Samar El Sayad

This study aims to examine how employment, equal opportunity, and diversity (EEOD) disclosures are shaped by dominant stakeholders in Saudi Arabia (SA), including government policies, sociocultural norms, and external pressures from investors and international frameworks. Drawing on stakeholder theory, 248 annual reports from Saudi companies (2008–2022) are analysed, incorporating contextual factors such as religion and policies. The results of this study reveal that religious principles and governmental mandates significantly influence disclosure, leading to cautious transparency. Companies often align reports with Islamic principles. While national initiatives such as Saudization and Vision 2030 encourage workforce participation, reporting primarily emphasizes compliance with domestic labor policies rather than international standards. This highlights the dual pressures firms face in meeting state requirements while maintaining legitimacy within conservative cultural and religious contexts. The implications of this study are threefold. Regulators should adopt standardized disclosure frameworks that balance global best practices with local sensitivities. International investors can promote transparency by pressing for comprehensive workforce disclosures in line with ESG priorities. For scholars, the study underscores the importance of examining how governance, stakeholder expectations, and cultural-religious factors intersect in shaping workforce reporting, with future research needed across the wider Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Our study explores auditors’ perceptions of the triggers and hurdles of implementing continuous auditing (CA) in Egypt. It also explores auditors’ perceptions of the impact of CA on their independence. A survey of ninety-five auditors working in Big Four and non-Big Four firms was conducted to gather data. Descriptive statistics and the Friedman test were used to test our hypotheses. In addition, using the Mann–Whitney U test, we delve deeper into auditors’ perceptions to examine differences across audit firm types. The results reveal that addressing the increasing demand of stakeholders for real-time reporting and enhancing the quality of financial reporting significantly affect auditors’ perceptions of the triggers for adopting CA. In addition, the lack of standards related to CA and the high cost of implementation significantly affect auditors’ perceptions of the obstacles to implementing CA. The lack of clear guidelines regarding the work required in CA and auditing data that the auditors have previously corrected during the CA process is perceived by auditors as among the most significant factors that can impair their independence. The significance of this study stems from the fact that it is one of the few studies to explore continuous auditing practices in developing countries. To the best of our knowledge, this study is one of the first to investigate how CA affects auditor independence in developing countries.

This study explores whether and how supply chain relationships have developed ‘matters of concern’ among researchers regarding the relevance of management accounting practices. A literature review of accounting, operations, and management literature was conducted to identify the ‘matters of concern’ among researchers. ‘Matters of concern’, one of the notions of Actor-Network Theory, was employed as a theoretical framework in this study. The findings of this study highlight the inadequacy of the conventional wisdom of management accounting in managing and supporting supply chain relationships. It shows how researchers focus not only on the issues within management accounting per se but also on the complexities that prevail in managing supply chain relationships and the reciprocal effects between management accounting and such complexities. This study paves the way for researchers to empirically investigate the ‘matters of concern’ and find ways to drive ‘matters of facts’ in the context of management accounting and supply chains.

This study examined bank employee perceptions regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in Egypt as a developing country. In particular, it explored bank employee perceptions towards the CSR aspects on which banks should focus. It also investigated whether factors such as bank type (i.e., public or private), employee age, experience, job position, and number of CSR training programs undertaken can affect this perception. Data were gathered through a questionnaire distributed to both public and private bank employees. The final sample consisted of 127 employees. SPSS was used to analyse the data. We found that bank employees placed different importance on the CSR aspects on which banks should focus. In particular, they prioritized employment and workplace-related aspects such as operational efficiency, financial literacy, equal employment opportunities, and workplace safety. In contrast, they placed less emphasis on environment-related aspects such as greenhouse gas emission and energy consumption. We also found that bank type, age, employee experience, job position, and number of CSR training programs undertaken could affect the perceptions of bank employees regarding the CSR aspects on which banks should focus. While there is a growing stream of research on CSR, prior research lacks CSR practices in developing markets, especially in the banking sector. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to look at the importance and priorities of CSR aspects in Egypt—one of the fastest-growing economies in the developing world. Based on the findings of this study, policymakers and regulators in Egypt such as the Central Bank of Egypt and the Egyptian Banking Institute are advised to request banks to pay more attention to environmental-related aspects of CSR to keep pace with Egypt 2030 vision and develop an action plan that helps increase bank employee awareness regarding the importance of CSR practices and engage employees further in developing their banks’ sustainability strategy.