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The global and the local:

Arabian Gulf States and imagery
in annual reports
Rania Kamla
Department of Accounting and Business Finance, The University of Dundee,
Dundee, UK, and

Clare Roberts

Imagery in
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449
Received 1 March 2008
Revised 26 November 2009
5 March 2009
Accepted 13 May 2009

University of Aberdeen Business School, Aberdeen, UK

Abstract
Purpose This paper aims to examine GCC companies use of visual images to interplay modernity
and globalism with tradition, Islam and local culture. The analysis aims to bring attention to the way
that businesses in the GCC use visual images to engage with or influence debates in their societies
concerning the tension between modernity, globalisation and traditional values in the Arab-Islamic
world.
Design/methodology/approach The analysis is critical and discursive and based on a close
reading of the visual images reported in the 2005 annual reports of companies listed on GCC stock
markets.
Findings The analysis suggests that GCC companies on many occasions used visual images to
depict and represent the possibility of a successful profitable, modern and global business that is also
sympathetic to tradition and operates within the framework of Islamic principles.
Originality/value While visual images are increasingly used in companies annual reports they
have been largely ignored in accounting research. Furthermore, when this research manifests, it has
been concerned with investigating Anglo-American and Western contexts. This paper instead
emphasises the significance of researching the use of visual images in a variety of contexts and
locations. It critically and contextually explores the use of visual images in a largely unexplored,
non-Western and a significantly Islamic context.
Keywords Annual reports, Islam, Companies, Persian Gulf States, Arabian Peninsula
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
The use of visual images in corporate annual reports emerged in the West, primarily in
the USA and Britain, in the mid 1940s (Graves et al., 1996; and McKinstry, 1996).
Organisations in general, but business organisations in particular, have mobilised the use
of visual images to contribute to the construction, portrayal and representation of their
activities, values, identities and even social realities (Graves et al., 1996; Preston and
Young, 2000). Visual images have increasingly emerged as an integral component to the
annual report. The corporate annual reports historical role in the West has largely been to
construct and reproduce social realities where capitalism provides the central economic,
social and political environment (Tinker and Neimark, 1987; Cooper et al., 1992).
The phenomenon of globalisation (along with the Western history of imperialism
and colonialism) has significantly contributed to the spread of Western capitalism,
including corporate practices and reporting, to vast parts of the world, including

Accounting, Auditing &

Accountability Journal
Vol. 23 No. 4, 2010
pp. 449-481
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0951-3574
DOI 10.1108/09513571011041589

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non-Western contexts and countries (Volcker, 2000). The corporate practice of

producing annual reports as a communication tool and so including visual images
within them has subsequently emerged and manifested itself in non-Western contexts.
Accounting research has to a large extent been very slow in reacting to and in
investigating these developments in corporate reporting and communication (Gallhofer
and Haslam, 1996; Parker, 2006). The purpose of this paper is to contribute to filling
this gap in the accounting literature by focusing on the use of images[1] in Arab Gulf
States countries (GCCs)[2] annual reports. The paper particularly investigates the way
in which GCC companies interplay modernity and tradition, the global and the local
through the use of images in their annual reports. This is an important and interesting
focus as far as the Arab world in general and the Arab Gulf States in particular are
concerned. The question of modernity and the place of Arab-Islamic civilisation in the
modern world have constituted central concerns in Arab-Islamic societies since
independence (Vahdat, 2003). Theoretical and practical concerns and debates on the
appropriation, rejection, adaptation and transformation of modernity in the
Arab-Islamic world are taking centre place (Vahdat, 2003). The phenomenon of
globalisation is bringing further rapid and unprecedented change globally to political,
social and economic spheres, so making the question of the interplay between
modernity, tradition and Islam in the Arab-Islamic world more urgent. Businesses in
the Arab-Islamic context are facing significant challenge in bringing modern and
technological advances to their countries, while also preserving their societies
cherished traditional and particular local culture and religion.
The next section develops the theoretical framework informing this study. It brings
insights into critical debates concerning globalisation and modernity in the context of
the Arab and Islamic world. It then delineates how these debates are informing and
influencing businesses in Arab-Islamic society and specifically in the GCC societies.
Section three provides contextual analysis of the area, highlighting the possible
influences of historical and contemporary political, social and economic developments
in this part of the world on business and peoples attitudes and relationships with
modernity, the West and globalisation. Section four looks at prior work on the use of
images in Western reports while section five reports on the analysis of GCC companies
annual reports and their use of visual images. It analyses the way that these companies
interplay and synthesise modernity and globalisation with tradition, Islam and the
particular local culture. The last section of the paper presents concluding comments.
2. Critical and theoretical insights: modernity, tradition and Arab-Islamic
societies
2.1 Critical insights into modernity
There is no clear agreement on the exact meaning of modernity or modernisation.
Industrialisation, modern technologies, global communications and international
finance and markets all represent features that are usually associated with these terms
(Werth, 2002). For Hopwood (1998, p. 2) modernisation is the introduction into society
of the artefacts of contemporary life such as industry, communications and
technology. Modernity, on the other hand, is a general term for the political and
cultural processes set in notion by integrating new ideas, an economic system, or
education into society (Hopwood, 1998, p. 2). It is, according to Hopwood (1998, p. 2) a
way of thought, of living in the contemporary world and of accepting change.

Modernity, according to Thompson (2003) is almost exclusively associated with

Western cultural and political thoughts and institutions. Indeed, many equate
modernisation with Westernisation (Er-Rashid, 2003). While modernisation is
perceived as changing and developing institutions in society, Westernisation is the
evolution of certain values such as individualism, liberty, the separation of secular
and sacred realms within government, the evolution of a public sphere, and the values
of political and social equality (Thompson, 2003, p. 32). Modernity in the West
accompanied the enlightenment, which was a major factor in changing and
modernising Western political and social institutions. It gave primacy to reason and it
valued both reason and science over tradition and religion, so establishing the culture
and institutions necessary for the spread of modernity (Thompson, 2003).
Despite the economic, political and social advantages that modernity brought
Western societies, it also has negative implications both for Western societies and
beyond. Modernity, according to critical theorisation from Kant to Hegel to the
Frankfurt School, has given rise to individualism and colonialism with Western
societies having to a great extent emphasised those aspects of modernity that tend to
view the individual as the determinant of her or his own life processes (Vahdat, 2003,
p. 124). This narrow and limited understanding and application of modernity,
according to critics such as Vahdat (2003), has caused social chaos and constituted a
platform for the West to attempt to dominate the other. It has brought to Western
societies a crisis of identity, the breakdown of traditional forms of thought and
collective identity, and the emergence of the individual, both in political and
philosophical terms (Thompson, 2003, p. 1). Modernity, therefore, came with a price
that Western societies are still paying.
In the international sphere, the negative social dimension of modernity has been
brought to non-Western countries through both colonialism and globalisation
(Thompson, 2003). While material and economic development is important to all
societies, the material considerations of modernity have displaced an arguably more
important aspect of modernity: the importance of ideas (Thompson, 2003), resulting in
progress being perceived solely in material, scientific and technological terms
(Thompson, 2003; Vahdat, 2003).
Thus, much of the mainstream debate surrounding modernity is informed by a
limited and material understanding of modernity. Modernity and modernisation, in
this context, are perceived to comprise a conflict with particular traditional and
religious values (Khalaf, 2001; Woodward, 2002; Vahdat, 2003). Successful
modernisation, it is argued, requires social conditions and values which emphasis
change over continuity; quantity over quality; efficient production, power and profit
over sympathy for traditional values or vocations in both public and private spheres
(Woodward, 2002, pp. 111-12). In this context, the marginalisation of religion and
particular traditional values are perceived as pre-conditions for modernity. Woodward
(2002) argues that while this was largely the case for Western and Anglo-American
societies during the nineteenth century enlightenment, it does not mean that this is the
only possible form of modernity. Woodward (2002, p. 123) explains that there is no
reason to expect that modernisation necessarily produces secular, liberal, democratic
capitalist societies. In Islamic societies, Woodward (2002, p. 125) maintains, it is
possible to envisage a form of modernity where science and religion are integrated
into a single system in which either, or a combination of both, can be used to provide

