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1 Introduction
At present, Islamic banks represent the majority of Islamic financial institutions (IFIs), which are spread locally and internationally across both Muslim and non-Muslim countries. The emergence of Islamic banking is due to the increasing demand from Muslims communities worldwide for Shari'ah complied Islamic financial products, services and the variety of modes of Islamic finance. However, Islamic banking is evolving and growing at a rapid rate with an impressive record of more than 200 IFIs operating in 63 Islamic and non-Islamic countries ([28] Maali and Napier, 2010). The past ten years saw high growth in the number of IFIs around the world that has attracted major Western institutions such as Citibank, HSBC, and Deutsche Bank, which operate Islamic windows within conventional banks ([28] Maali and Napier, 2010). Furthermore, given the rate of growth of the IFIs, the continuous sustainability of the development by IFIs in both Islamic and non-Islamic countries needs Islamic accounting standards otherwise called accounting and auditing organization for Islamic financial institutions (AAOIFI) accounting standards due to the unique characteristics coupled with the growing demand of IFIs' products and services so as to facilitate and enhance the credibility and reliability of the financial statements and reports.
It is argued that the current standards which are based on conventional framework seem insufficient to guide the IFIs. Currently, the various IFIs apply different accounting standards in their preparation of their accounts due to the absence of Islamic accounting standards ([38] Zaini, 2007). The trend towards the AAOIFI standards has become a pressing issue that has generated heated debate among Organization of Islamic Cooperation countries.
2 Stakeholder theory and Islamic accounting standards
The identification of a theory is needed to serve as a basis of interpretation of the factors influencing the need of accounting standards. The definition of a stakeholder is "any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization's objectives" ([12] Freeman, 1984). The general idea of the stakeholder concept is about what the organization should be and how it should be conceptualized ([40] Haarman and Schmid, 2006). The conceptual framework for financial reporting contains objectives that are aimed at providing meaningful information:
- for creditors and investors to aid in making an informed decisions;
-...