Earning quality of organization depends upon the audit quality and could be achieved using auditors’ expertise and firm size and this aspect demands the emphasis of new researchers. Hence, the current article investigates the effects of auditors’ independence, audit firm size and auditors’ financial expertise on earning quality of the manufacturing industry in Malaysia. The article also explores the mediating role of audit quality among auditors’ independence, audit firm size, auditors’ financial expertise and earning quality of the manufacturing industry in Malaysia. The study gets the data from the audit department of Malaysian manufacturing companies. The article checks the nexus among variables using smart-PLS. The outcomes revealed that the auditors’ independence, audit firm size and auditors’ financial expertise have a positive association with earning quality. The outcomes also exposed that audit quality significantly mediates among auditors’ independence, audit firm size, auditors’ financial expertise and earning quality of the manufacturing industry in Malaysia. The regulators could get the guidelines to achieve high quality earnings and audits using auditors’ independence and financial expertise.

This research examines the impact of critical factors, including GDP, population, internet, renewable power, human capital, and global link, on energy poverty in the New-11 nations, using a Panel ARDL technique. Energy poverty rises with GDP and population growth but is significantly reduced by internet access and renewable energy. Human resources and globalization present a mix of insignificant functions. Short-run illustrations depict initial movement in the long run, which abruptly stabilizes as renewable energy costs become apparent. The implications of the findings of energy poverty are the essential and inescapable policy calls for targeted investments in digitalization, sustainable energy, people, and intelligent globalization.

Online banking is a source of executing all banking operations on a virtual basis; that means there is no need to visit the bank physically for any transaction or payment against utilities. This research has explored the scope of online banking in Pakistan, focusing on how depositors' behaviors influence their adoption of online banking services. The present study, therefore, has attempted to give an idea about the factors responsible for the engagement of users and their satisfaction in digital banking platforms in this context. The data used in this paper is primary in nature and has been collected through a structured survey with questionnaires from 234 participants comprising a diverse sample of students, professionals, and ordinary citizens. The research findings revealed that Cyber Security was the most influencing factor upon customer satisfaction; there was also a high correlation between perceived security measures and good user experiences. This result gave the leading role of robust security protocols a great significance in gaining confidence and encouraging people to use online banking services. In contrast, the influence of Financial Literacy on the level of satisfaction with online banking was statistically insignificant; while financial education is very important, it is not as central in shaping the user experience, at least when questions of security dominate. The findings of this study revealed that financial institutions in Pakistan need to give consideration to the enhancement of security and addressing customer's data protection concerns in order to develop a better level of satisfaction and increase online banking adoption. The non-significant influence of Financial Literacy suggests that further research is required for a better understanding of how financial literacy interacts with other influences on online banking. Future research should give more attention to these relationships and also consider the possible indirect influences of financial literacy on user engagement in the services of digital banking.

The study aims to test relationship existing between equity market expansion and economic prosperity along with how this relationship is influenced and controlled by COVID-19. The COVID-19 as control variable is the uniqueness of this study. A total of twenty-three countries which are a part of emerging countries according to MSCI Index are selected out of total twenty-five countries. The research is helpful to understand contrasting hypotheses generated as supply leading hypothesis, demand leading hypothesis, Bi-directional hypothesis and no relation hypothesis with the special context of COVID-19. The connection of the two variables: economic growth and stock market development has studied in many researches but with the controlling variable of COVID-19 along with the findings are unique features of this study and contributing valuable addition to existing literature. The data is collected from World Bank Database from 2001 to 2020 (n=460). We applied correlation analysis to address the multicollinearity issue. The stationary properties along with endogeneity issue have been tested through unit root ADF – fisher chi-square test and Penal GMM techniques applied. The results suggest that negative relationship exist among economic prosperity and COVID-19 but no relationship established between equity market development and economic growth.

This study uses many portfolio approaches to optimize mean semi-variance portfolios using artificial neural networks for South Asian investors. These methods include the mean-semi variance strategy, minimal variance approach, limited portfolios with transaction costs and turnover constraints, constrained portfolios with risk and return diversification limits, and the equally weighted approach. These portfolio strategies are analysed using the excess Sharpe ratio and the Information Ratio for financial efficiency and diversity, respectively, and validated using the 130/30 portfolio strategy. The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), Columbo Stock Exchange (CSE), and Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) supply daily data for empirical research. We use a large data collection from 2017 to 2021. The study found that ANN-generated estimators using a mean semi-variance optimization strategy outperformed alternative portfolio optimization methods in South Asian markets. The research reveals that ANN-based returns outperform correlation statistics, descriptive analysis, and mean square prediction error (MPSE). The study suggests utilizing naive diversification as a benchmark for other portfolio optimization methodologies.

This study uses 62 years of data, from 1960 to 2021, including variables like deposits, interest rates, GDP, and inflation, to investigate the link between interest rates and deposit behavior in non-Islamic banks in Pakistan. The study finds that interest rates have a big influence on deposit behavior using time series analytic techniques as unit root testing, cointegration analysis, and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). More specifically, people's decisions to deposit money in non-Islamic banks are observed to be influenced by interest rate variations. The results highlight the importance of interest rate changes in influencing deposit behavior, showing how people choose which non-Islamic institutions to deposit money with. These findings have significance for financial institutions, policymakers, and economists in general. They provide important new information about the ways in which monetary policy choices affect deposit mobilization and liquidity conditions in the banking industry. The report also proposes directions for further investigation, including the possible examination of differences in deposit behavior between demographic groupings or geographical areas. To further help understand the dynamics at work, it also suggests examining how interest rates affect deposits in various sample configurations. This research advances theoretical frameworks in the field by shedding light on the complex interactions between interest rates and deposit behavior. It also offers stakeholders practical guidance on how to deal with the effects of interest rate dynamics on deposit mobilization and banking sector liquidity.