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The board structure (BS) is pivotal in modern corporate governance (CG). This study aims to investigate BS variables (BSIZE, BIND and chief executive officer [CEO] duality) and their correlation with risk-taking behavior indicators, enriching the understanding of how CG shapes financial institutions’ (FIs) decision-making in Pakistan.

By scrutinizing data from 67 financial entities listed on the Stock Exchange of Pakistan spanning from 2011 to 2022 through panel data regression techniques, the research emphasizes that BS holds a substantial influence over the risk tendencies exhibited by these firms.

Key findings suggest that board size has a positive influence, aligned with previous CG research. Smaller boards perform better and avoid excessive risk-taking, contrasting some negative relationship claims. More independent directors are recommended to curtail risk and financial disruption. Holding both CEO and chair roles reduces risk exposure, resonating with reputational and employment risk theory. It is essential to recognize that BS’s impact on risk-taking is nuanced and context-dependent.

Policymakers, scholars, practitioners and investors working in the market for financial companies might greatly benefit from the empirical findings of this study. Imposing mandates on FIs to uphold adequate capital reserves functions as a safeguard against unforeseen losses, thereby diminishing the probability of unwarranted risk-taking.

Prior studies in this domain predominantly focus on nonfinancial sectors. In addition, existing research often explores the relationship between BS and firm risk-taking solely within the banking sector, overlooking other FIs. This study contributes by using a comprehensive data set encompassing all types of FIs, thus extending the existing literature.

The purpose of this study is to examine changes in firms’ level of information asymmetry in emerging market of Malaysia for the period of 2000-2016. Specifically, the study focuses on changes in the quoted spread and quoted depth following the fraud announcement.

The study uses a unique set of fraud sample using enforcement action releases (EARs) identified from the Security Commission of Malaysia and Bursa Malaysia. To estimate the result, the authors use event study methodology, OLS regression and simultaneous model on a set of 67 fraudulent firms.

The results of event study, OLS regression and simultaneous equation models suggest that information asymmetry increases on fraud discovery. The authors also use the analysis on subsamples classified by the type of regulator (who issued the enforcement release) and type of fraud committed. However, the authors find no evidence of a difference in information asymmetry across these groups. Overall, the results support the reputational view of fraud that it damages the firms’ reputation and increases uncertainty in the capital market.

These findings provide valuable insights into understanding the information asymmetry around fraud announcements, especially for Malaysia, where the majority of the public-listed companies are family-controlled and under significant state control. The results of this study call for the active role that regulators can play to achieve a transparent and liquid capital market.

The research has practical implications. Specifically, for Malaysia, fraud is the primary area for National Results Areas (NKRA) in the Government Transformation Program (GTP). Therefore, for regulators and policymakers to ensure a liquid and transparent capital market, identifying the factors that elicit the fraudulent behavior and improving the related governance mechanism are necessary steps to prevent the fraudulent practices.

Due to increased information asymmetry on fraud announcements, the demand for equity decreases that may affect not only the fraudulent firms but also results in negative externality for non-fraudulent firms, thus impairing their ability to fund equity.

A significant majority of studies have focused on corporate frauds in developed countries such as the USA that is characterized by dispersed ownership system and a strong capital market. One of the vocal critics of the agency theory is that it neglects the social and institutional framework within which companies operate. In emerging markets, such as Malaysia, the published academic papers on fraud and information asymmetry are very limited. As emerging markets practice different cultures, corporate governance mechanisms and market regulations, the study is significant to investigate the behavior of investors in such markets.

This paper argues that teachers’ promotion should also have an impact on turnover intention. The purpose of this paper is to determine the relationship between promotion and turnover intention of advance learning institutions of the Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa Province of Pakistan and the moderating effect of the analytical cognitive style.

A quantitative approach is used predominantly. A questionnaire survey research design is used to collect the data from the entire province and 502 completed questionnaires were collected from the respondents. The questionnaire included the Job Descriptive Index consisting of seven items on job satisfaction, the turnover intention questionnaire consisting of three items and a five-point Likert scale used to determine cognitive style index (CSI); the CSI was used. The fourth section included an open-ended questionnaire and the fifth section included demographic variables. Hierarchical multiple regressions were used to check how much variance promotion occurs upon turnover intention and it also determined how much variance analysis cognitive style occurs upon promotion and turnover intention of advance learning institutions of the KPK province of Pakistan. The correlation results from a bivariate Pearson correlation showed significant results, which were later strengthened by the regression results.

