Rapid reconfigurations of power following regime shifts have contributed to the rise and fall of ... more Rapid reconfigurations of power following regime shifts have contributed to the rise and fall of major business groups in Pakistan. The ascendance and decline of Pakistan’s leading enterprises is due to constantly changing collusions and contestations between power elites in institutions such as the military, political parties, bureaucracy, religious groups and international agencies as well as landlords who play a vital role in crafting each regime. This study analyzes how corporate elites deal with each other as well as with other power elites when a regime change occurs, leading to the making of a government headed by a military dictator or a democratically elected Prime Minister. On the basis of detailed historical political and financial analyses of the performance of business groups, this study provides insights into the outcomes of persistent regime change on corporate development in Pakistan. The theoretical gap in the literature that is covered in this study is the impact of reconfigurations of power among elites on corporate ownership patterns in a developing economy. The theoretical ideas employed here have benefited from Porta’s assessment of state-business nexuses and their implications on corporate ownership and control patterns as well as Faccio’s theorizing of political-business connections. A qualitative analysis is provided of key historical events that offer insights into the role and contribution of each elite group under different regimes that have held power in Pakistan. In-depth case studies of Pakistan’s leading enterprises are provided in this study. Complementing these case studies are quantitative financial and statistical analyses of the performance of publicly-listed companies of these business groups. This research provides extensive data in the form of the change in the financial performance that occurred among business groups following their creation of political connections with elites in control of the state. This mode of analysis helps identify the business groups favored by each regime, through the state’s ability to deploy bank loans as well as economic rents to key corporate figures. This study indicates that while all power elites are strong enough to build and sustain their presence in society, the military elite is the only one that has worked systematically and institutionally to sustain its hegemonic position. Corporate elites use different networking techniques to develop links with ruling elites. The position of business groups in the corporate world keeps shifting with each regime change on the basis of the personal contacts businesspeople have with elites in control of the state. The ‘new rich’ are those business groups that focused on the services sector and real estate. The industrial sector is still controlled by the old business groups. The corporate sector is highly responsive to political decisions and the outcomes of contestations between different power elites. Despite political, security and economic shocks, the corporate sector has experienced massive expansion since 2002 and its sustainability after 2007 has been facilitated by the democratic governments that were able to complete their tenure.
Sustainable Business and Society in Emerging Economies
Purpose: Today, global warming is one of the most pressing issues facing the world, and it is pri... more Purpose: Today, global warming is one of the most pressing issues facing the world, and it is primarily caused by greenhouse gases. Thus, the development of green products is one of the industrial endeavors to address this dilemma by permitting at least partial proportionate decrease in global-gas-emissions. Determinants of customer purchasing intention for green products are examined in this study. Design/Methodology/Approach: For conducting this research, the data is gathered from 304 respondents. SPSS is used for descriptive analysis and inferential analysis using the software Smart PLS 3. The provided hypothesis was analyzed in two-step approach using partial least squares structural equation modeling (Smart-PLS 3). Findings: The findings revealed that ATGP and SN do not significantly influence purchase intention but have an indirect impact on it. WTP has a significant mediation between ATGP, SN and GPI, while EC are seen to predict directly and indirectly GPI. Implications/Orig...
Sustainable Business and Society in Emerging Economies, 2022
Purpose: Retailers acknowledge the importance of the retail store environment as a tool for diffe... more Purpose: Retailers acknowledge the importance of the retail store environment as a tool for differentiation and valuable for positioning the retail store. It makes the buyer's decision to visit the store easier. Further, a pleasing retail environment improves the customer's purchasing experience and satisfaction. This paper aims to; investigate the influence of store atmospherics and marketing stimuli on impulse buying behavior among females. Shopping pal provides a boundary condition between the influence of store environment, emotional response, and impulse buying. Methodology: This is a quantitative study and data was collected using surveys. The investigation was conducted using Amos and SPSS version 21, and the results were within an acceptable range. Findings: The findings of the study suggest that an impressive store environment with marketing stimuli such as price discount leads to positive emotions and impulse purchase behavior. Further, a shopping pal provides boun...
