The Effects of Board Characteristics and Ownership Structures on Compliance with Mandatory IAS/IFRS Disclosure Requirements: Evidence from Qatar

Abstract

Compliance with internationally accepted and renowned accounting disclosure requirements has presented itself with having utmost importance in times of increased calls for transparency. This study aims to examine the effect of selected corporate governance factors on the extent of compliance with mandatory IAS/IFRS disclosure requirements in listed non-financial entities in Qatar. Contrary to most extant studies, this thesis aims to study corporate governance factors in the light of board characteristics and ownership structures as determinants of compliance with mandatory disclosures as opposed to the commonly examined factors of firm characteristics. The sample consists of 72 annual reports belonging to 24 listed non-financial firms on the Qatar Stock Exchange over the years of 2015, 2016 and 2017. A self-constructed disclosure index consisting of 216 IAS/IFRS disclosure items was prepared to investigate the degree of compliance by the chosen listed non-financial entities. The degree of compliance was reached by exercising two different scoring methods, the dichotomous approach and the partial compliance approach, resulting in two different compliance scores of 86% and 78%, respectively. Six board characteristic variables and three ownership structure variables were chosen for this study. These were gender diversity, board size, CEO duality, presence of founding family members on the board, proportion of non-executive directors, cross directorships, institutional ownership, government ownership, and foreign ownership. After conducting multiple regression analyses with both compliance scores, the results documented are mixed. Gender diversity is found to be significantly negatively correlated with the extent of compliance with mandatory IAS/IFRS disclosure requirements under both scoring methods. Proportion of non-executive directors and foreign ownership were found to have a significant negative association with the level of compliance with disclosures under the dichotomous approach. In the light of the partial compliance approach, CEO duality, family members and non-executive directors on board were found to be significantly positively correlated to the levels of compliance. Lastly, this study contributes to the corporate governance and disclosure compliance literature in Qatar. It further aids regulators, stakeholders, enforcement bodies and entities in realizing the possible benefits or drawbacks of certain corporate governance mechanisms on compliance with disclosure requirements.