This research aims to broaden the understanding of the determinants of climate change disclosure, where the study analyzes the impact of corporate business strategy and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) overconfidence on the level of climate change disclosure. The study followed a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative and qualitative techniques to comprehensively examine the relationships used by the content analysis method to analyze the annual reports of a sample of Saudi companies for the period from 2019 to 2022 to measure the level of disclosure of practices related to climate change. The results of the study show that the companies that tend to adopt the initiative strategy provide more information about climate change than the defending companies do, while the CEO’s overconfidence does not affect the level of climate change disclosure. The results of the study indicate that the nature of the strategic direction adopted by the company is more important in determining the motives for disclosing climate change information than the personal characteristics of management.

This research aims to examine the drivers of earnings quality (EQ) in emerging stock markets. By testing the impact of firm attributes and ownership structures on the level of earnings quality. The research followed a mixed-method approach (qualitative and quantitative) and was conducted based on a sample of 75 listed firms in Egypt as an emerging market from 2015 to 2022. The results of the research found that each firm attribute has a mixed impact on earning quality, such as firm size (positive on persistence and no impact on consistency) and ROA (U-shape on persistence and consistency). In addition, ownership structures uniquely and dynamically impact earnings, following positive, U-shape, and N-shape. This research sheds light on the drivers of the earnings quality (firm attributes and ownership structures) in the Egyptian-listed firms and helps policymakers implement appropriate corporate governance mechanisms. Our findings in Egypt can motivate future research to further investigate the most relevant factors that explain variations in earning persistence and consistency as a dimension of financial reporting quality in other emerging markets.

The research aims to unveil the impact of CEO traits and firm attributes on corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance within the Egyptian context as an emerging market. Using the quantitative research approach, we analyzed a panel of data from 43 listed firms in the S&P/EGX ESG index from 2014 to 2022 through three statistical models to examine how CEO power, confidence, and tenure influence corporate sustainability practices. Our findings reveal that CEO power and confidence influence ESG performance and shape the firm’s strategy. However, there is no significant influence related to CEO tenure. Moreover, we found mixed evidence regarding the impact of firm financial attributes, such as the positive impact of firm size and operating cash flow on ESG performance and the negative impact of firm listing tenure. Our findings contribute to the literature by adding new empirical evidence in this arguable area from an emerging market and provide new insights into the significant influence of the firm’s first man (CEO) in shaping its sustainability practices, especially ESG. In addition, it gives professional authorities and policymakers insights into the nexus between the CEO and the firm’s ESG strategies, disclosure, and performance. Moreover, it can motivate future research to re-examine the role of CEO traits in shaping ESG performance in other countries to create a comprehensive understanding of this knowledge field.

The research aims to analyze the determinants of cybersecurity risk disclosure (CSRD) in Saudi Arabia and discover the influence of CSRD on both firm value and stock return volatility. The study used a mixed-methods approach that combines qualitative and quantitative techniques to determine the relationships used by the content analysis method to analyze the annual financial reports of Saudi firms for the period from 2015 to 2022, to estimate the volume of CSRD, firm value, and stock return volatility. The results of the study show that the impact of a firm’s size, age, leverage, and profitability are positive and significant on CSRD. In contrast, free cash flow has no significant effect on CSRD. Moreover, a curvilinear relationship exists between operating expenses and CSRD. In addition, Firm value is positively and significantly correlated with CSRD and many firm characteristics. However, stock return volatility is negatively and significantly correlated with CSRD in the Saudi business environment.

This paper investigates how board gender diversity (BGD) impacts information asymmetry (IA) and investment efficiency (IE), in addition to the moderating role of board gender diversity on the nexus between information asymmetry and investment efficiency in Egypt, motivated by the unclear lens and mixed evidence in the previous literature within this area, especially in developing countries. Thus, the paper followed a deductive research approach for 84 listed firms on the Egyptian Exchange from 2014 to 2023. The findings present new evidence that differs from the common findings in the literature, such as a U-shaped non-linear impact that was found regarding the impact of BGD on both IA (20.71% turning point) and IE (20.38% turning point). However, the IA shows a U-shaped non-linear effect on IE, and the incorporation of BGD as a moderator cause shifting from a (U) shape curve to an inverted (U) shape curve. Our findings from Egypt can motivate future academic research to re-examine the role of BGD from other perspectives in other countries and circumstances. In addition, this paper gives professional authorities and regulators insights into the optimal level of BGD and its critical role in corporate governance and performance, not just the benefits of increasing the diversity ratio, and can also help promote gender equality in corporate management, which can have social and economic benefits.

This study aimed to analyze the determinants of disclosure tone (DT) in the Saudi business environment during the last nine years. In addition, it tested the impact of earnings management and accounting conservatism on this tone. The study followed a mixed-method approach, “quantitative and qualitative”, to explore the relationships used for the content analysis to analyze the annual reports of a sample of 88 Saudi-listed firms from 2014 to 2022. The results of the study found that there is a positive impact of dividend yield on disclosure tone. Conversely, both firm size and leverage do not have a significant impact. Moreover, earnings management as an accounting practice has a curvilinear effect on disclosure tone, and accounting conservatism as a generally accepted principle positively influences disclosure tone.