Irfan Ahmed, PhD

Abstract of Research Paper Purpose – Advances in information technology (IT) and the globalization of business are both realities and opportunities of the twenty-first century.  This article aims to examine the role of information technology in the globalization of business buying behavior. Design/methodology/approach – Literature and theory are used to develop a conceptual model of adoption of information technology (IT) and  globalization of business buying behavior. Firm-level and global moderating factors are also examined. Findings – IT adoption includes IT adoption by buyer and by seller and the compatibility of both IT systems. Globalizations of buying behavior is  moderated by firm-level factors like perceived risk, digitizability and by task and global moderating factors like availability of alternative suppliers in  buyer country, cultural distance and the political stability in the supplier country. Research limitations/implications – The paper pro...

Abstract of Research Paper Using two variants of panel data analysis, we attempt to find the determinants of capital structure of KSE listed none-financial firms for the period 1994-2002. Pooled regression analysis was applied with the assumption that there were no industry or time effects. However, using fixed effect dummy variable regression, the coefficients for a number of industries were significant showing there were significant industry effects hence we accepted the later model for our analysis. We used six explanatory variables to measure their effect on leverage ratio. Three of our variables were significantly related to leverage ratio whereas the remaining three variables were not statistically significant in having relationship with the debt ratio. Our results approve the prediction of trade-off theory in case of tangibility variable whereas the earning volatility (EV), and depreciation (NDTS) variables fail to confirm to trade-off theory. The growth (GT) variable confirms...

Abstact The objective of this study is to examine the stock returns variation to specific economic variables by applying a multi-factor model. The firms relating to banking and textile sectors were selected for this study on the basis of data availability, profitability and performance on the Karachi Stock Exchange. The data for the selected firms and economic variables obtained for the period of 10 years. GARCH model used to analyze risk and returns relationship. The tests applied on the stock returns of each firm and on the data set of the entire industry to generalize the results. The results disclose that market return is mainly accounts variation in stock returns, however the inclusion of other macroeconomic and industry related variables has added additional explanatory power in describing the stock returns variation. It is found that economic exposure is higher at industry level than firm level stock returns. Results also indicate tha...