Environmental sustainability represents nowadays a significant factor for business sector. Firms carry out many initiatives to develop environmental practices. Investors increasingly consider environmental discloser by firms and integrate this disclosure into the investment decision-making process. Using a database of Saudi listed firms, this study adds to the literature by examining the relationship between the environmental sustainability disclosure and stock return and whether this relationship is moderated by the financial constraints. We find that the environmental sustainability disclosure has significant and negative impact on stock return, indicating that investors do not consider environmental disclosure when valuing the stocks. Furthermore, our results propose that the negative impact of environmental disclosure on stock return is more evident in firms with financial constraints. This study provides managerial implications for regulatory authorities, firms and investors. The environmental practices can be value relevant. However, these practices need to be efficiently integrated into stock valuation.

Purpose Islam stresses on the practice of transparency and sufficient disclosure particularly when it concerns the ethical identity of Islamic institutions. This is to make sure that the activities conducted in business adhere to Shari’ah principles. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of Shari’ah-compliant status on the accuracy of initial public offering (IPO) earnings forecasts and to investigate the effect of the existence of Muslim directors on IPO companies’ board of directors on the accuracy of earnings forecasts. Design/methodology/approach This study makes use of absolute forecast error as a proxy for earnings forecast accuracy. As obtained from the list of Shari’ah-compliant securities established by the Shari’ah Advisory Council of the Malaysian Securities Commission, the study sample comprised 190 Shari’ah-compliant and non-compliant IPOs. The collected data were analyzed through univariate analysis and ordinary least squares regression. Findings The initial findings show that during the study period, the earnings forecasts of Malaysian IPOs are accurate to some level, although such level is still unsatisfactory. The findings also showed that Shari’ah-compliant status and Muslim directorship do not positively affect the accuracy of IPO earnings forecasts. Practical implications The findings of the study provide some implications for regulators, financial analysts, investors and users of financial statements, particularly those desirous of investing in Islamic capital market. Originality/value The present study provides a new and far-reaching contribution into the debate about the earnings forecasts disclosure in the context of Islamic ethical perspective. In addition, this study is considered as the first study to extend IPO literature by examining the impact of Shari’ah-compliant status and Muslim directorship on the accuracy of management earnings forecasts disclosed in the IPO prospectus.

This paper aimed to provide a review of the literature concerning the effects of corporate governance and ownership structure on the devices of market microstructure. It provided a clear overview of empirical archival studies in literature regarding the way corporate governance and ownership structure mechanisms influence market liquidity, with focusing on the Saudi institutional setting. It aimed to pinpoint the differences and similarities in empirical outcomes of studies and determine the areas that call for further exploration. On the basis of the thorough review of literature and the theoretical basis, our study proposed a conceptual research framework. The framework is based on the premise that effective corporate governance can lead to enhanced disclosure quality, which in turn, lead to mitigating the information asymmetry and ultimately, enhanced market liquidity. Although theoretical studies argued the presence of the relationship between corporate governance, ownership and liquidity, we find that outcomes from empirical studies are still mixed. Majority of extant studies, with majority in the context of the U.S. firms, provide ambiguous results, making it challenging to reconcile the differences among them. Our paper provides important guidance for both new and experienced researchers, and it has implications for stock exchange authorities in terms of adopting effective regulatory policies and efficient trading systems to tackle information asymmetry.