Purpose This study aims to investigate the extent and trends of voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and to analyze the determinants of the listed banks’ annual reports and websites in an emergent capital market, namely, Tunisia. Design/methodology/approach The authors examine the level of CSR disclosure by means of a manual content analysis where the sentence is used as the unit of the analysis. They use Branco and Rodrigues’ (2006 and 2008) index which includes 23 items. They focus on the annual reports of 11 Tunisian listed banks during the period from 2007 to 2012 and the information presented on their websites in December 2013. They use, also, regression analysis to identify the determinants of CSR disclosure used by Tunisian listed banks. Findings The results of the investigation show that Tunisian listed banks disclose CSR information primarily in a narrative form. Human resources are the main focus in the annual reports, whereas, on the websites, community involvement is the most widespread theme. With regard to the determinants, it appears that bank age, financial performance and state shareholding are the main factors that impact CSR disclosure in the Tunisian listed banks’ annual reports. Furthermore, this study finds a positive (negative) relationship between leverage (financial performance) and CSR disclosure in the banks’ websites. In this regard, the results show different determinants of CSR disclosure for the two supports. Moreover, bank size, foreign shareholding and the type of auditor are unrelated to the listed banks’ CSR disclosure either in their annual reports or on their websites. Research limitations/implications The sample size is small; however, it consists of all the relevant Tunisian banks. Also, this study is subject to the limitations of using manual content analysis. Practical implications This study enables highlights the importance of CSR disclosure and its determinants for the Tunisian banks’ stakeholders (such as regulators, investors and managers). Originality/value The authors contribute to the scarce literature on CSR disclosure in financial institutions. It is the first study to investigate Tunisian listed banks’ CSR disclosure. It is a first attempt to show, also, how banks’ characteristics and banks’ ownership structures impact on their CSR disclosure in their annual reports and on their websites.

Purpose – This paper aims to understand the current governance practices and governance structure of Islamic banks (IBs) in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Southeast Asia countries with the purpose of providing relevant information in guiding the future development of the governance system for IBs. As well, the paper discusses and compares the state of the governance system in GCC countries (Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia) and Southeast Asia countries (Malaysia and Indonesia). Design/methodology/approach – The study utilizes descriptive analysis approach in extracting and analyzing data collected for 83 IBs observed for the period 2002-2011. The authors test for differences in means and medians of corporate governance attributes between a sample of IBs in GCC countries and another one for Southeast Asia countries. They use selected variables of corporate governance of different governance structures, namely, the ownership structure, the board of directors, the Shariah board and the CEO attributes. Findings – The paper findings argue that there are significant differences and divergence of corporate governance structure of IBs in GCC countries and those in Southeast Asia countries. This position acknowledges that there are shortcomings to the existing governance framework for IBs which needs further improvement and standardization. Practical implications – The paper is a very useful source of information that may provide relevant guidelines in guiding the future development of corporate governance of IBs. As well, the paper provides relevant guidelines for improving regulations and laws covering the governance of IBs. Originality/value – This paper provides fresh data and recent information on the actual corporate governance system in IBs in GCC and Southeast Asia countries. As well, the paper discusses a significant shortage in corporate governance literature of Islamic finance.

No abstract

Corporate governance has drawn much attention with recent managerial misbehavior and corporate scandals. Various laws and reports around the world came up with propositions and regulation to restore confidence and reinforce investor protection. La Porta, Lopez, Shleifer and Vishny (LLSV 1998(LLSV -2002 built up their theory on the protection of investors by the legal system. Roe's political theory (2003) challenges the LLSV's legal theory and provides another explanation for the differences between countries centered on the political variables. The cultural theory (Licht 2001) argues that cross country differences in corporate governance can be explained by differences between national cultures. The objective of this research is to examine the disparity and the determinants of the investor protection regulations around the world. More specifically, we try to explain this disparity by legal and cultural variables. We investigate empirically the disparity of the investor protection regulations measured by the index established by the World Bank across 81 emerging and developed countries in 2006. Our results confirm that combining classifications based on cultural dimensions, religion and on legal families can shed some light on the obscure part of the comparative analysis of corporate governance and investor protection.

No abstract