The basic aim of this paper is to systematically review the corporate governance research trends in Pakistan and to give directions for future researchers in this field. The methodology adopted in this paper is “Systematic Literature Review,” 108 papers have been used from the period 2002–2020 along with 17 research theses in this study. The findings of this study show two trends in corporate governance research first one form 2008 to 2016 and the second one is from 2017 to 2020. The first trend shows that corporate governance (variables) is linked with traditional topics such as firm performance, dividend policy, capital structure, cost of capital and earnings management. The theory which is mostly used in the first corporate governance trend is the agency theory. In the second trend, corporate governance (variables) are linked with multiple issues while taking various theoretical perspectives such as risk taking, tunneling, CSR, investment portfolios, board-related issues, financial distress and much more. This paper has identified and filled the research gap by writing a comprehensive review paper of the prevailing corporate governance literature and has given directions for future researchers to consider it. To the best of researchers’ knowledge, this is the first study that has systematically reviewed and synthesized the corporate governance literature by adopting the systematic literature review methodology in Pakistan an emerging economy. It is an extensive effort for the purpose to encourage the interested researchers/scholars to add and expand their contributions to the corporate governance literature in Pakistan on the potentially identified areas of corporate governance.

This paper examines the influence of family business groups' affiliated and non-affiliated firms on earnings manipulation on a sample of Pakistani listed firms for the period of 2014 to 2019. The sample of this paper consists of 323 listed firms from the Pakistan Stock Exchange. Data were manually collected from the annual reports of the companies and State Bank of Pakistan sources. OLS and The Panel data models are used to validate the hypotheses of the study. Two proxies of earnings management have been used: one is discretionary accruals and the other is real activity manipulation. The study findings show a negative relationship of family business groups' affiliated firms with accrual-based earnings manipulation. Additionally, the magnitude of earnings manipulation is more in non-affiliated firms as compared to family business group affiliated firms. This study provides rare and initial evidence of family business groups’ relationship with earnings manipulation in Pakistan; moreover, this study extends the literature on scarce literature related to Family business groups and earnings manipulation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the board of directors’ related clauses such as independence, female director, CEO Duality and the expertise of director included in the Code of Corporate Governance 2017 (CCG-2017) on earnings management with the pre- and post-CCG-2017 analysis. This study has used the sample of 323 non-financial listed firms of the Pakistan Stock Exchange from 2015 to 2019. Data were manually collected from companies’ annual reports, and two proxies of earnings management have used: one is discretionary accruals and the other is real activity manipulation. The results of the study show that as compared to the pre-period of CCG-2017 in the post-period of CCG-2017 board independence, expertise and female inclusion has increased significantly. Moreover, board independence and financially expert directors are negatively related to discretionary accruals, while there is a positive relationship of female directors with discretionary accruals, which is also same for real activity manipulation. The findings also show that there is no relationship of board independence/outside directors and expert directors with real activity manipulation. This study recommended the CCG-2017 reforms introduced by the regulator. Moreover, we recommend that the regulator needs to augment the authentic independence of independent/outside directors in listed firms (concentrated ownership context) of Pakistan. This study adds its part in the corporate governance literature by focusing board attributes with regulatory reforms on earnings manipulation, which is lacking in the related literature in general and in Pakistan an emerging economy in particular.

The data set of this article is related to the paper “Do Board of Directors’ Characteristics Matter in Restraining Earnings Manipulation? Empirical Evidence from Pakistan Stock Exchange” Khan and Kamal, (2021) [1]. This data article presents the raw data of 315 non-financial listed firms of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (hereafter, PSX). The data relating to the Board of Directors has been manually extracted from 1890 annual reports of the concerned companies and the financial data were extracted from State Bank of Pakistan sources, business-recorder1 and PSX Data portal2. The dataset is an unbalanced panel data consisting of 1882 firms’ year's observations from 2014 to 2019 based on 315 non-financial listed firms consists of 20 variables. This paper's dataset is valid and useful for researchers/scholars in many ways such as linking the board of directors to corporate governance, internal governance vs external governance, audit quality, financial reporting quality, firm performance, industry performance, corporate social responsibility and government regulation.

Purpose: This study examines the role of common auditors in curbing classification shifting in family business group (FBG) affiliated firms, particularly in the context of family-dominant firms having poor corporate governance and investors’ protection. Design/methodology/approach: We tested the study's hypothesis using manually collected data from 286 firms of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) listed firms for the period of 2010–2019. This research paper employs advanced panel data regression models to examine the role of common auditors in mitigating classification shifting as proxied by McVay's (2006) core earnings model in the FBG-affiliated firms. Findings: This study finds that stand-alone firms are involved in classification shifting. However, FBG-affiliated firms are not involved in classification shifting to increase core earnings. Moreover, the common auditors, including BIG-4 common auditors, are effective in mitigating classification shifting in the FBG-affiliated firms. Robust regression analysis and alternative measures support the study's findings. Research limitations/implications: This research study has important implications for companies’ managers and owners, policymakers, investors and regulators by reinforcing the vital role of common auditors and BIG-4 common auditors in preventing classification shifting in the FBG-affiliated firms. The evidence of classification shifting in the PSX firms raises questions on the financial reporting quality, which may be used cautiously by investors and regulators when evaluating their financial reporting quality. Hence, the regulator(s) may consider the practice of classification shifting in the stand-alone firms to protect shareholders’ interests and the role of common and BIG-4 common auditors in the FBG-affiliated firms. In addition, the regulators, policymakers, auditors and potential investors may focus on the line-item segregation in the income statements of their interested companies. Originality/value: This research study, to the best of the author's knowledge, is the first to investigate the role of common auditors in FBG-affiliated firms to curb classification shifting. Moreover, through this research study, new evidence has been provided that common and BIG-4 auditors have played a significant role in curbing EM via classification shifting in emerging economies having features of institutional voids and weak corporate governance.

The data set of this article is related to the paper "Family Business Groups and Earnings Manipulation: An Emerging Economy Perspective" Earnings Management in the Family Business Groups of Pakistan: The Role of Corporate Governance and Shaping Economic Landscapes: A Historical Perspective on Pakistan's Family Business Groups. The data used in this data article has been published in the Mendeley data set. This data article presents the raw data of 323 non-financial listed firms of the affiliated family business group (hereafter, FBG) firms of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (hereafter, PSX). The affiliated firms of the FBGs have been manually collected from the concerned companies' annual reports, websites and concerned FBG webpages. The dataset of this paper consists of 187 affiliated FBG firms while 136 are nonaffiliated firms or stand-alone firms. This paper's dataset is valid and beneficial for researchers/scholars in many ways. The researchers/scholars may utilize this data set by checking the value of the firms affiliated with groups, or linking it with taxation, internal governance vs external governance of the affiliated firms and stand-alone firms, audit quality, financial reporting quality, firm performance, industry performance, corporate social responsibility and government regulation.