Assoc. Prof. Dr Sitara Karim

Associate Professor

 Department of Economics & Finance
Sunway Business School (SBS)
[email protected]

Dr. Sitara Karim is an Associate Professor of Finance/ FinTech at Sunway Business School, Sunway University, Malaysia. She obtained her Ph.D. in Finance and Banking from the Northern University of Malaysia. She is performing her tasks in research and publications, and teaching and excellence quite diligently. She is serving as Associate Editor of the International Review of Economics and Finance (SCOPUS Q1; ABDC: A, ABS: 2, IF: 3.393). She is also Guest Editing a Special Issue in Energy Economics (ABDC: A, ABS: 3*, IF: 9.252, SCOPUS: Q1). She is supervising several Ph.D. and Master research students and inspiring other early research careers. She is a fellow of Center for Market Education Malaysia. She has remained Distinguished Speaker at various International Conferences, Workshops, and Events. She is European Marketing and Management Association Women's Forum Member. She is an active and keen researcher with dynamic teaching and research experience of corporate finance and its allied areas. Along with her role as Guest Editor, she is serving as an Editorial Advisory Board Member of Heliyon (Business and Economics) and Review of International Business and Strategy. She is currently AEIC Annual Academic Committee Member and an expert reviewer at AI Scholar. She is a dynamic research scholar who readily delves into the new trends and challenges related to financial economics, cryptocurrencies, financial markets, green finance, artificial intelligence, financial technologies, sustainable corporate governance, women in corporate boardrooms, board ethnicity, etc. She is having more than 9 years of teaching and 12 years of research experience. She is a Gold Medalist in MBA Program. She has several top-ranked publications ranging from SCIE, SSCI, WoS, and SCOPUS. 

  1. Ph.D. Finance and Banking (Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia, 2018-2020) 
  2. M.Phil Finance/Business Administration (Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan, 2011-2015) 
  3. Bachelor of Arts (Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan, 2009-2011) 

  1. Finance 
  2. Financial Economics 
  3. FinTech 
  4. Sustainable Finance 
  5. International Finance  

  1. Investment Management 
  2. Financial Risk Management 
  3. Business Ethics and CSR 
  4. Business Research Methods 
  5. Advance Research Methods 
  6. Fundamentals of Financial Management 
  7. Principles of Corporate Finance 
  8. FinTech and Cryptocurrencies 
  9. International Finance 
  10. Finance in the Global Markets 

  1. Financial Economics  
  2. Cryptocurrencies 
  3. Financial Markets  
  4. Green Finance 
  5. Financial Technologies 
  6. Sustainable Corporate Governance  
  7. Women in Corporate Boardrooms 
  8. Board Ethnicity 
  9. Sustainable Finance 
  10. Risk and Return 

