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This paper aims to examine the relationship between board structure and risk-taking, exploring how this association is influenced by advanced technologies in the banking sector.

This study uses a panel sample of 22 Pakistani banks from 2011 to 2018. To test the authors’ hypothesis, the authors use regression analysis with two-way cluster robust standard errors. Further, the authors also check the robustness of the authors’ findings using alternate proxies of board structure and bank risk-taking behavior. To address endogeneity concerns, the authors use the two-stage least square technique.

In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Pakistani banks’ digitalization is modeled by the presence of Temenos-T24/Oracle as their core banking system (software providing end-to-end operational integration). Its interactional effect with corporate governance is evaluated to implicate informed risk-taking by the board as a result of improved information access and analysis. The authors find that board size has a positive association with risk-taking, and the use of modern technology reshapes this association in the banking sector.

The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, the impact of board structure on bank risk-taking has not been extensively researched in Pakistan – a highly volatile and unpredictable economy. Second, the evaluation of the role of technology on bank risk is being researched for the very first time – a uniqueness of this paper.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between microfinance institutions (MFIs) governance and performance.

Using a sample of 215 MFIs from six South Asian countries over the period from 2005 to 2009, the authors examine the effect of chief executive officer (CEO) duality, board size, female CEO, urban market coverage, bank regulation and lending type on financial and social performance of MFIs.

The findings provide evidence that, on the one hand, empowered CEO, large board size and individual lending improve the MFI financial performance and, on another hand, bank regulation and serving in the urban market have a significant association with MFIs’ social performance. In an additional analysis, the authors also test this relationship before, during and after the financial crisis of 2007. During crisis period, MFIs’ individual lending reduces the operational cost and bank regulation increases the average loan size in South Asian MFIs.

Those studies that are presented in the literature review conclude their result on the bases of global, European, East African and specific to some countries sample. There is no study presented in the whole literature on South Asian sample, in which all countries really face the problem of poverty.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether companies with high audit quality (AQ) are expected to use trade credit (TC) as a financing source. Traditionally, vendors are most likely to extend TC to creditworthy customers.

The author uses the data from 134,099 firm-year observations of nine Asian emerging markets from 2001 to 2017. Further, to check the impact of AQ on trade credit, the authors employ ordinary least square (OLS) with fixed effects, cluster effect regression and random effect.

The findings indicate that vendors extend more TC to the companies audited by the BIG4 auditors as, these independent practitioners have greater competencies, expert intellectual capital, global networking connections, and high investment in information technology. The authors, therefore, conjecture that the company's use of TC increases with their improved AQ, especially audited by BIG4. The results are found consistent with this prediction and robust to the alternative measures of trade credit. Similarly, this positive association is more pronounced with the BIG4 partner's unqualified audit opinion.

This study uses the sample of Asian Emerging countries but the researchers cannot generalize the results to developed countries or other regions.

This paper's findings have significant implications for the management, board of directors, shareholders and suppliers. Further, results are in favor of appointing BIG4 auditors to gain the trust of suppliers.

Despite the wide-ranging literature that discusses the importance of quality audits in enhancing the firms' financial disclosures that leads to better access to finance through investors and lenders. But the TC as a financing source is ignored in relation to AQ. The study’s results extend the literature associating companies' AQ with financial decisions.

This study aims to examine whether information asymmetry (IA) mediates the relationship between women directors and the cost of equity (COE). Specifically, this study posits that women directors tend to lower the COE through the channel of IA.

This study uses the US-listed firms’ data from 2002 to 2014, comprising 11,189 firm-year observations. This study measures the COE by aggregating the four unique market-based COE models and apply pooled ordinary least square to estimate our results.

This study documents that women directors are linked to IA, and that IA is linked to the COE. Furthermore, in the mediation test, IA fully mediates the relationship between women directors and the COE. This study's results also validate the critical mass hypothesis, as the IA shows full mediation between the critical mass of women directors and COE. This study also discusses the limitations and major implications of the results along with possible future directions.