Cash flow has been major determinant of investment in the most of the studies conducted in the ar... more Cash flow has been major determinant of investment in the most of the studies conducted in the area of finance. So have the studies related to financing of ships related investment projects within the maritime industry. However, the exact role of cash flow to determine the investment specially in the Maritime sector remained ambiguous. This research has been conducted mainly to investigate the relationship between investment and internal generated fund while the information is asymmetric in the Maritime and financial realms and environment of Pakistan. The Q model of investment has been used to investigate this relationship. The GMM model has been applied to test the hypothesis by using the balanced panel annual data of Pakistani listed non-financial KSE 100 index firms for the period 2009 to 2018. The empirical analysis includes 100 sample firms with 600 observations. The five measures of asymmetric information (i.e. Tobin’s Q, ownership concentration, firm size, profitability and ...
JISR management and social sciences & economics, 2019
This study aims to present and test a model that derivatives (commodity, currency, and interest r... more This study aims to present and test a model that derivatives (commodity, currency, and interest rate) play a mediating role between corporate governance and financial performance. We tested this model through a sample of 85 non-financial American corporates listed in New York Stock Exchange, U.S. 100 Index for six years from 2009-2014 by applying Partial Least Square, Structural Equation Modeling. We confirm that derivatives usage plays a mediating role between corporate governance and financial performance. We found and recommend that the utilization of derivatives as a risk management tool is essential for corporates to improve financial performance. Finally, the findings are useful for corporates from developed (European), emerging (China), and developing (Pakistan, Bangladesh) countries to utilize derivatives to hedge risk and improve financial performance.
Journal of Business and Social Review in Emerging Economies, 2021
Purpose: This emprical study aims to find the plausible link of food security and conflict for si... more Purpose: This emprical study aims to find the plausible link of food security and conflict for six conflict affected south asian countries durng 1990-2017. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using the data from FAO for Dietary Energy Supply (DES) a proxy for food security and battled deaths for Conflict from Uppsala conflict database a panel of six south Asian countries has been analyzed. Using fix effect model. Findings: The results reveal that conflict in selected sample of south Asian countries is negatively associated with food security as the onset of conflict the calories intake (kca/day/capita) decrease 26 on average in year. The results might be consistent with some recent empirical studies investigating the same relationship from other regions of the world. Implications/Originality/Value: The empirical literature explaining this nexus of food security and conflict has been analyzed on the date from single country affected by conflict. Fewer studies investigate this relation which...
Sustainable Business and Society in Emerging Economies, 2021
Purpose: The pandemic posed a major challenge to entrepreneurs around the world. Women entreprene... more Purpose: The pandemic posed a major challenge to entrepreneurs around the world. Women entrepreneurs contribute significantly to economic growth. The recent pandemic situation impacted their reach to some extent, but women entrepreneurs, with their strong dedication against the crisis, succeeded during this process. Effect of pandemic on women entrepreneur sustainability is examined in this study. Design/Methodology/Approach: Entrepreneurship, Institutional and Social learning theories were used in this study. For conducting this research, the data is gathered from 309 respondents. SPSS is used for descriptive analysis and inferential analysis using the software Smart PLS 3. The provided hypothesis was analyzed in two-step approach using partial least squares structural equation modeling (Smart-PLS 3). Findings: The results show a significant link between the variables. While the pandemic as a moderator showed an insignificant relationship between women's entrepreneur orientatio...
Much of the traditional theoretical and empirical literature concentrated mainly on developed and... more Much of the traditional theoretical and empirical literature concentrated mainly on developed and emerging economies neglecting the need for developing countries to build technological capabilities in enhancing export growth and global competitiveness. Usi ng survey questionnaire on Uganda and The Gambia’s fish industry in December 2013 to conduct comparative analysis to assess the performance of fish SMEs , we employ Chi - Square t - test to examine statistical difference and levels of significance on fish SMEs’ financial access, exports and research and development (R&D). The findings show capabilities in institutional developments, developmental role of the state, network cohesion, linkages with large and foreign firms, R&D, technologies and ac cess to financial services matter in fish SME performance. The statistical test shows strong significance between the two countries. Uganda growing out of the European Union fish import ban, the government mobilises local and international...
