Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the evidence of accounting undergraduates’ attitude toward entrepreneurship, in particular, whether entrepreneurial skills developed in accounting education engender cognition of skills and intentions of starting a business. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a χ2 test statistic used to evaluate a logistic regression to gauge the effect of delivering six entrepreneurial skills (risk taking, critical thinking, problem solving, innovation, autonomy and need for achievement) on entrepreneurship attitudes (cognition of skills and intentions). Data consist of questionnaire responses obtained from 668 undergraduates attending Egyptian and Bahraini universities. Findings The results reveal that accounting students perceive the following four entrepreneurial skills as a key for starting their own business: risk taking, critical thinking, problem solving and innovation. In addition, Egyptian students incline toward cognition, whereas Bahraini students head toward intentions. Practical implications Some changes to accounting curricula are proposed to enhance entrepreneurial intention. Originality/value This paper offers a new contribution as it focuses on the challenges and the considerations in the Arab World Universities.

Online Financial Disclosure (OFD) is considered as one of the many outputs of advanced technology. The application of Online Financial Disclosure in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries differs from one company to the other due to its voluntary nature and the lack of appropriate regulations. Therefore, this study aims to measure the level of Online Financial Disclosure in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries. Extensive literature review was carried out and a checklist of 90 items (71 for content and 19 for presentation) was developed to measure the level of Online Financial Disclosure for the companies that are listed in the Gulf Cooperation Council Bourses. The findings show that the overall level of Online Financial Disclosure in the Gulf Cooperation Council is 77% but it is varies across the sampled firms according to countries and industry type. The study recommends that regulatory bodies should develop a guideline for disclosing information through the internet in order to enhance the corporate transparency level among the Gulf Cooperation Council listed companies

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the relationship between the composition of Sharīʿah supervisory boards (independence and frequency of meetings) and the performance of Islamic banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Design/methodology/approach The study developed a multiple linear regression model, and data were collected from the annual reports of 48 standalone Islamic banks listed in the GCC countries covering the period between 2013 and 2017. Findings The results showed a statistically significant and negative relationship between the composition of the Sharīʿah supervisory boards and the performance of Islamic banks. Research limitations/implications As the current study used only one indicator, that is Return on Assets to measure performance, it is recommended to expand the framework of this study, through the addition of market-based performance indicators such as Tobin’s Q. Practical implications This study recommends the GCC countries to follow a more proactive Sharīʿah governance model to strengthen their frameworks from both regulatory and non-regulatory aspects. Originality/value The study contributes to the Sharīʿah governance and Islamic banking literature relating to the GCC countries as previous studies gave no attention to the composition of Sharīʿah supervisory boards.

Purpose This study aims to examine the relationship between online financial disclosure (OFD) and profitability of Islamic banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Design/methodology/approach An extensive review of the literature was carried out and a checklist of 90 items (71 for content and 19 for presentation) was adopted to measure the level of OFD for the Islamic banks that are listed on the GCC stock exchanges. Additionally, the study used three indicators to measure profitability, namely, return on equity, return on assets and earnings per share. Findings The findings show that the overall OFD by Islamic banks in the GCC is 72.5 per cent, and a negative and insignificant relationship between OFD and profitability. Practical implications The study recommends that regulatory bodies should develop a guideline of disclosing information through the internet to enhance the transparency and performance among Islamic banks, which leads to reasonable economic decision-making. Originality/value The study contributes to the financial reporting and the Islamic economy literature relating to the GCC countries as previous studies gave no attention to Islamic banks.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the relationship between board structure and performance from an Islamic point of view. Design/methodology/approach Consequently, the researcher developed a multiple linear regression model to investigate the nature of this relationship, whereby return on assets (ROA) was used to measure the performance of listed Islamic Banks in Gulf Cooperation Council, covering the period between 2013 and 2016. Findings The results indicated a negative relationship between board structure and the performance of Islamic banks. Research limitations/implications Because the current study only used accounting-based performance indicator (ROA), the researcher suggests expanding the framework of this study through the addition of market-based performance indicators such as Tobin’s Q. Practical implications Therefore, the researcher recommends that regulators of Islamic banks in the GCC need to develop a set of strict restrictions for the selection of independent members of the board and to minimize the meetings of the board to reduce the cost of preparing information and the information asymmetry, thus improving performance. Originality/value This study provides guidelines regarding the appropriate number of independent directors and board meetings that will result in reduced monitoring costs and improved profits.