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Over the course of the year, the study of engaged employees has drawn increased attention. In accordance with the social learning theory, people pick up skills from verbal, symbolic, and living role models through their behaviors. Through the use of employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility as a mediator, this research seeks to inspect the connection between participatory leadership and engagement of employees. The study is unusual because it examines the underlying mechanism between participatory leadership and commitment using employee perceived CSR as a mediator for the first time in literature. The 348 replies were gathered from hotel industry workers. The outcomes were analyzed using a structural equation modelling approach. The findings demonstrated a strong correlation between participatory leadership and employee engagement. Employee perception of CSR plays a factor in mediating the influence of participatory leadership on engagement of employees. This article explores the responsibilities of participative leaders and their influence on employee engagement using motivational and multilevel perspectives, with the mediation function of employee perception of CSR. This study has important ramifications for businesses and managers, particularly in terms of increasing employee engagement.

Purpose: Market bubbles and crashes remain unexplainable by classical finance theories. Because the history of the Pakistan Stock Exchange has been marked by occasional market bubbles and crashes, a behavioral study is conducted to investigate the impact of investor’s behavioral biases on investment performance. Design/Methodology/Approach: Our research investigates behavioral biases and examines the role of such biases in the selection of investment decision methods. We then investigate the direct impact of behavioral biases on investors' investment performance, as well as how investment analysis methods play a role in mediating the impact of behavioral biases on investment performance. We identified 11 irrational behavior biases based on existing literature and in-depth interviews with brokers, and two decision analysis methods are used: fundamental and technical. Findings: Our findings show that PSX investors exhibit moderately high levels of irrational behavior. Despite their moderately high level of irrationality, investors can use fundamental analysis to make better decisions and achieve better results. Since they use fundamental analysis method, they are boundedly rational rather than completely irrational. Implications/Originality/Value: The fundamental analysis does not fully mediate three determinants of irrationality, namely anchoring, control, and overconfidence. Individual investors and brokers are concerned about reducing the impact of these three biases in order to achieve optimal performance. Brokerage firms and fund managers are recommended to consider the behavioral aspects of investors to predict the future because behavioral factors of investors can not only shape the investment trend of individuals but also the market at large.

This study investigates the impact of Exchange Rate (Rupees Vs US $) and oil prices (Pak. Petroleum) and on the inflation rate in Pakistan by applying the Co-Integration technique to the monthly data for all the three series ranging from January 2004 to January 2019. Unit root testing results provide strong statistical evidence for each of the series to be non-stationary at the level and stationary at first difference. Co-integration testing results confirm the existence of Cointegration among the selected time series. Moreover, the empirical results of the regression of inflation on the exchange rate and oil price also lead to conclude that both the series have a strong statistical significant impact on inflation in Pakistan.

Purpose: This study intends to examine the nature & direction of relationship between stock market movements, particularly market decline, and its liquidity in 14 selected emerged and emerging economies (G8+5 and Pakistan) for January 2001 through December 2017 by applying Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds test and Granger-causality test. Trading value and turnover ratio are employed to measure market liquidity. Methodology: The study is conducted on a sample of 14 economies (G8 + 5 emerging economies, and Pakistan) for January 2001 through December 2017. Daily basis data for all variables is collected from data stream and Economic Indicator website. Market Liquidity is measured by trading value and turnover ratio Findings: Results of trading value Granger-causality test highlight the evidence of no causality in Germany & India. Bi-directional causality exists in Pakistan only. Uni-directional causality subsists only in Russia at 10% significance level from trading value to market return. However, from market return to trading value, results demonstrate the presence of uni-directional causality at 5% significance level for Brazil, Japan. Canada, China, France, Italy, UK, USA, South Africa and Mexico. Negative returns are used to represent the notion of market decline. Implications: Study summarizes the stock market movements of emerging and emerged countries which will be helpful for future researchers and policy makers in their projects.

This study reported the returns to Human Capital in Pakistan. The main purpose of this study is to estimate the returns to human capital. In Pakistan, the level of output is dependent on manpower. Human Capital is a significant contributor in the way to betterment in the economic condition. In this study, time series data is used, and co-integration is applied for the empirical estimation. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), education, mortality, enrolment, unemployment, and age are the core variables of the research. Education has a positive impact on productivity. An increase in education level raises the female labor force participation in Pakistan. The presence of children decreases the early age participation in the labor market. The result shows that when the education level is increased, it boosts the economic activity, and the female labor force participation is the main reason that is increasing its likelihood. It is recommended that government should provide better facilities of education to enhance the female force participation in the labor market in the case of developing countries, by providing the best grades and tasks to the human beings both male and female, thus the level of returns by human capital utilization may increase.

This study attempts to investigate the linkage of human resources management practices with customer satisfaction through intervening role of employee job satisfaction. The study also examined the moderating role of procedural justice between human resource management practices and job satisfaction. A conceptual model with four hypotheses was developed and two-source field data were collected from paramedical staff members and patients ( n= 228, dyads) working in the health care sector of Pakistan. Results indicate that full mediation where job satisfaction fully mediates between human resource management practices and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, moderated regression analysis also proved the significant moderating role of procedural justice between human resource practices and job satisfaction. The findings of the study provide useful insights to evaluate and improve human resource management practices for the wellbeing of the employees and to enhance the customer satisfaction.