The household debt in Malaysia was recorded at 83 per cent of gross domestic product in 2018. Thi... more The household debt in Malaysia was recorded at 83 per cent of gross domestic product in 2018. This contributed to insufficient amount of saving by household who are mostly not prepared for retirement. Meanwhile, youths in emerging countries however are reported as the main group trapped into the financial problem. The tendency of saving among individual is different from one another due to differences in financial knowledge, peers influence, parent’s socialization and self-control based on Theory of Planned Behavior. A survey was conducted on 133 students in emerging country, Malaysia, to examine the factors which affected their savings behavior. Structured questionnaires were distributed using convenient sampling technique. Results revealed that financial knowledge, peer influence and parent socialization have a significant effect on students’ saving behavior. Findings serve to inform policy makers who are formulating strategies to enhance students’ financial knowledge and to maxim...
Electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) has achieved a considerable attention in business and academics ... more Electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) has achieved a considerable attention in business and academics because of the growing engagement of consumers and businesses in social media. Consumers use e-WOM communication on the various stages of consumer decision making process. The present study aims to identify the key characteristics of e-WOM regarding information adoption in evaluation of alternatives. To achieve this, a conceptual framework was developed based on the information adoption model. This model can help understand the various factors that can help explaining the role of information adopted via e-WOM for the evaluation of alternatives. The structural equation model examines the relationship by using attitude about e-WOM as a moderator for the relationship between the information usefulness and message informativeness and source credibility. A sample of 409 respondents was used for the data collection. The findings culminated that message informativeness, source credibility, perc...
This paper explores what role political connections of any business group of developing country h... more This paper explores what role political connections of any business group of developing country have in its expansion and growth. Starting from explaining the different mediums through which business groups are related to politics, we focus to investigates a little studied but common mechanism that firms use to obtain state favors: business owners use political connections to seek influence to the top offices and commercial banks. Using Pakistan’s biggest private business group as a case study, we find that the accessibility to loans of the business group in favored political regimes is beyond the approved range. Once their favored ruling party is in power, the debt to equity ratio of these firms had increased dramatically without supportive increase in ROA and ROE. Same as, the other descriptive discussion on the strategic decisions of this group enabled us to infer about the benefits business group had availed during its favored regimes. So we conclude that the political power doe...
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of corporate governance and ... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of corporate governance and its influence on earnings management reported in the annual reports of manufacturing companies during 2013-2018 on manufacturing sector of Pakistan Stock Exchange( PSE).
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of board financial exp... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of board financial expertise on the shareholding of foreign institutional investors in an emerging equity market of China and to explore whether ownership concentration moderates the relationship between board financial expertise and foreign institutional investment. Design/methodology/approach To test the hypothesized relationships, this study uses panel data regression models, i.e. static (fixed effect and random effect) and dynamic (two-step generalized methods of moments) models. Further, to control the possible endogeniety issue, this study uses two instrumental variables, namely, board size and industry average financial expertise of board to proxy board financial expertise. This study covers a period from 2006 to 2015 for 169 listed Chinese firms. Findings The results revealed that foreign institutional investors positively perceived board financial expertise and holds more shareholdings with the incre...
A comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted for the matchsticks industry in the Khy... more A comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted for the matchsticks industry in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan to quantify environmental footprint, water footprint, cumulative energy use, and to identify improvement opportunities in the matchsticks manufacturing process. One carton of matchsticks was used as reference unit for this study. Foreground data was collected from the matchsticks industry through questionnaire surveys, personal meetings, and field measurements. The collected data was transformed into potential environmental impacts through the Centre for Environment Studies (CML) 2000 v.2.05 method present by default in the SimaPro v.9.1 software. Water footprint was calculated using methodology developed by Hoekstra et al., 2012 (water scarcity index) V1.02 and cumulative energy demand by SimaPro v.9.1 software. The results showed that transport of primary material (wood logs), sawn wood for matchsticks, red phosphorous, acrylic varnish, and kerosene...