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meaningful explanations for social and natural phenomenon[3]. In the next section
debates surrounding modernity, Islam and Arab culture will be delineated.
2.2 Modernity in the Arab-Islamic world
Debates surrounding modernisation and change in the Arab world are usually dressed
with tension (Hopwood, 1998). Muslims and Arabs encounters with Western
modernity and the enlightenment in the eighteenth and nineteenth century were
through military conquest and Christian missionaries (Hourani, 1991; Lapidus, 1988).
This has resulted in the enlightenment and modernity, including their emancipatory
and universalistic ideas, being perceived as tainted by many Muslims and Arabs
(Thompson, 2003). Traditional Arab and Muslim societies were challenged and on
many occasions told that their traditional cultural and religious values and norms were
unsuitable for progress (Hopwood, 1998). To Western occupiers in the nineteenth
century traditional was backward and non-European, modern was progressive and
European (Western) (Hopwood, 1998, p. 1). This notion informed their discourse and
dealings with their colonies, including the Arab-Islamic ones. Contemporary
mainstream Western discourses on modernity in the Arab and Islamic world
continues in the same line today (Khalaf, 2001; Said, 1997; Vahdat, 2003). For example,
Khalaf (2001) explains that mainstream Western international relations policy analysts
such as Kennedy, Frances, Fukuyama, Kaplan and Huntington claim irreconcilable
tension and contest between modernity and the traditional and cultural values of the
Arab and Islamic world. The majority of these thinkers maintain that the only hope for
prosperity in the Arab and Islamic world is the complete endorsement of the Western
model of modernity (Khalaf, 2001).
Arabs and Muslims, however, have been concerned with the impact of modernity (in
the above mainstream Western understanding of the term) on Arab authenticity (or
asala: meaning staying true to oneself). Islam, with its language, culture and history
represents to many Arabs a source of integrity that should be maintained in the face of
rapid change (Hopwood, 1998). Change for Arabs and Muslims came, at least in the
beginning, quickly, abruptly and from outside forces through Western missionaries
and colonialism. This invoked an extreme rejection of modernity by some, albeit small,
groups in society, who maintained that the only answer to societys problems lies in the
revival of Islam (Hopwood, 1998). This is not to mean that all Muslims and Arabs
rejected modernity and change. Rather, the majority wanted it, but based on Islamic
principles (Hopwood, 1998). They perceived Islam to be dynamic and active enough to
encompass change. Muslim scholars from the eighteenth century until this day bring
evidence and quotations from the Koran advocating change and advancement
(Hopwood, 1998; Langman and Morris, 2003). Indeed, modernity as a set of objective
conditions has never been a problem for Muslims. Rather, it is the association between
modernisation and Westernisation through notions such as individualism and
secularism that have caused serious concern (Er-Rashid, 2003).
2.3 Modernity in the context of globalisation in the Arab-Islamic world
Policy makers and leaders in Arab societies have been faced with significant
challenges since independence regarding how to modernise the material and
institutional basis of their society without losing cherished values or compromise
social cohesion. They have been faced with the task of reconciling the apparently

incompatible aims of economic growth, higher living standards, equality, a greater

sense of community, cultural identity and political liberty. These challenges have
intensified in the context of globalisation today.
Globalisation has emerged as a major, albeit heavily contested[4] theme both
globally and more particularly in the Arab world in recent years. Globalization coupled
with increasing financial integration is mirrored in increasing international economic
interdependence. For instance, production by multinational corporations (MNCs) has
increasingly moved to the cheapest locations worldwide and domestic consumption
and economic activity are increasingly dependent on international trade (Tobin, 2000).
National governments, in this context, are competing with each other by pursuing open
market policies that they believe will earn them market confidence and attract trade
and capital inflows (Rodrik, 2000). They have been willing to sacrifice strongly held
views about economic sovereignty and policy autonomy because they believe that the
balance of economic advantages is on the side of those that achieve global financial
integration (Volcker, 2000)[5]. The Arab world, alongside other developing countries, is
finding it increasingly difficult not to embrace Western style capitalism and open
market policies. Indeed, the majority, if not all, of the Arab countries today are moving
swiftly towards the market economy after decades of socialism (see Europa Regional
Surveys of the World, 2003, 2004).
Globalisation, like modernity, has been closely associated with Westernisation (see
Scholte, 1999). Globalisation seems to promote universal values that are actually
derived from Judeo-Christian traditions, European languages and ideologies (Scholte,
1999, pp. 23-4). Consequently, globalisation enhanced and renewed debates in
Arab-Islamic societies in respect of preserving local cultural particularities in the face
of global, Western domination. Globalisation, for many, has come to represent a new
word for imperialism (Buruma and Margalit, 2004, p. 36). Whether in the domination
of Western multinationals and international governance institutions supporting them
(in particular the IMF, WTO and the World Bank) or with the domination of the US and
European popular cultures (Held et al., 1999; Lentner, 1999; Rampersad, 2000),
globalisation has come to represent for many in the Arab world (and other parts of the
developing world) a renewal and continuation of Western colonialism (Sadiki, 2003).
This has resulted in Arab societies engaging more fiercely today with an ongoing
search for an Arab identity (Sadiki, 2003, p. 111). Therefore, once again, after
independence, Arab societies found themselves engaged with debates surrounding the
importance of embracing Western technology, economic advances and political
freedom to survive on the global level. On the other hand, Arabs are increasingly
concerned with the implications of such endorsement on their traditional, local and
religious identity (see Abdel-Malek, 2000).
Political tensions in the Arab-Islamic region and the feeling of humiliation among
Arabs in respect of the Arab-Israeli and Arab-US conflicts have contributed to
reducing modernity and globalisation debates and application in the Arab world to
their most visible aspects such as technological advancement and economic liberalism
(Vahdat, 2003). On the whole, modernisation in the Arab world has manifested itself
mainly in the acquisition of the latest European style uniforms and weaponry, high-rise
buildings and oil wells (Rejwan, 2003). Rational ideas and other value laden aspects of
modernity have been rejected as too Western and imperial for Arabs and Muslims to
adopt. Arab-Islamic societies, therefore, became imprisoned between two opposite

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positions regarding the relationship between their societies and modernisation and
globalisation (Khalaf, 2001). One group perceives local culture and tradition as
hindering modernisation and rapid economic development or even survival on the
global level. For them, enjoying the fruits of modernity and globalisation requires the
abandonment of local culture and traditions (Khalaf, 2001). The second group adopts
the opposite position, defending and indeed idealising local culture and traditions.
Their main concern is that these features of society are threatened by globalisation and
modernity and they therefore need to be protected from change. Arab regimes and
policy makers have struggled with these two extremes since independence and the
enthusiasm of some of them for radical change have given way in a number of
instances to a resurgence of Muslim fundamentalism and other essentialist movements
as a reaction to radical modernisation.
This does not of course mean that conflict between the two extremes is inevitable or
that societies will oscillate between the two positions. But it does mean that some way
of moderating the extremes is necessary. The interplay between tradition and
modernity, globalism and localism in the Arab world can be approached from the
realisation of the possibility of the continuing coexistence and equal enforcement of
tradition and modernity where they are allowed to penetrate and transform each other.
The most effective approach to modernity should therefore be adaptive and
particularistic with secular, including business, and spiritual groups mediating and
negotiating change in society. Here universal and rational principles are reconciled
with particular cultural traditions (Khalaf, 2001; Woodward, 2002).
The next section provides a historical and critical analysis of key social, political
and economic dimensions and developments of the Gulf Council Countries. This aims
at shedding light on key contextual and historical factors and events influencing the
current business environment and therefore also influencing corporate reporting.
3. The GCCs: some key contextual influences
By the end of the nineteenth century, the Arab countries that were once part of the
Ottoman Empire were instead under the control of Western countries (Cleveland, 1994).
At the time, the states of the Arabian Gulf were marginal to the main political and
diplomatic issues that dominated the Middle East as they were impoverished, sparsely
populated, and ruled by traditional monarchs[6]. Great Britain was the dominant
European power along the shores of the Arabian Gulf (Robinson, 1982). Two compelling
imperial concerns shaped their military strategy in the area, the ever-present imperative
to defend the approaches to India, and the need to protect the oil fields of Iran (Cleveland,
1994; Gelvin, 2008). Britain therefore began establishing treaties with some of the Arab
Sheikhdoms in the Arabian Gulf with Bahrain (1880), Muscat (1891) and Kuwait (1899)
signing treaties pledging not to deal with any foreign power except through Britain
(Cleveland, 1994; Hourani, 1991). Further change came after World War One when the
San Remo Conference[7] allocated Arab States between Britain and France. Britain
received the mandates for all the Gulf States except Saudi Arabia. While the new Arab
states ostensibly had their own domestic and foreign policies, the policies of most of them
were determined by their European occupiers (Hourani, 1991).
While most Arab Muslims accepted the legitimacy of the Ottoman rule, as they
perceived it to be Islamic (Cleveland, 1994), this was not the case as far as the British and
French rule was concerned. For most of the interwar period, Arab political activities were

