Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relation between corporate governance (CG) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) disclosure one year before the issuance of the first Corporate Governance Code (CGC) in Bahrain. Design/methodology/approach The CG is measured by board composition, audit committee characteristics, and ownership structure. Ordinary least-squares regressions are used to examine the relationships between the level of Bahraini corporate compliance with mandatory IFRS disclosure requirements as dependent variable and eight CG mechanisms as independent variables and five other firm-specific attributes, as control variables. Findings The results show that three of the CG mechanisms (i.e. board independence, audit committee independence, and Chief Executive Officer duality) are associated with the level of IFRS disclosure. This suggests that CG mechanisms are effective in the financial reporting practices. However, the results show that the other five CG mechanisms (i.e. board size, audit committee size, blockholder ownership, managerial ownership, and government ownership) are not associated with the level of IFRS disclosure. This result may prove the importance of the CGC as an effective enforcement mechanism to enforce Bahraini companies to fully comply with IFRS disclosure. Research limitations/implications Although the study can contribute to the understanding of the relationship between CG and IFRS in Bahrain, it may not be able to be generalized to other countries. Such relationships could be different from country to country due to business and legal environments. Therefore, there is a need to investigate these relationships among different countries. This study examines the relation between CG and the level of compliance with IFRS disclosure one year before the issuance of the first CGC in Bahrain. Future research might attempt to examine the relation one year after the issuance of the first CGC in Bahrain to confirm the importance of the CGCs as an effective enforcement mechanism. Practical implications The findings of this study are of great concern to all users of annual reports and of particular interest to accounting regulators to improve the level of supervision and the standard of reporting in Bahrain. Also, it is of great concern to professional accounting bodies, policy makers, and governments in emerging markets in countries that share similar economic, political, and cultural environments. Originality/value This paper’s contribution to the literature is twofold: it examines the relation between three groups of CG mechanisms (i.e. board characteristics, audit committee characteristics and ownership structure) and the level of corporate compliance with IFRS disclosure; it examines the relation one year before implementing the first CGC in Bahrain and provides new evidence on the importance and effectiveness of the CGCs.

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between ownership structure variables and the level of voluntary information disclosures of companies listed on the Bahrain Stock Exchange. The ownership structure variables included in the multiple regression model, are blockholder ownership, managerial ownership, and government ownership. An analysis of annual reporting practices of Bahraini listed firms, shows that there is a significant negative association between blockholder ownership and voluntary disclosures. However, managerial ownership and governmental ownership, are not associated with voluntary disclosures. The results of the regression analyses show, that size and Leverage of firms are significantly and positively associated with the level of voluntary information disclosures. Profitability of a firm is not significantly associated with voluntary disclosures.

This study examines the effectiveness of some audit committee (AC) characteristics to monitor management behavior with the respect to their incentives to manage earnings. Bahraini listed companies on Bahrain Bursa for the year 2012 to 2014 have been investigated to analyze the relationship between AC characteristics and earnings management. The AC characteristics examined are AC independence, AC size, AC meetings and AC financial experts. Multivariate regression model is used to examine the relationship between earnings management as dependent variable and AC characteristics as independent variables and other firm-specific attributes, as control variables. As a small developing market, Bahrain's unique business environment and context offer a good opportunity and provides a useful setting for examining the effectiveness of AC characteristics in detecting and preventing earnings management practices. The results show that discretionary accruals as a proxy for earnings management is negatively associated with AC size and AC financial experts, but positively associated audit firm size as control variable. However, the results do not show a significant relationship between AC independence, AC meetings, company size, leverage and earnings management. This study extends the literature on the monitoring function of the AC on earnings management, and contributes geographically to the financial reporting process and earnings management literatures by analyzing data from an emerging market and providing useful information for the corporations, accounting profession and the regulators on the effective practice of ACs.

The aim of this study is to investigate the level of social and environmental information disclosure practices in websites of companies listed on Bahrain Bourse, also to determine the influence of firm size, profitability, financial leverage, firm age and audit firm size on the level of social and environmental information disclosures under legitimacy theory. To achieve the aims of this study, content analysis and statistical analysis were used. Content analysis by word count is used to determine the level of social and environmental disclosures on websites of Bahraini companies. To determine the factors that explain the level of social and environmental information disclosures, descriptive statistics and multiple regressions analysis were used. The findings indicate that 57.57% of the sampled listed companies provided social and environmental information in their 2012 annual reports and their websites. Commercial banks and insurance companies made the most disclosure of social and environmental information, while the least disclosure was made by companies in the hotels and tourism sector and industrial sector. Multiple regression analysis revealed that financial leverage and audit firm size had a significant relationship with the level of social and environmental information disclosure.