Table 1 Job title of respondents in this study

Job title Number of Interviews

Sharia-compliant companies
Executive 2
Senior Management 4*
Professional users of annual reports
Analyst 2
Compliance officers 2
Institutional sales manager 1
Fund manager 1
Sharia Advisor 1
Total 13
Note: * Two of these interviews were conducted through email correspondences
Table 2 Number of companies based on the respondents in this study
Industry Number of companies Producers of annual reports Oil, Gas and Consumable Fuels 2
Transportation and Logistics 1 Engineering and Construction Services 2 Professional users of
annual reports Asset Management 3 Sharia Advisory 1 9
Table 3 Interview guide
Group List of questions Producers of annual reports 1. What are normally the Sharia disclosures
that you report in the
annual reports? 2. Where is the best location for these Sharia disclosures in the
annual reports? 3. What are your motivations to disclose Sharia disclosures in your
company's annual reports? Professional users of annual
reports
1. How do you select Sharia-compliant stocks for investment? 2. What parts of the annual report
is important to you? 3. When looking into Sharia-compliant companies, do you look for
additional or different items as in your answers to question 2?
Table 4 Types of accounting and non-accounting disclosures, segregated into the required,
expected and desired aspects, prepared by Sharia-compliant companies and observed by
professional users

Dimensions
Type of disclosures
Sharia-compliant companies Professional users
Required
Avoiding interest-bearing transactions Avoiding excessive risks and uncertainty Excluding
haram elements such as pork, gambling, liquor-related activities
Non-accounting
Avoiding interest-bearing transactions, excluding haram Accounting
elements, such as pork, gambling, liquor-related activities (not disclosed)
Sharia-compliant stock declaration
Expected
Non-accounting Accounting - Fair dealings with stakeholders - Desired
Accounting - Non-accounting
Contribute to social-impact projects
Table 5 The practices of Sharia-compliant Companies in disclosing Required, Expected and
Desired aspects in their annual reports, further divided into accounting and non-accounting
related disclosures
Required items Expected and Desired items
Accounting Non-accounting Accounting Non-accounting
Yes, disclosed Yes but not disclosed - Disclosed as part of CSR
Table 6 Summary of observations by professional users on the Required aspects (accountingrelated disclosures) of the practices of Sharia-compliant companies
Specific ratios prescribed by Securities Commission Malaysia (SCM)
Breakdown of revenue
Yes Yes

References Abdul Rahman, A., Yahya, MA and Mohd Nasir, MH 2010. 'Islamic norms for stock
screening: A comparison between the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange Islamic Index and the
Dow Jones Islamic Market Index'. International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance
Management, 3, 3: 228-240. Al-Shammari, B. 2013. 'An investigation of voluntary disclosure by
Kuwaiti Shariah-compliant
companies'. Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, 29, 1: 21-41. Alessandri and
Westcott, S. 2001. 'Modeling Corporate Identity: A Concept Explication and Theoretical
Explanation'. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 6, 4: 173-182. Alvi, IA 'Sukuk
Overview & Trends'. Conference on the Role of Sukuk in Development, 18 May 2012
2012 Istanbul. Aribi, ZA and Gao, S. 2010. 'Corporate social responsibility disclosure: A
comparison between Islamic and conventional financial institutions'. Journal of Financial
Reporting and Accounting, 8, 2: 72- 91. Boyce, C. and Neale, P. 2006. Conducting In-depth
Interviews: A Guide for Designing and Conducting InDepth Interviews for Evaluation Input. Clarke, KA 2015. 'A Critical Analysis of Islamic
Equity Funds'. Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business
Research, 6, 1: 107-121. Cuganesan, S., Guthrie, J. and Ward, L. 2010. 'Examining
CSR Disclosure Strategies Within the Australian
Food and Beverage Industry'. Accounting forum, 34, 3-4: 169-183. Derigs, U. and
Marzban, S. 2008. 'Review and Analysis of Current Shariah-Compliant Equity Screening
Practices'. International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, 1, 4:
285-303. Eisenhardt, KM 1989. Building Theories from Case Study Research. Freeman, S. and
Cavusgil, ST 2007. 'Toward a typology of commitment states among managers of born-global
firms: a study of accelerated internationalization. '. Journal of International Marketing, 15, 4: 140. Global Islamic Finance Forum 2012. Global Islamic Finance Forum Report 2012. Global
Islamic Finance Forum 2014. Marketplace for Global Linkages. Newsletter. Guthrie, J.,
Cuganesan, S. and Ward, L. 2007. 'Extended Performance Reporting: Evaluating Corporate
Social Responsibility And Intellectual Capital Management'. Issues in Social & Environmental
Accounting, 1, 1: 1-25. Haniffa, R. and Hudaib, M. 2007. 'Exploring the Ethical Identity of Islamic
Banks via Communication in
Annual Reports'. Journal of Business Ethics, 76, 1: 97-116. Ho, CSF 2015. 'International
Comparison of Shari'ah Compliance Screening Standards'. International
Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, 8, 2: 222-245. Ho, CSF,
Afiqah, N., Rahman, A. and Hafizha, N. 2011. 'Comparison of Quantitative Shariah-Compliant
Screening Methods'. ISRA International Journal of Islamic Finance, 3, 2: 91-110. Ho, CSF,
Masood, O., Rehman, AA and Bellalah, M. 2012. 'Syariah Accounting and Compliant
Screening ractices'. Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, 4, 2/3: 240-254. Jacob, S. a. and
Furgerson, SP 2012. 'Writing Interview Protocols and Conducting Interviews : Tips for Students
New to the Field of Qualitative Research'. The Qualitative Report, 17, 42: 1-10. Kamali, MH
1998. 'Uncertainty And Risk-Taking (Gharar) In Islamic Law'. Law Journal, 7, 2. Maali, B.,
Casson, P. and Napier, C. 2006. 'Social Reporting by Islamic Banks'. Abacus, 42, 2: 266-289.
18

