Ummara Fatima

Purpose
This study aims to examine whether and how the presence of co-opted directors (directors appointed after the incumbent CEO) influences corporate climate risk disclosure.

Design/methodology/approach
This study comprehensively analyses 2,975 firm-year observations of US-listed companies, using ordinary least squares with industry and year-fixed effects. To confirm the reliability of the study results, the authors used several techniques, including propensity score matching, to address potential issues with functional form misspecification, analysed a subset of companies where co-option persisted over two consecutive years to mitigate concerns regarding reverse causality and difference-in-differences estimation, using the cheif executive officer’s (CEO’s) sudden death as an exogenous shock to board co-option to mitigate endogeneity concerns.

Findings
The findings indicate that the presence of a large number of co-opted directors negatively influences corporate climate risk disclosure. Mediation analysis suggests that managerial risk-taking partially mediates this negative association. Moderation analyses show that the negative impact of co-opted directors on climate risk disclosure is more pronounced in firms with greater linguistic obfuscation, limited external monitoring and in environmentally sensitive industries. Moreover, co-opted directors intentionally withhold or obscure the disclosure of transition climate risks more than physical climate risks.

Practical implications
This research has important implications for policymakers, regulators and corporate governance practitioners in designing board structures by highlighting the adverse impact of co-opted directors in contexts with lax regulatory enforcement and managerial discretion. The authors caution against relying on such directors for providing climate-related risk disclosures, especially in companies with poor external monitors and based in environmental sensitivities, as their placement can significantly undermine transparency and accountability.

Originality/value
This study adds to the existing body of knowledge by highlighting the previously unexplored phenomenon of intentional obscurity in disclosing climate risks by co-opted directors. This research provides novel insights into the interplay between board composition, managerial risk-taking behaviour and climate risk disclosure. The findings of this study have significant implications for policymakers, regulators and corporate governance experts, and may prompt a re-evaluation of strategies for improving climate risk disclosure practices.

Various economic models are considering the importance of entrepreneurship development in terms of both physical and human capital. The development of entrepreneurship varies across countries due to the divergence of entrepreneurial framework conditions (EFCs). EFCs determine how easy (or difficult) it is to start up a venture. The key objective of this paper is to observe the effect of EFCs, specifically public policy and infrastructure, on various entrepreneurship activities in Asia. This paper investigates the impact of EFCs (public policy and infrastructure development) on various entrepreneurial activities, including nascent entrepreneurship, new business ownership rate, total early-stage entrepreneurial activity, and established business ownership rate. Ten Asian countries were selected as a sample from 2014 to 2019. Correlation and regression analyses were employed to explore the extent to which EFCs influence different entrepreneurial activities in GEM-participating Asian countries. The overall findings have revealed that commercial and professional infrastructure promote entrepreneurial activities. Conversely, the decline in physical and services infrastructure is associated with a decrease in total early-stage entrepreneurial activity. Meanwhile, these factors have no significant impact on the remaining entrepreneurial activities. Taxes and bureaucracy exhibit a negatively significant relationship with all entrepreneurial activities. On the other hand, governmental support and policies show a positively significant relationship with the nascent entrepreneurship rate and established business ownership rate, while having an insignificant relationship with the other entrepreneurial activities.

This study contributes to the evolution of various policies for fostering entrepreneurship growth. It recommends that well-established infrastructure and favorable institutions are essential for nurturing entrepreneurship in developing countries in Asia.

The payment of dividend is an exciting attraction for a company investor. Dividend is mostly paid out of the net earnings, and when the banks get levered, it may affect the disbursement of the dividend due to the deduction of interest from net income. Empirically, it is still to be explored that the inducement of leverage may affect the dividend payment, which may affect the ownership structure of the commercial banks of Pakistan.

The study explores how financial performance (FP) affects the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of the banking sector of Pakistan. Further, it also elaborates the comparison between FP and CSR of Islamic and conventional banks of Pakistan. The study is based on the annual reports of banks listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE) for the years 2010-2016. The study used several panel data diagnostic tests and three regression models to check the relationship between FP and CSR of Islamic and conventional banks of Pakistan, while taking leverage and size as control variables. The results indicate that in case of conventional banks the relationship between ROE and CSR is negative. Here, the results are consistent with the agency theory which states that investment in CSR related activities is a waste of resources. While return on asset (ROA) is depicting negative and insignificant relationship with CSR, which depicts that FP does not have any impact on the investment in CSR initiatives. In the case of Islamic banks, the relationship between return on equity (ROE) and CSR is positive and significant. Here, the results support social contract and stakeholder theories. The research has important practical consequences that will help the banking industry managers to adopt optimal investment strategies about CSR related activities. The study provides guidelines to conventional banks to invest more in CSR in the same way Islamic banks are doing. The findings of the study lay some foundations upon which a more detailed analysis of CSR of banks could be based.

