This study investigates the impact of corporate governance on social and environmental information disclosure of Malaysian listed banks by using a panel data analysis. The proxies for good corporate governance are board leadership structure, board composition, board size, director ownership, institutional ownership and block ownership. Social and environmental information disclosure index is developed and content analysis is conducted by cross checking between the social and environmental information disclosed in the annual reports and the disclosure index developed by the researcher. The disclosure score used in this study is weighted disclosure score after considering the opinions of accountants and financial analysts who represent preparers and users of the accounting information respectively. The findings show that smaller board size, higher percentage of independent directors (1%) on the board, higher board size (1%), higher percentage of director ownership, lower institutional and lower block ownership (5%) have higher information disclosure.

Purpose Insurance is a modern risk-management tool. Although the idea is novel, its practice is not free of interest, uncertainty and elements of gambling. Takaful has been introduced as an alternative to modern insurance. India has an established insurance industry, and although the country has the second largest Muslim population in the world, takaful has not been introduced there. Moreover, no research has examined how internal forces affect policy-holders to buy new insurance products such as takaful in India. This study aims to examine whether internal factors influence individual insurance policy-holders to open up to takaful. As internal factors reflect the innovative nature of policy-holders, this paper seeks to determine whether there is significant difference in the innovative nature of two independent sample groups (e.g. between Muslims and non-Muslims) in participating in takaful. Design/methodology/approach New product adoption theory is used in developing the hypotheses and a questionnaire. Snowball sampling method is used in this survey, with a sample size of 909 respondents, including Muslim and non-Muslim policy-holders. The internal forces that encourage potential policy-holders to participate in takaful is the independent variable here, while the respondents’ actual willingness to participate in takaful is the dependent variable. Religion and level of education are used as control variables, and regression and T-tests are performed to analyze the data. Findings Results show that the internal factors have significant impact at 1 per cent on the acceptance of takaful by policy-holders. There is also a significant difference in the innovative nature between Muslims and non-Muslims. Mean values from the T-test show that Muslims are more innovative than non-Muslims in India, offering a good sign for India to start offering takaful, as Muslims could be the core customer base. Research limitations/implications This study focuses on internal factors influencing individual policy-holders’ willingness to participate in takaful. The findings can be the starting point for future research exploring the influence of external factors on such willingness to participate with potential benefits to local authorities, investors, insurance companies and the public in India. Originality/value This study provides crucial information about the demand side of takaful in India. The innovative nature of Indian policy-holders signals positive potential for operators to offer takaful in India and to concerned regulatory bodies to expedite its introduction to the market.

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Recent innovations of zakat disbursement in Malaysia have significant implications on accounting. Traditionally, zakat has been distributed in the form of cash disbursed directly to zakat beneficiaries (asnaf). This is generally referred to as consumptive distribution. With an increase in the amount of zakat collected, zakat agencies have developed various schemes to distribute zakat in the form of productive assets. Sometimes referred to as productive distribution. Such distribution helps zakat beneficiaries in generating their own income in the long run, thus contributing to the self- sustenance of beneficiaries which may eventually lead to the asnafs “coming out” poverty. Consistent with this view, State Islamic Religious Councils (SIRCs) in Malaysia have also distributed zakat in the form of productive assets. Given this, it is interesting to examine the practical and theoretical implications on the accounting of such distributions. Data was collected from 4 SIRCs to examine the extent zakat is being distributed in the form of productive assets and the accounting treatment of such distribution. Suggestions of how productive zakat distribution should be accounted for have also been proposed. Keywords: Zakat, Zakat Distribution, Productive Assets, Accounting, Malaysia