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The purpose of the study was to explore the attitude of faculty members and students of two open universities – Bangladesh Open University (BOU) and Universitas Terbuka (UT) (Open University of Indonesia) towards entrepreneurship development courses of massive open online courses (MOOCs).

The mixed-method research design was employed for this study. A self-structured survey questionnaire and focus group discussions (FGDs) were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data. A total of 66 faculty members and 149 tertiary level students of BOU and UT were selected as respondents. These respondents were selected using purposive sampling techniques. Data were analysed using quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques.

The findings revealed that both universities' faculty members and students possessed a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship development courses of MOOCs (EDCM). However, this positive attitude of both groups was significantly different.

The policy recommendations could provide a strategic approach to developing various types of courses within the MOOC, which are attractive as a means of developing entrepreneurship in Bangladesh and Indonesia. It also aggressively promotes EDCM for the academic community in particular and society, in general, to elaborate on their entrepreneurial spirit. Nevertheless, before introducing MOOCs, an empirical study regarding MOOCs readiness is essential for both universities.

This study attempts to recognize the effects of the Pakistan–China free trade agreements (PCFTA) on promoting trade between the two economies.

Following the concept of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and free trade agreements, the study first identifies those commodities in which Pakistan and China have a robust RCA and then analyze the effect of PCFTA on the export value of those commodities for the bilateral trade between Pakistan and China. The study used the panel data in which more than the top 150 importers (j) have been selected for each case of Pakistan and China for the period of 2003–2015.

The study concludes that even with the higher convergence rate, the good RCA does not guarantee a positive effect of the free trade agreement on the commodities.

The study contributes to the existing literature by integrating RCA with the gravity model by adopting a sequential mode for Pakistan–China free trade agreement.

The study performs an empirical test to assess the impact of the Pakistan-China Free trade agreement (FTA) on Pakistan, China, and the World's exports under homogenous and differentiated products. This study employs the modeling with Poisson specification with Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood method for the estimations. The results of empirical test show that the effect of FTA on the FTA and Non-FTA countries is greater in the differentiated product as compared to the homogenous product. Therefore, one of the most important policy implications provided by this study is that export enterprises need to concentrate on differentiated products as compare to the homogenous products after the implementation of the Pakistan-China FTA. Moreover, the previous literature concluded that Pakistan-China FTA was more beneficial for China as compared to Pakistan. However, according to this study, if Pakistani enterprises focus more on differentiated products as compared to homogenous products, then it will be equally beneficial for both Chinese and Pakistani enterprises. This study will contribute to the literature by considering the Bertrand competition between asymmetric countries and find out the effect of the FTA on these three countries. It considers China, Pakistan, and the Rest of the World as first, second, and third countries.

This study aims to comparatively analyze the systematic, idiosyncratic and downside risk exposure of both Islamic and conventional funds in Pakistan to see which of the funds has higher risk exposure.

The study analyzes different types of risks involved in both Islamic and conventional funds for the period from 2009 to 2016 by using different risk measures. For systematic and idiosyncratic risk single factor CAPM and multifactor models such as Fama French three factors model and Carhart four factors model are used. For downside risk analysis different measures such as downside beta, relative beta, value at risk and expected short fall are used.

The study finds that Islamic funds have lower risk exposure (including total, systematic, idiosyncratic and downside risk) compared with their conventional counterparts in most of the sample years, and hence, making them appear more attractive for investment especially for Sharīʿah-compliant investors preferring low risk preferences.

As this study shows, Islamic mutual funds exhibit lower risk exposure than their conventional counterparts so investors with lower risk preferences can invest in these kinds of funds. In this way, this research provides the input to the individual investors (especially Sharīʿah-compliant investors who want to avoid interest based investment) to help them with their investment decisions as they can make a more diversified portfolio by considering Islamic funds as a mean for reducing the risk exposure.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first attempt at world level in looking at the comparative risk analysis of various types of the risks as follows: systematic, idiosyncratic and downside risk, for both Islamic and conventional funds, and thus, provides significant contribution in the literature of mutual funds.

Leaders have been facing serious challenges in managing organizations during COVID-19, which has brought the need for implementing sudden technological change across the globe. Hence, it was important to identify effective leadership styles to successfully manage the transformational process during the period. Therefore, the current study aims to explore and compare the effectiveness of transformational and ethical leadership (EL) in terms of achieving organizational goals during COVID-19 in public and private sector organizations in Pakistan.