This article explores how the political connections cultivated by Pakistan’s business groups cont... more This article explores how the political connections cultivated by Pakistan’s business groups contributed to their rise as key actors in the corporate sector. Such connections have long been used by business groups in developing countries to secure access to economic rents from politicians in power. We examine the basis of selection of business groups for state patronage under military and civilian-led regimes, as well as the extent to which such ties have contributed to their rise as Pakistan’s leading enterprises. A historical analysis is provided of these groups, with a focus on a financial review of their publicly listed companies. We find that emerging business groups actively resort to rent-seeking activities by colluding with ruling elites, while also using multifaceted networking to protect and enhance their presence in the corporate sector.
Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies
While developing countries are increasingly benefitting from the convenience and time savings bro... more While developing countries are increasingly benefitting from the convenience and time savings brought by online shopping, the concept has not gained much popularity in Pakistan. Keeping in view the rise in the number of professional women in Pakistan and their struggle with work-life balance. The paper attempts to find out why professional women in Pakistan are not taking advantage of online shopping facility followed by recommendations regarding how online shopping experience can be made better for them. Purposive sampling was used to select 30 professional females for collecting the data. A semi-structured questionnaire comprising of 20 items was used to obtain the data. Grounded theory was used to identify the key factors involved in the online shopping behavior of professional women. The research findings revealed, firstly, that professional women are more likely to purchase online when complete product information in terms of Price, Variants, Mode of Payment and Brand history was provided. Secondly, Seller Credibility was found to be a major factor influencing the online purchase decision. And lastly, Buyers prefer delivery within 3 days to one week along with an exchange/return option to increase their confidence level in online purchases. This research shall help in increasing the online shopping trend in Pakistan which will help professional women in maintaining work-life balance through a suggested online shopping framework.
Rapid reconfigurations of power following regime shifts have contributed to the rise and fall of ... more Rapid reconfigurations of power following regime shifts have contributed to the rise and fall of major business groups in Pakistan. The ascendance and decline of Pakistan’s leading enterprises is due to constantly changing collusions and contestations between power elites in institutions such as the military, political parties, bureaucracy, religious groups and international agencies as well as landlords who play a vital role in crafting each regime. This study analyzes how corporate elites deal with each other as well as with other power elites when a regime change occurs, leading to the making of a government headed by a military dictator or a democratically elected Prime Minister. On the basis of detailed historical political and financial analyses of the performance of business groups, this study provides insights into the outcomes of persistent regime change on corporate development in Pakistan. The theoretical gap in the literature that is covered in this study is the impact of reconfigurations of power among elites on corporate ownership patterns in a developing economy. The theoretical ideas employed here have benefited from Porta’s assessment of state-business nexuses and their implications on corporate ownership and control patterns as well as Faccio’s theorizing of political-business connections. A qualitative analysis is provided of key historical events that offer insights into the role and contribution of each elite group under different regimes that have held power in Pakistan. In-depth case studies of Pakistan’s leading enterprises are provided in this study. Complementing these case studies are quantitative financial and statistical analyses of the performance of publicly-listed companies of these business groups. This research provides extensive data in the form of the change in the financial performance that occurred among business groups following their creation of political connections with elites in control of the state. This mode of analysis helps identify the business groups favored by each regime, through the state’s ability to deploy bank loans as well as economic rents to key corporate figures. This study indicates that while all power elites are strong enough to build and sustain their presence in society, the military elite is the only one that has worked systematically and institutionally to sustain its hegemonic position. Corporate elites use different networking techniques to develop links with ruling elites. The position of business groups in the corporate world keeps shifting with each regime change on the basis of the personal contacts businesspeople have with elites in control of the state. The ‘new rich’ are those business groups that focused on the services sector and real estate. The industrial sector is still controlled by the old business groups. The corporate sector is highly responsive to political decisions and the outcomes of contestations between different power elites. Despite political, security and economic shocks, the corporate sector has experienced massive expansion since 2002 and its sustainability after 2007 has been facilitated by the democratic governments that were able to complete their tenure.
