The study contributes to the existing literature on intellectual capital (IC) performance and profitability by extending evidence from Pakistan. The study examines the impact of IC performance on the profitability of Pakistani financial institutions. It further examines how corporate governance, bank specific, industry specific, and country specific indicators effect Pakistani banks’ profitability. The result reports both the linear and non-linear impact of IC performance on profitability, which affirms an inverted U–shaped relationship. Among the three value added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) components, capital employed efficiency (CEE), and human capital efficiency (HCE) are found to have a significantly positive and structural capital efficiency (SCE) is found to have a significantly negative impact on bank profitability. The study notes a positive impact on profitability of factors like board independence, directors’ compensation, and higher capitalization. It reports a negative impact on profitability of factors like board size, board meetings, credit risk, industry concentration and economic growth. The results also indicate low profitability of banks during the period of government transition. The study provides insights into the important profitability drives and suggests that the impact of investment in IC on profitability is limited to an extent. The findings of this study are likely to be useful for policy makers, management, and academics.

The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of bank-specific, industry-specific and macroeconomic variables on the profitability of banks in Pakistan. This study applied the two-step generalized method of momentum (GMM) system estimator on an unbalanced dynamic panel of 28 banks over the latest period 2007–2016. The robust results reveal that the bank’s profitability in Pakistan is explained by size, higher solvency, financial structure, operating cost, labor productivity, market power, and economic growth. We also found an inverted U-shape relationship between banks size and profitability. Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) was applied to evaluate the impact of market power and found results in support of Structure Conduct Hypothesis. On the other hand, credit quality, operational efficiency, banking sector development, inflation, and industry concentration are found to be negatively and significantly related to the profitability of banks. Further, this study found lower profitability of banks during the government transition. The Mean comparison of profitability indicates that specialized banks (SB) in Pakistan are generating higher net interest margin (NIM) than all commercial banks (ACB). However, the empirical results of this study are robust and consistent with previous literature.

The idiosyncratic and knowledge-intense nature of the financial institutions requires them to rely more on intangible than on tangible resources. Over the past two decades, researchers have been motivated to embark on the relationship between intellectual capital (IC) and performance of financial institutions. Considering the knowledge-based intellect as a critical skill of this era, the current study examines the impact of IC on the performance of 111 Pakistani financial institutions (PFIs) over the period 2007–2018. Two IC measures, i.e., value-added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) and modified value-added intellectual coefficient (MVAIC), were applied to examine the impact of IC on profitability and productivity. Robust results from the fixed effect regression and generalized method of momentum affirm the inverted U-shaped relationship between IC and performance, suggesting that the increase in IC performance of PFIs increases their profitability and productivity up to a certain level, and after that, a further increase in IC performance decreases profitability and productivity. The results further suggest that human capital is the most influencing intellectual resource which produces higher intellectual efficiencies and increases the performance significantly. The results of this study are likely to be helpful for management, regulators, policy makers, and academics and provide insights into the importance of IC and suggest that the investment in the IC improves the sustainable performance to a certain extent.

Renewable energy has been seen as a viable solution to the problems of environmental degradation and the energy crisis. This study examines the long - and short-run linkages between economic globalization, foreign direct investment (FDI), economic growth, and renewable electricity consumption in China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries. Therefore, this study uses the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique to measure the relationship between constructs based on data collected from 2000 to 2020. The overall results show the collaborative integration of Belt and Road (BRI) countries in terms of globalization, economic growth, and renewable electricity utilization. The results show that there is a long-term positive relationship between FDI and renewable electricity consumption, but a negative relationship in the short term. Furthermore, economic growth is positively correlated with renewable electricity consumption in the long run and negatively correlated in the short run. This study suggests that the governments of BRI countries should encourage globalization by improving technology and knowledge related to renewable electricity consumption in all areas.

The demand for resources and energy increases as the global population grows, leading to increased ecological and carbon footprints. This study aims to contribute to the global sustainability agenda by assessing the impact of green energy projects, green energy finance, and green governance on reducing ecological and carbon footprints in G7 countries from 1990 to 2020. The findings reveal that there is a noteworthy negative association between ecological footprint, green governance, geothermal energy consumption, hydro-power consumption, and green energy finance. However, a significant positive correlation exists between ecological footprint and biofuels. Additionally, the outcomes lend support to the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory in G7 nations. Carbon footprints are evaluated in this study as an alternate measure, and the results are similarly robust. These insights hold the potential to guide policy decisions and investment strategies, and promote the shift to a low-carbon economy by highlighting the connections between the adoption of green energies, green energy finance, green governance, and carbon and ecological footprint reduction, thus paving the way for a more equitable and sustainable future for all.

This study investigates the impact of corporate governance characteristics and political connections of directors on the profitability of banks in Pakistan. The study uses the data of 26 domestic banks over the latest and large period of 2007–2016. Our findings firstly affirm that bank profitability is negatively affected by the presence of politically connected directors on the board, reporting significantly lower return on assets, return on equity, net interest margin, and profit margin. Secondly, our findings also affirm the negative political influence on the sustainability of the banking industry, reporting significantly lower return on assets, return on equity, net interest margin, and profit margin during the government transition of banks having politically connected directors sitting on their board. Our findings further report an inverted U-shaped relationship between board size and bank profitability, suggesting that a board size beyond 8–9 members decreases the profitability. The study further finds a positive impact of board composition, board independence, and director compensation on bank profitability, while also finding a negative impact of frequent board meetings, presence of foreign directors, and audit committee independence.