An empirical investigation of corporate governance practices in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract EN

High-quality corporate governance (CG) guarantees that corporations perform better and have a better relationship with its stakeholders.

The good practice of accounting standards is very important, as it leads to effective disclosure and consequently good CG programs.

Therefore, the practice of appropriate accounting standards is a more relevant issue of good CG in the present competitive time as the standards provide a useful method to restructure the main corporate values.

This paper discusses the practice of Saudi accounting standards for good CG, as it is regarded as one important issue of CG, with an objective to make Saudi accounting standards useful to ensure better disclosure, and consequently, good CG.

The empirical results revealed that most of the selected companies were aware of the relevance of standards for good CG and complied with ten to twenty accounting standards with varied treatments of items, which exposed the comparability and left scope for personal discretion and confusion.

The necessity of stringent and uniform standards, wide participation and harmonization of related laws are necessary for ensuring a true and fair view of business, and therefore guaranteeing good CG.