UAE corporations‐specific characteristics and level of risk disclosure

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the UAE corporations‐specific characteristics, mainly – size, level of risk, industry type and reserves – and level of corporate risk disclosure (CRD).

Since the UAE is an emerging capital market, the paper relies on the positive accounting and the institutional theories to generate testable hypotheses and explain the empirical findings. The paper draws results depending on a sample of 41 corporations. A risk disclosure index – based on accounting standards, prior literature, and the UAE regulatory framework – has been crafted and calculated for each corporation in the sample. The relationship between the level of CRD and corporations' characteristics is examined using multiple regression analysis.

The results show that corporate size is not significantly associated with the level of CRD. However, the corporate level of risk and corporate industry type are significant in explaining the variation of CRD. Finally, in contrast with reserves‐CRD hypothesized relationship, corporate reserve is insignificant and negatively associated with level of CRD.

The risk disclosure index items reflect their existence in annual reports rather than their level of importance.

The empirical findings suggest that corporate reserve, as an explanatory variable, needs further investigation as explained in the paper.

The crafting process of the CRD index depends on the UAE regulatory framework. The paper seems to add to the extremely limited literature relating to CRD in Arab countries in general and the UAE in particular.