primarily devoted to achieving independence from foreign control with resistance being
organised through Pan-Arabisim[8] and Pan-Islamisim movements (Hourani, 1991).
This, along with the weakening impact of World War Two on Britain, resulted in Arab
states gaining their independence after World War Two, although the Gulf States of
UAE and Bahrain stayed under British control until 1971. The impact of this relatively
recent history of colonialism continues to be seen in the Arab states today in the cultural,
economic and social practices of their inhabitants. Arabs consider themselves to have a
common history, religion, language and continued geography, which tie them up in a
common destiny (Hourani, 1991)[9]. Islam in particular is seen by many Arab Muslims to
be a significant uniting aspect of their lives and cultures. It is perceived as the only
aspect in their lives that has not been shaped or colonised by the West, being the only
non-European culture that has never been completely vanquished (Said, 2004, p. 388).
A dimension of the influence of these factors is evident in the economic and business
environment in the countries of the Gulf States. While many Arab countries moved
towards socialist policies and aligned themselves to the Soviet Union after
independence, the Gulf States stayed very much aligned to the UK and later the
USA (Cleveland, 1994; Anderson, 2000). Albeit briefly introducing a number of
nationalisation policies, especially in the oil industry[10], these policies were soon
followed by new outward-looking and open market strategies such as the
diversification of markets, economic deregulation and the introduction of economic
reforms (Anderson, 2000; Europa Regional Surveys of the World, 2003, 2004). Two
countries have in particular developed significant service industries: Bahrain is now
home to many international and domestic financial institutions while in the UAE,
Dubai has grown as a centre for regional trade, particularly through its free-port area
at Jebal Ali (Europa Regional Surveys of the World, 2003). Similar changes are also
seen to a greater or lesser extent in the other GCC countries with moves towards open
market policies and privatisation programmes, especially in the financial sector. These
changes are aimed towards more integration with the global community,
diversification of their economies and the provision of new job opportunities for
their young population through enhancing the private sector (Anderson, 2000; Europa
Regional Surveys of the World, 2003)[11].
The orientation towards market policies in the Gulf States has been accompanied by
the resurgence of Islamic business and finance. This has been elevated from an isolated
business activity carried out by strict Muslims in the Arab world, to a mainstream
global business[12]. In the GCC, Dubai was one of the first cities to establish a private
Islamic bank (Dubai Islamic Bank). While the governments of the GCC were initially
opposed to the idea of establishing Islamic banks (El-Gamal, 2006), with increasing
public demand the GCC saw the business opportunity and opened the door for Islamic
banking and finance with Bahrain now established as its centre (El-Gamal, 2006). The
demand for Islamic banking is a signal of the importance of Islam and Islamic Sharia
with many Muslims believing that they ought to conduct their business activities
according to the rules of Sharia, the main objective of which is to ensure general human
well-being and socio-economic justice (Rahman, 2000)[13]. These values may often
conflict with free market policies and corporate activities directed towards the sole goal
of profit maximisation that are often advocated by global and international governance
organisations.

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3.1 Business and modernity: the case of GCC

The Gulf States are distinct from other parts of the Arab and Islamic world in that they
posses significant amounts of wealth. Since the discovery of oil, their societies have
witnessed an amazing transformation with respect to developing modern
infrastructure (Denton and Al-Shamali, 2000). Modernity in the form of paved roads,
oil wells, state-of-the-art technology, high-rise buildings, architecture and the latest
luxuries from all over the world manifested itself (Heard-Bay, 1996). Underneath the
gloss material modernity, however, the essential character of contemporary Gulf
society still persists with the old political and social order remaining largely intact
(Zahlan, 1998). A manifestation of this is the continuing influence and position of the
ruler in these societies, where the power structures have remained very largely intact
after the discovery of oil[14].
The people of the Gulf States being faced with these alternative and apparently
conflicting systems are attempting to create a reality where they can enjoy the fruits of
modernity (in its material sense) and at the same time maintain their particular cultural
identity (Heard-Bay, 1996). This is evident, for example, in the dress code for men and
women; the continuing popularity of traditional sports and attachment to extended
family codes.
Business in the Arab world has a significant role in the continuing debate on how
modernity should play-out in the GCC. Individual companies may choose where to
position themselves, whether to emphasise the local or the global, the modern or the
traditional, or whether instead they have a responsibility in this environment of
actively seeking to harmonise Islam and modernity or globalism with localism. Denton
and Al-Shamali (2000) maintain that the most significant challenge facing Arab
business is to adapt rapidly to modern technology, while at the same time preserving
and protecting local moral and cultural values. While business plays a significant role
in bringing modern technologies to their societies and to connecting their societies with
the global community it can also choose to be a significant contributor to the promotion
of the modernisation of Islam (Woodward, 2002, p. 134).
Given these arguments, this study is interested in exploring the way in which
companies in the GCC societies use images to engage implicitly in the debates
surrounding the interplay between tradition and modernity, globalisation and
localisation. It explores whether the images presented portray a possibility of the
coexistence and equal enforcement of tradition and modernity, where as Khalaf (2001)
maintained, they are allowed to penetrate and transform each other. The annual report
and images may be used, in this context, to engage with this on going debate in
Arab-Islamic societies to either preserve the status quo, or to attempt to construct a
new and alternative reality preferable to the company.
4. The corporate annual report and the use of images
In Western, especially Anglo-American, accounting literature the increased
importance, scope and role of the corporate annual report over the twentieth and
twenty-first century have been acknowledged (see Tinker and Neimark, 1987; Gray
et al., 1995a, b; Unerman, 2000; Hopwood, 1996; Preston et al., 1996; Preston and Young,
2000; Davison, 2004). The typical report has shifted from being simply a device for the
provision of financial data to one that provides complex multi message, multimedia
depictions, over-full with messages and strategies (Campbell et al., 2006, p. 1).

Designing annual reports has therefore developed to incorporate techniques and

methods to portray the personality and character of the company (McKinstry, 1996,
p. 109) and shape its image while communicating with a number of different audiences
(McKinstry, 1996; Preston et al., 1996; Campbell et al., 2006). The annual report can
therefore be viewed as an ideological device that promotes corporate policies, beliefs,
practices and attitudes (Tinker and Neimark, 1987; Benschop and Meihuizen, 2002)
that permits corporations not only to represent their desired image, but also to
consciously contribute to maintaining the status quo or instead to construct an
alternative desired social reality (see for instance Tinker and Neimark, 1987; Cooper
et al., 1992; Graves et al., 1996; Preston and Young, 2000). In this sense the annual
report in the West is implicated in the reproduction and reconstruction of a social
reality where capitalism is the predominant socio-economic and political form (Tinker
and Neimark, 1987; Cooper et al., 1992; Graves et al., 1996).
In fulfilling this role, the annual report has developed to include a considerable
amount of voluntary and non-accounting material, which regulation and professional
bodies have very largely not touched on and academic research and theorisation have
not been successful in catching up with (Hopwood, 1996; Davison, 2004; Campbell et al.,
2006). Indeed, Hopwood (1996, p. 55) explains that the legalistic and audited financial
data in many cases now constitute a mere technical appendix to a highly sophisticated
product of the corporate design environment. Part of and integral to these significant
changes is the use of visual and sensual communication methods in the annual report
(Campbell et al., 2006).
The use of visual images in annual reports began in the USA in the years
immediately after World War Two (Graves et al., 1996) with their use greatly
expanding in both the USA and the UK in the 1970s (McKinstry, 1996). The use of
visual images, as Preston et al. (1996) explain, are perceived to contribute significantly
to providing a sense of the companys ideology and values. Preparers of annual reports
increasingly found it useful to use visual design, gloss and novelty in their
representations and portrayal, and it may be argued, construction, of their self-image,
messages, activities and social reality (Graves et al., 1996; Preston and Young, 2000).
While Parker (2006, p. 2) explains that the centrality of the visual in society is not
new he argues that accounting and management research has very largely ignored
this phenomenon instead concentrating on the numbers produced or the narratives
provided. In this sense, accounting research has ignored the connection between
accounting as a communication language that attempts to represent organisational
activities (sometimes undertaken through the visual) and the communicative and
representational power of images and art (Gallhofer and Haslam, 1996; Parker, 2006).
Especially scarce is the critical and cultural examination of the use of visual images in
corporate annual reports (Davison, 2004; Campbell et al., 2006; Parker, 2006).
Nevertheless, a number of studies have explored the use of visual images including
some critical, problematic and even emancipatory potentials and perspectives of this
phenomenon. Preston et al. (1996) for example, explored the significance of a number of
selected visual images in US reports in the 1980s and 1990s. The exploration attempted
to illustrate different ways of seeing images in order to stimulate a critical dialogue
that focuses on the representational, ideological and constitutive role of images in
annual reports (Preston et al., 1996, p. 113). The illustration corresponds closely with
Baudrillards (1983) four successive phases of images: images are a reflection of a basic

