highlight the need for two separate measurements of CSR; a measure that speaks to external stakeholders of the firm, and another measure that speaks to the internal stakeholders of the firm.

This study attempts to provide empirical evidence on the real motivation of CEOs to engage in corporate social responsibility. Based on the Agency and Stakeholder theories, the power of each component in the CEO compensation structure is employed. Moreover, a corporate governance index was developed to test how engagement in CSR activities affected CEO compensation in different governance practices. This study employs panel data analysis, utilizing 44 Jordanian industrial companies over the period 2010–2018. The main estimation method used in the present study was the generalized least square random effect (GLS). The findings of this paper revealed that an increase in CSR activities was accompanied by an increase in the CEO cash component compensation. Furthermore, this positive relationship was found to be more pronounced in firms with weak corporate governance, and thus supported the overinvestment hypothesis suggested by agency theory. These findings are robust under the dynamic panel estimator generalized method of moments (GMM) and using different measures of CSR. Our results implied important insights, showing that increasing CSR in the absence of effective monitoring facilitated CEOs’ self-seeking behavior that eventually may harm corporate value.

Due to the lack of studies in the financial literature on indicators of corruption and political instability relative to investment, this paper is considered one of the first studies that examines the impact of two-corruption indicators and political instability on investment in Jordan over the period 1987–2020. Using Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) based on annual data, the corruption effect as measured by the corruption score index is a negative and statistically significant impact on investment in Jordan. The second measure of corruption, which is the corruption rank index, confirmed the previous result that corruption has a negative and statistically significant effect. Political instability measured in this study as a dummy variable by wars in the region has a positive and statistically significant effect on investment. For macroeconomic variables, the results show that current government expenditure and interest rate have a negative and significant impact on investment in Jordan. The interest rate factor was the highest coefficient among the negative effects. The study also shows that the investment in Jordan is positively and significantly affected by growth domestic product, imports and local revenue. The gross domestic product showed the highest coefficient among the positive effects. This study concludes that policy makers attempt to apply transparency and minimize the corruption through flexibility, facilitation of procedures and reduced transactions using automation. The study also concludes that decision makers should rationalize current government expenditure and direct banks in Jordan to give greater priority to credit facilities for productive sectors.

This study examines the relationship between chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) characteristics (e.g., tenure, experience, education, age and compensation) and accounting conservatism for a sample of 672 yearly observations from both Jordanian industrial and service companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) during the period 2014–2021. Using feasible generalised least squares, the results show that CEOs with more experience and skills are positively and significantly related to accounting conservatism. Furthermore, consistent with upper-echelon-theory arguments, the findings reveal that CEO tenure is significantly and positively associated with the level of accounting conservatism. The results indicate that CEOs’ education, age and compensation are positively but insignificantly related to accounting conservatism. Overall, this study contributes to the literature by providing evidence of the importance of recognising the effects of CEOs’ characteristics on influencing accounting conservatism in Jordanian industrial and service companies.

This study examines the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performance of the main indices and corporate returns in Jordan. The study employs two samples and two levels of analysis. The first one considers the effect of daily cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19 on the daily return of the main index and sub-indices of the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). The time-series analysis shows that there is a strong negative impact of the daily cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19 on the daily return of the Amman Stock Exchange index. The results also indicate that the financial sector is the most affected during the epidemic, followed by the service and industry sectors. The insurance sector is positively affected, but not statistically significant.The second level of analysis aims to test how different corporate financial characteristics might affect corporate immunity during the pandemic period. The sample includes all non-financial firms listed on ASE, with a total of 75 firms. Based on quarterly data, the findings show a statistically significant negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on non-financial corporate stock returns. Further, the evidence shows that larger firms with higher levels of cash holding have better immunity and thus experience higher returns during the pandemic period.