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This study examines whether financial development affects entrepreneurship, and how financial openness moderate this relationship.

The study employs panel data consisting of 781 country-year observations of 48 countries of Asia for the period 2001–2018.

The study provides empirical support for the eclectic theory of entrepreneurship in Asian countries. The findings of the study indicate that effective allocation of resources and ease of transactions increases the entrepreneurial activities in the country. Additionally, the less stringent regulations, allowing for the cross border transactions, increase the funds availability to the entrepreneurs which in turn increase innovation and establishment of new businesses.

The study only considered the moderating influence of financial openness on the nexus. Other indicators such as governance quality and political stability could also have significant impact on entrepreneurship. Further, our study was based on countries belonging to Asian continent. Since Asian continent has culture distinguished from other regions, therefore, the results cannot be generalized to the other continents.

The study’s results provide insight to policymakers and regulators that in order to increase the entrepreneurial activities, the financial sector improvement is of paramount importance. The regulators should focus on well-functioning financial system and availability of capital to improve the investor's confidence and boost economic activities.

The study provides novel evidence on the effects of financial development on entrepreneurship and moderating influence of financial openness in the context of the entire Asian region, which is yet an unexplored area. This paper offers a fresh contribution in this area.

The authors examine the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the stock market, forex market and gold market of Pakistan.

By using the daily data of COVID-19 confirmed cases, stock index, foreign currency rates and gold prices for the period 10 March 2020 to 16 October 2020, the authors explore that the stock index negatively responds to the corona pandemic.

Additionally, the authors observe the price hikes in gold and foreign currency corresponding to the number of COVID-19 positive cases.

The study analysis unveils that the stock market adversely responds to a pandemic, whereas, forex and gold markets serve as a safe haven for investors at the time of financial distress.

This study complements the literature and provides empirical evidence of the stock market, the gold market and foreign currency market, in the perspective of Pakistan.

The aim of this research is to understand how government incentives (financial and non-financial) influence the relationship between green innovation and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in SMEs.

To contribute to the literature, this research uses empirical evidence of 204 Pakistani small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and tests the moderating role of government support between green innovation and SDGs.

The findings indicate that green innovation has a significant influence on SDGs, community development and environmental activities. The government support significantly strengthens the relationship between green innovation and environmental practices, while it does not moderate the path between green innovation and community development.

The research recommends SMEs focus on the adoption of green innovation and green technology to protect the environment and facilitate the community. Moreover, the research advises the government to assist SMEs financially and nonfinancially, so they will in turn help in the attainment of SDGs.

This research is the first attempt to assess the importance of green innovation in SDGs with a moderating role of government incentives in emerging SMEs. It provides several useful implications for policymaking.

Islamic label of an organization attracts Muslims for investment. There is a rising concern with a huge profile of corporate governance related to the Islamic rules (principles). In this context, this study aims to examine the effect of Islamic labelling on corporate governance in the Pakistani setting.

This study used a panel data set comprising 120 non-financial Shariah-compliant and non-Shariah-compliant Islamic firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange over the period 2013–2020. For analysis, this study used static panel data estimation techniques. Moreover, for robustness check, this study also applied the system generalized method of movements procedure.

The findings deduced from empirical estimations reveal that Islamic labelling is positively associated with corporate governance. Overall, results indicate that Islamic labelling promotes corporate governance practices in Pakistan.

It is of utmost importance in terms of both theoretical and empirical context that Pakistan is a Muslim country having a 96.5% Muslim population, and it is evident that Muslims are allowed to execute their business under the guidance of Shariah principles. This study is unique because most of the previous literature provides empirical support related to the impact of corporate governance on capital structure, profitability and firm performance in conventional and Islamic firms. Practically, there is scarce literature on this issue.

Based on the service eco-systems perspective, this paper evaluates the strategies and actions adopted by the Government of Pakistan to handle the COVID-19 crisis with the involvement of multiple actors including public, private, third-sector organizations and civil society.

The paper is based on an in-depth analysis of secondary sources including research articles, policy documents, policy briefs, governmental reports, third party evaluations/reports and media publications.

A multi-stakeholder approach was evident during the pandemic with an effort to better manage the crisis which has exerted immense social, cultural, economic and political impacts on the lives of the citizens. Collaborative efforts among stakeholders (government, private and third sector) were witnessed, resulting in a coherent response. The successful management of COVID-19 in Pakistan is attributed to multiple factors including the formation of a specialized public organization which effectively and proactively took data-driven informed decisions and aggregated the efforts of the federal and provincial governments for a timely response.

This paper gives insights for policymakers to create a sustainable post-pandemic socio-economic environment by building resilient structures across the government while promoting cooperation and collaboration. It suggests strategies for policymakers responsible for providing sustainable societal solutions to combat the social, economic and administrative challenges under the pandemic. As Pakistan has managed and contained the pandemic in a relatively efficient way, it is hoped that this paper can provide a learning experience for other countries with similar national contexts.

The characteristics of businesses change with the change in ownership structure of the business. This study examines the change in ownership structure of the firm after the departure of lone founders, and its influence on dividend payout decisions of the firm.

The authors employed 4,302 firm-year observations of non-financial firms listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange over the period 2007–2021. To test the hypotheses, the authors employed ordinary least squares regression, and additionally, generalized method of moments estimation and fixed effect analysis were applied to check for the robustness of results.

