Muhammad Rizwan Ullah

Family firms are central to sustainable development, yet the role of governance heterogeneity in shaping environmental outcomes remains insufficiently understood. Drawing on the natural resource‐based view and a governance perspective, this study examines how ownership structures condition the effectiveness of environmental protection management (EPM) and cleaner production in driving firm performance. Using panel data on Chinese listed firms (2011–2023) and system GMM estimation, we find that EPM constrains performance in some governance structures but enhances it in others. Controller ownership exerts heterogeneous effects, strengthening or weakening environmental engagement depending on incentive alignment. Moreover, cleaner production amplifies trade‐offs in certain firms while generating synergy between sustainability and financial performance in others. These findings demonstrate that environmental capabilities are governance‐contingent, advancing theory and offering actionable insights for managers and policymakers.

Purpose: Financial misreporting and weak corporate governance remain critical challenges, particularly in emerging economies like Pakistan. Audit quality plays a vital role in ensuring financial transparency, yet its effectiveness depends on business process management capabilities and internal control quality. This study, thus, examines how these factors collectively influence corporate performance. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopts a deductive approach, gathering data from 414 respondents through questionnaires and applying partial least squares-structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses. Findings: The findings reveal that audit committee effectiveness, internal audit quality and internal audit staff competency positively impact business process management capabilities and corporate performance. Business process management capabilities fully mediate the relationships of audit committee financial expertise and audit quality assurance program with corporate performance, while partially mediating audit committee effectiveness, internal audit quality and internal audit staff competency. Internal control quality significantly enhances corporate performance and moderates its relationship with business process management capabilities. Practical implications: Policymakers should enforce stricter qualification criteria and continuous training for internal auditors, integrate external audit with internal controls and promote digital governance tools for real-time audit monitoring. Originality/value: This study advances the resource-based view by examining three key aspects. It examines the previously unexplored impact of internal audit staff competency, audit committee effectiveness and audit quality assurance programs on corporate performance. It introduces business process management capabilities as a mediator, translating audit quality into performance improvements. Lastly, it assesses the moderating role of internal control quality in strengthening audit quality impact.

Research background: The effect of the green economy on green bond market development with the moderating role of institutional quality receives no attention in empirical studies. The cognizance of this effect is necessary for the investors and government as it helps them gain advantages from investing in green bonds. The institutional quality creates a strong relationship between the green economy and green bond market development as the higher institutional quality promotes the green bond market. Purpose of the article: This research mainly aims to estimate the effect of the green economy on green bond market development with the moderating role of institutional quality using data from the USA from 2009Q1 to 2021Q2. Methods: The data are analyzed using an appropriate and comprehensive econometric method: the “Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model.” Findings & value added: The study found a significant moderating effect of institutional quality on the relationship between the green economy and green bond market development. This research outlines the benefits of the green economy in relation to the green bond market development and its determining factors for the USA. By doing this, the key concerns that must be considered for the issuance of future green bonds are emphasized. The influential factors of green bond market development are green economic growth, green innovation, green trade, environmental tax, and institutional quality. Institutional quality is emphasized as the most crucial determinant. Thus, the results in the USA context add up to the available knowledge on the green bond market development. The insights of this study are fruitful for green bond market development and further development of the literature on green bonds within the state and across the world.

Purpose: With 1.7bn people globally excluded from essential financial services, universal financial inclusion remains a critical challenge, impeding progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 8 on inclusive growth. Despite advances, Fintech’s potential is underutilized, particularly for small businesses in Pakistan’s informal sector that struggle to access formal financial services. This study investigates how Fintech solutions can help overcome these barriers, aiming to promote financial inclusion and support sustainable economic growth in underserved sectors. Design/methodology/approach: The study employs a deductive approach, collecting data through questionnaires from 389 respondents and utilizing partial least squares-structural equation modeling to empirically evaluate the proposed model. Findings: The study finds that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, perceived trust, price value and interface design quality positively influence the behavioral intention to use Fintech. Effort expectancy and price value also impact the actual use of Fintech. Behavioral intentions mediate the relationship between Fintech variables and actual use. The moderating effects of information quality, service quality and system quality are significant. Behavioral intention’s influence on actual adoption is strongest at high service quality levels, significant at high or moderate system quality levels, and only significant at moderate information quality levels. Originality/value: The study integrates “UTAUT2 and Delone and McLean IS Success Models” to propose a novel research framework, contributing to the debate in two ways. It introduces an unknown dimension, namely interface design quality. The research unveils the previously unexplored influence of perceived Fintech quality (information quality, service quality and system quality) as a variable that moderates the relationship between behavioral intention and actual adoption of Fintech services.