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reality; images mask and prevent basic reality; images mask the absence of basic
reality; and, images are perceived to constitute rather than simply represent reality
(Preston et al., 1996, p. 134). Preston and Young (2000, p. 427) instead explored the
constructive potential of images as part of the mediascape annual report and the
tension between homogeneity and heterogeneity in annual reports (Preston and
Young, 2000, p. 446). The authors, concerned not to impose their viewpoints on the
viewer, limited their analysis to describing various images that might indicate a global
or a particular view of the world and the company. The idea of a mediascape is similar
to the ideas developed earlier by Graves et al. (1996, p. 57), who explored the
importance of the television epistemology that informs wide ranges of contemporary
public discourse in America in understanding the types of images and representations
employed in US reports. They concluded that the television-based visual format of US
reports constitutes a form of rhetoric asserting the truth claims of the reports
(Graves et al., 1996, p. 57). Davisons (2004) paper brings a theological dimension to the
study of visual images in annual reports inspired by Eliade mythical readings. The
study analyses the sacred concepts in time and space and considers pervasive
temporal structures and ritual in corporate financial reporting and the use of icons,
particularly visual images which perhaps recall the symbolism of ascension (Davison,
2004, p. 476). The paper concludes with an argument that perhaps, beyond ever more
esoteric formal accounting, and in a fast-moving business world, there is an increasing
human need for reassurance from simple repetitive cycles and from readily
recognisable symbols rooted in our collective unconscious (p. 492).
Rather than exploring the genesis of the visual images produced McKinstry (1996)
explored their usefulness to readers. Looking at only one UK company, Burton plc, he
concluded that turning the annual report into a public relations document has
disadvantages for users. Specifically, the images are not audited for assurance that they
are in the interests of shareholders and the wishes and desires of users may at times
conflict with the wishes and desires of producers of the report. Possible reasons for such
a conflict are explored by Simpson (2000) who argues that the images may be employed
not only to establish the corporate identity and to construct social attitudes towards the
company, but also crucially to suppress critical thought, to keep readers ignorant of
alternatives, to maintain ignorance by blurring the facts and detracting readers from
other information in the report, so enhancing the chances of corporate survival.
Another strand of research has looked at the representation of specific groups or
types of subjects by companies. For example, Benschop and Meihuizen (2002)
investigated representations of gender in the annual reports of 30 Dutch companies,
concluding that the stereotypical images are dominant and the representational
practices reinforce the traditional gendered division of labour (Benschop and
Meihuizen, 2002, p. 611). The conclusions reached are thus not dissimilar to those of
Adams and Harte (1998) who conducted a similar analysis of the narrative disclosures
of UK banks and retail companies and concluded that disclosures tended to reflect
corporate support for patriarchal values and beliefs.
While the previous studies provide some valuable insights into the use of images in
annual reports, they all explore the use of images in a Western context. No matter what
the reasons are for this, there is a need to bring insights from a non-Western context.
This study aims to explore the way in which companies in the Arabian Gulf States use
images to portray or communicate a position in the debates surrounding modernity

and tradition, the global and the local in their societies. Given the continuing debate in
Arab-Islamic societies concerning the threat of modernity and globalisation to
traditional and local culture and religion, and given the important role that business
plays in this context, it is particularly interesting to investigate how these companies
are using images to engage in these sensitive debates. (A list of web sites of companies
mentioned can be found in the Appendix.) It is also interesting to investigate whether
these companies attempt to portray a more synthesised reality, where perceived
opposites such as the traditional and the modern, the global and the local seem to
mediate and coexist successfully; suggesting the existence of a modern business that is
also able to preserve societys local and traditional culture and religion.
5. Discussion and analysis of the GCCs annual reports and the use of images
5.1 Modernity and tradition, globalisation and localisation in GCCs companies annual
reports: the images presented
There are seven stock markets in the GCCs[15], which together have approximately 600
listed domestic companies. Each stock market web site was interrogated to obtain
company web addresses and these were then used to access the 2005 annual report.
However, the majority of companies either failed to provide a web address or the web site
did not include any link to the annual report. The role of the annual report therefore
appears contested, with many companies, and in particular the smaller companies,
clearly not viewing it as a useful document for the provision of information, including
voluntary information, to a wide range of interested outsiders. Thus, it proved possible
only to locate 103 annual reports. These do though include most of the largest companies
in the region as well as companies from each country and each sector. UAE (44), Kuwait
(25 companies), and Bahrain (19) are particularly well represented, while the sample is
highly skewed towards the financial services sector (i.e. banks, investment and financial
services, insurance and property companies) with 81 being from this sector, 12 being
service companies and only ten being industrial companies. Of the companies that made
annual reports easily available to outsiders, a number simply reported only the
information required by the accounting regulations, while only 65 companies (63.1 per
cent of the 103) included at least one photographic or other image in their annual report.
These companies were significantly larger than those, which did not provide images[16],
they also far more commonly provided various types of voluntary information[17]. The
country representation was similar to the entire sample with the exception of UAE,
which was underrepresented in the 65 companies providing images in the reports.
Most of these 65 company reports largely resemble and indeed emulate Western,
especially British, or the US ones, as far as format, content, and emphasis are concerned.
While all adopted a standard A4 paper size, many were long and glossy documents that
have obviously been as carefully constructed as any reports from the UK or the USA.
Often large numbers of images were presented throughout the report with the average
number of images provided being 21.0[18] taking up an average of 7.6 pages[19] or 13.1
per cent of the report[20]. This does not mean that the images presented are also
necessarily similar to those found in Western reports. Arab and GCCs companies are
operating in a different context, where issues such as relationship between modernity,
globalisation, tradition and religion are not resolved. Therefore, while financial
statements and financial reporting might be similar to Western ones, voluntary use of
images may be quite different from those commonly found in Western reports.

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Before analysing the images portrayed by these companies a content analysis was
carried out to gain an overview of the subjects portrayed and the types of images used.
All the images provided were initially categorised into images that portrayed a specific
aspect of the corporations activities or that instead portrayed an aspect of the external
environment. Looking first, at images of corporate activities these were further broken
down into various types, as detailed in Table I. As discussed later, some of these images
may be considered as being purely descriptive, for example photographs of warehouses
or tankers that seem to do little beyond demonstrate that the assets of the company do
indeed exist. Others instead appear to be the result of careful consideration of the types of
messages that the company wishes to portray, as exemplified by examples of carefully
constructed and staged photographs of customers or employees. As discussed later,
some of these images clearly situate the company in the local with an emphasis on
traditional values, as illustrated for example by photographs of customers in family
groups including children, with everyone wearing local traditional clothes. Others
instead emphasise the international, as illustrated for example by photographs of
employees working in obviously Western cityscapes, or modernity, as illustrated for
example by photographs and drawings of high-tech projects including oil production
facilities and civil engineering projects financed by the company.
As can be seen from Table I, the most common images of the company or its
activities were images of the corporate management, in particular either members of
the board of directors or the CEO. However, these tend to be small photographs, often
of head and shoulders only against a plain background. While fewer companies
provided other types of images they often took up considerably more space. Thus, 24
companies provided images of products, most commonly projects financed by the
financial institutions, and a similar numbers of companies provided images with
prominence accorded either to employees or to the processes involved in the production
of goods or the provision of services. While less common, when they were provided the
images given the most space were images of customers. A number of companies also
proved images of either corporate social activities such as fund raising and the
charities supported or various measures of success such as awards achieved, signing
ceremonies or stock market listings.
Other images were broken down initially into three types, images of the rulers of the
country, symbolic images and decorative images, as shown in Table II. Obviously,
images of corporate activities often also contain a high level of symbolism. However,
for this analysis images were categorised as symbolic if they did not feature any aspect
of corporate activities, but instead were images of other activities or objects that situate
the company somewhere along the local-international or traditional-modern
continuums. The use of such images suggests a deliberate positioning of the
company in the debate over how modernity and globalisation should play out in the
GCC. Images that could not be described in such terms were instead categorised as
decorative images. These were provided by 11 companies. In most cases the images
portrayed clearly suggest that the company desires to appear forward looking,
successful and growing, as exemplified by images of archery boards, stepping stones
or athletes. Other, albeit less common, images instead suggested stability and
continuation, featuring waves and seascapes.
More popular were symbolic images, provided by 38 companies. These images were
further categorised in terms, not of the subject matter, but rather in terms of where they