  1. Sehrish, S., Naeem, M. A., Karim, S., Yarovaya, L. (2023). Gender & Mutual Fund Liquidity. British Journal of Management. (In Press). 
  2. Naeem, M. A., Karim, S., Yarovaya, L. & Lucey, B. M. (2023). Systematic risk contagion of green and Islamic markets with conventional markets. Annals of Operations Research. 
  3. Appiah, M., Li, M., Naeem, M. A., & Karim, S. (2023). Greening the globe: Uncovering the impact of environmental policy, renewable energy, and innovation on ecological footprint. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 192, 122561. 
  4. Karim, S., Naeem, M. A., Shafiullah, M., Lucey, B. M., & Ashraf, S. (2023). Asymmetric relationship between Climate Policy Uncertainty and Energy Metals: Evidence from Cross-Quantilogram. Finance Research Letters, 103728. 
  5. Siddique, M. A., Nobanee, H., Karim, S., & Naz, F. (2023). Do green financial markets offset the risk of cryptocurrencies and carbon markets?. International Review of Economics & Finance. 
  6. Naeem, M. A., Anwer, Z., Karim, S., & Tiwari, A. K. (2023). Are Exchange Rate Contagions Asymmetric? Evidence from Emerging Market Economies. Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, 1-18. 
  7. Farid, S., Karim, S., Naeem, M. A., Nepal, R., & Jamasb, T. (2023). Co-movement between dirty and clean energy: A time-frequency perspective. Energy Economics, 106565. 
  8. Rehman, M. A., Irfan, M., Naeem, M. A., Lucey, B. M., & Karim, S. (2023). Macro-Financial Implications of Central Bank Digital Currencies. Research in International Business and Finance, 101892. 
  9. Naeem, M.A., Iqbal, N., Lucey, B. M. & Karim, S. (2022). Good versus bad information transmission in the cryptocurrency market: Evidence from high-frequency data. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institution, and Money. (IF: 4.217) 
  10. Naeem, M.A., Appiah, M., Karim, S., & Yarovaya, L. (2022). What abates environmental efficiency in African economies? Exploring the influence of infrastructure, industrialization, and innovation, Technological Forecasting and Social Change. (IF: 10.88) 
  11. Hadi, D. M., Karim, S., Naeem, M. A., & Lucey, B. M. (2022). Turkish Lira crisis and its impact on sector returns. Finance Research Letters, 103479. (9.596) 
  12. Naeem, M. A., Yousaf, I., Karim, S., Tiwari, A. K., & Farid, S. (2022). Comparing asymmetric price efficiency in regional ESG markets before and during COVID-19. Economic Modelling, 106095. (IF: 6.52) 
  13. Siddique, M. A., Nobanee, H., Karim, S., & Naz, F. (2022). Investigating the role of metal and commodity classes in overcoming resource destabilization. Resources Policy, 79, 103075. (IF: 6.52) 
  14. Benlagha, N., Karim, S., Naeem, M. A., Lucey, B. M., & Vigne, S. A. (2022). Risk connectedness between energy and stock markets: Evidence from oil importing and exporting countries. Energy Economics, 106348. (IF: 9.252) 
  15. Naeem, M. A., Yousaf, I., Karim, S., Yarovaya, L., Ali, S. (2022). Tail-event driven NETwork dependence in emerging markets. Emerging Markets Review. (IF: 4.352) 
  16. Karim, S., Vigne, S., Lucey, B. M., & Naeem, M. A. (2022). Discretionary impacts of the risk management committee attributes on firm performance: Do board size matter? International Journal of Emerging Markets. (IF: 2.525) 
  17. Naeem, M. A., Peng, Z., Bouri, E., Shahzad, S. J. H., & Karim, S. (2022). Examining the asymmetries between equity and commodity ETFs during COVID-19. Resources Policy, 103048. (IF: 6.52) 
  18. Karim, S., Naeem, M. A., & Abaji, E. E. (2022). Is Islamic FinTech coherent with Islamic banking? A stakeholder's perspective during COVID-19. Heliyon, 8(9), e10485. (IF: 3.120) 
  19. Naeem, M. A., Karim, S., & Tiwari, A. K. (2022). Risk Connectedness Between Green and Conventional Assets with Portfolio Implications. Computational Economics, 1-29. (IF: 1.470) 
  20. Naeem, M. A., Lucey, B. M., Karim, S., & Ghafoor, A. (2022). Do financial volatilities mitigate the risk of cryptocurrency indexes?. Finance Research Letters, 103206. (IF: 9.596) 
  21. Naz, F., Karim, S., Houcine, A., & Naeem, M. A. (2022). Fintech Growth during COVID-19 in MENA Region: Current Challenges and Future prospects. Electronic Commerce Research, 1-22. (IF: 4.320) 
  22. Karim, S., Naeem, M. A., Hu, M., Zhang, D., & Taghizadeh–Hesary, F. (2022). Determining dependence, centrality, and dynamic networks between green bonds and financial markets. Journal of Environmental Management, 318, 115618. (IF: 8.368) 
  23. Naeem, M. A., Karim, S., Uddin, G. S., & Junttila, J. (2022). Small fish in big ponds: Connections of green finance assets to commodity and sectoral stock markets. International Review of Financial Analysis, 83, 102283. (IF: 8.496) 