Sustainable Business and Society in Emerging Economies
Purpose: Today, global warming is one of the most pressing issues facing the world, and it is pri... more Purpose: Today, global warming is one of the most pressing issues facing the world, and it is primarily caused by greenhouse gases. Thus, the development of green products is one of the industrial endeavors to address this dilemma by permitting at least partial proportionate decrease in global-gas-emissions. Determinants of customer purchasing intention for green products are examined in this study. Design/Methodology/Approach: For conducting this research, the data is gathered from 304 respondents. SPSS is used for descriptive analysis and inferential analysis using the software Smart PLS 3. The provided hypothesis was analyzed in two-step approach using partial least squares structural equation modeling (Smart-PLS 3). Findings: The findings revealed that ATGP and SN do not significantly influence purchase intention but have an indirect impact on it. WTP has a significant mediation between ATGP, SN and GPI, while EC are seen to predict directly and indirectly GPI. Implications/Orig...
Sustainable Business and Society in Emerging Economies, 2022
Purpose: Retailers acknowledge the importance of the retail store environment as a tool for diffe... more Purpose: Retailers acknowledge the importance of the retail store environment as a tool for differentiation and valuable for positioning the retail store. It makes the buyer's decision to visit the store easier. Further, a pleasing retail environment improves the customer's purchasing experience and satisfaction. This paper aims to; investigate the influence of store atmospherics and marketing stimuli on impulse buying behavior among females. Shopping pal provides a boundary condition between the influence of store environment, emotional response, and impulse buying. Methodology: This is a quantitative study and data was collected using surveys. The investigation was conducted using Amos and SPSS version 21, and the results were within an acceptable range. Findings: The findings of the study suggest that an impressive store environment with marketing stimuli such as price discount leads to positive emotions and impulse purchase behavior. Further, a shopping pal provides boun...
Cash flow has been major determinant of investment in the most of the studies conducted in the ar... more Cash flow has been major determinant of investment in the most of the studies conducted in the area of finance. So have the studies related to financing of ships related investment projects within the maritime industry. However, the exact role of cash flow to determine the investment specially in the Maritime sector remained ambiguous. This research has been conducted mainly to investigate the relationship between investment and internal generated fund while the information is asymmetric in the Maritime and financial realms and environment of Pakistan. The Q model of investment has been used to investigate this relationship. The GMM model has been applied to test the hypothesis by using the balanced panel annual data of Pakistani listed non-financial KSE 100 index firms for the period 2009 to 2018. The empirical analysis includes 100 sample firms with 600 observations. The five measures of asymmetric information (i.e. Tobin’s Q, ownership concentration, firm size, profitability and ...
JISR management and social sciences & economics, 2019
This study aims to present and test a model that derivatives (commodity, currency, and interest r... more This study aims to present and test a model that derivatives (commodity, currency, and interest rate) play a mediating role between corporate governance and financial performance. We tested this model through a sample of 85 non-financial American corporates listed in New York Stock Exchange, U.S. 100 Index for six years from 2009-2014 by applying Partial Least Square, Structural Equation Modeling. We confirm that derivatives usage plays a mediating role between corporate governance and financial performance. We found and recommend that the utilization of derivatives as a risk management tool is essential for corporates to improve financial performance. Finally, the findings are useful for corporates from developed (European), emerging (China), and developing (Pakistan, Bangladesh) countries to utilize derivatives to hedge risk and improve financial performance.
