Muhammad Haroon Rasheed

The global financial system is constantly evolving through technological integration. This has led to the inception and rise in the cryptocurrency market, opening new avenues of comparative studies on market behavior. Therefore, the current study aimed to identify nuances in stock and cryptocurrency behavior. Based on the socionomic theory of finance, the study is a pioneer in considering the interplay of economic, market, and social media sentiments while providing a comparative view of cryptocurrencies and stocks. The study utilizes data of economic news sentiments, cryptocurrency fear and greed index, CNN fear and greed index, and Twitter sentiments against the movement of S&P Cryptocurrencies and S&P 500 stock index return spanning from 2018 to 2023. The study applied a vector autoregressive-based spillover model to assess the theorized linkage and applied robustness measures, including linear regression and the Granger causality test, for validation. The findings unveil distinct weak and moderate associations of sentiments across cryptocurrencies and stocks, respectively. The former is primarily driven by market sentiments while shaping economic news and social media sentiments. Meanwhile, the findings for stock return movements are found to be significantly associated with economic and market sentiments. This led to the inference that the cryptocurrency environment is an isolated system driven by internal sentiments, while stock markets are more economically integrated, and in both cases, social media sentiments are found to be the receiver of market spillover, weakly influencing economic news. The study is pioneering in its exploration of the interlinkage between selected macroeconomic sentiments; additionally, the comparative findings further add to the existing debate on influence of sentiment across financial markets. The varying realities identified in the findings hold significant practical implications for portfolio optimization, risk assessment and policy making.

This study investigates the mediating role of green innovation in the relationship between green practices (e.g., environmental management accounting, green intellectual capital, and environmental ethics) and environmental performance, drawing on the Natural Resource-Based View (NRBV). Moreover, it examines the moderating effect of managerial environmental concern (MEC) on the relationship between green innovation and environmental performance. Survey data were collected from 397 finance managers and management accountants working in ISO 14000-certified manufacturing companies. Smart PLS 4 was employed to analyze the proposed research model. The results demonstrate a significant positive relationship between green practices and environmental performance, both directly and indirectly through green innovation. Moreover, managerial environmental concern significantly moderates the relationship between green innovation and environmental performance. This study extends the NRBV by being the first study in Pakistan’s manufacturing sector to theorize and test how green practices improve environmental performance through green innovation as a mediator and how MEC moderates this relationship. The findings offer new theoretical insights for sustainability in resource-constrained economies and provide practical implications for managers and policymakers in Pakistan.

The study explores the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Financial Distress (FD), and the Firm Performance (FP) in Pakistani, listed, non-financial corporations. This study uses data from year 2006 to 2023, collected from annual reports. To ensure a robust analysis, study undertakes Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), Fixed Effect (FE) and Random Effects (RE) techniques. The findings imply that resource allocation for CSR not only achieves social duty but also maximizes value of shareholder value by enhancing FP. Alternatively, results show a significant and negative effect of FD on ROA. Which indicates that those corporations that are undergoing FD may face a downfall in their profits, reviling negative consequences of financial challenges. The study will help to investors, managers, and policymakers on how CSR boost the profitability of these corporations and uncovers the adverse effects of FD. The study also serves as a guide for policymakers and investors, informing them of the implications of FD on FP.

The post-pandemic era has brought Pakistan into a spiral of economic instability and downturn, making taxation a vital avenue for the economic survival of country. One of the key avenues of revenue collection for an economy is its manufacturing sector. Therefore, the current study analyzed the facilitating role of financial distress to examine the relationship amongst governance mechanisms and tax avoidance. The sample comprised data collected from 167 firms for 13 years, from the time period of 2011-2023. Panel data Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) regression model is utilized for analysis. Findings indicate that the firms in Pakistan tend to get involved in tax avoidance during economic distress and effective corporate governance may significantly reduce this behavior. The mediation analysis established that the association of board structure and tax avoidance is channeled through financial distress. This association highlighted those weak corporate mechanisms in a firm leading to financial distress which, in turn, leads to tax avoidance behavior. Hence, addressing corporate governance issues in the firm may also indirectly influence the tax avoidance behavior in the corporate sector of Pakistan. Furthermore, the control variables including firm size (FS), market-to-book ratio, return on assets (ROA), and leverage (LEV) have non-significant influence on tax avoidance. The study provided some unique implications related to tax avoidance, particularly with context to a struggling economy, such as Pakistan. These findings may also help tax officials to be more cautious of the firms that have weak indicators of corporate governance. Furthermore, in weak economic scenarios, such as Pakistan, tax avoidance practices tend to increase across the business sectors. Lastly, this association between tax management and financial distress would enable the investors' needs to assess premium cash flow and the risk of capital costs.