Comparative research was carried out to find out the effectiveness of transformational and EL during and pre-COVID-19 in public and private sector organizations using the lens of social exchange theory. Data was collected from 214 respondents representing 67.6% of public and 32.4% of private sector organizations of Pakistan at two different points in time. Detailed comparative analyses were conducted in AMOS version 24 to assess the effectiveness of leadership styles before and during COVID-19 times.

On the whole, transformational leadership (TL) was found to have a greater impact on organizational effectiveness (OE) in comparison with EL in both pre-and during COVID-19 situations. Moreover, the effectiveness of TL significantly increased and the same decreased for EL during COVID-19. Additional analyses indicated that TL was effective for the private sector and EL for public sector organizations during COVID-19.

The study has not considered the mediating mechanisms of employee motivation, engagement and performance in the relationship between transformational and EL styles and OE, which can be explored in the future.

These results have important implications for private and public sector organizations and suggest that the adoption of a TL style will generate better results in the private sector and an EL style in public sector organizations to achieve OE in uncertain situations such as COVID-19.

The study shows that leadership with more care and concern for humanity tends to perform better in terms of generating results for OE. Therefore, both transformational and EL are based on individualized consideration for employees and are effective during COVID-19 in private and public sector organizations in Pakistan.

The study has carried out the comparative analyses in three different ways, including leadership styles (transformational and ethical), type of organization (private and public) and time frames (pre and during COVID-19), which is a true contribution of the research in the Pakistani context.

This paper aims to discuss the application of waqf (endowment) in the social finance sector for funding social and development projects and services.

The study is qualitative. It reviews literature and provides descriptive data to present its main idea.

Most Muslim-majority countries are generally income-poor, and the governments are generally weak in their tax collection, effective governance and capacity for development spending. Private sector financial institutions are scarce and mostly cater to the people who can meet the income-based lending criteria. Thus, the institution of waqf can fill the gap as a social finance institution by providing intermediation services for effectively utilising perpetual social savings. Flexibility in the rules of waqf enables it to serve beneficiaries directly or through financial institutions and to provide a wide range of social services.

This conceptual research highlights the need and potential of waqf without discussing the regulatory and operational details of how to effectively institutionalize it in different regions.

The institution of waqf can harness the potential of selfless charitable giving in an effective way for better economic impact in the targeted social segments of society.

The paper suggests the establishment of waqf-based training and vocational centres which will increase opportunities of self-employment and contribute in upward social mobility of beneficiaries.

Based on the service eco-systems perspective, this paper evaluates the strategies and actions adopted by the Government of Pakistan to handle the COVID-19 crisis with the involvement of multiple actors including public, private, third-sector organizations and civil society.

The paper is based on an in-depth analysis of secondary sources including research articles, policy documents, policy briefs, governmental reports, third party evaluations/reports and media publications.

A multi-stakeholder approach was evident during the pandemic with an effort to better manage the crisis which has exerted immense social, cultural, economic and political impacts on the lives of the citizens. Collaborative efforts among stakeholders (government, private and third sector) were witnessed, resulting in a coherent response. The successful management of COVID-19 in Pakistan is attributed to multiple factors including the formation of a specialized public organization which effectively and proactively took data-driven informed decisions and aggregated the efforts of the federal and provincial governments for a timely response.

This paper gives insights for policymakers to create a sustainable post-pandemic socio-economic environment by building resilient structures across the government while promoting cooperation and collaboration. It suggests strategies for policymakers responsible for providing sustainable societal solutions to combat the social, economic and administrative challenges under the pandemic. As Pakistan has managed and contained the pandemic in a relatively efficient way, it is hoped that this paper can provide a learning experience for other countries with similar national contexts.

This study aims to examine the negative effects of excessive product packaging (EPP), greenwashing and green confusion on green brand equity (GBE). Furthermore, the moderating role of brand credibility in mitigating the negative effects of green marketing was investigated.

A within-subject experiment was conducted to evaluate excessive versus minimal product packaging to test the proposed hypotheses. Data analysis was performed with SmartPLS 3.3.3, which analyzed data from 206 consumers.

