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Relying on the stakeholder view, this study investigates the role of CSR committee in moderating the association between CSR and firm performance (FP). Further, the authors examine whether country-specific governance and institutional factors drive the effect of CSR committee on the CSR-FP association.

The study's sample includes 4405 firms from 39 countries over the period 2002–2020. For analysis, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with year and firm fixed effects is employed as the primary econometric model. Two-step generalized method of movement (GMM) is employed to address the endogeneity issues.

This study provides international evidence that the existence of a CSR committee enhances CSR's contribution to FP. Moreover, the benefits of CSR committees in terms of enhancing the positive impact of CSR on FP are significantly greater in strong governance countries and in environmentally less sensitive industries. The findings are further checked through endogeneity and robustness tests and remain unchanged.

CSR committee is a key governance mechanism that assists firms in generating value from their CSR activities. It strengthens a firm's relations with the stakeholders via an effective CSR channel, which translates into improved FP and long-term value.

The study is the first attempt to investigate the role of CSR committee, as a corporate governance mechanism, in explaining the relationship between CSR and FP in the international context. Further, the study also found that the role of CSR committee in enhancing CSR's outcomes largely depends on country-specific governance factors and the nature of industries.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of heuristic biases, namely, availability bias and representativeness bias on investors’ investment decisions in the Pakistan stock exchange, as well as the moderating role of long-term orientation.

Using a structured questionnaire, a total of 374 responses have been collected from individual investors trading in PSX. The relationship was tested by applying the partial least square structural equation model using SmartPLS 3.2.2. Further, Henseler and Chin’s (2010) product indicator approach for moderation analysis was applied to the data set.

The results revealed that availability bias and representativeness bias have a significant and positive influence on the investment decisions of investors. Furthermore, a significant moderating effect of long term orientation on the effect of representativeness bias on investment decision is observed. This suggests that investors’ long term orientation weaken the effect of representativeness bias on investment decision. However, no significant moderating effect was observed for availability bias.

The paper provides novel insights on the role of heuristic-driven biases on the investment decisions of individual investors in the stock market. Particularly, it enhanced the understanding of behavioral aspects of investment decision-making in an emerging market.

This study aims to examine the nexus between digital financial literacy and customers’ perceived financial behavior within the Kuwaiti context. Moreover, it will further explore how digital financial literacy relates to financial behavior dimensions.

Data collection was facilitated by creating a questionnaire derived from multiple literature sources. This study used a cross-sectional, time-based dimension. Data was analyzed using the partial least square (PLS) structural equation modeling approach, using the Smart-PLS 4 software for computation.

Findings demonstrated a significant relationship between digital financial literacy and financial behavior, with a path coefficient of 0.542, a p-value of 0.000 and an R² value of 0.581. The explorative model revealed substantial relationships between many dimensions of digital financial literacy and various dimensions of financial behavior. More precisely, financial knowledge, awareness and decision-making were the factors that had the most significant impact on financial behavior.

Kuwaiti policymakers should consider including digital financial literacy programs in comprehensive financial education programs to improve public understanding of digital financial instruments and their consequences.

As the authors know, this is the initial endeavor to evaluate the relationship between digital financial literacy, financial behavior and their respective dimensions.

The study explores the existing Shariah audit practice of Islamic banks (IBs) in Bangladesh aiming at providing suggestions for improvements on the detected shortfalls in the relevant areas.

This research applied a qualitative method, and data were collected through conducting semi-structured interviews in Bangladesh. A total of 17 interviews were conducted for accomplishing the research objectives.

The study finds that there is no comprehensive Shariah audit manual in the current operation for IBs in Bangladesh, and as such, the requirements of their Shariah compliance remain a big question. Although the Shariah audit is conducted within IBs, and the Shariah audit officers or Shariah officers inspect necessary documents while conducting the Shariah audit, they only cover 10–20% of total investments and transactions. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that the Shariah auditing tasks should broadly cover at least 80% of the investment portfolios, documents and financial contracts and activities.

The findings of this research are expected to significantly contribute to the regulatory authorities concerned in Bangladesh and beyond, which include the suggestions that IBs can adopt to strengthen their Shariah governance system. The study also pinpoints that in the current system, Shariah auditors' roles are somehow limited in examining and checking the investment sides with a minimal portion (10–20%), for which they are unable to perform their responsibilities in a befitting manner to provide assurance services and overall Shariah compliance of IBs activities.

This study explores the current Shariah audit systems and provides recommendations to improve the existing systems which will be beneficial for Islamic banks of Bangladesh.

To the researchers' knowledge, perhaps this is the first research of its kind which seeks to explore the current Shariah audit practice in Bangladesh qualitatively, and it provides some practical suggestions for making the necessary developments of the current audit process of IBs. In addition, there are no empirical studies in the entire Emerald insight publishers and Scopus database regarding Shariah audit practices. The study contributes to the agency, stakeholder and legitimacy theories by exploring the Shariah audit of IBs.