This study also supports the positive role of females in improvising the economic performance of the firms and supporting the sustainable development goals-5 (gender equality).

The originality of this study lies in its theoretical as well as empirical contributions. First, this study follows the line of inquiry of the mediation analysis, thereby contributing by examining whether the relationship between women directors and financial value, i.e. COE, is indirect. Second, in addition to ex post measures of the COE, this study used four ex ante unique market-based models to measure the COE. Most of the prior studies just rely on book-based measures or use a single market-based mode. Third, the findings contribute insights into how women directors add value and benefits firms.

This case captures the experience of the newly hired investigation officer (IO) at the SECP, who crafts a front running case focused on the ethical transgressions by equity trader and KATS operator, at a famous brokerage house named Mir Ali Chaudhary Securities (MAC) Securities and three traders at DICE in Pakistan. The case outlines the whole series of investigation event that took place, from the IO identifying the smoke to all the pieces of puzzle together to form collectively evidence of front running. The case outlines and probes students to think at each stage of investigation as to how to answer the general claims that insider trading should be legalized. All these questions are viewed from the perspective of Pakistan’s regulatory environment.

The authors use a descriptive case study methodology approach.

The investigation trial held Sidney and Aslam guilty, sentencing them to imprisonment and making them pay fine to the Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) worth Rs 5m and Rs 1m, respectively. Likewise, the three equity traders at DICE were sentenced to imprisonment and charged a fine of Rs. 1m each.

On March 21, 2018, Mr Sidney, the equity trader, Mr Aslam, a KATS operator at MAC Securities and three equity traders at DICE Securities (Pvt.) Ltd were convicted under Securities Act (2015) and Court of law. Sidney and Aslam were alleged of tipping off advance confidential information of their clients’ order to the three equity traders at DICE, whereas the three traders at DICE were alleged of trading shares based on the tipped information in their trading account before the MAC clients’ orders were filled.

Small farmers, being the primary producers of crops, are the key players in the food supply chain. Yet, they remain the most marginalized in the value chain. The marginalization of small farmers can affect food sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to identify opportunities for bringing more value to small farmers in an agricultural value chain.

This paper makes use of action research, studying the potato value chain, in a developing agricultural country Pakistan. The authors conducted an in-depth study of 37 farmers in four regions, each being a large potato growing ecosystem. The study examined the end-to-end decision-making processes, sources of input (both physical and information), cultivation and sales practices, cost structure, productivity and profitability of the farmers in potato farming.

Large variations exist in the crop yield, cost structure and profitability of farmers within each of and among the four regions due to differences in cultivation practices and approach to sales. There is a significant potential to lower costs, increase yield and enhance overall profitability by using the existing better processes. By addressing the issues faced by small farmers their profits can be potentially doubled. The paper also discusses potential means of recrafting and streamlining the value chain to bring more value to small farmers.

The paper provides a detailed account of how different interventions can increase the value for small farmers. Since the current food supply chain and sustainability are under stress, worldwide, the findings of this study have implications for farmers as well as policy makers.

The literature on streamlining the agricultural value chain and enhancing the share of small farmers is scarce. Improving the value chain and reducing the marginalization of small farmers is an essential step toward increasing food sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential food and industrial values of a tropical and underutilized indigenous plant.

Specimens of a dry‐milled plant, namely: Zizyphus spina‐christi, were subjected to chemical analysis to determine their proximate, mineral, sugar, and amino acid compositions using standard procedures.

The fruit pulp was found to be a good source of energy, carbohydrates and rich in Mg, Ca, Fe and Zn, whereas the seeds are rich in crude fiber. Essential amino acids are 32.96 percent in fruit pulp and 25.22 percent in seeds, whereas non‐essential amino acids are 61.25 percent in fruit pulp and 73 percent in seeds.

The nutritional composition of the plant materials suggests that they may find use in food formulation operations and as industrial raw materials.