Number of companies
Mean no. photographs
Mean no. pages
Mean size photographs (pages)

56
8.52
1.71
0.200

Management
23
3.78
1.44
0.381

Employees
23
6.87
2.63
0.383

Process
24
5.63
1.99
0.353

Products
18
4.67
2.68
0.574

Customers

9
1.89
0.61
0.323

CSR

15
3.73
0.96
0.257

Success measures

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Table I.
Images of corporate
activities

Table II.
Other types of images
provided in corporate
reports

Number companies 47
Mean no.
2.77
photographs
Mean no. pages
1.17
Mean size
0.422
photographs

11
3.18
2.02
0.635

38
6.63
3.84
0.579

5.56
0.834

6
6.67

Rulers Symbolic Decorative Children

2.59
0.465

21
5.57

Localtraditional

1.91
0.568

11
3.36

Localmodern

1.3
0.650

1
2

Internationaltraditional

1.8
0.621

16
2.9

Internationalmodern

3.35
0.558

1
6

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international

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positioned the company in the debate, namely whether the images are of local or
international and modern or traditional phenomena. However, a number of images
while clearly symbolic could not be so easily categorised. As discussed in the
following, one company, AREF Investment Group, appears deliberately to have
created images that superimpose and juxtapose local traditional images with iconic
modern international images so defying or denying the validity of any simple
categorisation. Six companies instead provided images of children. These are treated
as a separate category as the images were clearly prominent (average of 5.6 pages) and
important to the company, suggesting a positioning of the company as one that is both
safe and dependable but also forward looking and growing or one that takes the best
from the past and applies it to the future. The images chosen by these companies
included children from different ethnicities and children in both Western and
traditional dress, clearly demonstrating aspects of the local and the international, as
well as aspects of both the traditional and the modern. However, far more common
than this were images that were purely local, referring to either a real or imaged past or
traditions and cultures. These were provided by 21 companies, and included religious
symbols, architectural features and cultural artefacts and activities.
Rather less popular, but provided by 11 companies, were local but modern images.
On average 1.91 pages were devoted to these, which were almost exclusively either
well-known buildings or cityscapes. Similar cityscapes were also provided by 16
companies, which instead featured Western cities or images of well-known or iconic
Western buildings. Reflecting the past history of the GCC, in most cases such foreign
cityscapes were depictions of the UK rather than the USA or other countries. Tower
Bridge, the Bank of England, Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament and other
London cityscapes all make appearances in reports from companies such as Ahli
United Bank, Bank Muscat, AREF Investment Group, National Bank of Kuwait, and
Samba. Narratives accompanying these images usually explain the global and
financial success of the business. This is typified by Samba, which captions a one page
photograph a street scene clearly of the City of London on a typical wet day in the
following way: Sambas presence in London is a key asset, allowing the Group to
provide comprehensive financial services to our customers, from corporations and
business people to wealthy individuals (p. 21). However, it is very noticeable that
modern and/or global images are often accompanied by images with local and
traditional connotations. Such a tendency is a clear departure from Western or
Anglo-American annual reports (see Kamla, 2007), where the emphasis is normally
only on the global and the modern. In contrast, the only case of what may be thought of
international but traditional imagery was one company, Shuaa Capital, which provided
photographs of what looked like a Scottish moor.
Further analysis, and discussion of some of the images employed, are informed by
the theoretical framework, in this study. Rather than provide a fuller analysis of all the
images provided, the rest of this analysis concentrates on the use of images to interplay
the modern with the traditional, the global with the local[21]. It is of interest here to
investigate in particular whether and how Arab GCCs companies are attempting to
mediate the secular with the sacred, change with continuity, efficient production and
profit maximisation with sympathy to traditional values (Khalaf, 2001; Woodward,
2002; Simpson, 2000; Vahdat, 2003). These representations can help us assess the role
that business is playing in reconciling modernity with tradition and the global with the

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local. As the success of these businesses depends on modern technology and global
expansion, their survival locally may depend on their ability to adapt these material
advances to local cultural particularity (Heard-Bay, 1996; Zahlan, 1998).
Analysing and interpreting the images used gave rise to three common themes,
namely: financially and globally successful business that cares for the community and
the country, Islam and tradition do not conflict with modernity and globalisation, indeed
they drive it, and, modernity and change but also continuity of tradition and the past.
5.2 Financially and globally successful business that cares for the community and the
country
A number of companies combined images of global success and financial growth with
caring for the family and community. Gulf Finance House, for example, used images of
children intertwined with images of their award winning projects throughout the
report. So the report opens on a montage of photos of our award winning projects, a
theme continued in the report by five pages of drawings by the next generation of
various civil engineering projects the company has been involved in. The theme of the
next generation is also seen in the 13 one-page photos of children interspersed
throughout the report. These were carefully chosen to be gender balanced, while the
international, was represented by two photos of blond European children. The children
were dressed to represent a number of professions and jobs such as a doctor, an artist,
a scientist, a builder or a racing car driver. These striking images were accompanied by
comments such as An eye for inspiring investment opportunities (p. 37) or What
matters most is our people (p. 41). In this sense, the photographs are used to construct
and emphasise a number of concepts. They help to portray a bright financial future for
the company (and by extension also for the people of the company/country) while also
being primarily social in character where the wellbeing of people and community, as
represented by the children, are the focus of the companys interest, existence and
concern. Wataniyas annual report was remarkably similar with 11 colourful pages of
young children playing in the sun, again a careful balance of genders and races[22].
While not a theme of the reports, other companies similarly used photos of children.
For example, Kuwait National Petroleum Company used a photograph of the children
of its employees being trained by the company on the use of computers. While the
image seems initially not to be posed, the benefit of the company to the country is
emphasised here by the flag of Kuwait being projected onto a large screen prominently
displayed in the middle of the background.
Images of local youngsters are an obvious choice as a metaphor for caring for the
local community in the GCCs. The importance of the young rather than other groups
such as old people or the disadvantaged stems from historical and geopolitical factors.
Following the discovery of oil there was unprecedented inward immigration from all
over the world and the small number of indigenous people meant the GCCs depended
on this imported labour for building and running their countries[23]. In recent years,
however, this has begun to change. A rapid indigenous population growth has meant it
has become important to replace foreign with local labour, with Bahrain in particular
beginning to face problems of unemployment of local young people. Educating and
training local young people, therefore, are important to these countries[24]. Conscious
of their perceived and imposed social role as well as being eager to attract and keep
good employees, GCCs companies often provide extensive training and education

programmes and scholarships to local young people and their annual reports often
provide comprehensive information and disclosure on their employment, training and
education programmes for this group (see Kamla, 2007). These disclosures were, on a
number of occasions, accompanied by images emphasising a company eager to train
and employ the young population of its country. For example, Abu Dhabi Commercial
Bank (ADCB) uses photographs to indicate that the company employs many young
nationals. For instance, a full page photograph of what appears to be a young Emeriti
man in traditional costume standing in front of the ADBC bank sign is shown near the
beginning of the report as an introduction to the Chairmans Report. In addition, as is
the case with many of the other banks such as the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (see
Plate 1), photographs of young people working in the banks are presented throughout
the report. Indeed, it is noticeable how in most cases the only middle aged or older
people seen are either the board of directors or private customers benefiting from the
services provided to the wealthiest of customers.