Purpose: The proliferation of big data analytics (BDA)-enabled tools and technologies has endowed organizations with the capacity to augment decision-making processes, optimize operational endeavors and foster innovation across diverse business domains. Consequently, BDA has been posited as a catalyst for enhanced customer relationship management, improved risk mitigation strategies and heightened operational efficiencies, all of which converge to augment overall firm performance. Thus, the purpose of this research is to introduce a conceptual framework aimed at explaining the influence of BDA capabilities on the performance of telecommunications firms in Pakistan. Additionally, it examines the potential mediating effect of talent capabilities and moderating effect of top management attitude on firm performance. Design/methodology/approach: Data from a sample comprising 520 participants were collected via survey questionnaires. The study employed Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling to empirically evaluate the proposed model. Findings: Results reveal a positive association between BDA technology and information capabilities with both BDA talent capabilities and firm performance. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that BDA talent capabilities mediate the relationship between BDA dynamic capabilities and firm performance, while top management attitude acts as a moderator, enhancing the relationship between BDA talent capabilities and firm performance. Originality/value: There is a scarcity of research that has examined the relationship of BDA capabilities, top management attitude and firm performance. This study attempts to examine their interrelationships. First, it enhances the extant literature by elucidating the mediating role of BDA talent capabilities in the relationship between BDA technology and information capabilities and firm performance. Second, the study introduces a novel dimension by incorporating top management attitude as a moderator variable. This augmentation adds layers of complexity to comprehending BDA implementation dynamics, emphasizing leadership’s role in fostering an enabling environment for effective utilization of BDA capabilities.

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There is a growing demand for energy to support economic and social development. There will be many shifts in the energy sector as a result of digitization. Hence, we aim analyzing the linkage between digitalization and environment sustainability by incorporating energy consumption as a moderating factor using data of UK from 1990 to 2020. Different dimensions of digitalization are used as explanatory variables, ecological and carbon footprints are used as outcomes and energy consumption is used as moderator. The findings of autoregressive distributed lag model show that internet users and technological advancement (fixed telephone subscription and mobile cellular) are negatively (positively) linked with ecological and carbon footprints. Energy consumption causes to enhance ecological and carbon footprints and plays an antagonistic role in the nexus of internet users, technological advancement, and ecological and carbon footprints. The effects of mobile cellular and fixed telephone subscription have increased in the presence of energy consumption as moderator which exhibits that energy consumption plays an enhancing role in the links between mobile cellular, fixed telephone subscription and ecological and carbon footprints. The results underscore the importance of taking a holistic approach to addressing the environmental impact of digital technologies. By promoting sustainable communication practices and investing in the development of more energy-efficient technologies, practitioners, managers, and society as a whole can work together to reduce the carbon and ecological footprints of digital technologies and create a more sustainable future for all.

This study aims to investigate the impacts of traditional and green economic growth on poverty, income inequalities, and environmental degradation in the case of South Asian economies. In this regard, the study collects data for the period 2000 to 2018 from five South Asian economies (Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh) from world development indicators (WDI). The study applies second-generation unit root test and co-integration technique, CIPS unit root and Westerlund co-integration tests, to establish the stationarity of the series and co-integration relationship among variables. Furthermore, this study utilized dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) models to investigate the long-run empirical estimates. The study finds that both traditional economic growth (GDP) and green economic growth (GGDP) have a negative impact on poverty and inequality; however, GGDP contributes more than traditional GDP to reducing poverty and inequality. Moreover, the study shows that economic growth has a positive long-run impact on environmental degradation while GGDP has a negative and significant long-run association with environmental degradation. The study recommends that policymakers should develop policies to develop green economic growth to save the environment and for the reduction in poverty and income inequalities in south Asian economies.