The findings suggested that a negative relationship was found between promotion and turnover intention, whereas a weak correlation was found between promotion and analytical. Moderating results show that analytical cognitive style does act as a moderator between the promotion and turnover intention.

This research was only carried out on advance learning institutions; thus, the findings can only be generalized to higher education institutions in the Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa state.

This extended model of job satisfaction will be useful to lead to changes in job satisfaction and turnover intention of academicians of the Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa province of Pakistan. The findings of this study could be used to guide the management of advance learning institutions and professional academicians to build targeted learning activities around key components of the academician’s promotion, determine where individuals are in their journey, set personalized goals and provide feedback to the management in the process of the development of policies for academicians of advance learning institutions.

The findings of this study will help the higher education commission of Pakistan to make policies that will enable higher education institutions to formulate flexible promotion policies for teachers in order to retain them.

The findings of this study are a valuable extension of the relevant research as this is the first empirical study to examine the effects of cognitive style on promotion policies and turnover intention in advance learning institutions of Pakistan. In the context of an efficient and effective educational policy, a greater understanding of an academician’s promotion could facilitate the development of a more effective policy practice that would increase not only the job satisfaction of the academicians but decrease the turnover intention of the academicians.

This paper aims to examine the challenges and opportunities faced by the contemporary marketer looking to the future of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Based on a review of the literature, futures studies and concepts originating from expert opinion, this paper explores futures studies, multiculturalism and international vs local branding in the context of the UAE.

The main challenges of operating in this environment include the cultural diversity and sensitivity of its consumers and short‐termism. Firms most likely to succeed in such a market are those which choose to honour and celebrate differences, thus promoting a form of common, multicultural identity among residents. A consideration of futures scenarios is essential for successful marketers in such a different and new market.

The difficulties of marketing in such a diversified marketplace and service‐scape as the UAE should be addressed. A culture of patience, tolerance and empathy needs to be established. With such a range of highly non‐homogeneous consumers, commonalities need to be embraced through acknowledging and celebrating differences, and a culture of multicultural inclusion practised. By looking at what has happened in a very short space of time and extrapolating forwards, an impression of what is to come in the UAE, and to a certain extent other locations, is envisaged. The need for marketers to build strategic flexibility to adapt to changes in the social, political and cultural environment is highlighted.

It is intended that such collaborative efforts as those reported in the paper and the opinions generated therein will engender deeper understanding and progress for the future of the UAE and the region.

The paper presents a novel and progressive approach to marketing to multicultural populations, bearing in mind a range of possible futures.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the interplay between institutional investors' ownership (IIO), politically connected firms (POC) and sell-side analysts' stock recommendations (ASR).

This study employs ordinary least square (OLS) regression to test the hypotheses. The sample comprises 280 Malaysian public listed companies (PLC) and encompasses the 2008–2013 time frame (a total of 735 observations).

The results show a significant and positive link between IIO and ASR. In addition, a negative association is found between POC and ASR. Moreover, the POC weakens the positive relationship between the IIO and ASR.

One important implication of this study is that political involvement in corporate decisions is a prominent characteristic of the Malaysian market, which can significantly affect the information environment and analysts' reactions.

The findings of this study provide useful empirical guidance to the regulators in evaluating the efficacy of recent regulatory initiatives. Investors may also gain useful insights from this study, specifically in recognising the crucial monitoring role played by institutional investors and how politically patronised firms are viewed unfavourably by equity analysts.

This study is one of the first to examine the joint influence of IIO and POC, on ASR.

This paper examines the Pakistani state's shift from the accommodation to exclusion of the heterodox Ahmadiyya community, a self-defined minority sect of Islam. In 1953, the Pakistani state rejected demands by a religious movement that Ahmadis be legally declared non-Muslim. In 1974 however, the same demand was accepted. This paper argues that this shift in the state's policy toward Ahmadis was contingent on the distinct political fields in which the two religious movements were embedded. Specifically, it points to conjunctures among two processes that defined state–religious movement relations: intrastate struggles for political power, and the framing strategies of religious movements vis-à-vis core symbolic issues rife in the political field. Consequently, the exclusion of Ahmadis resulted from the transformation of the political field itself, characterized by the increasing hegemony of political discourses referencing Islam, shift toward electoral politics, and the refashioning of the religious movement through positing the “Ahmadi issue” as a national question pertaining to democratic norms.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the investment preference of various types of institutional investors in Malaysia, and its influence on firm valuation, operating performance and capital expenditure.

