PurposeWith a basis in the conservation of resource (COR) theory, this study examines the relationship between workplace ostracism and job performance while also investigating the mediating role of defensive silence and the moderating role of emotional intelligence.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a multisource, three-wave data collection technique to gather data from employees and their peers working in Pakistan's service sector organizations. Data are analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) (v 3.2.7) to assess the measurement model and the structural model.FindingsThe findings reveal that the perception of workplace ostracism provokes self-avoidance strategy, defensive silence, which attenuates job performance. However, defensive silence's mediating role is mitigated if employees can draw from their emotional intelligence ability, which induces a self-regulation mechanism that curbs workplace ostracism's negative consequences.Practical implicationsThe study demonstrates how employees in collectivist, high-power distance cultural settings may strategically choose silence by exercising emotional intelligence to enhance job performance.Originality/valueThis study is one of the few efforts that examined defensive silence in non-Western cultural settings. This is also the first study that examined emotional intelligence's role in the proposed moderated mediation framework.

Stock price crash risk is an unfavourable event in business that may decrease the shareholder’s wealth and hurt stability and capital market growth. This study investigates the impact of audit quality measured by auditor industry specialization (AIS), audit tenure (AT), audit committee independence (ACI), audit firm size(AFS)) on stock value crash (measured by down-to-up unpredictability) for a sample of 70 non-financial firms listed in Pakistan Stock Exchange during from 2009 to 2018. Efficient governance enriches financial and operational directness, which cuts down the stock value crashes in rotation. Facing crash risk difficulties, traders impart more funds to stocks of well-regime organizations. The fixed effect model results show that AIS and ACI have a negative and significant impact on crash risk, while there is a positive impact of AFS on stock price crash risk. Moreover, it concludes that it has an insignificant impact on stock price crash risk in Pakistan. It is concluded that effective audit quality lessens the difficulty of data abnormality and improves stock price crash risk. This study has importance for investors to help them identify the most liquid stock and will enable them to decide which stocks to acquire and which to dispose of. This study will also be helpful for academics and scholars to bridge this gap on the influence of audit quality practices on the economic consequences of Pakistan. It will be useful for future research as well as because it will become part of the empirical literature on the economic consequence of stock markets.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has hampered the economies in all over the world. Due to this pandemic, many economic activities worldwide continue to be slumps. Current study examines the effect of COVID-19 contagion epidemic on stock markets of 23 OIC economies. Event study approach is employed to quantity abnormal returns (ARs). Fixed effect and random effect models are employed for the cause of abnormal return. Sixty (0 to 59) days, including the event day, are observed in the event window at the release of news related to COVID-19 in media at the international level; each window contains ten days. Pre-event window includes 120 days afore from the event day. We examine the ARs significantly negative in 4 ensuing windows in 59 days. Negative AR is significant for developed as well as developing economies. Findings reveal that the cumulative ARs from day first to day 33 remain in the range of decimal -0.203 to single digit -9.09. Still, from day 34 to day 59, it remains in the range of double digit -10.150 to -19.727, which is the consequence of increased distress in the stock market caused it requires the serious attention of the states to control this pandemic. Further, panel data analysis suggests that more time is required to return to the normal situation of stock markets from the adverse effect of COVID-19. Current investigation is significant for decision bodies for example national banks, stock market officials and state agencies to boost confidence among investors because this pandemic hampered social-economic activities all over the world, including the OIC economies.