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There is a limited number of research work on critical success factors (CSFs) in public construction projects in Saudi Arabia. In response to this knowledge gap, the objective of this paper is to assess the impact of CSFs on the government construction projects in Saudi Arabia. The success factors are investigated from a broader consideration of failure criteria, from consideration of most effectiveness in successful project completion and also from consideration of the impact of implementing control processes for successful project completion.

This study has analysed the impact of success factors on construction projects in Saudi Arabia using a descriptive methodology. An exhaustive literature survey is undertaken to identify the success and failure factors related to government construction projects in Saudi Arabia. The survey data are sorted out and analysed by cost, schedule, technical, context and finance dimensions of the projects based on project types, engineering complexity, size, modality, jurisdictional control and funding approach. To evaluate the influence of success factors implementation, qualitative data were collected in a survey via a web-based questionnaire that was sent to officials working and occupying a responsible position in national project guidelines organizations and in government construction organizations in Saudi Arabia. In all, 28 CSFs were identified, ranked and evaluated for their impact on project success. The four identified factors belong to process categories of construction projects, nine factors belong to management of construction projects and 15 success factors are identified for impact assessment of implementation in construction projects.

The study's findings have identified and ranked the top five CSFs that significantly influence project outcomes, including meeting time targets, adhering to financial budgets, delivering desired outcomes for all stakeholders, effectively managing risks and assembling the appropriate team while optimizing resource allocation. Additionally, the research indicates that hindrances to projects primarily stem from execution, economic, human and political factors. The study advocates for strict controls over incomplete engineering designs and advises against contractors independently handling design work to ensure project success. Additionally, addressing contractors' qualifications and financial matters is crucial for project success. By highlighting these CSFs and challenges, the research provides actionable insights to enhance project management practices in the construction industry.

This study is limited to the infrastructure projects constructed by governmental bodies with the participation of officials from government organizations. Further study, including private projects and officials working on private projects, may be needed to generalized the research outcome.

Numerous studies have investigated CSFs in construction projects, but few have examined their relevance to Saudi Arabian government projects. This study aims to fill this gap by identifying key CSFs specific to Saudi Arabian public sector construction projects and assessing their impact on project success. It advocates for stringent controls in the Saudi Arabian construction sector, emphasizing the importance of preventing incomplete or altered engineering designs by contractors to increase the success rate of public sector projects. This research offers practical insights to stakeholders, advancing project management practices in Saudi Arabia's construction sector for improved outcomes and resource utilization.

Voluntary non-financial reporting aims at fairly reporting a firm’s non-financial performance. In particular, integrated reporting (IR) displays in a single report the contribution of different forms of capital to the firm’s value creation. Drawing on both legitimacy and voluntary disclosure theory, the main purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which a company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance affects the content and semantic properties of intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) found in IRs.

To test theoretical hypotheses, content and tone analysis is used to assess the disclosure strategy associated with ICD, whereas a regression analysis tests the variation in semantic properties of ICD according to firms’ ESG performance. A total of 79 reports by European listed firms from 2011 to 2016 were downloaded via the Integrated Reporting Emerging Practice Examples Database and analyzed.

Results show that ESG performance contributing more to optimistic ICD tone is governance, although in mixed ways. Integrating vision and strategy positively contributes to ICD tone, whereas information on poor treatment of shareholders’ rights tends to be manipulated and associated with an optimistic tone of the ICD. Moreover, eco-efficient product innovation and healthy and safe job conditions play a positive role in enhancing optimistic ICD tone.

This chapter contributes to the current literature on voluntary disclosure by introducing new evidence on the disclosure strategy in IR. By analyzing the effect of the single dimensions of ESG performance on ICD tone, this study extends respectively ESG literature.

This paper longitudinally examines the intellectual capital (IC) disclosure practices of Nigerian banks following the restructuring exercise and the subsequent policy changes in the Banking sector.

Content analysis of annual reports of the banks was carried out over a period of four years (2006‐2009), a period following the consolidation exercise and the subsequent introduction of the mandatory code of corporate governance. A self‐constructed IC disclosure checklist was used to measure the extent of IC information disclosed in the annual reports. A number of statistical techniques were performed to assess the trend of IC disclosures and compare the IC disclosure categories.

The results show that the overall IC disclosures of the Nigerian banks increased moderately over the four year period. Human and internal capital disclosures dominated the banks' IC disclosures, with only internal capital disclosures showing a significant increasing trend over time.

The increasing trend of IC disclosures of the banks suggests that the introduction of the mandatory code of corporate governance had positive implications on IC reporting practices. Hence, the findings of this study give support to previous research that established a strong positive association between IC disclosures and corporate governance development. However, this study only examines the IC disclosures of Nigerian banks following the reformation of the banking sector. Future research should incorporate other countries experiencing similar regulatory changes.