Journal of Business and Social Review in Emerging Economies, 2021
Purpose: This emprical study aims to find the plausible link of food security and conflict for si... more Purpose: This emprical study aims to find the plausible link of food security and conflict for six conflict affected south asian countries durng 1990-2017. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using the data from FAO for Dietary Energy Supply (DES) a proxy for food security and battled deaths for Conflict from Uppsala conflict database a panel of six south Asian countries has been analyzed. Using fix effect model. Findings: The results reveal that conflict in selected sample of south Asian countries is negatively associated with food security as the onset of conflict the calories intake (kca/day/capita) decrease 26 on average in year. The results might be consistent with some recent empirical studies investigating the same relationship from other regions of the world. Implications/Originality/Value: The empirical literature explaining this nexus of food security and conflict has been analyzed on the date from single country affected by conflict. Fewer studies investigate this relation which...
Sustainable Business and Society in Emerging Economies, 2021
Purpose: The pandemic posed a major challenge to entrepreneurs around the world. Women entreprene... more Purpose: The pandemic posed a major challenge to entrepreneurs around the world. Women entrepreneurs contribute significantly to economic growth. The recent pandemic situation impacted their reach to some extent, but women entrepreneurs, with their strong dedication against the crisis, succeeded during this process. Effect of pandemic on women entrepreneur sustainability is examined in this study. Design/Methodology/Approach: Entrepreneurship, Institutional and Social learning theories were used in this study. For conducting this research, the data is gathered from 309 respondents. SPSS is used for descriptive analysis and inferential analysis using the software Smart PLS 3. The provided hypothesis was analyzed in two-step approach using partial least squares structural equation modeling (Smart-PLS 3). Findings: The results show a significant link between the variables. While the pandemic as a moderator showed an insignificant relationship between women's entrepreneur orientatio...
Much of the traditional theoretical and empirical literature concentrated mainly on developed and... more Much of the traditional theoretical and empirical literature concentrated mainly on developed and emerging economies neglecting the need for developing countries to build technological capabilities in enhancing export growth and global competitiveness. Usi ng survey questionnaire on Uganda and The Gambia’s fish industry in December 2013 to conduct comparative analysis to assess the performance of fish SMEs , we employ Chi - Square t - test to examine statistical difference and levels of significance on fish SMEs’ financial access, exports and research and development (R&D). The findings show capabilities in institutional developments, developmental role of the state, network cohesion, linkages with large and foreign firms, R&D, technologies and ac cess to financial services matter in fish SME performance. The statistical test shows strong significance between the two countries. Uganda growing out of the European Union fish import ban, the government mobilises local and international...
The household debt in Malaysia was recorded at 83 per cent of gross domestic product in 2018. Thi... more The household debt in Malaysia was recorded at 83 per cent of gross domestic product in 2018. This contributed to insufficient amount of saving by household who are mostly not prepared for retirement. Meanwhile, youths in emerging countries however are reported as the main group trapped into the financial problem. The tendency of saving among individual is different from one another due to differences in financial knowledge, peers influence, parent’s socialization and self-control based on Theory of Planned Behavior. A survey was conducted on 133 students in emerging country, Malaysia, to examine the factors which affected their savings behavior. Structured questionnaires were distributed using convenient sampling technique. Results revealed that financial knowledge, peer influence and parent socialization have a significant effect on students’ saving behavior. Findings serve to inform policy makers who are formulating strategies to enhance students’ financial knowledge and to maxim...
Electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) has achieved a considerable attention in business and academics ... more Electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) has achieved a considerable attention in business and academics because of the growing engagement of consumers and businesses in social media. Consumers use e-WOM communication on the various stages of consumer decision making process. The present study aims to identify the key characteristics of e-WOM regarding information adoption in evaluation of alternatives. To achieve this, a conceptual framework was developed based on the information adoption model. This model can help understand the various factors that can help explaining the role of information adopted via e-WOM for the evaluation of alternatives. The structural equation model examines the relationship by using attitude about e-WOM as a moderator for the relationship between the information usefulness and message informativeness and source credibility. A sample of 409 respondents was used for the data collection. The findings culminated that message informativeness, source credibility, perc...
