IFRS-XBRL Adoption and Financial Reporting Transparency: Evidence from GCC Countries

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32350/jfar.82.01

Keywords:

IFRS-XBRL, Financial Reporting Quality, GCC, Digital Reporting, Transparency, Audit Quality

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of digital reporting in the valuable use of financial information in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) financial environment. Moreover, the study also aimed to explore how digital reporting facilitates decision-usefulness in six countries, namely, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain. Firm-year panel data and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression were used to test the five qualitative characteristics of financial reporting according to the present IFRS framework. These included relevance, faithful representation, understandability, comparability, and timeliness. International Financial Reporting Standards-Extensible Business Reporting Language (IFRS-XBRL) adoption provided substantial improvements in relevance, faithful representation, and timeliness across all countries, with some improvements in comparability and some improvements in understandability. Reporting quality was further moderated by firm-level factors, such as size, profitability, subsidiaries, and audit quality. The study presented the first evidence of multi-country IFRS-XBRL adoption in the GCC, and therefore contributed to research on digital reporting outside the single-country or developed market context. The study targeted financial institutions in a small sample of GCC countries; it can be expanded in future to other sectors, other regions, and how it changes over time. The results may assist regulators, auditors, and firms in promoting transparency, comparability, and investor confidence with digital reporting.

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Author Biography

Israfil Bangash, International Islamic University, Islamabad

Faculty of Management Sciences, International Islamic University Islamabad, Pakistan

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Published

2026-09-28

How to Cite

Bangash, I. (2026). IFRS-XBRL Adoption and Financial Reporting Transparency: Evidence from GCC Countries. Journal of Finance and Accounting Research, 8(2), 01–31. https://doi.org/10.32350/jfar.82.01

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Vol. 8 No. 2: Fall

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Copyright (c) 2026 Israfil Bangash

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