Preference is given to the recently published scholarship in prominent journals and publishers. Secondary sources of data related to educational exchanges and its role in diplomacy have been extensively studied. It was observed that whether it's a small country or a major player in the international politics, educational exchanges and bursaries play a vital role in promoting its soft image in addition to culture and history to the foreign audience. Some of the famous providers of scholarships to international students include the USA, UK and China. While recent studies show that China is rising to be the top provider of educational scholarships and the Chinese universities are rapidly getting top positions in the world ranking of universities. Through such initiatives, China's policies are getting acceptance to a greater extent in foreign countries. This study is of high importance to complementary research.

Stock markets are of prime importance for the stability and boosting of an economy; its development and formation of capital. An active and stable stock market induces effective and successful organizations. The stability of stock markets is always disturbed by fluctuations in certain macroeconomic variables. This study is an endeavor to find out the effect of these variables on the Pakistan stock exchange index both on long term as well as short term bases. Statistical tests were applied on the quarterly time series data from January 2004 to December 2018. The results of the study show that there is negative association among the rate of inflation and share price while the stock prices have positive association with exchange rate and rate of interest. Findings of this study could help the investors to gain positive returns from investment in stock market.

The key aim of current research is to investigate the influence of CG on financial performance (FP) and capital structure (CS) of cement companies listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). To accomplish this purpose, twenty cement firms listed on the PSX was deployed from 2005 to 2014. Auto-correlation and heteroscedasticity were tested and Regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. SPSS 21 is conducted to perform the analyses.CG is analyzed via board size, board independence, and institutional ownership while, return on assets and return on equity are employed to analyze FP, whereas CS is calculated via debt to equity. The outcomes document that CG positively affects FP, however, negatively impact CS. This research not only contributes to examining the impact and association between CG, FP, and CS but also prove the outcomes of previous studies that have presented a significant influence and association between CG, FP, and CS.

Merger and acquisition is the strategy used by banks to expand its development process. In the current study operating and market performance has been assessed of the Banks exercised the M&A by taking the data from 2005-17. The main focus of the study is to evaluate the Banks performance using data collected from nine banks gone through the merger and acquisition strategy with the help of ordinary least square model. The results show significant relationship operating performance but insignificant relation with market performance. Findings provided an opportunity for the Banks to study and utilize the M&A strategy for capturing market share and further development in the competitive market. Furthermore, a glimpse for potential investors has been provided who want to create a profitable portfolio according to market concentration. The implications demands that proper improvement should be considered for the mechanism and regulatory policies to ensure the security of Banks.

This paper investigates listed firm efficiency on Pakistan Stock Exchange by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The reason for application and calculation of the DEA score is to know how much the firms are efficient in utilizing their resources to be converted into output (sales/Net Income). An optimization technique (DEA) that helps calculate efficiencies of firm’s decision making Units (DMU’s) by taking different inputs and outputs variables. This paper uses DEA in measuring efficiency of 136 Pakistani firms listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). Using secondary data set of 136 firms for the period 2008-2017, efficiency measurements are calculated by using financial ratios and financial indicators as input and output variables. Results show that some of the firms are efficient in utilizing their available resources in an efficient way to convert it into output, while some are inconsistent in efficiently utilizing their resources (inputs) to get the desired outputs.

This paper empirically inquire the relation of social capital dimensions (relational social capital, structural social capital, and cognitive social capital), organization innovation capabilities, and the performance of information technology (IT) as a mediator in the said relationships. A total of 263 workers of different management cadres from software SMEs (Zhongguancun Software Park, Beijing, China) were randomly selected. However, 143 respondents submitted the complete response. Thus, the response rate was 54%. For the empirical investigation, the present paper uses Partial Least Squares, Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Importance-Performance Matrix Analysis (IPMA) techniques to analyze the survey data. The direct and indirect relationship between dimensions of social capital and organizational innovation capabilities is significant. However, IT generates a partial mediation effect. IPMA highlights the importance of relational and structural social capital to innovation capabilities, however, IT is indicated as the key driver that trigger the effect of social capital on organization innovation capabilities. Future studies guidelines and limitations are explained at the end of this paper.