The research paper entitled “Investor sentiments and trading volume’s asymmetric response: A non linear ARDL approach tested in PSX” is an attempt to investigate the dynamic linkages between trading volume and investor sentiments for Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) 100 index. Two sentiments indicators have been used to enlighten the linkages. These indicators are overconfidence and net optimism and pessimism. Trading volume has been used as a proxy for the measurement of market liquidity. Non-Linear Asymmetric Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) as well as Dynamic Conditional Correlation (DCC) GARCH have been used to explain the dynamic linkages between trading volume and investor sentiments. Empirical findings suggested an asymmetric long-term market liquidity reaction to investor sentiment as well as upcoming three-year correlation have been forecasted between the trading volume and investor sentiments. In the short term, stock market liquidity reacts rapidly and asymmetrically to changes in overconfidence sentiment while the net optimism and pessimism sentiment have insignificant short-term impact on trading volume.

This paper examines the impact of corporate governance rules and regulations and financial leverage on the market value added in Pakistan. Market value added (MVA) is our dependent variable and corporate governance and financial leverage are our independent variables and examine their combined effect on the market value added. This study will help the Pakistani firms who are going to lever their firms and going to practicing the corporate governance rules and regulations. For this purpose we have taken the listed non-financial companies of Pakistan from 2006-2015 because they are actively practicing the corporate governance rules and regulations. The results indicate that the proxy variable of corporate governance which is board size also have the significant and negative impact on the MVA in Pakistan. Interest coverage ratio indicates that if the firm's ability to pay its interest expenses increases as results MVA also increases. Debt ratio is the proxy variable of financial leverage which is our next independent variable. By the help of our regression model we concluded that Debt also have the positive significant effect on the market value added on the firms in Pakistan. It means if a firm wants to increase their market value they should go for the debt instead of equity. Debt will help firms in Pakistan to increase their market value.

Due to the unprecedented happenings and dynamic conditions of international economic system, firms are always at the verge of bankruptcy no matter how sound they are, their sustainability is always in jeopardy. Besides, lenders are continuously raising red flags and giving consistent warnings about possible perils of corporate failure due to fragile economic conditions and increasing debt levels in both corporate and individual businesses these days. Hence there was an exigency to ‘develop indicators for monitoring long term progress and sustainability of companies. Thereof it would contribute in illustrating to business analysts, firm stakeholders about the relevance of embracing these active checks for predicting bankruptcy as a sustainable business practice. This created a bizarre cult to look into the matter seriously. For this there is no mantra, no clever feats, sure-fire quick strategies. Instead there are well-defined, simple, systematic and sophisticated models to assess sustainability of companies. Thus, to avoid the tide of massive/substantial corporate failure and any future catastrophe; there is a dire need to identify the most suitable and preeminent model that can truly forecast the likelihood of default ahead of time in given circumstances. And, mainstay of this study is to provide an answer of question in hand by comparing two most venerable model choices i.e. Altman’s Z-score and Z double prime (Z”).

This study examines the role of voluntary adoption of corporate governance mechanisms in mitigating the financial distress status of firms. Using the sample of 52 firms from non-financial sector listed at Karachi Stock Exchange and selecting time period of 10 years from 2006 to 2015, the study finds out the practices that are beneficial for firms and helps them in reducing the financial distress. Results of the study show that there is a negative significant relationship of blockholder ownership, director ownership and audit committee with the probability to financial distress. The causal relationship is also tested, and results show that voluntary adoption of corporate governance structures leads towards lower level of financial distress.

In the field of corporate finance the question as to whether dividend policy affects the shareholders wealth still remains unresolved. The objective of this research paper is to establish the impact of dividend policy on shareholders’ wealth and firm performance in Pakistan. The conduct of dividend policy has been one of the most debatable issues in literature of corporate finance. Numerous researchers have attempted to reveal issues with respect to the dividend policy, however, we still don’t have a worthy explanation regarding the behavior of dividend policy. The variables used in this research are dividend policy, shareholders wealth, and firm performance. Dividend per share and dividend yield are used to measure dividend policy. For shareholders wealth, earning per share and share price are used as proxies. Return on equity is used to measure firm performance. From the regression result, it is found out that dividend policy has positively significant impact on shareholders’ wealth and firm performance. This study supported dividend relevance theory, signaling effect theory, bird in hand theory and clientele-effect theory. The study commends the implementation of stable, effective, managed and target-oriented dividend policy by firm’s financial managers along with effective supervisory framework governed by capital market regulatory bodies to uplift firms’ performance and shareholders wealth in Pakistan. Furthermore, appropriate firm disclosure with respect to dividend payout and dividend per share is needed to guard the potential investors in making the right investment choices in listed firms.