Going beyond the mere gender diversity in the boardroom, this systematic review comprehensively covers the research on board diversity of financial institutions. More specifically, we cover gender diversity, as well as other characteristics of diversity, such as nationality, age, tenure, experience, education, ethnicity, and religion. A systematic literature review was employed using Scopus and Web of Science databases, covering all publications until May 2020, which resulted in 91 studies from 66 top‐ranked journals in accounting, finance, and economic fields. We analyze them based on the journal, methodology, research construct questions, and theoretical perspectives. Our results highlight the substantial knowledge gaps and the inconsistent findings of prior studies on several aspects of the field, suggesting avenues for further studies in terms of research designs, settings, scope, and theories. We argue that there is a need to explore other board diversity attributes rather than focusing on the gender diversity of the boards of financial institutions to achieve sustainable development. Also, more work is outlined on topics related to board diversity of financial firms that receive limited attention from scholars, such as (but not limited to) environmental performance, capital structure, intellectual capital, innovation and earnings quality of financial institutions, as well as the indirect effect of policy settings.

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Despite the growing interest in exploring the cash holding aspects among scholars, systematic reviews and comprehensive evaluation in this area has been limited. Also, there is only a fragmented understanding about how the cash holdings concept is formed among researchers and experts. We fill this gap in the literature by identifying and evaluating the research development of cash holdings topic. Using 874 articles from the Scopus database that were published between 1947 and early 2020, bibliometric and content analyses were employed to assess the patterns of global cash holdings research. We find that previous studies have substantially enriched our knowledge of the antecedents and consequences of cash holdings. Yet, there are still several opportunities to make significant contributions in this area. The contribution of this research is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the development of cash holdings research (using a sizeable archival database). It identifies the current joint development and potential opportunities for future work directions on cash holdings association with payout policy, corporate social responsibility, and corporate governance. Our results are likely to be of interest to academics, practitioners, and educators in related business and finance fields.

Purpose This study aims to provide a comprehensive review of the existing literature on corporate governance (CG) aspects of the Malaysian market. It offers insights into the phases of Malaysian CG, identifies crucial gaps in the literature and outlines an agenda for impending research. Design/methodology/approach Following a systematic literature review approach, a final sample of 125 studies from Scopus and Web of Science databases was used in this study. These studies were selected based on quality assessment criteria. Then, the sample literature was evaluated in terms of journals, methodology, theories, modelling, research outcomes and CG characteristics. Findings The results show that there is a growing interest among researchers to further explore CG aspects in Malaysia due to the continuous development of the Malaysian CG codes. Likewise, the review reveals that the majority of prior studies are quantitative and were carried out using archived data from non-financial firms. Also, the existing literature has primarily focused on the outcomes of CG, especially firm performance. Research limitations/implications Overall, the results show that there is ample room for future research. The present paper identifies a number of methodological problems and concerns, and discusses the implications of these problems, while also providing recommendations for future research. The main caveat is that the authors use scholarly papers published in academic journals only, but this approach offers them with opportunities for considerable further developments. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study contributes to the literature by being the first of its kind to concentrate on the Malaysian context. It provides a comprehensive knowledge assessment of the Malaysian CG research and offers advice regarding improvements in research, policy and practice by identifying possible knowledge gaps. Consequently, this study provides a cohesive story of the past and a road map for future research on Malaysian CG.

Purpose This study aims to identify the main research development on board diversity and offers a quantitative synopsis of key themes and contributors, knowledge gaps and provides directions for further work. Design/methodology/approach Using a bibliometric analysis, the authors assess the patterns in global board diversity research based on co-occurrences of researchers’ keywords and publication outputs of 991 articles from the Scopus database. Also, the co-citation network analysis was performed to assess the intellectual structure of board diversity research. Findings According to the keyword analysis, the authors found that researchers focus on the gender diversity of the boardroom while ignoring the cognitive diversity and other aspects of demographic diversity such as educational, ethnic, age, nationality, experience, background and tenure, pointing to the need for further work to consider other diversity attributes and the interaction between them. Additionally, board diversity research related to (but not limited to) payout policy, cash holding, initial public offerings, small–medium enterprises and financial institutions is limited. Originality/value This study provides a comprehensive evaluation of the development of board diversity research (using a large archival database) and identifies the common construct as well as the potential opportunities for future research directions.

Purpose This study aims to present a detailed investigation of Shariah audit research based on a systematic literature review. Design/methodology/approach A total of 53 studies were collected from the Scopus and Web of Science databases following a systematic methodology. These studies were analyzed and evaluated based on the theoretical perspective, geographical distribution, research settings and themes background. Findings The findings indicate an increase in the literature on Shariah auditing over time, especially in the Malaysian context, with a dearth of research in other contexts and institutions (Takaful). It has been also revealed that the existing literature is still unclear about the effectiveness and consequences of effective Shariah auditing, pointing the need for more work on these areas. The authors outline opportunities for future Shariah auditing research. Originality/value The synthesized findings are helpful for policymakers and managers to understand better how research in Shariah auditing is developing and how to translate research findings into practice. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research to comprehensively synthesize the literature on this topic and identify the potential opportunities for future research directions.

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Audit quality is often considered as the probability that auditors can detect and report misstatements of clients’ financial reporting, and enhance the credibility of stakeholders on disclosed information. Hence, the importance of intellectual capital can be tracked to the audit quality of accounting firms with knowledge-intensive feature. This paper discusses a more comprehensive perspective of intellectual capital in auditing area, with the opinion that all of the four components will have critical impact on audit quality. Not only human capital and spiritual capital including such as knowledge, skills, expertise, ethics, moral and values etc., but also the rules, systems, norms within the firm and the relationship characteristics of the firm with its clients are all closely related to audit quality. This paper introduces a more complete conceptual framework of intellectual capital on the basis of exploring the factors mentioned in previous studies and discusses the influencing factors of intellectual capital on audit quality, and finally puts forward some suggestions on the structure of intellectual capital, the internal management of accounting firms and industry supervision based on China's audit market.