Firm's business activities are focused on profit making. The cultural, technological, organizational, financial and operational challenges followed by different risks like market or credit risks make it difficult for firms to focus on their sole aim of earning profit. Previous studies have highlighted that market risk and credit risks have a significant influence on firm's performance. However, prediction of credit risk from market risk has not been explored in Pakistan which this paper attempts by investigating the impact of market risk on credit risk of the following period. For this study, a panel data of 30 manufacturing firms was collected through random sampling technique from period 2005 to 2016. A regression model was estimated in Generalized Method of Momments and used a Hausman test to select fixed or random effects. Results of this study show that firms have 30% more current liabilities as compared to current assets and experience volatility in stock prices which increases the credit risks. However, research findings shows that firms have reasonable growth opportunities and profitability they can be used to reduce stock volatility and attain confidence of creditors in firms. The increase in leverage due to creditor's confidence in firm indicates a decrease in credit risk. Overall the study shows the significantly negative impact of market risk on credit risk of the subsequent time period which specifies market risk may foresee credit risk of the following period and gives a new understanding for investors and policymakers to curb risks in investment decisions.

The macroeconomic version of the APT is of great significance in examining the return on assets. It analyzes the estimated security return with reference to various macroeconomic variables. Despite availability of research studies related to the developed and emerging stock markets of the world, still a research gap exists for exploring the frontier markets like equity market of Pakistan. The study examines the long and short term impact of macroeconomic variables on the KSE 100 index for the period of July 1996 - June 2015. Cointegration technique and VECM models have been applied. Among these variables, GDP, inflation, exchange rate, unemployment rate, labor force cost and stock market of US were found significant for explanation of effects on return of stock market of Pakistan. The study findings have potential implications for both policymakers and investors pertaining to macroeconomic factors and stock market volatility.

This study looks into the potential effect of foreign exchange exposure elasticity (FEEE) on the financial distress of non-financial firms from an emerging country (Pakistan) and a developed country (USA) during 2003-2015. It employs mixed methodology in which a comprehensive quantitative analysis is made from the panel data of the sample companies from both countries (Pakistan and USA). Subsequently, views of Chief Finance Officers (CFOs) of different companies are given. Results show that the effect of foreign exchange exposure is not statistically significant on the financial distress of Pakistani firms at contemporaneous level but it has positive significant effect at lagged level. Results also show that at gross exposure level, foreign exchange exposure of US manufacturing firms has a significantly positive effect on their financial distress contemporaneously but not at net market level. In case of US non-manufacturing firms, the foreign exchange exposure elasticity does not impact significantly on the Z-Score at gross exposure level. But the market model shows a weak significant effect of the FE Exposure on the distress of such firms in USA at relatively higher significance level. The firms fundamental attributes except foreign sales exhibit a significant effect on the financial distress. Only debt has negative coefficient which describes a positive effect on the financial distress. The findings have notable implications for the financial stability of the firms, especially in Pakistan.

The current study investigates the real influence of the rate of exchange in real terms, GDP in real terms, money supply and infrastructure on the balance of trade in Pakistan by employing Johnson co-integration and ECM. The real GDP and infrastructure positively affected mini missing the gap of trade deficit to improve the trade performance of the economy of Pakistan.In contrast, the factor of effective exchange rate and money supply negatively affected on trade deficit of the country. The rate of R-Square is 0.85, it tells that 85 percent variation in the balance of trade is captured by independent variables.The important recommendation of this research is that the exchange rate should be stable and consistent with the equilibrium path. The negative ECM value of -40 obviously pointed out that there is a 40 percent convergence of the total said parameters in mini missing the gap of trade deficit for the economy of Pakistan.