The Influence of Culture on Accounting Disclosure among Islamic Countries

The purpose of the paper is to explore the influence of cultural diversity on accounting disclosure among companies from Islamic countries. The methodology consists in analysing the literature on accounting disclosure and accounting information reported by companies operating in Islamic countries. We used the inductive reasoning, starting from a review on current scientific research over the changes occurred in accounting practices in developing economies. Islamic companies need to disclose clear and accurate financial and nonfinancial information in a trustworthy and reliable manner, while both Shari’ah-receptive investors and regulators care for environmental, social and governance impacts of Islamic investments. Analysing the governance scores, we came to conclude that companies with headquarters in countries that adopted Shari’ah standards as national ones, score higher than companies from countries where international accounting standards are used or in countries where both standards are used.