This paper investigates the association between the internal audit function attributes and audit delay using a sample of 432 publicly traded firms in Malaysia in 2009. In this unique setting, we capitalize on the publicly available data concerning the investment in and the sourcing arrangement of internal audit function. We find a negative relationship between the costs incurred for the internal audit function and audit delay. However, we do not find any significant association between the internal audit function sourcing arrangements and audit delay. Additionally, we find that greater audit committee independence and longer auditor-client tenure shorten audit delay, and more frequent audit committee meetings and higher misstatements in the preliminary unaudited earnings are associated with a longer audit delay.

The aim of this study is to contribute to the growing literature on the quality of accounting disclosures by family firms by investigating whether the alignment (entrenchment) effect leads to high (low) corporate transparency. Unlike previous studies, this study also examines the relationship between board composition and corporate transparency by distinguishing between the two types of nonexecutive directors, namely independent and affiliated directors. Using the enhanced segment disclosures by Malaysian firms in 2001/2002 as a proxy of corporate transparency, the results indicate that family firms are more inclined to disclose all the required items for the primary basis of segment reporting, consistent with Ali, Chen, and Radhakrishnan (2007) and Wang (2006). The result also indicates that firms with higher proportion of affiliated directors are more likely to make greater segment disclosures. However, no evidence is found to support the contention that independent directors and institutional investors promote corporate transparency, consistent with previous Malaysian studies.

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Purpose: Very limited research has been devoted to answering the question of whether the religious beliefs of the upper echelons of management and gender diversity have any impacts on the communication of corporate social responsibility (CSR) information in the marketplace. This study attempts to fill the void in the literature by posing the two research question: first, does the CEO religion affect a firm's CSR behaviour?; second, do the women on the boards influence CSR reporting? Design/methodology/approach: We performed our tests on a sample of 133 firms listed in Bursa Malaysia that have analysts following using a self-constructed CSR disclosure index based on information in annual reports in 2009. Twenty three percent of our sample firms have Muslim CEOs, and women made up only 8% of board members. Findings: We find that Muslim CEOs are significantly associated with greater disclosure of CSR information. We also find only a moderate relationship between board gender diversity and CSR disclosure. This is probably due to insufficient number of women on boards. Limitations: The disclosure index is based on unsubstantiated CSR information provided in annual reports, and we examine only two aspects of board diversity namely Muslim religiousity and gender mix. Originality/value: This study advances the research on upper echelons theory by illuminating the importance of religious value in influencing the CSR behaviour of corporate leaders. This has been largely overlooked due to lack of data.

This study examines the impact of board characteristics on the amount of capital raised through an IPO for a sample of 220 Malaysian IPOs over the period of 2005 to 2015, applying both ordinary least squares (OLS) and quantile regression (QR) techniques. The OLS results show that board with ethnic Malay directors has a significant and positive association with the amount of capital raised, while a weak significance is found for board size. However, the QR results reveal that other than board ethnicity, other board characteristics namely board size, board independence and CEO duality are significantly associated with the amount of capital raised. The additional results suggest that QR provides a more insightful and full picture into the 2 association than does OLS. The overall empirical evidence lends support to the resource dependence role of the board of directors at the time of an IPO.

Purpose-This paper aims to extend the research on the Malaysian initial public offering (IPO) management earnings forecasts by examining the impact of corporate governance mechanisms and earnings forecasts accuracy. It seeks to investigate whether effective corporate governance is a credible signal of improving the quality of financial information. Design/methodology/approach-A sample of 235 IPO companies that went public during the period 1999-2006 was used. Absolute forecast error was used to proxy for earnings forecast accuracy and to represent financial disclosure quality. Findings-Companies with a higher percentage of non-executive directors in the audit committees and larger audit committee size exhibit greater forecast accuracy. The accuracy of IPO earnings forecast is also positively influenced by the use of brand-name auditor. Practical implications-The results suggest that effective corporate governance is a credible signal of improving the quality of financial information. The role of audit committee as financial monitors as suggested by the agency theory supports this paper. Originality/value-The results are consistent with the belief that effective corporate governance is associated with higher financial disclosure quality. The results also support the decisions made by Malaysian regulators such as the Securities Commission to enhance the quality of financial disclosure by revising the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance to encourage public companies to implement good governance practices such as audit committee independence.

This study examines whether financial analysts consider or incorporate the environmental, social and governance disclosures (thereafter ESG) in their recommendations. We then test whether royal family directors affect this relation. Using a dataset from six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, we find evidence that analysts’ recommendations are influenced by ESG information. Further, we find the political connection negatively moderates the relationship between sell-side analysts’ recommendations and ESG. This suggests that financial analysts may assess the ESG disclosure in those firms with the political connection of royalty, in GCC countries, as superficial compliance rather than a genuine commitment. Our results are robust when subjected to endogeneity tests.

The purpose of this study is to examine the availability, extent and quality of Sustainability Reporting (SR) by Malaysian firms subsequent to the mandatory disclosure. Based on an across-industry sample of 300 firms in 2011, the results indicate that despite the mandatory disclosure, 3% of the sampled firms failed to make such reporting. Furthermore, in both aspects of extent and quality, human-related sustainability engagement, which consists of the workplace and community themes are found to be the favorite themes to be reported. Meanwhile, firms in the infrastructure, finance and plantation industries perform the best of extent and quality of SR, while firms in hotel industry marks the poorest in quality and lowest in extent of SR.