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Purpose -The basic purpose of this research paper conducted is to report the findings of this experimental study conducted in Bahawalpur region, about the role of Islamic banking in agriculture sector from the users and non-users (users of conventional banking) of Islamic banking. Design/methodology/approach -This descriptive and qualitative research is conducted and focuses on two main groups of banking customer's users and non users of Islamic banking and also informal interview with managers of some banks. A survey questionnaire was developed that subsequently get response from 120 respondents. Hypothesis analysis is the main tool of analysis in which mean, standard deviation; variance and chi-square tests are applied using SPSS 16.0. Findings -After the through study of body of knowledge we find that there is significant relationship between Islamic banking and agriculture sector. Islamic banking is providing easy terms of financing like Ijarah, Diminishing musharaka, Murabaha, salam and bai salam and similarly providing different types of working capital like Murabaha, Musawamah, Salam, Muzara'a. These terms of financing increase the asset ownership, yield and income of farmers. Islamic banking is not providing any financing for irrigation system and farmers are facing problem of credit standing and problem of collateral. Practical Limitations/Implication -Most of the concerned articles are taken from the Pakistan, Malaysia, etc. there was limited time for conducting research and receiving response from respondents. The sample size is of small size subsequently of 120 respondents and applicable to Bahawalpur region. As this result is implemented to Bahawalpur region only so therefore pilot study to whole Pakistan is suggested. Originality/Value -The aim of this paper is to provide and make attention toward of role of Islamic banking the Bahawalpur region of southern Punjab, Pakistan as the previous studies

Purpose This paper aims to examine the relationship between board gender diversity and private firm performance. Design/methodology/approach The authors test the association between board gender diversity and private firm performance by estimating pooled multivariate regressions using an unbalanced panel data set of 115,253 firm-year observations. Findings The authors find that younger, less busy and local women directors enhance private firm performance. Firms with 40% or more women directors report triple the economic benefits compared to boards with at least 20% women directors. Considering firm size, women directors significantly increase small firm profitability, and the effect is more pronounced for high-risk firms. Greater board gender diversity enhances small firm performance as the monitoring role of women directors benefits the firm even in the presence of busy men directors. Consistent with the agency theory framework, the authors find that women directors improve small firm profitability in the presence of agency costs. Research limitations/implications Due to the lack of availability of data about private firms, many factors are not directly observable. The analysis uses accounting-based performance measures that may be subject to managerial discretion. Nevertheless, the authors report highly significant results using cash-based performance measures that substantiate the overall findings. Practical implications The results of the present study point to the need for private firms to increase board gender diversity and consider women director busyness, age, nationality and firm size when making board director appointments. Originality/value This study adds to the scarce existent literature investigating private firms. The results contribute to the understanding of gender-diverse boards as well as the attributes of women directors that enhance private firm performance.

This paper develops an agency theory based conceptual framework to investigate the interconnections among corporate finance policies, subsidies and R&D investment. We empirically test our predictions using a sample of listed high‐tech firms from China during 2007–2015. Our baseline results support a positive subsidies‐R&D relationship. Subsequent tests using non‐linear models further point out that this relationship is inverted U‐shaped. In line with our conceptual framework, we show that the marginal effect of subsidies is diminishing and turns negative particularly among firms with higher dividend payout, lower investment efficiency, and lesser cashflow constraints. These findings ascertain the importance of internal corporate governance structure in facilitating regulatory policy implementation and effectiveness.