  24. Naeem, M. A., Karim, S., Farid, S., & Tiwari, A. K. (2022). Comparing the asymmetric efficiency of dirty and clean energy markets pre and during COVID-19. Economic Analysis and Policy, 75, 548-562. (IF: 4.24) 
  25. Naeem, M. A., Karim, S., Rabbani, M. R., Nepal, R., & Uddin, G. S. (2022). Market integration in the Australian National Electricity Market: Fresh evidence from asymmetric time-frequency connectedness. Energy Economics, 112, 106144. (IF: 9.252) 
  26. Naeem, M. A., Karim, S., Hasan, M., Lucey, B. M., & Kang, S. H. (2022). Nexus between oil shocks and agriculture commodities: Evidence from time and frequency domain. Energy Economics, 112, 106148. (IF: 9.252) 
  27. Karim, S., Naz, F., Naeem, M. A., & Vigne, S. A. (2022). Is FinTech providing effective solutions to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in ASEAN countries?. Economic Analysis and Policy. (IF: 4.24) 
  28. Billah, M., Karim, S., Naeem, M. A., & Vigne, S. A. (2022). Return and volatility spillovers between energy and BRIC markets: Evidence from quantile connectedness. Research in International Business and Finance, 101680. (IF: 6.143) 
  29. Naeem, M. A., Karim, S., Rabbani, M. R., Bashar, A., & Kumar, S. (2022). Current state and future directions of green and sustainable finance: a bibliometric analysis. Qualitative Research in Financial Markets. 
  30. Hadi, D. M., Naeem, M. A., & Karim, S. (2022). Impact of COVID-19 on the Connectedness across Global Hospitality Stocks. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 103243. (IF: 9.237) 
  31. Karim, S. Naeem, M. A., & Lucey, B. M. (2022). Do ethics outpace sins? Finance Research Letters. (IF: 9.596) 
  32. Karim, S., Lucey, B. M., Naeem, M. A., & Vigne, S. A. (2022). The dark side of Bitcoin: Do Emerging Asian Islamic markets help subdue the ethical risk?. Emerging Markets Review, 100921. (IF: 4.359) 
  33. Appiah, M., Karim, S., Naeem, M. A., & Lucey, B. M. (2022). Do institutional affiliation affect the renewable energy-growth nexus in the Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from a multi-quantitative approach. Renewable Energy. (IF: 8.001) 
  34. Pham, L., Karim, S., Naeem, M. A., & Long, C. (2022). A tale of two tails among carbon prices, green and non-green cryptocurrencies. International Review of Financial Analysis, 82, 102139. (IF: 8.496) 
  35. Karim, S., Naeem, M. A., & Ismail, R. B. (2022). Re-configuring ownership structure, board characteristics and firm value nexus in Malaysia: the role of board gender and ethnic diversity. International Journal of Emerging Markets. (IF: 2.252) 
  36. Naeem, M. A., Karim, S., & Tiwari, A. K. (2021). Quantifying the systemic risk in US industries using neural network quantile regression. Research in International Business and Finance. (IF: 6.352) 
  37. Naeem, M. A., Pham, L., Senthilkumar, A., & Karim, S. (2022). Oil shocks and BRIC markets: Evidence from extreme quantile approach. Energy Economics, 108, 105932. (IF: 9.252) 
  38. Anwer, Z., Naeem, M. A., Hassan, M. K., & Karim, S. Asymmetric connectedness across Asia-Pacific currencies: evidence from time-frequency domain. Finance Research Letters. (IF: 9.596) 
  39. Karim, S., Lucey, B. M., Naeem, M. A., & Uddin, G. S. (2022). Examining the Interrelatedness of NFTs, DeFi Tokens and Cryptocurrencies. Finance Research Letters, 102696. (IF: 9.596) 
  40. Hadi, D. M., Naeem, M. A., & Karim, S. (2022). The exposure of the US tourism subsector stocks to global volatility and uncertainty factors. Current Issues in Tourism. (IF: 7.043) 
  41. Naeem, M. A. & Karim S. (2021). Tail dependence between bitcoin and green financial assets. Economics Letters, 208, 110068. (IF: 2.097) 

  1. Nominated for Lord Dearing Awards (University of Nottingham, Malaysia) 
  2. Nominated for Best Supervisor (Ph.D.) ILMA University, Karachi, Pakistan 
  3. Successfully defended Ph.D. dissertation on 5th March, 2020, Universiti Utara Malaysia. 
  4. Outstanding Lecturer and Supervisor Award by Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan 
  5. Gold Medalist in MBA Session 2011-2015. 

  1. Associate Editor: International Review of Economics and Finance 
  2. Guest Editor: Energy Economics 
  3. Editorial Advisory Board Member: Heliyon (Business and Economics) 
  4. Editorial Advisory Board Member: Review of International Business and Strategy  
  5. Elsevier Incorporation 
  6. Research Consultant, Abu Dhabi University, United Arab Emirates 
  7. Fellow, Center for Market Education (CME), Malaysia 
  8. European Marketing and Management Association (EUMMAS) Women’s Forum Member, Bosnia & Herzegovina