Jordan Journal of Business Administration

The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis on Accounting Conservatism in Algerian Companies

Bilal Kimouche — 2026-01-28

Several studies argued that companies are more conservative during scandals and downturns as a means to provide information about uncertain situations and big economic losses, and that more conservative companies experience fewer difficult times due to recessions. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on accounting conservatism in Algerian companies. The research methodology relies on the model of Ball and Shivakumar (2005) as a measure of accounting conservatism, then introduces the Covid-19 pandemic as a dummy variable, and finally controls the model by company size, leverage, and return on equity. The study included 600 firm-year observations for 150 Algerian companies from 2018 to 2021, where the study period was divided into the pre-Covid-19 period (2018-2019) and the Covid-19 period (2020-2021). The results indicate that Algerian companies are generally conservative. However, they showed a very low level of conservatism during the Covid-19 period compared to very conservative financial information during the pre-Covid-19 period. Overall, this study has empirical implications for accounting standard-setters, auditors, and institutional regulators.

The Relation between Capital Structure, Governance, Ownership Structure, and Performance: Evidence from Jordanian Industrial Corporations

Turki Alhmoud — 2026-01-28

This study utilizes panel data from 50 industrial corporations listed in the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) during the period from 2012 to 2020 to investigate the relationship between capital structure, as measured by debt ratio, short-term debt to total assets, and long-term debt to total assets, governance as measured by the board of directors’ size, ownership structure, and corporation’s performance, measured by return on assets and earnings per share. A random effect regression analysis is conducted to test the study's hypotheses. The findings revealed that financial leverage has a negative association with firm performance. This negative relationship is observed with total leverage, short-term leverage, and long-term leverage. Additionally, the study found that both the board of directors’ size and foreign ownership have a negative relationship with firm performance. These results have significant implications for governments, practitioners, and management, especially in emerging markets like Jordan. In all the models used in this study, the Breusch and Pagan results reject the null hypothesis stating that there are significant differences across the years, the modified Wald test for heteroscedasticity rejects the null hypothesis of heteroscedasticity, and the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) test indicates no impact of multi-collinearity.

Investigating Cryptocurrencies As a Diversifier Asset for the Saudi Stock Market (TASI)

Haitham Zker Khoj — 2026-01-28

This study will shed light on cryptocurrencies, specifically the Bitcoin, as a diversifier in the Saudi stock market. Cryptocurrencies have overwhelmingly become a widespread and interesting phenomenon, attracting the attention of academic researchers as well as financial and governmental entities. Investors need to diversify their investments in different markets to manage their risks, particularly during times of crises, which requires understanding of the interconnections various markets. Moreover, the findings of this study will assist Saudi financial officials in better understanding the risks and rewards of cryptocurrencies and exploring investment opportunities more efficiently. We examine the hedging and diversifier properties of cryptocurrencies against TASI using the GARCH (1,1) model covering the daily data from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2021. Our findings confirm that the Bitcoin can be used as a diversifier in the Saudi stock market.

Is Audit-quality Research Discipline Saturated or Still Researchable? A Bibliometric Analysis

Ahmed S. Abdelwahed — 2026-01-28

The objectives of this study are to illustrate the evolution of the audit-quality research discipline over the past forty years, determine whether this research discipline is expandable and, if so, what potential future research avenues need further examination, and understand the current knowledge structure of the audit-quality research discipline. To achieve these objectives, we employed bibliometric techniques (keyword-frequency and co-word analyses) to review a dataset of 1,831 articles extracted from the Scopus database between 1981 and 2021. A newly introduced keyword frequency tool (K-indicator) was used to measure the evolutionary stages of the audit-quality research discipline. We then employed co-word analysis visualizations to present the cognitive structure of the audit-quality field. The K-indicator revealed that audit quality had become a mature discipline with established concepts, keywords, and conclusions. Also, it indicated that despite extensive audit-quality research, there is room for further research. The co-word analysis showed that audit quality had reached a tight and coherent status from 1981 to the end of 2021. Co-word visualizations indicated that the audit-quality structure revolves around four main themes: auditor characteristics, client-related factors, audit-firm characteristics, and audit regulations. Therefore, the audit-quality research discipline concentrated on some specific elements and ignored others. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no similar study was conducted to determine whether the audit-quality notion is still researchable. Therefore, the results of this study would add much value to audit researchers, practitioners, and regulators.

The Effect of Profitability on the Accrual Quality-Cash Holding Relationship of Indonesian Listed Firms

Dezie L. Warganegara — 2026-01-28

This study is to investigate the effect of profitability on the relationship between accruals’ quality and cash holdings. The investigation is carried out on all Indonesian public listed companies, except for companies in the financial industry, from 2013 to 2017. It is found that there is a significant inverse relationship between firms’ accruals’ quality and level of cash. With regard to the effect of profitability on the relationship, it is found that accruals’ quality plays a less important role in the determination of cash holdings in loss-making firms. The results support the argument that in an obscure environment with less-developed financial systems, weak investor protection and legal enforcement, issuing financial reports containing high earnings’ quality can lead to an improvement in cash holdings’ management. Although the role of accruals’ quality in cash-holding reduction is diminished due to the low informativeness of loss-making firms’ financial reports on the future of the firms, investors in Indonesia, an emerging market, still demand a high level of informativeness of financial reports, since it is difficult and costly to force a bankrupt firm into liquidation as a result of weak investor protection and legal enforcement.

The Impact of Related-party Transactions on Earnings’ Management of Jordanian Non-financial Listed Companies: The Moderating Role of Audit-firm Type

Hamzeh Aboud Al-Manaseer — 2026-01-28

This study aims at investigating the impact of related-party transactions on earnings’ management of the Jordanian non-financial listed companies and the impact of the Audit-firm Type as a moderating variable on this relationship. Content analysis of the financial reports of the non-financial companies was used to achieve the objectives of the study. The data used in the analysis was collected from a sample of 26 service firms and 24 industrial firms that were continuously listed in the Amman Stock Exchange during the period from 2014 to 2018, which resulted in 250 observations. Descriptive statistics and multiple-regression analysis were used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses.

The study results revealed that there is a significant positive impact for related-party transactions on earnings’ management. The results also revealed that there is an insignificant impact for the audit-firm type as a moderating variable on the relationship between related-party transactions and earnings’ management.

Based on the results of the study, the researchers recommend regulatory bodies as well as decision-makers to improve the monitoring mechanisms over companies and audit firms to reduce earnings’ management. Also, Jordanian companies are recommended to disclose adequate and appropriate information about their related-party transactions, which may result in an increase in investors’ trust in financial reporting

Corporate Governance Effectiveness and Premature Revenue Recognition: The Moderating Role of Family Ownership

Deaa Al-Deen Al-Sraheen — 2026-01-28

This study analyzes the relationship between corporate governance effectiveness (CGEF) and premature revenue recognition (PRR) in a sample of 160 Jordanian industrial ﬁrms over the 2017–2021 period. We measure the effectiveness of corporate governance through three sub-variables; board size, CEO duality and audit committee. We found that CEO duality and audit committee have negative and significant relationships with PRR, while board size has an insignificant association with PRR. As for corporate governance effectiveness, the results reveal that corporate governance effectiveness contributes to reducing premature revenue recognition, in addition to the fact that family ownership plays a positive vital role as a moderating variable in enhancing the role of corporate governance in reducing premature revenue recognition. Thus, the study recommends Jordanian authorities, policy-makers and regulation setters to urge firms to preserve a high level of corporate governance effectiveness due to its role in preventing premature revenue recognition.