The results showed that EPP positively predicts greenwashing and green confusion. However, greenwashing has a negative impact on GBE. Brand credibility was also discovered to moderate the negative relationship between greenwashing and GBE, thereby reducing the negative effect of greenwashing.

The findings imply that marketing managers should understand the consumers’ concerns for the environment, making product and brand strategies that promote environmental protection and sustainability.

This study contributes to the green marketing literature by empirically validating the positive impacts of EPP on greenwashing and green confusion, as well as the negative influence of greenwashing on GBE. Furthermore, it reveals how brand credibility can reduce the harmful effects of greenwashing on GBE.

Examinamos los efectos negativos del embalaje excesivo de los productos, el “greenwashing” y la confusión verde sobre el valor de la marca verde. Además, se investigó el papel moderador de la credibilidad de la marca para mitigar los efectos negativos del marketing ecológico.

Se llevó a cabo un experimento intra-sujeto para evaluar el embalaje excesivo de los productos frente al mínimo envase posible, con el fin de comprobar las hipótesis propuestas. El análisis de los datos se realizó con SmartPLS 3.3.3, con una muestra de 206 consumidores.

Los resultados mostraron que el embalaje excesivo de los productos predice positivamente el greenwashing y la confusión ecológica. Sin embargo, el greenwashing tiene un impacto negativo en el valor de la marca verde. También se descubrió que la credibilidad de la marca modera la relación negativa entre el greenwashing y el valor de la marca verde, reduciendo así el efecto negativo del greenwashing.

Las conclusiones implican que los directores de marketing deben comprender las preocupaciones de los consumidores por el medio ambiente, elaborando estrategias de producto y de marca que promuevan la protección del medio ambiente y la sostenibilidad.

Este estudio contribuye a la bibliografía sobre el marketing ecológico al validar empíricamente los efectos positivos del embalaje excesivo de los productos sobre el greenwashing y la confusión ecológica, así como la influencia negativa del greenwashing sobre el valor de la marca ecológica. Además, revela cómo la credibilidad de la marca puede reducir los efectos perjudiciales del greenwashing sobre el valor de la marca verde.

我们研究了产品过度包装、洗绿和绿色混淆对绿色品牌资产的负面影响。此外, 我们还研究了品牌信誉在减轻绿色营销负面影响中的调节作用。

我们进行了一项受试者内实验, 以评估产品过度包装和最小包装, 从而检验所提出的假设。用SmartPLS 3.3.3进行数据分析, 该软件分析了206来自名消费者的数据。

结果显示, 过度的产品包装正向预测了洗绿和绿色混淆。然而, 洗绿对绿色品牌资产有负面的影响。品牌信誉也被发现可以调节洗绿和绿色品牌资产之间的负面关系, 从而减少洗绿的负面影响。

研究结果表明, 营销经理应该了解消费者对环境的关注, 制定促进环境保护和可持续发展的的产品和品牌战略。

本研究通过实证验证产品过度包装对洗绿和绿色混淆的积极影响, 以及洗绿对绿色品牌资产的负面影响, 为绿色营销文献做出了贡献。此外, 它还揭示了品牌信誉如何减少洗绿对绿色品牌资产的有害影响。

绿色营销, 洗绿, 绿色混淆, 品牌资产, 品牌信誉, 以及产品过度包装

文章类型： 研究型论文

The purpose of this research is to explore the dynamics of using strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices in the public sector. More specifically, this paper tries to point out some main aspects of SHRM, which strongly influence the decision of employees to stay. The empirical study here tends to reveal greater insights into the SHRM-retention relationship and its validation at the National Bank of Egypt (NBE).

This research is co-relational in nature with cause and effect approach. The design of the study is both descriptive in the theoretical part and quantitative in the applied one. Theoretically, this paper adopted the analytical approach to define the main concepts, aside from an empirical study to investigate correlations in practice.

This paper concludes that the employment of best HRM practices is deemed a remarkable strategic tool in the retention of core public employees. Also, the results of analysis provide evidence that SHRM contributes to employee retention at NBE.

The findings and recommendations of this research can practically guide management to devise effective policies to improve employee retention using appropriate SHRM activities, particularly in the Egyptian public organizations.

This research has valuable implications for both theory and practice, as it offers several contributions to literature in the field of study, as well as the practical contribution.