Leadership style is an important factor that affects the enhancement of organizational performance and employee’s job performance, and what objectives they should pursue, which also makes a profit for their employees or makes another social and economic contribution to society. The present study was developed to observe the impact of transformational leadership on job performance and to investigate the mediating mechanism of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Primary data were collected from the employees by using a cross-sectional design method. Employees who participated in the study are working in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of Pakistan. A total of 300 questionnaires were circulated, and 130 were received. The Regression analysis was executed to examine whether CSR mediated the correlation among transformational leadership and job performance. The results of the study suggest that transformational leadership positively and completely predicts job performance. Particularly, the study finds that CSR significantly mediated the effect of transformational leadership on job performance. On the basis of these findings, it can be explicated that transformational leadership, job performances, and CSR are important elements of an organization. These elements can improve organizational performance. Theoretical implications of the recent study are discussed, and offer directions for future research in the area.

Purpose: This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on investors' sentiments, behavioral biases and investment decisions in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).Design/methodology/approach: The authors have assessed investors' behaviors and sentiments and the stock market overreaction during COVID-19 using a questionnaire and collected data from 401 investors trading in the PSX.Findings: Results of structural equation modeling revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic affected investors' behaviors, investment decisions and trade volume. It created feelings of fear and uncertainty among market participants. Evidence suggests that behavioral heuristics and biases, including representative heuristic, anchoring heuristic, overconfidence bias and disposition effect, negatively influenced investors' decisions at the PSX.Research limitations/implications: This study will contribute to behavioral finance literature in the context of developing countries as it has revealed the impact of COVID-19 on the emerging stock market, and its results are generalizable to other emerging stock markets.Practical implications: The findings of this study will help academicians, researchers and policymakers of developing countries. Academicians can formulate new behavioral models that can depict the solutions of dealing with an uncertain situation like COVID-19. Policymakers like the Securities Exchange Commission and the PSX can formulate crisis management strategies based on behavioral finance concepts to cope with situations like COVID-19 in the future and help lessen investors' losses in the stock markets. The role of the Securities Exchange Commission is crucial as it regulates the financial markets. It can arrange workshops to educate investors to manage their decisions during crisis time and focus on the best use of irrational and rational decision-making at the same time using Lo (2004) adaptive market hypothesis.Originality/value: The novelty of the paper is that the authors have introduced overconfidence and disposition effect as mediators that create a connection between representative and anchoring heuristics and investment decisions using primary data collected from investors (institutional and retail) to demonstrate the presence of psychological biases during COVID-19, and it has been done for the first time according to authors' knowledge. It is a contribution and addition to the behavioral finance literature in the context of developing countries' stock markets and their efficiency.

The key objective of the formation of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is to join hands collectively for slow economic growth, poverty eradication, deprived health and education sectors. In the 12th SAARC Summit, it has been declared that poverty eradication is the main area of concentration and SAARC countries would strive their best to minimize all types of poverty with the help of any possible strategy. The main objectives of the current study are to evaluate the development of the agenda of poverty eradication in SAARC countries through small and medium enterprise (SME) development because it would be considered as a short-routed remedy to mitigate poverty. The poorest 20% income holder as a percentage of GDP has been used as the proxy for poverty in the SAARC region. SME development has been measured through the SME share in GDP in respective countries. The panel dataset has been developed for the period of 1990 to 2015. The fixed effect method (FEM) and regression equation techniques were used to analyse the observed data. The results of the FEM were misleading. The regression equations for the respective countries were used for empirical analysis. The results have identified that there are three main factors that are essential in reducing poverty in the SAARC region: SME growth, openness of trade and social sector development.

There are various behavioral aspects that influence the financial decisions of individual investors, such as overconfidence, herding behavior, loss aversion, and regret aversion. Other psychological elements may play a substantial influence in deciding the success or failure of any financial action. The primary aims of the present research article are to examine the effects of overconfidence bias and herding behavior on individual financial decisions regarding crypto currency investment. The markets for crypto currencies are extremely sensitive to any minute or significant changes in the economy, as well as to any changes in the individual behaviors of investors. To achieve these aims, 650 questionnaires were distributed to individual investors employed by various financial institutions, multinational corporations, including oil and gas exploration and production companies, operating in Pakistan, individual investors dealing in stocks, and students regardless of investment size. Purposive sampling was used to choose 311 valid responses from a total of 593. Those investors that engage in crypto currency investments were deemed valid responses. Classifications of investments were outlined, and demographic information was requested from respondents. SPSS-based empirical analysis provided the basis for the conclusions. The primary findings indicate that both overconfidence bias and herding tendency have a favorable and statistically significant impact on investors' financial decisions when investing in cryptocurrencies. In this study's sample, however, the majority of investors were overconfident in their crypto currency investing decisions.

COMMENTS THE ROLE OF FINANCIAL LITERACY ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF MICRO, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (MSMES) IN AFRICA In this paper, the authors have conducted a good job. There are certain suggestions for the betterment of the article. ...