Stakeholder influence, banking performance, country characteristics and the disclosure practices among Islamic banks

Abstract

Disclosure is the tool to discharge a company’s accountability and transparency and by which companies can interact with all stakeholders. However, there are fewer studies conducted in banking sector, especially Islamic banking industry. The disclosure practices must reflect the objective of Shariah called Maqasid Shariah practiced by the banks. Islamic bank also has additional stakeholders called Shariah Supervisory Board which differentiates this industry from others. There is a lack of empirical research on disclosure practices using Maqasid Shariah framework. Some prior studies also found that country values and banking performance also determine the disclosure practices. Therefore, this research aims to examine the effect of stakeholders’ influence, banking performance, and country characteristics on the disclosure practices among countries. Panel data regression is applied to analyse the determinants of disclosures practices of Islamic banks in twelve core Islamic banking markets (Jordan, Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Kuwait, Turkey, and Pakistan). The total of 405 published annual reports (81 Islamic banks of five-year observations) were examined. The extent of disclosure is measured based on the total of 104 disclosure items classified into four disclosure categories. Content analysis is performed to access the disclosure level provided by each bank. This study found that some variables of country characteristics have significant influence on the disclosure practices. This study found that banking performance and stakeholders do not have significant effect on the disclosure level. This study differs from the previous empirical studies in the area of voluntary disclosure in two aspects. This study adopts Maqasid Shariah disclosure which has not frequently used in the prior studies and it tests additional country characteristics factors that have been rarely discussed. This study contributes in the literature by providing the ideas to develop applicable disclosure requirements for Islamic banking industry. It also confirms that Hofestede’s theory on country value is relevant to study the impact of a country on companies’ behaviour and decision making.