This study employs ordinary least squares model to examine: investment preference according to different types of institutional investors; the association between various types of institutional investors and firm valuation; the association between various types of institutional investors and firm performance; and the association between various types of institutional investors and capital expenditure.

The result shows that different types of institutional investors exhibit different investment preference. From the domiciles perspective, local institutional investors (LII) are found to be associated with higher Tobin’s Q, ROA and net profit margin. When viewed from business relationship perspective, “pressure-resistant” institutional investors (PRII) are positively associated with Tobin’s Q, ROA and net profit margin. Both LII and PRII are also associated with higher capital expenditure.

This study reveals the investment preferences of various types of institutional investors in an emerging market economy. The results show that institutional monitoring is associated with higher firm valuation, higher firm performance and higher capital expenditure. However, the effect is largely driven by local and PRII, particularly government-controlled institutional funds. These evidence suggest that different firm outcomes between emerging and advanced economy can be explained by variation in institutional setting.

The study investigates the intention to adopt climate change and the pro-environmental behaviours among the residents of a developing country (Pakistan) through the theory of planned behaviour (TPB).

This is a quantitative designed study and uses a questionnaire to collect cross-sectional data. The authors distributed about 1,600 questionnaires, of which 980 were returned; this represented a 61% response rate.

From applying the PLS-SEM 3.0 technique, the findings highlight the positive and significant impact of attitudes towards climate change (ATCC) and subjective norms (SN) on the intention to adopt climate change (ITCC). On the other hand, perceived behavioural control (PBC) has an insignificant effect on ITCC. Moreover, the ITCC is a significant predictor of pro-environmental behaviour (PEB). Finally, ITCC has a positive effect in mediating the relationship between TPB constructs (ATCC, SN and PBC) and PEB.

This study's findings assist policymakers in designing policies and better plans to enrich the individuals' vision and attitudes towards creating a conducive and healthy environment. Further, this study's findings encourage the promotion of widespread intentions to overcome the environmental challenges of climate change.

In the context of Pakistan, this study's findings offer empirical confirmation of TPB, climate change and PEB.

The purpose of this study is to address a critical gap in the existing literature on business excellence implementation. While various studies have examined different aspects of business excellence, there is still a lack of comprehensive research on the optimal organizational excellence architecture (OEA) for an award-winning business excellence journey. The absence of a unified framework has led to inconsistent practices across organizations. The aim of this research based on data collected from 50 organizations across 17 countries is to address this gap and present a refined OEA model.

This study employed quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. Member organizations from the Global Excellence Model (GEM) Council participated through an online survey administered via the Qualtrics software platform. Quantitative data were analyzed using the SPSS and Microsoft Excel software tools, while content analysis techniques were applied to the qualitative data to gain detailed insights.

The findings refine and extend the OEA model. These contributions lead to a refined OEA definition and open avenues for future research, enriching the current understanding of BE implementation.

This study introduces a novel concept of OEA to the literature on business excellence implementation. The refined OEA model provides a fresh perspective on the critical components necessary for an award-winning business excellence journey. This research offers significant value to both practitioners and academics by presenting a unified approach to BE implementation, effectively addressing the previously identified gap in BE research.

This study aims to empirically examine the relationship between energy consumption and agricultural economic growth in Pakistan over the period from 1984 to 2016.

This study used the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration to investigate the long-run and short-run determinants of agricultural economic growth in Pakistan.

The results of the ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration revealed that long-run linkage exists among the study variables. The findings of this paper showed that agricultural economic growth is positively affected by gas consumption and electricity consumption both in the long-run and short run. The long-run and short-run coefficients of gas consumption and electricity consumption were estimated to be 0.906, 0.421, 0.595 and 0.276, respectively. The estimated equation remains stable during the period from 1984 to 2016 as analyzed by the stability tests.

This study considers the relationship between energy consumption and agricultural economic growth in Pakistan by using an ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration. The study has three contributions to economic literature:this study used different unit root tests to test stationarity of the variables such as ADF unit root test by Dicky and Fuller and P-P unit root test by Philip and Perron; the ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration is applied to test the existence of long-run analysis between energy consumption and agricultural economic growth; and to check the robustness, the authors used the Johansen cointegration test to examine the long-run relationship between dependent and independent variables.