This study aimed to measure the impact of Corporate Governance on Firm performance of listed companies in Saudi stock exchange. The study methodology was a pooled data collected from the Saudi stock exchange (TADAUWL) for the period from 2012 to 2014. The study sample is 171 listed companies. The study independent variable is Corporate Governance principals. The dependent variable is Firm performance which was measured using ROA, ROE and Tobin's Q. The study also utilized five control variables in order to help measuring the relationship between Corporate Governance and Firm Performance. In conclusion, the study found that the governance level was 61.4% in Saudi stock exchange which is considered high compared to previous studies. The results of the study test indicate that there is no significant impact for corporate governance adoption on firm's operational and financial performance in the listed companies in Saudi stock exchange. By testing the Tobin's Q model the study also concluded that there’s no significant impact for ownership of the largest shareholder and independency of Board of Directors on firm's market performance. Significant impact was found for the ownership and the size of the Board of Directors on firm's performance.

Utilizing data on 2,116 stock‐exchange‐listed banks over a 10‐year period (2007–2016), this study examines the relationship between board gender diversity and sustainable reporting. Findings from descriptive analysis show that board diversity tends to be higher with banks endowed with low financial leverage and high assets. Cross‐country analysis shows that Central America evinces the highest levels of board diversity among banks. In Europe, however, repose the highest levels of environmental and social disclosure among banks. In contrast, the highest level of governance disclosure among banks obtains in Australia. A regression model partially corroborates the gender board diversity as a causal factor of the corporate governance disclosure inasmuch as, when female board members account for 22–50% of the board, a positive significant effect on the level of ESG disclosure results. However, at levels above 50%, negative returns to scale manifest on ESG disclosure from female board participation. Given the effect on the latter on the former uncovered by this research, regulators ought to mandate quotas of female participation on bank boards to engender sustainable increases in the level of ESG reporting on the part of banks.

Purpose: This study sheds light on the relation between intellectual capital and firm performance. The study argues that traditional performance measurement based on accounting is still able to explore the relation between intellectual capital and performance. Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted at 198 firms from two Gulf Cooperation Council countries: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kingdom of Bahrain for the period 2014–2016. To measure intellectual capital, the value added intellectual coefficient model was adopted along with two measures of performance: accounting-based performance which is return on assets and market-based performance which is Tobin’s Q, in addition to the Random-Effects Regression. Findings: Study findings came up with evidences that support the relationship between intellectual capital and accounting-based performance, but negates any relation between intellectual capital and market-based performance. The findings also revealed different results, between Saudi Arabia’s and those of Bahrain. Originality/value: The study contributes to the debate on the validity of relating intellectual capital to the traditional accounting-based performance.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find out the extent to which governments of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries play a moderating role in the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a 10-year time series (2006-2015) for six GCC countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Secondary sources of data were collected from The World Bank database, general available statistics on the GCC, the Global Entrepreneurship Index from the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (GEDI) and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database. Findings: Results indicate that governmental support has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth in the GCC. Furthermore, the strongest indicators of entrepreneurial investments in the Gulf have been found to be risk capital and high growth, which indicate a rapid growth in entrepreneurial investments. The lowest scoring indicators were found to be technology absorption and innovation process. Research limitations/implications: Despite the necessary measures taken to assure standard results such as testing data validity, care should be taken when generalizing the research results mainly because the time series of the study (2006-2015) could have been affected by the International and Financial Crisis, though the study has taken this into consideration. Originality/value: This study has clarified the significant role of GCC governments in moderating the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth. Thus, the findings of this study are important because they help the GCC governments recognize their significant role and hence to utilize this role by supporting new and existing entrepreneurs particularly through regulatory quality, risk capital, technology absorption and process innovation. Furthermore, this study proves the extent to which entrepreneurship can help enhance the GCC economic growth, hence elaborating the importance of the sustainable resource, such as the human capital, in achieving diversification of sources to move from an oil-based to a more diversified economy.

This study investigates the relationship between the level of sustainability reporting and banks and financial services’ performance (operational, financial and market) across seven different regions (Asia, Europe, Mena, Africa, North and South America). Using data culled from 4458 observations from 60 different countries for 10 years (2008–2017), we investigate the effect of the Environment, Social and Governance score (ESG) and the three pillars on banks’ performance [Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE) and Tobin’s Q (TQ)]. We also control for bank-specific, macroeconomic and governance effects. The findings pinpoint a negative relationship between ESG on one hand and operational performance (ROA), financial performance (ROE) and market performance (TQ) on the other hand. From regional and pillar perspectives, the performance is differently affected following ESG, pillar and region perspectives. The novelty of this paper lies in the inclusion of different political and economic contexts. Our findings have significant theoretical implications for policy makers and academics at the international level. Banks and financial services sectors’ management lacunae manifest in terms of the weak nexus between ESG, pillars and banks and financial services’ performance.