This study examines the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on Financial Distress (FD), with the mediating role of Investment Inefficiency (INEFF). For data analysis, non-financial sector companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) from 2008 to 2023 are considered. The sample of the study consists of 253 companies. The study employs the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) technique for data analysis, as this approach addresses the issues of endogeneity and other potential problems associated with panel data estimation. Results of the study suggest that the effect of CSR on FD is significant and positive. The involvement in CSR reduces the issue of FD. Results also indicate that INEFF fully mediates CSR and FD. Findings also suggest that reducing INEFF reduces FD. CSR performance will benefit companies in terms of social development and enable firms to obtain better financial returns and avoid FD risk. The study highlights the strategic significance of connecting CSR programs with effective investing techniques to attain sustained financial security.

Firms are increasingly focusing on competitiveness and sustainability by reducing environmental costs and achieving sustainable development. This study is to scrutinize the impact of green organizational culture on green innovation, environmental management accounting and environmental strategy, and their impact on environmental performance. This Study employed a quantitative research approach to empirically test the theoretical model of the study. Data were collected from a sample of 253 respondents in Pakistani manufacturing firms and analyzed using Smart-PLS 4. The findings reveal that green organizational culture significantly predicts environmental management accounting, environmental strategy, and, subsequently, environmental performance. However, green innovation does not significantly affect environmental performance. Moreover, environmental management accounting and environmental strategy play significant mediating roles in these associations, while green innovation emerges as an insignificant mediator. These empirical insights contribute to the Natural Resource-Based View literature and offer practical recommendations for improving environmental performance, thereby advancing sustainable goals, particularly with regard to environmental concerns

Purpose: This study investigates the effect of ownership control size and corporate governance mechanisms on the performance of the Pakistani manufacturing sector Design and Methodology: The study uses input and output characteristics as predictors to evaluate efficiency performance through the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA). It uses Ordinary Least Squares regressions to look at the association between ownership control size, corporate governance characteristics, and efficiency performance using a panel dataset that spans from 2001 to 2022. Findings: The results imply that the differences in cash flow, seat control, and voting rights have no effect on how efficiently businesses operate in Pakistan. However, there is a strong positive correlation between performance efficiency and organisational size and corporate governance characteristics. Implications: The results suggest that investors, especially those who are minority stakeholders, should proceed with prudence when making investments in companies whose control and ownership are not aligned. In theory, this research adds to the body of knowledge by validating results from past studies on the success of businesses in a neglected area like Pakistan. We also take into account effect variables that go beyond the data that is currently available. All things considered, this study contributes to increased trust about the importance of ownership structure, size, and corporate governance factors in companies that are subject to market supervision.

Given the sudden rise of artificial intelligence and declining standardization, the study focuses on the link between contextualized workplace coordination and administrative performance by preserving knowledge and utilizing generative AI models. The study employed a survey questionnaire design to collect data from project employees working at software houses in Islamabad. Hypothesis testing is done by utilizing partial least square regression through SMART-PLS. The findings indicate that the mandatory implicit and explicit coordination practices through accountability at organizational levels lead to increased knowledge sharing and administrative performance in Pakistan. The study concluded that knowledge-sharing acts as a mediator, hence implicit and explicit knowledge coordination is only fruitful in the occurrence of effective knowledge-sharing systems in the organization. The infusion of generative AI models by organizational employees is found to act as a moderator. It has significant potential to reduce the drawbacks associated with a lack of knowledge-sharing systems. Aside from being a pioneer study in this contextualized setting of HR analytics, these findings also have practical significance for HR managers, employees, and other stakeholders. The findings can be utilized to better ensure effectiveness and efficiency in organizational settings while managers can overcome any shortcomings in the system through the infusion of artificial intelligence in their HR analytics practices.