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Including images indicating love, pride in and concern for the country is also done
through including images of cityscapes and famous symbols of the country itself.
Indeed this practice is quite common among the reports. Most of these photographs
and drawings show pride in the advancement of the country with images of buildings
that emulate Western-style buildings and cityscapes. For instance, ADCB begins the
report with two page photographs of the city of Abu Dhabi with its amazing cityscapes
(as also do Aramex; Al Khaleej Development Company, Gulf Investment House and
Kuwait National Petroleum Company). Gulf Investment House for example emphasises
its commitment to Kuwait and its future through including a very striking full page
photograph of the iconic Kuwait Towers occupying all of the first page with text
underneath saying: [Kuwait] Living in our Hearts (p. 2). However, while these images
appear to present messages of pride in what the countries have achieved, they also
represent notions of development and progress as encapsulated by Western style
buildings and cityscapes that represent modernity and advancement.
Arab businesses are faced with social, and economic challenges, and
responsibilities, in their societies, which differ from that witnessed by Western
companies. Arab businesses are expected to modernise their institutions and products
while at the same time they have a perceived responsibility to preserve cherished
values and social cohesion (Khalaf, 2001). They are expected to achieve reasonable
growth and profitability, while, in same time, contributing to preserving and
enhancing the sense of community and cultural and national identity (Denton and
Al-Shamali, 2000). Images in annual reports have played a role in emphasising the
companys commitment to the community and the country. Emphasis on the
community constitutes an important aspect of Islamic teachings (see, for example,
Choudhury, 1986; Islam, 2007; Kamla et al., 2006). The family and family values are
considered to be the backbone of Muslim community life and communal structure
(Er-Rashid, 2003). GCCs companies mentioned previously have attempted to reconcile
business success and growth with the notion of caring for the country, the community
and its concerns and the family, especially young people and children. It is in a way a
departure from individualistic goals of narrowly conceived profit maximisation
associated with mainstream Western globalisation and modernity.
5.3 Islam and tradition do not conflict with modernity and globalisation, indeed they
drive them
A number of companies presented images in the annual reports that may be
interpreted as attempts to portray Islam or local tradition to inform the companys
modern global advancement. On particularly striking example of this is AREF
Investment Group, an Islamic financial institution, which includes a number of
photographs portraying famous city symbols from all over the world. These include
New Yorks Empire State Building, Pariss Eiffel Tower and Londons House of
Parliament as well as images of non-Western locations such as Mosques domes in
Turkey, a Sphinx statue from Egypt and the Kaabah in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. These
images represent locations that the company operates in and has investments in. What
is interesting about these images is that they were all framed with traditional and
Islamic style windows and doors as if the photograph is being taken from inside a very
traditional building with heavy window frames and shutters. Indeed, throughout the
report, a theme of traditional and Islamic style doors and windows is featured with, for

example, the chairman also being photographed apparently standing inside a window.
Such framing of these famous international images could be interpreted as illustrations
of the companys desire to inform the user that all its operations, including
international ones, are informed and framed by traditional and Islamic heritage or
principles. Narratives in the annual report concentrate mainly on the financial
performance and the different regional and international investments of the company.
Under the heading of corporate profile, however, the company maintains that: The
group operates in compliance with the Islamic Sharia Laws, under the supervision of a
Sharia committee comprising of respected scholars who have vast experience in
Islamic Investments (p. 5). In a similar fashion, traditional Islamic doors, tiles and
mosaics feature throughout the report of AMLAK Finance although in this case far
more as a decorative feature of the reports. In the report of AREF Investment Group
the images appear to have been simply paced into the completed annual report. For
example, the last page of the four page executive reports contains in the right hand
upper quartile a picture of the Empire State building entitled simply USA. This is
next to two histograms of earnings per share and net profit to shareholders equity and
previously a discussion of strategic priorities, none of which talk of Western countries
or projects. In contrast, AMLAK Finance instead uses the images as a consistent theme
from the start to the end of the report. For example the front page is a picture of two
very large ornate doors with a tag line Opening new doors. The rest of the report uses
mosaics and tiles as background to many of the pages while images of traditional
doors appear consistently throughout the report. Indeed, with the exception of two
small photographs of the chair and CEO, these are the only images presented. These
doors are frequently decorated with verses from the Quran or the names of God and the
Prophet Mohammed written in artistic Arabic style. Again, these images could be the
companys way of reflecting and portraying its support for Islamic values and history.
Similarly, Bank Muscat, includes images of international locations such as Tower
Bridge in London and Taj Mahal in India as well as other international and regional
locations. While a strong international and global image has been constructed by the
use of both photographs and text, Islamic symbols are simultaneously used to
emphasis the particular importance of Islamic principles to the company. For instance,
the first image that someone encounters when going through the report is a
representation of the Stakeholders welfare principles of the bank in a form of pillars
called Pillars of stakeholder welfare. This image is an instant reminder for Muslims
of the five pillars of Islam, the basis for each Muslims faith[25]. The strong association
of this image with Muslim values alongside equally strong global and international
images indicates the companys desire to portray global success while preserving, or
seeming to preserve, Islamic principles and values. Interestingly enough, narratives in
the report do not mention Islam or Islamic values. Rather, images play the key role in
portraying Islam as a significant component of the companys operations through the
inclusion of Islamic symbols recognisable to Muslims and connected with their
unconsciousness (see, for instance, Davison, 2004).
Other images that explicitly portray the symbols of Islam were widely used in GCCs
annual reports. These included mosques, the Kabah in Saudi Arabia, the Quran and
verses from the Quran, traditional images of Islamic architecture and decorative
features, Arabic writings styles and art[26]. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank for instance made
a comprehensive use of photographs of mosques in its annual report (see Plate 2). In

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Plate 2.

contrast, the narrative and financial parts of the annual report almost exclusively
emphasis the financial success of the company in conventional terms. The
comprehensive use of Islamic images of mosques and tile patterns, however, provide
a strong sense of the religious and Islamic ideology of the company. In a similar
fashion the Gulf Finance House company uses images and verses of the Quran to
portray and reinforce their support for Islamic values alongside the conventional
reporting of financial and profit creating activities as typical in Western annual reports
(see Kamla, 2007).
Other traditional imagery includes the Al Khaleej Development Company, which
includes in its annual report images of tile patterns, a decorative feature of Islamic
buildings and mosques (see Hillenbrand, 1999). Accompanying these tile patterns is a
number of photographs portraying local and traditional images such as a dhow and
Arabic drum (tablah). Included in these traditional particular images is one of a compass.
The compass was invented by Arab Muslims. The inclusion of the compass could be an
attempt by the company to connect its financial growth and future with the glorious past
of Muslims and Arabs. Many Arabs and Muslims today romanticise the Golden Age of
Islam. They dream of a return to that age, when significant scientific, and philosophical
advances, inventions, and contributions took place (Er-Rashid, 2003). They perceive
Islam to be the key vehicle that drove these advances rather than hindering them as
perceived in mainstream Western discourse about Islam and modernity (Khalaf, 2001).
The use of the compass image by Al Khaleej Development Company could be to signify
what Arab and Islamic societies strive to achieve and prove possible: modern
technological advances based on Islamic history and principles (Hopwood, 1998). In a

similar fashion, lanterns were used by a number of companies such as Bahrain Shamil
Bank. Lanterns were used in the Quran as a metaphor for the way in which
enlightenment accompanying the belief in God resembles the light and guidance
provided by lanterns. Lantern lights were also connected with knowledge and seeking
knowledge in the Quran (24:36). These Islamic symbols were accompanied by texts
describing the financial global expansion and success of the company such as: The
continued improvement in levels of transparency, product innovation and customer
service resulted in growing investor confidence and a larger market share (p. 4) or we
continued to set new standards for Islamic banking, throughout the year (p. 10).
As mentioned in section 2, Muslims and Arabs wanted modernity and change to be
based on Islamic principles (Hopwood, 1998). The majority of Arabs and Muslims did
not perceive Islam (or tradition) to constitute an obstacle to advancement. On the
contrary, many perceived Islam to be dynamic and active, to allow for these advances
and even to drive them (Hopwood, 1998). The examples given previously indicate a
desire by GCC companies to distance themselves from the notion that total
secularisation is a precondition of modernity and global business success. Islam, as far
as these images indicate, they seem instead, to be an integral component, to these
companies success, even informing, and driving that success.
5.4 Modernity and change but also continuity of tradition and the past
As mentioned in section two, underneath the material and modern gloss of GCCs
societies, the traditional fabrics of society continue to exist (Heard-Bay, 1996; Zahlan,
1998). Pre-oil era dress, the role of family and the role of ruler still persist in Gulf States
societies. A number of GCCs companies reviewed in this paper included images
portraying the modern along side the traditional, depicting the continuation of the past
and on some occasions romanticising that past. These images can confirm the notion
suggested by Heard-Bay (1996) that the local population of the Gulf States wants to be
able to enjoy the best of both worlds. On the one hand they want to enjoy luxuries and
conveniences brought to them by the technological advances they can now afford. On
the other hand they want to continue enjoying the warmth and affection of living
within their traditional and cultural framework.
One type of image, which can indicate the modern, and the traditional, is that of people
and the way in which they are dressed. Heard-Bay (1996) explains that while people from
the Gulf States are enjoying most up-to-date luxuries from around the world, the majority,
including young people, still insist on wearing their traditional dress. Heard-Bay (1996)
maintains that this could be interpreted as meaning that while people of the Gulf States
want to enjoy their lives, they want also to preserve their traditional identity. Therefore,
annual reports reviewed in this paper, on many occasions, included images of people (not
exclusively, but more often customers than employees) in traditional dress. This does not
mean that traditional dress was the only type of dress evident; indeed these reports
included also people (whether Western looking or Arab looking) in Western attire. These
images reflect an aspect of GCCs societies where Western way of dressing (especially
among the international population), exist side-by-side with traditional dress. Indeed, in
some cases the message is perhaps made deliberately difficult to interpret with the images
seemingly playing with the idea of Western versus traditional dress. For example, the
Kuwait Finance House provides a one-page photograph of a Kuwaiti man in traditional