Using the lens of agency theory and social identity theory, the authors report that the presence of lone founder (family owners) is negatively (positively) associated with dividend payout, however, transition of lone-founder ownership to family-owned and family-managed firm leads to more dividend payout, whereas its transition to family-owned and non-family-managed firm results in lesser dividend payments.

This study provides novel insight into the strategic behavior of lone founders and extend the limited family business heterogeneity literature by examining the effects of ownership transition and its influence on firm's dividend payout decisions.

This study aims to examine the impact of chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) personal characteristics on firms’ risk taking and the moderating role of family ownership on this relationship.

This study used 2,647 firm-year observations of non-financial firms listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange over the period 2013–2021. To test the hypotheses, the authors used ordinary least squares regression and, to resolve the possible endogeneity problem, the authors used system generalized method of moments technique.

Drawing insights first from upper echelons theory, the authors report that CEOs with business, economics, finance and/or management educational background and female CEOs reduce firms’ risk-taking behaviour. Further, using insights from social and organizational identity theoretical perspectives, the results indicate that due to strong family affiliation and organizational identity, family owners exhibit risk aversion behaviour and moderate this relationship.

This study provides novel evidence of risk averse behaviour of CEOs with business, economics, finance and/or management educational background and female CEOs along with moderating impact of family ownership on this relationship in an emerging economy. Overall, the results extend empirical support for upper echelons and social identity theories in an emerging market context.

This study examines the effect of lone founder and family ownership on borrowing cost. In addition, the study examines the moderating influence of gender diversity on this relationship.

The study used a sample of non-financial firms listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange over the period 2012–2021. The authors used ordinary least squares regression analysis method to test the hypotheses along with generalized method of moments estimation technique to control for unobserved heterogeneity, simultaneity and dynamic endogeneity.

The authors report that borrowing cost is higher in lone founder ownership, whereas borrowing cost is lower in family firms due to lesser risks attached to such firms by lenders. Further, the presence of female directors on the board weakens this relation in the case of lone founder ownership, whereas their presence further reduces borrowing cost in family-owned firms. Additionally, using the framework of critical mass theory, the authors found that higher number of female directors on boards reduces borrowing cost. Overall, this study’s results provide empirical support for social identity and critical mass theories in the sample firms.

The study provides novel evidence of the influence of lone founder and family ownership on borrowing cost in an emerging economy, as well as the moderating effects of gender diversity on this relationship.

This study aims to explore the quality of corporate governance disclosure under an “apply and explain” regime in the context of an emerging economy (Mauritius), following a transition from the traditional “comply or explain” approach within the national code of corporate governance.

The research relies on a content analysis of corporate governance disclosure in 86 annual reports of companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius for the financial periods 2018–2019 and 2019–2020, one-way analysis of variance tests and draws on the typology of corporate governance explanations developed by Shrives and Brennan (2015), focusing on specificity, location and comprehensiveness dimensions. This paper draws on legitimacy theory and the concepts of substantive and symbolic disclosures to guide the interpretation of the findings.

From a specificity point of view, the disclosure index revealed significant variations, with the highest score being four times the lowest score. With regards to location and comprehensiveness, only around half of companies are making optimum use of a corporate governance report and providing explanations by principles. This paper also illustrated how some firms provided symbolic disclosures. Overall, there are disparities in the application of the code by companies, reflected in a blend of substantive and symbolic disclosures to maintain their legitimacy.

This study examines “apply and explain” disclosures in a emerging economy in contrast to the “comply or explain” approach studied so far in the literature. Merely professing a “well intended” shift to the “apply and explain” approach does not necessarily lead to improvements in the quality of corporate governance disclosures. Companies, governance professionals and regulatory bodies could formulate disclosure guidance to better underpin the implications of the “apply and explain” approach.

This study aims to investigate the mediating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the link between board independence, board diversity and dividend payouts underpinning the agency theory perspective. As boards are ultimately responsible for decision-making, it includes CSR, dividend payouts and other strategic decisions.

Board independence and board diversity (female director, female independent director) are used as explanatory variables, CSR scores as a mediator and dividend payout explained variables. The relevant data were collected from 159 listed firms of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) from 2013 to 2019, consisting of 1,113 year-firm observations. For empirical estimation, the study used the Tobit regression analysis and Sobel test to check the significance of the mediation to confirm the hypothesis.

The results confirm that independence and diversity on the board are positively related to dividend payouts. Further, CSR partially mediates the link between independence and diversity on board-dividend payouts, which confirms the argument that firms with involvement in CSR practices are also associated with dividend payouts.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is novel to address whether CSR mediates the link of the board’s independence and diversity and dividend payouts in Pakistan’s setting. The results of this study have restricted generalizability due to the specific nature of the sample characteristics; future researchers can extend the research scope.

Theoretically practically, the results imply that CSR spending also enhances the distribution to firms' shareholders, thus becoming attractive to investors. This study enriches the literature on board attributes-dividend policy nexus, which strengthens through CSR practices and is relevant to practice in line with sustainable development in an emerging context.

CSR practices are an understudied but significant factor that links stakeholders' beliefs about firms' decision-making strategies, enhancing dividend announcements. In doing so, this study's findings contribute to the literature, regulators, shareholders and investor at various levels.