Miles, MB and Huberman, AM 1994. Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook,

Sage,London. Mohammed, O. 2005. Islamic Financial Services, Scientific Publishing
Centre, King Abdulaziz University. Othman, R. and Md Thani, A. 2010. 'Islamic Social Reporting
Of Listed Companies In Malaysia'.
International Business & Economics Research Journal, 9, 4: 135-144. Ousama, AA and
Fatima, AH 2010. 'Voluntary Disclosure by Shariah Approved Companies: An
Exploratory Study'. Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, 8, 1: 35-49. Scholtens, B.
and Sievnen, R. 2013. ' Drivers of Socially Responsible Investing: A Case Study of Four
Nordic Countries'. Journal of Business Ethics, 115, 3: 605-616. Securities Commission,
M. 2015. List of Shariah-compliant Securities by the Shariah Advisory Council of
the Securities Commission Malaysia. Turner, DW 2010. 'Qualitative Interview Design : A
Practical Guide for Novice Investigators'. The
Qualitative Report, 15, 3: 754-760. Ullah, S., Jamali, D. and Harwood, IA 2014. 'Socially
Responsible Investment: Insights from Shari'a Departments in Islamic Financial Institutions'.
Business Ethics: A European Review, 23, 2: 218- 233. Widiyanti, M. 'A New Paradigm And New
Strategies For Shariah-Compliant Portfolio Optimization : How to Practice in Indonesia'. 13th
Malaysia Finance Association (MFA) Conference, 2012 2012 Universitas Sriwijaya. 1-11.
1

This was confirmed through our interview with the Sharia division of the Islamic Capital Market,
Securities Commission of Malaysia. Any additional information that they require for the screening
purposes, which are not available in the annual report are made through correspondences with the
company in question. 2
Ahkam is the plural of Hukm, which means command. Ullah et al. (2014: 221) said:
'Ahkam are ... Islamic commandments derived from four main sources, namely (i) The Quran, (ii) the
prophetic traditions, (iii) Ijma, the consensus of Islamic scholars and (iv) Qiyas, that is solving emerging
issues by finding their analogies in the first three sources'. 3
Qur'an is the Holy Book in Islam containing the words of God delivered. 4
Hadith is the recorded actions and sayings of Prophet Muhammad. 5
Ijtihad is the Islamic scholars' efforts to derive and formulate Sharia from Qur'an and Hadith(Widiyanti
2012; Derigs and Marzban 2008). This ijtihad can either be in the form of ijma' (consensus) or qiyas
(analogy) rulings. However, diversity in the rulings exists, particularly marked by the four major Islamic
schools of thought from scholars of Hanifah, Malik, Al-Shafie and Hanbali. 6
Ethical Identity Index (EII) was developed by (Haniffa and Hudaib 2007) to assess Islamic values being
disclosed in the annual reports of Islamic banks and contains eight dimensions: A) Vision & Mission
Statement; B) Board of Director & Top Management; C) Product; D) Zakah, Charity & Benevolent Loans;
E) Employees; F) Debtors; G) Community; and H) Sharia Supervisory Board. We adapted this index for
Sharia-compliant companies. Some of the items were omitted when applying this index to ShariaCompliant companies, including Dimension F (Debtors), and H (Sharia Supervisory Board) as they were
not applicable to Malaysian Sharia-compliant companies.