The introduction of the corporate governance code might have positively influenced the IC disclosure practices of the banks. However, the results had shown that the IC disclosures were mainly inconsistent and discursive in nature. Hence, the regulatory authorities, accounting setters and other relevant government agencies may wish to devise a detailed IC reporting framework for the banking sector.

Despite the significance of the banking sector to any economy, the IC disclosure practices of the banks largely remained unexplored. This study provides a much needed longitudinal assessment of the IC disclosures in the case of Nigerian banks following a major consolidation exercise and the introduction of a mandatory code of corporate governance specifically designed for the banks. The study also represents the first empirical investigation of IC reporting practices in Nigeria.

The aim of this paper is to examine the relative influence of regulatory enhancements relating to corporate governance and attributes of business traits on performance of Malaysian listed companies.

Regression analysis was performed on all 742 non-financial main board companies listed on Bursa Malaysia using data from 2013 annual reports.

The results show that the number of board meetings held during the year, role separation and board size have a significant impact on corporate performance. By contrast, independent directors, government ownership and director ownership do not influence corporate performance.

The study investigated non-financial companies for the financial year 2013. Hence, the results may not apply to financial companies and other years. Future research can perhaps include all types of listed companies and carry out a longitudinal study to gain more comprehensive results and understanding on the relationship between corporate governance and corporate performance. Additionally, future research could also consider employing a different methodology to further unveil factors influencing corporate performance.

The above findings provide new evidence of the effectiveness of the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance in improving company performance. The significance of board meetings, role separation and board size shows the importance of internal governance in shaping company processes and hence performance.

The result suggests that although the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance follows the corporate governance code of developed countries, the applicability of the recommendations to a developing country is evidenced. Companies in Malaysia are predominantly government-owned or closely held, but it appears that role separation matters even in these types of companies in achieving better performance.

This paper aims to investigate how the corporate attributes, namely, company size, age, leverage, profitability and ownership concentration, are associated with corporate social disclosures (CSD). The paper further examines whether there are any moderating effects on the association because of different proxies of corporate attributes.

The study uses 35 articles published between 1996 and 2016 for finding out the integrated results of the previous studies. The study uses the meta-analysis technique developed by Hunter et al. (1982) and Hunter and Schmidt (1990).

The findings of the overall meta-analysis show that company size and ownership concentration are significantly and positively associated with CSD, while age, profitability and leverage indicate an insignificant positive association. Also, the different proxies of explanatory variables moderate the association between corporate attributes and CSD.

This is a unique study that determines the association between corporate attributes and CSD by using meta-analysis. Therefore, it is expected that this investigation solves the inconclusive and mixed results of the prior studies and assists future researchers to develop a theory in that context.

This paper aims to examine the role of the audit committee function as an internal assurance provider in the emerging integrated reporting (IR) practice. In particular, the authors examine the role of the overall effectiveness, as well as specific aspects, of the audit committee function in IR practice.

The authors examine the integrated reports of 246 firm-year observations of large South African companies over a three-year period (2011-2013), following the introduction of an “apply or explain” IR requirement and an embedded “combined assurance” model in South Africa. Drawing from conflicting theoretical perspectives of economics-based (e.g. agency theory) and socio-political theories (e.g. legitimacy theory), the authors develop competing hypotheses to predict the role of the overall, as well as specific aspects, of the audit committee function in IR practice.

Consistent with the predictions of economics-related theories, the authors find that the overall effectiveness of the audit committee function has a strong positive association with the extent and quality of IR practice. In particular, audit committee authority and meetings are shown to have a significant positive impact on IR practice. However, as implied by socio-political theories, the authors do not find a significant association between key aspects of the audit committee function such as audit committee independence and financial expertise and IR practice.

This study informs local and international regulatory authorities, as well as the business community, about the potential significance of internal assurance mechanisms such as the audit committee function in the emerging IR practice. Given the practical challenges associated with independent external assurance provisions, the findings of this study suggest that internal assurance mechanisms – such as the audit committee function – can be genuine and cost-effective alternative assurance mechanisms in enhancing the credibility and reliability of non-financial reporting practices, particularly the emerging IR practice. The results also inform academic researchers to take cognisance from the expanding roles and responsibilities of audit committees and conduct in-depth investigation on “how” the audit committee function is handling the increasing responsibilities.

The study provides initial empirical account towards the role of the audit committee function in the emerging IR practice. The study is novel because it shows the significance of internal assurance mechanisms in wider organisational reporting practice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of IR reforms in South Africa on corporate disclosure practices of South African companies. In particular, the authors explore initial trends in corporate disclosures following the adoption of IR practice.

Drawing from Suchman’s (1995) framework of strategic and institutional legitimacy, the authors use content analysis to examine corporate disclosure practices. The authors conduct industry-specific analyses based on various industries to explore corporate disclosures practices across and within various industries in South Africa. The evidence is drawn from 246 integrated reports of large South African companies across six major industries over a three-year period (2011-2013), a period following the introduction of an “apply or explain” IR requirement in South Africa.

