The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of some demographic characteristics of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on Financial Reporting Timeliness (FRT) in Saudi Arabia. More particularly, this study aims to test whether or not CEO characteristics, namely, tenure, accounting financial expertise, and sociability are associated with FRT. The sample of this study consists of 119 non-financial firms listed on Tadawul Stock Exchange for a period of four years (2014-2017). We use panel regressions and two proxies of FRT. Our findings report that a long-tenured CEO is associated with timely financial reports when the IFRS transition is simultaneously considered. This result implies that companies with a long-tenured CEO reduce the period taken to prepare and disclose their financial reports in the period of IFRS transition. Our findings show that CEO accounting financial expertise is significantly associated with timely financial reporting. This result implies that companies with a CEO who is an accounting financial expert reduce the period taken to prepare and disclose their financial reports on the capital market website. Our findings also report that CEO sociability is significantly associated with timely financial reporting in all instances. This result suggests that companies with a more sociable CEO reduce the period taken to prepare and disclose their financial reports on the capital market website. This result implies that when the CEO is more sociable via social media, firms tend to be more active in disclosing their annual reports timely. Overall, findings report that CEO characteristics do matter regarding the timeliness of financial reporting. Results are robust to an alternative measure of financial reporting timeliness. Our findings should be of interest to policymakers and regulators in Saudi Arabia in formulating new policies as they need to play a role in ensuring the shorter gap of financial report delay. The findings of this research have also a practical implication for shareholders and boards of directors in selecting a new CEO by taking into consideration their accounting financial expertise and their sociability on social media. Findings of this research contribute to the growing literature by examining the effect of CEO characteristics on timely reporting in Saudi Arabia, an understudied and unique context. The present study also complements the recent literature on the determinants of financial reporting timeliness by providing evidence that the sociability and accounting financial expertise of top leaders improve the financial reporting timeliness.

The study examines the effect of leverage and capital on the profitability of selected Saudi Arabian Banks during the period 2014 and 2019. The banks have been selected based upon their size in terms of total assets. The profitability elements, such as Earnings per Share (EPS), Return on Assets (ROA), and Return on Equity (ROE) are the dependent variables; Total Debt Ratio (TDR), Tier 1 Capital Ratio (Tier 1 CAP), and Debt to Equity Ratio (DE) are the independent variables, and firm size is the control variable. The study estimates a pooled regression analysis to analyze the effect of these variables. The results of the study show that there is a positive relationship between the different profitability variables and Debt to Equity Ratio. The Total Debt Ratio is having positive association with ROA and ROE, and has an insignificant negative relationship with the EPS, and the Tier 1 capital ratio is having positive association with ROA and ROE, and has an insignificant relationship with the EPS.

This paper examines the association of the presence of royal family members on the board of directors with audit committee effectiveness. The sample of this study consists of 444 listed manufactured firms in Saudi Arabia for the period 2012-2019. Using the Pooled OLS regression, the result of the study shows that royal family ownership is associated with audit committee effectiveness, giving support to the substitution hypothesis. The result indicates that members from the royal families are good monitors imposed into the companies' managements as both taking the role of decision makers and owners who may substitute the effectiveness of the audit committee. The presence of royal family members on the board has an alternative for the effectiveness of the audit committee. The marginal effect of audit committee effectiveness as an internal corporate governance mechanism is substituted by the presence of royal family members on the board. This study provides insightful evidence to regulators and policy makers at the company and country levels on the relationship of royal family ownership and audit committee effectiveness.

Continuous improvement of accounting policies coincides with the increase and development of earnings management. Several studies focus on this topic, and it became subject to many investigations. This paper deals with current literature focused on several axes of earnings management like motives for practicing earnings management, earnings management types, developed models to discover earnings management, factors affecting earnings management, and the consequences of earnings management practices. Besides, this research focuses on earnings management in Saudi Arabia in particular. In the recent period, Saudi Arabia is going through changes in the Saudi economy and changes in accounting systems, such as adopting the IFRS standards, which provides opportunities for expanding research into earnings management in the Saudi Arabia context. Several studies conclude that Saudi companies' earnings management practices are done in several ways and affected by many factors.