The purpose of this study is to theoretically probe the shape impacts of nano-particle on boundary layer flow of nano-fluid toward a stretching cylinder with heat-transmission effects. The base fluid used for this study is pure water, and aluminum oxide nano-particles are suspended in it. Four different shapes of nano-particle, namely, cylindrical, brick, platelets and blades, are considered to carry out the study.

The problem is modelled mathematically and the nonlinear system of equations is attained by using appropriate transmutations. The solution of transmuted equations is achieved by utilizing a shooting technique with Fourth-Fifth order Runge–Kutta Fehlberg scheme. Numerically attained results are elucidated through graphs and tables which are further compared under limiting cases with existing literature to check the validity of the results.

It is observed that fluid velocity and temperature of cylindrical shaped water nano-fluids are more than the nano-fluid having brick-shaped nano-particles. Moreover, it is seen that the nano-fluids suspended with platelets-shaped nano-particles have higher velocity and temperature than the nano-fluids containing blade-shaped nano-particles. The curvature parameter and nano-particles volume fraction have increasing effects on flow velocity and temperature of nano-fluids containing all types of nano-particle shapes.

Numerous authors have examined the impacts of nano-particle shapes on characteristics of heat transfer and fluid flow. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the shape impacts of nano-particles on boundary layer flow of nano-fluid toward a stretching cylinder with heat-transmission effects have not been discussed. So, to fulfill this gap, the present paper explicates the impacts of various nano-particle shapes on Al₂O₃–water-based nano-fluid flow past a stretching cylinder with heat-transfer effects.

This paper aims to examine the determinants that influence bank users’ acceptance for Islamic financial technology (FinTech) services by extending the technology acceptance model (TAM) in the Malaysian context.

The survey was conducted using convenience sampling. Moreover, 205 responses were gathered from users of the Islamic bank. On the same note, the literature on determinants of Islamic FinTech acceptance and TAM was reviewed as well in a bid to contribute to the factors that are instrumental in determining the acceptance of FinTech services.

Findings of the study reveal that Islamic FinTech’s services acceptance is determined by perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and also by another variable, which is consumer innovativeness (CI). On the contrary other factors, self-efficacy and subjective norms are found not to be influential in determining Islamic FinTech’s acceptance by Islamic banking users.

TAM is extended in the context of Islamic FinTech. A new variable, namely, CI is tested using TAM. CI is yet to be tested, therefore, this paper will be a useful reference for the policymakers, academicians and future researchers.

The purpose of this research work is to harvest energy using the piezoelectric properties of ZnO nanowires (NW). Fabrication and characterization of the piezoelectric nanogenerator (NG), based on Al/ZnO/Au structure without using hosting layer, were done to harvest energy. The proposed method has full potential to harvest the cost-effective energy.

ZnO NW were fabricated between the thin layers of Al- and Au-coated substrates for the development of piezoelectric NG. To grow ZnO NW, ZnO seed layer was prepared on the Al-coated substrate, and then ZnO NW were grown by aqueous chemical growth method. Finally, Au top electrode was used to conclude the Al/ZnO/Au NG structure. The Al and Au electrodes were used to establish the ohmic and Schottky contacts with ZnO NW, respectively.

Surface morphology of the fabricated device was done by using scanning electron microscopy, and electrical characterization of the sample was performed with digital oscilloscope, picoammeter and voltmeter. The energy harvesting experiment was performed to excite the presented device. The fabricated piezoelectric-sensitive device revealed the maximum open circuit voltage up to 5 V and maximum short circuit current up to 30 nA, with a maximum power of 150 nW. Consequently, it was also shown that the output of the fabricated device was increased by applying the stress. The presented work will help for the openings to capture the mechanical energy from the surroundings to power up the nano/micro-devices. This research work shows that NGs have the competency to build the self-powered nanosystems. It has potential applications in biosensing and personal electronics.

The fabrication of simple and cost-effective piezoelectric NG is done with a structure of Al/ZnO/Au without using hosting layer. The presented method elucidates an efficient and cost-effective approach to harvest the mechanical energy from the native environment.