Outsourcing the internal aud it function (IAF) is a worldwide practice attractive to companies, practitioners and regulators because it is believed that providers of this function are objective and competent and can provide high-quality audit. This study explores the potential influence of company and auditor characteristics on selecting outsourced IAF providers with industry expertise. Using 334 observations for non-financial companies that outsourced this function to an external provider over the period 2010-2017, logistic regression suggests that company characteristics such as size, issue of new equity, age, and total accruals significantly determine the selection of industry-expertise outsourced IAF (IEOIAF) providers. We report similar findings when considering alternative approaches for measuring industry expertise, using a matching sample method, and controlling for the potential effect of endogeneity. In additional analysis, we explore these ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In 2006 the Saudi Capital Market authority issued the Corporate Governance Code which proposed a variety o f monitoring mechanisms that should improve corporate Governance. However, the impact o f these mechanisms on firm performance is still ambiguous. This study aims to examine the effect o f corporate governance mechan isms on the performance o f Saudi listed companies. Specifically, the composition, size and leadership style o f boards are tested. The analysis is extended to investigate the moderating effect o f family ownership. The study uses a sample o f 338 large Saudi listed companies. We find that both duality and independence o f the board affect a firm 's performance. However, we find that this is not the case in family controlled firms, which suggests that family ownership and corporate governance could be a monitor ing substitute for each other.

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Purpose This paper aims to examine whether board governance mechanisms and ownership structure play a role in foreign investors’ decisions when buying shares in Saudi listed companies Design/methodology/approach Foreign investment in the Saudi capital market started in 2015 and reached a peak in 2019, with corporate governance regulations having been updated in 2017. The authors tested the proposed relationships using hand collected data for all Saudi non-financial firms in 2019. Findings This study found that it does not play a role in attracting foreign investment in the Saudi capital market. Foreign investors also seem to avoid firms with concentrated ownership that either have high government or director ownership; however, accounting and market variables show significant impact on foreign investors' decisions. The outcomes of this study provide empirical evidence that current foreign investors in the Saudi stock market do not place enough merit on board governance and their investment decisions tend to depend on share performance. Thus, the results show that the current governance changes and capital market regulations in Saudi Arabia may not have been sufficient to stimulate the inflow of institutional foreign investment to the country to date, but rather they have attracted individual retail foreign investors. Originality/value This empirical study is one of only a small number of studies to investigate the impact of internal corporate governance on foreign ownership in developing countries and the first in the Saudi context. In fact, most previous governance research in Saudi Arabia focused on how board governance and ownership structure influences firm performance. A review of the prior studies found that only Badawi et al. (2019) examined the determinants of foreign ownership among Saudi listed firms. Thus, the present investigation extends that study by examining the role of board governance in attracting foreign investors.

One of the main objectives of the present study is to investigate the relationship between the board variables (namely: board size, board meetings, board compositions, board diversity, and CEO duality), variables and Qatari financial institutions’ performance measured by ROA, ROE, and EPS. Another objective of this paper is to compare the performance of conventional financial institution are more profitable than Islamic ones. The study uses 56 listed financial institutions in the Qatari exchange market. The panel data regression was used to analyse the data in this paper. The results found that the board meeting is positively associated with all performance measures. Moreover, board size has a positive relationship with EPS while board compositions are positively associated with ROA. However, board diversity has a negative relationship with all performance measures. Finally, the results failed to report any statistically significant and negative relationship between CEO duality and financial institutions’ performance. In addition, the results indicate that Islamic institutions are of lower performance compared to non-Islamic institutions.