This study examines whether local corporate ownership is associated with audit committee diligence among 431 listed manufactured firms in Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the period 2012-2019. Using the complementary hypothesis, this study expected that there is a positive relationship between local corporate ownership and audit committee diligence. The Pooled OLS regression shows that local corporate ownership is positively associated with audit committee diligence. The findings reported by this study have implications for regulators, companies’ management, auditors, and creditors in a manner that they would gain a deeper understanding on how the local corporate ownership impacts the audit committee diligence.

Liquidity refers to the paying ability of the business organization while profitability assesses the profit earning capacity of the business organization. The liquidity of the business organization can be bifurcated into two based on time i.e., short-term and long-term liquidity. The short-term liquidity reveals the operational efficiency while long-term liquidity refers to the financial capability to repay the long-term debts of the business organization. The short-term paying ability is the management of the working capital or efficient management of the current assets and current liabilities. The current assets and current liabilities are directly related to the revenue of the business and further affected by the profitability, indirectly. The long-term paying ability or financial health of the business organization is reflected by the debts and equity ratio. The energy sector of Saudi Arabia is a prominent sector and contributes to the economy progressively. The study is based on secondary data and reveals the long-term and short-term liquidity variations and the cohesiveness of long-term and short-term liquidity with the revenue and profitability of energy sector companies. The study reveals the significant variations in the short-term and long-term liquidity and cohesiveness between the revenue, profitability, and short-term and long-term liquidity of the energy sector companies.

The aim of this study is to empirically examine the association between audit efficiency and board activity among listed energy companies in Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the period 2012-2019. The final sample of this study consists of 32 firm-year observations. Using the Pooled OLS regression, the study finds that audit efficiency was positively related to board activity. Moreover, the result indicates the complementary role of monitoring mechanisms in which audit efficiency complements the board activity. The study also provides insightful evidence to policy makers on the link of audit efficiency and board activity among energy companies.

The focus of this study is to examine the impact of board of directors’ size and meetings on the audit committee meeting frequency among energy, materials and food and beverages sectors listed on Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the period 2015-2017. The final sample of this study consists of 198 firm-year observations. Using the Pooled OLS regression, this study finds that board meeting is positively associated with audit committee meeting frequency. Furthermore, this study fails to report an association between board size and audit committee meeting frequency. This study provides insightful evidence to policy makers on the determinants influencing the audit committee meeting frequency among manufacturing companies.

The goal of this study is to evaluate the way digital marketing (DM) works in increasing customer satisfaction (CS) and brand loyalty (BL) at the Saudi Arabian Restaurants. The study uses 7 variables for analysis such as Service quality satisfaction (SQS) Digital engagement satisfaction (DES) Recommendation Likelihood (RL) Digital Promotions (DP) Online Presence Perception (OPP) Promotions Effectiveness (PE) Social Media Engagement (SME). Data from customers using digital media has been gathered through questionnaires. 410 respondents provided the data, which was then examined using SPSS and AMOS. The study will give management the knowledge they need to modify procedures and train employees in order to satisfy customers and promote BL. Future research can be done across several corporate sectors and cultural contexts. The premise for this study is provided by this paper, which also offers managers useful guidance regarding how to train employees to increase consumer satisfaction and BL.

The profitability of the business organization is the relative measurement and explores the profit earning capacity. There are two concepts of measuring profitability, which are profitability based on revenue, and investments. Gross and net profitability are the means of expression of the profitability based on revenue while investment profitability can be measured based on owners’ investment and total investment or total assets. Secondary data from the websites of the energy sector companies are taken for the study and ratio analysis, rank correlation is applied to get the similarity or differences in the profitability and relational relationship of the energy sector companies of Saudi Arabia. The study reveals that there was a significant difference in the profitability of the energy sector companies. Possibly, internal and external factors of the business organizations govern the profitability. There is a perfect and positive relational correlation between revenue and profitability while a highly negative correlation exists between profitability and investments. This may be due to overcapitalization or underutilization of the resources. Enhancement of velocity of operational activity is necessary to enhance the operational level of energy sector companies of Saudi Arabia. There is a need to control the indirect manufacturing and administrative expenses in smaller organizations and further investment in the energy sector companies is not advisable.