The results first show a significant increase in the overall amount of corporate disclosures following the adoption of IR practice. In particular, the authors find that intellectual capital and human capital disclosure categories have increased over time, with relational capital disclosures showing a decreasing trend. Second, the authors find that corporate disclosures are increasingly becoming institutionalised over time across and within industries following the adoption of IR practice. However, companies fail to provide meaningful disclosures on the interdependencies and trade-offs between the capitals, or components of a capital following the adoption of IR practice. Overall, the authors find that companies use specific disclosure strategies to respond to external pressures (strategic legitimacy), and that such disclosure strategies are increasingly becoming institutionalised across and within various industries (institutional legitimacy).

The theoretical implication of this study is that the strategic and institutional perspectives of legitimacy theory are complementary, rather than conflicting, and dovetail to explain corporate reporting practices. In terms of practical implications, the adoption of specific reporting frameworks such as the emerging IR framework is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, such reporting frameworks could potentially enhance comparability and consistency of organisational reports across and within industries. On the other hand, corporate reports could become a set of monotonous reports motivated by considerations other organisational accountability. Hence, to overcome the latter, this study emphasises the importance of specific accountability metrics and reporting guidelines, rather than the current generic IR guidelines, to enhance organisational reporting practices.

The paper’s longitudinal analysis of a large sample of integrated reports following the adoption of IR practice has the potential to inform growing academic research and ongoing policy initiatives for the emerging IR agenda.

This study aims to examine the role of audit committee attributes in non-financial information releases, with a focus on intellectual capital (IC) disclosures, following significant policy changes, mandating the audit committee function in Malaysia. The study argues that, given the changing informational needs of stakeholders and the ongoing discussion on integrated reporting, the role of the audit committee should extend to ensuring the overall quality of corporate reporting.

The study draws evidence from a sample of leading Malaysian companies based on their market capitalisation over a three-year period (2008-2010), a period subsequent to the recent policy changes. The extent and quality of IC information, as a surrogate of non-financial information, was measured and regressed against several audit committee attributes, such as audit committee size, independence, financial expertise and meetings, controlling the overall governance and firm-specific variables.

The findings show a strong positive role of the audit committee function in the overall amount of IC information as well as all three subcomponents of IC information (internal, external and human capital). The results are robust to controls for the overall governance and firm-specific attributes as well as different measures of IC information.

The results suggest that the role of the audit committee function extends to non-financial information communication such as IC. Policymakers in Malaysia should, therefore, build on the recent regulatory changes and encourage audit committees to ensure that the overall quality of corporate reporting processes include social, environmental, intellectual as well as financial capital of a firm.

This study considers the role of the audit committee in the wider corporate reporting process – drawing attention to its potential role in the espoused integrated business reporting. It also challenges the taken-for-granted assumption that restricts the role of the audit committee function to the traditional financial reporting process.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the trend of intellectual capital disclosures (ICD) over a three‐year period (2008‐2010), when the Malaysian business environment was characterized by a number of major events such as the recent 2008/2009 global financial crisis and corporate governance restructuring.

A checklist was constructed to measure the extent and quality of ICD in Malaysian corporate annual reports. The extent of ICD was measured on a dichotomous basis (0, 1) while the quality of ICD was measured using a four‐point scale (0‐3).

The results showed an increasing trend of the ICD and a significant overall increase by the sample Malaysian companies. The results also revealed that there are significant differences between the categories of the IC disclosures, with external capital related information accounting for the largest portion. However, only human capital disclosures significantly increased over time.

The time series analysis carried out in this study observed that, despite the general ICD increasing trend, item‐specific analysis showed inconsistent results. Hence, the regulators may want to devise reporting guidelines for IC for Malaysian public listed companies.

This paper is one of the few which investigate trends in ICD following significant changes in the business environment in an attempt to determine if those changes have some impact on ICD practices.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of corporate governance (CG) on intellectual capital efficiency (ICE) in Islamic banks (IBs) of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries.

A sample of 129 IBs is drawn from the 29 OIC countries from 2008 to 2017. A two-step system of the generalised method of moments has been employed to account for the unobserved endogeneity and heteroscedasticity issue that arose due to time-variant and time-invariant variables.

The results revealed that CG measures, namely board size, non-executive directors do explain the extent and quality of ICE in the expected direction. In contrast, CEO duality, Shariah board and audit committee are negatively associated with the ICE. Moreover, the authors observed that male CEO in IBs has negative, but foreign ownership has a positive association with ICE in determining the extent of ICE in IBs. This study contributes specifically to the stakeholder theory and the literature of ICE and CG.

The findings of the study provide insight into how a larger board can overcome skill deficiency and how making more investment in ICE would help to enhance productivity. Hence, bank managers, regulators, policymakers and shareholders have strong interest in designing the appropriate CG structure to develop ICE in banks.

This is one of the few studies which provide empirical evidence of CG mechanism to boost the ICE in the perspective of IBs of the OIC countries.