Firms adjust their capital structures to avoid financial distress and bankruptcy to sustain in the market. Asian firms have significantly different financial patterns than their USA and European counterparts. The moderation model gains a better understanding of the relationship between the model variables. We tested the moderating roles of life cycle stages and macro-economic factor gross national income per capita to find their moderating impacts on the speed of adjustment towards target capital structures of Asian manufacturing firms from 2010 to 2018. Our sample of manufacturing industries comes from the eleven Asian economies. We used the dynamic GMM model to estimate moderating impacts and applied the pooled OLS and fixed effect estimations to test the validity of the coefficient of lagged leverage. We find that life cycle stages have positive moderating impacts, and different gross national incomes per capita have no significant effects in adjusting the capital structure. We test the combined moderating impacts of the life cycle and gross national income by applying the full model. The results reveal that moderator variables significantly impact adjusting the target capital structure. From the policy perspective, it is recommended that investors should consider the firms’ life cycle stages and per capita income of the economy in making their international investment portfolios. The government should ensure requisite finance for firms at subsidized interest rates to financially support them at critical stages like introduction and decline.

Pakistani firms face significant issues (e.g., weak innovation capacity, limited global competitiveness, inefficient resource allocation, and over-reliance on traditional assets). These issues restrict their ability to achieve sustainable financial growth (SFG). To overcome these issues, our study investigates the impact of Intellectual Capital (IC) on SFG, based on the Knowledge-Based View (KBV) theory. The study employs a quantitative approach using secondary data from 125 non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for the period 2016–2024. The Modified Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (MVAIC) is used to measure IC, which includes Human Capital Efficiency (HCE), Structural Capital Efficiency (SCE), Relational Capital Efficiency (RCE), and Capital Employed Efficiency (CEE). SFG is assessed through a composite index of four financial ratios, while firm size, age, and long-term debt to total assets are used as control variables. Panel data regression models, including random and fixed effects, were applied to test the hypotheses. Findings reveal that all components of IC positively and significantly influence SFG, with RCE having the strongest effect. KBV theory supports these findings and claims that intangible assets are vital for sustained competitive and financial performance. This study contributes to the literature by shifting the focus from short-term firm performance to sustainable financial outcomes and offers practical implications for managers, investors, and policymakers in knowledge-based resource planning.