This paper explores what role political connections of any business group of developing country h... more This paper explores what role political connections of any business group of developing country have in its expansion and growth. Starting from explaining the different mediums through which business groups are related to politics, we focus to investigates a little studied but common mechanism that firms use to obtain state favors: business owners use political connections to seek influence to the top offices and commercial banks. Using Pakistan’s biggest private business group as a case study, we find that the accessibility to loans of the business group in favored political regimes is beyond the approved range. Once their favored ruling party is in power, the debt to equity ratio of these firms had increased dramatically without supportive increase in ROA and ROE. Same as, the other descriptive discussion on the strategic decisions of this group enabled us to infer about the benefits business group had availed during its favored regimes. So we conclude that the political power doe...
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of corporate governance and ... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of corporate governance and its influence on earnings management reported in the annual reports of manufacturing companies during 2013-2018 on manufacturing sector of Pakistan Stock Exchange( PSE).
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of board financial exp... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of board financial expertise on the shareholding of foreign institutional investors in an emerging equity market of China and to explore whether ownership concentration moderates the relationship between board financial expertise and foreign institutional investment. Design/methodology/approach To test the hypothesized relationships, this study uses panel data regression models, i.e. static (fixed effect and random effect) and dynamic (two-step generalized methods of moments) models. Further, to control the possible endogeniety issue, this study uses two instrumental variables, namely, board size and industry average financial expertise of board to proxy board financial expertise. This study covers a period from 2006 to 2015 for 169 listed Chinese firms. Findings The results revealed that foreign institutional investors positively perceived board financial expertise and holds more shareholdings with the incre...
A comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted for the matchsticks industry in the Khy... more A comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted for the matchsticks industry in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan to quantify environmental footprint, water footprint, cumulative energy use, and to identify improvement opportunities in the matchsticks manufacturing process. One carton of matchsticks was used as reference unit for this study. Foreground data was collected from the matchsticks industry through questionnaire surveys, personal meetings, and field measurements. The collected data was transformed into potential environmental impacts through the Centre for Environment Studies (CML) 2000 v.2.05 method present by default in the SimaPro v.9.1 software. Water footprint was calculated using methodology developed by Hoekstra et al., 2012 (water scarcity index) V1.02 and cumulative energy demand by SimaPro v.9.1 software. The results showed that transport of primary material (wood logs), sawn wood for matchsticks, red phosphorous, acrylic varnish, and kerosene...
This article explores how the political connections cultivated by Pakistan’s business groups cont... more This article explores how the political connections cultivated by Pakistan’s business groups contributed to their rise as key actors in the corporate sector. Such connections have long been used by business groups in developing countries to secure access to economic rents from politicians in power. We examine the basis of selection of business groups for state patronage under military and civilian-led regimes, as well as the extent to which such ties have contributed to their rise as Pakistan’s leading enterprises. A historical analysis is provided of these groups, with a focus on a financial review of their publicly listed companies. We find that emerging business groups actively resort to rent-seeking activities by colluding with ruling elites, while also using multifaceted networking to protect and enhance their presence in the corporate sector.
Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies
While developing countries are increasingly benefitting from the convenience and time savings bro... more While developing countries are increasingly benefitting from the convenience and time savings brought by online shopping, the concept has not gained much popularity in Pakistan. Keeping in view the rise in the number of professional women in Pakistan and their struggle with work-life balance. The paper attempts to find out why professional women in Pakistan are not taking advantage of online shopping facility followed by recommendations regarding how online shopping experience can be made better for them. Purposive sampling was used to select 30 professional females for collecting the data. A semi-structured questionnaire comprising of 20 items was used to obtain the data. Grounded theory was used to identify the key factors involved in the online shopping behavior of professional women. The research findings revealed, firstly, that professional women are more likely to purchase online when complete product information in terms of Price, Variants, Mode of Payment and Brand history was provided. Secondly, Seller Credibility was found to be a major factor influencing the online purchase decision. And lastly, Buyers prefer delivery within 3 days to one week along with an exchange/return option to increase their confidence level in online purchases. This research shall help in increasing the online shopping trend in Pakistan which will help professional women in maintaining work-life balance through a suggested online shopping framework.
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