Corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays a growing role in fostering transparency, stakeholder trust, and long-term firm sustainability, particularly in emerging markets. Firms that actively engage in CSR are more likely to disclose credible financial information, which can reduce the incentive to withhold adverse news and thereby limit stock price crash risk (SPCR). This study investigates the impact of CSR on SPCR, while also examining whether this relationship varies across different stages of the firm life cycle (FLC). The analysis is based on an unbalanced panel of listed non-financial firms from the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), covering the period from 2009 to 2023. Financial data were obtained from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), while market data were collected from the PSX. Employing fixed-effects robust regression models and two crash risk proxies, negative conditional skewness (NCSKEW) and down-to-up volatility (DUVOL), the results reveal a consistent and significant negative association between CSR and SPCR. This suggests that firms with stronger CSR engagement are less prone to extreme negative stock returns. However, the moderating effect of FLC is only evident at the introduction and decline stages, indicating that the effectiveness of CSR in reducing crash risk depends on a firm’s position in its organizational life cycle. These findings contribute to the literature on CSR and financial stability in emerging markets and offer practical implications for investors, managers, and policymakers seeking to promote risk-aware, socially responsible corporate strategies.

Pakistan is facing a dilemma of lower tax revenue to GDP ratio, leading to higher fiscal deficits. Tax is a financial fare imposed on the taxpayers by the state or governing body to fund annual expenses. Tax avoidance (TA) potentially increases the cash flows of the firm. The Stock Price Crash Risk (SPCR) is an essential factor for investors and economic agents in making financial and investment decisions. Several studies employed the agency theory framework for determining the probability of a stock price crash. . The study aims to investigate the impact of TA activities on SPCR in Pakistan. This study used panel data covering period from 2009 to 2020 of 60 non-financial firms from KSE-100 index listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The financial statements data was collected from SECP, PSX and State Bank of Pakistan. Managerial Ability (MA) was employed as moderator for the relationship between TA and SPCR. The results show that increase in TA activities by the firm increases the SPCR. It is also found that the MA plays a moderating role as able managers can reduce the impact of TA on SPCR. The capable tax management team in the company may reduce TA. Practical implications and contributions of the research include improving the literature, providing new insight for investors and portfolio managers in investment decision making. It would be helpful for the Government, policymakers, and regulators for developing and implementing an effective framework to reduce the tendency of TA.

Digitalization has become an economic force in the modern era, restructuring traditional business models, approaches, and procedures. The embracing of widespread digital technology, along with continuous development of human capital, to promote entrepreneurship is a significant challenge. This paper investigates the effect of digitalization and GDP on entrepreneurship, as well as the moderating effect of human capital. For this purpose, fixed effect estimation technique was used on annual unbalanced panel data of 139 countries collected for a period of 9 years, that is, from 2011 to 2019. The findings show that digitalization has a positive and a statistically significant impact on entrepreneurship in the singleton model, as well as a positive and significant impact in all other models. Similarly, GDP growth also has a positive and significant effect across all the models. Human capital, proxied as tertiary school education, was also found to have a positive and significant impact on entrepreneurship. The analysis shows that the impact of digitalization is more significant in countries where tertiary education fosters the development of human capital, than in those countries that offer primary and secondary education. Furthermore, human capital also moderates the nexus between digital financial inclusion, economic growth, and entrepreneurship. The results of the regional comparison also depict that there is a strong positive and significant impact of all the proxies of digitalization and GDP growth on entrepreneurship in Europe and Central Asia, as compared to East Asia and the Pacific. These results show that the higher the level of digitalization, economic growth, and human capital, the higher the level of entrepreneurship.