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dress holding a gold visa card in the middle of a clothes shop and surrounded by shelves
of business shirts and rows of jackets.
Both male and female traditional dress (while suitable to the local climate) also
represent a strong particular cultural signifier and may be seen as a positive choice or a
deliberate refusal to accommodate or appropriate the Western and non-Islamic (El-Guindi,
1999; Pinn, 2000; Secor, 2002). In this context, while the Western business suit in the rest
of the Arab world has become a symbol of modernisation if not Westernisation, of a
frame of mind, a set of values, a way of looking at the world, an acknowledgement of
non-Islamic tradition and non-Muslim networks (Ahmed, 1992, p. 124), GCCs reports
have in most cases included photographs of the board of directors and senior
management garbed in non-Western dress (see for example Samba, AREF Investment
Group, Bank Muskat, Alhi United Bank, Amlak Finance to mention only a few)[27].
GCCs annual reports on a number of occasions also featured images of local people
in local dress enjoying the use and advantages of the latest technologies and luxuries.
The Gulf Finance House for instance included images of local people in local dress
carrying mobile phones or using computers. These images were also accompanied by
images of modern Kuwait and its modern sky-high buildings and cityscapes.
Another aspect portraying the continuation of the past despite wealth and modern
life-style is photographs or less commonly, drawings, of the present or past rulers of the
country portraying the continuation of the position of the ruler in GCCs societies. Zahlan
(1998) explains that the close rapport that existed between the ruler and his citizens in the
pre-oil period has continued and even strengthened after the discovery of oil. When oil was
discovered, the ruler, as the main recipient of the income, made sure to distribute large
sums of money to citizens and to projects aimed at socio-economic development. This has
transformed the Gulf States into welfare societies, led by the same families as before the oil
era, enforcing the role and influence of these rulers (Zahlan, 1998). Images of the rulers
have featured frequently in the annual reports. Such images are typically accompanied by
statements in the Chairmans report thanking God and the rulers of the country for their
achievements, as illustrated by the statement of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank:
In conclusion, we thank and praise Allah for His blessings and for what he has allowed us to
accomplish and achieve, under the wise leadership and guidance of the president His
Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Their Highnesses Members of the Supreme
Council, rulers of the Emirates and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan
the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces (p. 9).

Normally, these images are placed at the start of the report and considerable space is
devoted to them, typically one whole page with some companies devoting two or three
pages to them. Most images are descriptive head and shoulder photographs, indeed in
many cases very small photographs surrounded by a large amount of blank space,
suggesting that the images are well known and easily recognisable and understood by
readers with their importance being signified not by the choice of image(s) or their size,
but rather by the prominence accorded to them.
The importance of and respect accorded to the individual ruler as the leader of state
who is very largely responsible for the well being of society can be seen for example in
the tributes paid to the late Amir of Kuwait who is described by Investment Dar as:
the Amir of our hearts, the symbol of generosity and modern Kuwaits advancement
(p. 3) or by Bayan Investment as:

His highness the late Amir was the symbol of a visionary leader, whose sound foresight was
notably manifested in Kuwaits progress and development. His era was a time for laying
down the foundations for the institutions of the country, and for energizing the institutional
life in Kuwait . . . (p. 1).

A number of annual reports included images that seem to romanticise and relate to the
GCCs heritage and past such as traditional industries (before the discovery of oil) or
fauna. For instance photographs of pearls or dhows were relatively common as
exemplified by Gulf Investment Houses (GIF) thematic use of images of a young boy
wearing traditional dress being taught by what appears to be his grandfather (also
wearing traditional dress) through the use of pearls. The report also included many
images of dhows and the dhow building process. Desert conditions and the resultant
underdevelopment of agriculture meant that fishing and pearling were vital sources of
income (Onley, 2008). Dhows were used to take men to the sea and Arab songs, poems
and literature explained the fear and the sadness preceding or during these journeys as
it was not unusual for some men never to return (Onley, 2008)[28]. The use of pearls,
dhows, the grandfather and the grandson images in GIF annual report can be
interpreted to signify a notion that change, the future and modernity are not
disconnected from the past. The past, in its heritage as well as its difficult
circumstances, will not be forgotten because it is passed from generation to generation.
The past and traditional heritage here could be seen as informing the present. This
could be a reflection of GCCs societies concerns that modernisation and globalisation
will marginalise their local and traditional values (Woodward, 2002). Images in GIF
annual report could be the companys way of portraying a sense of sympathy with
tradition and heritage. Images of old villages, and dhows, were also used by Bahrain
Ship Repairing & Engineering Company (BSE), another company with a strong theme
in the photographs, and paintings reproduced throughout the report. These images
were represented in a way that photographs of new technology, whether equipment or
ships are interleaved with paintings of old towns, villages and dhows of the Arabian
Gulf. The combination of traditional and modern images seem to indicate a desire to
portray a modern company that continues to be aware of the areas past.
Other traditional images used by other companies include hawks, the Arab horse
and Arabic coffee cups and pots, often accompanied by textual sound bites such as:
from local heritage (KNPC, p. 14). For example, the National Bank of Dubai uses
photographs of hawks throughout the report. Thus the first eight pages of the report
are essentially taken over with four striking photographs of hawks. The first two
pages are taken up with a photograph of a hawk perched over a stretch of water with a
small logo in the right top corner Go further. This is followed by a double page
spread of a hawk used for hunting with two small photos of the rulers of the country
superimposed on the photograph. These are then followed by two further double
spreads with the table of contents and a list of board members similarly superimposed
on photographic spreads of hawks. The same theme then continues throughout the
report with slivers of photographs of hawks in the margin of every second page.
Hunting by hawks is one of the most traditional and important sports in the GCCs in
general and in UAE in particular. The hawk is also used to symbolise Arab pride,
shrewdness and determination. Again the image of the hawk at the beginning of the
report is accompanied by a brief soundbite, namely go further (p. 2). The use of a
similar traditional symbol throughout the report was also evident in the National Bank

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of Fujairahs report, where the Arab horse is now the focus of the images used. Arab
horses signify strength, steadfastness, genuiness, noble origins, pureness but also
authenticity[29]. Using soundbites that indicate the future alongside images such as
hawks and horses, which represent Arab authenticity, can be seen as another attempt
by these companies to implicitly address the question of progress, modernity and
tradition in GCCs societies. Hopwood (1998) explained that a major concern for Arabs
and Muslims is the impact of modernity (especially in its limited material
understanding) on their language, culture and history. Images reminding the users
of Arab heritage and authenticity could be a way to reassure the readers that despite
its current and future success the company is aware and sensitive to the need to
preserve the heritage and traditional history and values of the society.
6. Conclusion and discussion
The purpose of this study was to explore whether and how GCCs companies use visual
images to interplay modernity with tradition, the global with the local. It specifically
examined whether these companies attempted to portray a possibility of the
co-existence and equal enforcement of tradition and modernity, the global and the local.
The analysis revealed that a large number of companies in the GCCs do not mobilise
the use of images in their annual reports at all. Furthermore, of those which do, a
significant number limit this use to images of rulers of the county and the board of
directors of the company. Such a limited use of images could be due to a number of
reasons. The annual report is a relatively new phenomenon to Arab businesses and
society (see Kamla, 2007). In this context, the voluntary dimension of the annual report,
including images has not yet been developed or totally mobilised by GCCs companies.
Another reason is the perceived prohibition of portraying images of people and living
things in Islam (see Kuhnel, 1966). This could again hinder GCCs companies from
using images extensively in their annual reports, perceiving it to be frowned on by
Islam and the societies they are operating in. Concerning the focus of this paper, it
seems that many companies have chosen to be silent on the issue concerning the
tension between modernity, globalisation, tradition and Islam facing Arab-Islamic
societies today, at least as far as the use of images is concerned.
Nonetheless, concentrating on companies that have provided visual images in their
annual reports, many of these companies appeared to be willing to portray, engage in
and even maybe influence or construct the interplay and relationship between
modernity and tradition, the global and the local in Arab-Islamic societies. These
companies tended to combine modern and global images with traditional, local and
religious ones. These tendencies indicate a desire by these companies to give an
impression that Westernised notions of technological advances and financial global
expansion are not in conflict with Islamic and/or traditional values of society and the
company. Images on many occasions in these reports were used to portray support for
the community and sympathy and association with Islam, tradition and the history of
the region. These images engage these companies in the debate surrounding the
tension between modernity, globalisation, tradition and Islam. They give the
impression that this tension can be resolved through an adaptive approach to
modernity. In this approach secular and spiritual, modern and traditional integrate and
work together for the benefit of the country and society. While technological change is
occurring, tradition is continuing to exist and inform the operations of these