The persistence of corporate governance (CG) is to expedite operative and cautious management which can transport the enduring success of the company. The performance of any firm or bank is vibrantly enhanced by corporate governance. The key contribution of this study to governance literature is that; it demonstrates how the presence of the internal governance mechanism influence the bank performance. The study makes an attempt to measure the impact of internal governance indicators (Board Structure and Ownership Structure) on the financial performance (Return on Equity, Return on Assets and Earning Per Share) of the banks of Pakistan under the presence of control variables (leverage and size). The selected sample consist of 30 banks (public, private and specialized), which are listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE) for the period 2008-2014. The study takes 30 banks listed in PSE, formerly KSE and, check how corporate governance impact on all the listed banks at PSE, irrespective of their nature of operation. Study also extended the time frame till 2014. The study comprises of three models. The regression analysis results reveal that the majority of the internal governance indicators of Model 2 and 3 show significant relationship with ROE and EPS whereas, majority of the internal governance indicators of Model 1 depict insignificant relationship with ROA. The results depict that in a developing country like Pakistan there are sound codes of corporate governance but, their proper implementation is missing.

The study examines how debt financing affects the leverage and performance relationship of the textile sector of Pakistan. The study also strives to elaborate the determinants of debt financing. Data has been collected from the annual reports of the textile companies listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE) for the years 2010-2015. Panel data techniques including Pooled OLS, Fixed Effect model, Random Effect model, and Moderated Panel Regression model were used for estimating the relationship between debt ratio, leverage and company-specific variables such as profitability and size. The results depict that the listed textile companies of Pakistan financed more than half of its assets by external borrowing. There is high asset tangibility in the Pakistani textile industry. The tax shield, which is the alternative of depreciation, is limited for the textile firms of Pakistan (Qamar, Farooq, Afzal & Akhtar, 2016). The independent variables’ interaction term with debt ratio shows a positive relationship with ROA other than asset tangibility. The trade-off theory suggests to follow a targeted optimal capital structure which is more favorable for a firm. Pakistani textile industry should adopt the model of optimal capital structure for balancing the costs and benefits.

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore how governance mechanisms (internal and external) enhance the performance of the return on asset (ROA), return on equity (ROE), earning per share (EPS) and dividend payout ratios (DP) of the banks of Pakistan. The study incorporates not only the internal factors of governance (board size, out-ratio, annual general meeting, managerial ownership, institutional ownership, block holder stock ownership and financial transparency) but also the external factors (legal infrastructure and protection of minority shareholders, and the market for corporate control).

Design/methodology/approach
The sample size of the study consists of 30 banks (public, private and specialized) listed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE) for the period 2008-2014. The panel data techniques (fixed or random effect model) have been used for the empirical analysis after verification by Hausman (1978) test.

Findings
The results revealed that not only do the internal mechanisms of governance enhance the performance of the banking sector of Pakistan but external governance also plays a substantial role in enriching the performance. The findings conclude that for a good governance structure, both internal and external mechanisms are equally important, to accelerate the performance of the banking sector.

Research limitations/implications
Internal and external mechanisms of corporate governance can also be checked by adding some more variables (ownership i.e. foreign, female and family as internal and auditor as external), but they are not added in this work due to data unavailability.

Practical implications
The study contributes to the literature and could be useful for the policy makers who need to force banks to mandate codes of governance through which they can create an efficient board structure and augment the performance. The investments from different forms of ownership can be accelerated if they follow the codes properly.

Social implications
The study facilitates the bankers in incorporating sound codes of corporate governance to enhance the performance of the banks.

Originality/value
This work is unique as no one has explored the impact of external mechanism of governance on the performance of the banking sector of Pakistan.

This study examine the impact of working capital management and its policies (investment and financing) on the performance of the scheduled commercial banks listed in PSE(Pakistan Stock Exchange) for the time period of 2009-2013. The performance of the banking sector have been determined with return on asset (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and cash to cash equivalent (CCE). Working capital management has been measured with cash conversion cycle (CCC), current liabilities to total asset (CL/TA) and current asset to total asset (CA/TA). Financial leverage and size of the bank have been used as control variables. The results revealed from the selected 30 commercial banks as sample that there is a negative relationship between CA/TA, CL/TA and CCC with ROA and ROE. There is a significant positive relationship between CA/TA and CCE, however, its relativity with CL/TA and CCC is insignificant. The control variables show significant positive relationships with ROA and ROE and significant negative relationships with CCE. Whereas leverage shows insignificant relationship with ROA, ROE and CCE.

Tourism as an industry has become one of the rapidly flourishing economic sector in the world, and its earliest form is religion tourism that starts from the dawn of humanity. All the cities of the world hosted religious centers are not only a major part of the cultural landscape, but they also promote the economic activities in the form of local business and marketing. Religion tourism generates revenue in multiple ways: money spent by tourists enhances the scale of the local business and spending by local government and residents which in return accelerates the economic activities. This study has been conducted for a Shrine of Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh (HDGB) in Lahore (Pakistan) to check how religion based tourism promotes entrepreneurial activities. The relationship has been checked by the visitor's perceptions and local business activities at Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh (HDGB) shrine. For this empirical research, primary survey has been conducted for the sample size of 360 questionnaires from the tourists, management and entrepreneurs around HDGB shrine. The visitor's perceptions are measured with directional signage, safety and security, displays and exhibits, good value for money, and equal access.