companies. In these images modernity and tradition coexist side by side; secularism
and individualism do not constitute the ultimate conditions to progress and modern
life.
Notes
1. Image is used here to mean a representation of or likeness of a person or thing (Collins
English Dictionary). In the context of annual reports this includes all photographs, drawings,
paintings or other illustrations that are not clearly designed to illustrate the financial
performance of the company.
2. This group of countries are referred to as the Gulf Council Countries (GCC). The GCC was set
up in 1981 and comprises the Gulf States of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar
and the UAE. These countries share common language, religion, culture and continuous
history (Europa Regional Surveys of the World, 2003).
3. Woodward (2002) gives the example of Indonesia where such a system seems to exist and be
successful.
4. There is no agreement among researchers on the history of globalisation. Many writers are
convinced that contemporary globalisation has clearly built on previous developments of
cross-border activity and internationalism. Others, on the other hand, believe that
globalisation is a trend of recent decades (Scholte, 1999).
5. In the meantime, local finance remains important. For example, most financial institutions
are local or at most regional. They mostly depend on local customers operating mainly in
local currencies with much of their share capital being owned by local nationals while local
Governments retain significant regulatory powers. Indeed, certain local financial aspects
appear to be becoming increasingly important, as seen for example in the increasing
importance of Islamic or Sharia finance.
6. Early Western influence on the Arab Middle East area manifested way before the end of
World War One through trade, protection of religious minorities and cultural and
educational efforts of missions and schools (Europa Regional Surveys of the World, 2003).
7. In January 1919, representatives from 27 nations gathered in Paris to construct a peace
settlement that they hoped would eliminate the possibility of future wars. For most of the
delegates, European issues had the highest priority. Terms of an Ottoman settlement were
agreed on at the San Remo Conference (April 1920) and incorporated into the Treaty of
Severs, which the Ottoman government reluctantly signed on August 10, 1920 (Cleveland,
1994; see also Lapidus, 1988).
8. Pan-Arabism is a movement dedicated to the ideal of unifying all Arabs regardless of their
religion (Anderson, 2000).
9. This is exemplified by, for example, the preamble to the GCC charter, which describes the
genesis of the charter in the following way: The decision was not a product of the moment
but an institutional embodiment of a historical, social and cultural reality. Deep religious and
cultural ties link the six states, and strong kin relations prevail among their citizens. All
these factors . . . have facilitated contacts and interaction among them, and created
homogeneous values and characteristics.
Therefore, while, on one hand, the GCC is a continuation, evolution and
institutionalisation of old prevailing realities, it is, on the other, a practical answer to the
challenges of security and economic development in the area. It is also a fulfilment of the
aspirations of its citizens towards some sort of Arab regional unity
(www.gcc-sg.org/Foundations.html).

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10. In the six Gulf States, oil is the major export, for example accounting for 80 per cent of
Saudis exports and 71 per cent of UAEs (The Economist, 2007) with only Bahrain having a
significant range of non-oil exports (Anderson, 2000).
11. Despite these moves towards open market policies in GCCs, the stock markets have low
levels of liquidity, low number of transactions and high losses by dealers (Arabic News,
2002). Arab stock exchanges attract less than 1 per cent of global foreign direct
investments, with most being directed towards oil and gas industries (Abdelnour, 2003).
Furthermore, rich citizens in GCCs have invested nearly $1.2 trillion (roughly 85 per cent
of their total wealth) abroad, mainly in the US (Abdelnour, 2003). Abdelnour (2003)
explains that the markets do not direct capital into the most productive and efficient
channels. Instead, funds tend to be directed to the State and elites with political
connections. The corporate governance and structure of listed companies are often quite
different from Western companies being more closely held and less regulated. Another
issue for Arab stock exchanges is that they are poorly regulated (Abdelnour, 2003) often
also with poor financial disclosure levels despite requirements to use International
Accounting Standards.
12. In 2005, there were 265 Islamic financial institutions operating in 40 countries, with total
assets reaching $262 million (Business Week Online, 2005). Now, even Western
multinational corporations are seeing Islamic banking as a business opportunity. Banks
like HSBC and Citigroup have established Islamic Banking departments (Business Week
Online, 2005; El-Gamal, 2006).
13. Muslims, therefore, are required to be fair, honest and just towards others in everything that
they do, including their business activities (Lewis, 2001). Key business objectives in Sharia
include circulation of wealth, Zakat payment and prohibition of interest, Maali et al., 2006)
while profit is tolerated only as long at it is subject to the avoidance of causing harm to the
surrounding community and society at large.
14. The Gulf States between them owned 37 per cent of the worlds proven oil reserves in 2005
(Energy Information Admin, 2008).
15. One each in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain plus four in the UAE states of Abu Dhabi,
Doha, Dubai and Muscat
16. If one very large Saudi bank is ignored as an exception, companies providing images were
significantly larger than other companies, with average total assets of $5.345b versus
$2.895b, significant at 5 per cent.
17. For example, 80 per cent gave a chairmans statement, versus 5 per cent of other companies,
55 per cent financial highlights (vs 5 per cent) 54 per cent review of operations (vs 8 per cent)
and 35 per cent information on the board of directors (vs 5 per cent).
18. Standard deviation 14.3, maximum number 60.
19. Standard deviation 6.26, maximum 30.4 pages.
20. Standard deviation 8.3 per cent, maximum 30 per cent.
21. It is worth mentioning here that attempts to interpret these images are subjective and
significantly influenced by the interpreter(s) understanding of the context. One of the
authors in this paper is a native Arabic speaker who grew up in one of the Gulf States. This,
arguably, allows for an understanding of the history, culture and concerns in that society
that would allow for an informed analysis in this work.
22. Including human and children photographs and faces in companies annual reports could be
also interpreted, as Campbell et al. (2006, p. 10) suggest, as an attempt to humanize the
faceless corporation.

23. Today, for example, non-UAE citizens constitute nearly 90 per cent of the population of the
UAE (Day, 2008).
24. Indeed, government programmes and targets have been developed and put in place in
countries such as Saudi Arabia, where the law demands that companies replace foreign
labour with an increasing percentage of local labour (Kamla, 2007).
25. The five pillars of Islam, on which the religious duties of Muslims centre, are the profession
of the faith, prayer, almsgiving, fasting in the month of Ramadan and the pilgrimage to
Mecca and Medina (Hitti, 1944).
26. It is difficult to define Islamic art as the Islamic Empire stretched over a vast territory.
Kuhnel (1966) maintains, however, that a major feature of Islamic art and architecture,
especially as far as religious buildings are concerned, is the perceived prohibition of the
representation of living creatures.
27. Local female traditional dress made less appearance in the annual reports of GCCs. This
could be due to traditional codes where local women have less contribution in public life in
GCCs countries (see Forstenlechner, 2008). This could also be due to the awareness of these
companies of the political and sensitive issue of women dress in the Arab and Islamic world
especially from international and Western perspectives (see El-Guindi, 1999; Pinn, 2000).
28. Pearling as a source of living declined sharply and was destroyed in the 1920s because of the
Great Depression and the introduction of less expansive Japanese pearls (Onley, 2008).
29. An Arab horse in Arabic is called Hussan Arabi Asseel, where Asseel means: pure, noble
origin, authentic, steadfast (Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 1976).
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Appendix. Web sites of companies where reports mentioned, if available, may be
found
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank www.adcb.com
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank www.adib.ae
Ahli United Bank www.ahliunited.com
Al Khaleej Development Co. no longer listed
AMLAK Finance www.amlakfinance.com
Aramex www.aramex.com

Bahrain Shamil Bank www.shamilbank.net

Bahrain Ship Repairing & Engineering Co. web site not available
Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait www.bbkonline.com
Bank Muscat www.bankmuscat.com
Bayan Investment www.bayaninvest.com
Gulf Finance House www.gfh.com
Gulf Investment House www.gih.com.kw
Investment Dar www.inv-dar.com
Kuwait Finance House www.kfh.com
Kuwait National Petroleum Co. www.knpc.com.kw
National Bank of Dubai www.nbd.ae
National Bank of Kuwait www.nbk.com
Samba www.samba.com
Shuaa Capital www.shuaacapital.com
Wataniya www.wataniya.com
Corresponding author
Rania Kamla can be contacted at: r.kamla@dundee.ac.uk

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