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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread disruptions to global industries, with the textile sector in South Asia being particularly hard hit. While previous studies have focused on the performance of textile sectors in individual countries, there is a gap in the literature on the comparative impact of the pandemic on the textile industry in South Asian nations. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the performance of the textile sector in South Asian countries and identifying best practices for overcoming the pandemic’s adverse effects.

Using a comparative approach, this study analyzes the impact of COVID-19 on the performance of the textile sector in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

Our findings reveal that COVID-19 significantly negatively impacts the textile industry in Pakistan and India. However, Bangladesh has shown effective practices to support the textile industry and mitigate the pandemic’s adverse effects.

The findings of this study hold considerable implications for legislators, leaders, investors and supply chain management professionals operating within the South Asian textile sector. This research has the potential to inform policymakers in formulating strategies to facilitate the textile sector’s resilience during emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper provides significant theoretical additions to the current body of literature regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the textile sector in South Asia. The research uses the global value chain (GVC) theory as a theoretical framework to enhance understanding of the impact of global supply chains and interdependencies on the textile sector in the region.

The study aims to address the critical area of training and development within private educational small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan. It seeks to develop and standardize training and development process in private sector educational SMEs and establish a structured approach to training with the purpose of unlocking the full potential of the workforce, advancing educators’ professional growth and propelling organizational progress.

This study employs a meticulous three-phase approach. It begins with insightful interviews with school principals to investigate existing training practices. The subsequent phase involves formulating a comprehensive training and development policy, outlining purpose, scope, responsibilities, procedures and budget allocation. This policy undergoes participatory refinement to cater to specific SME needs. In the third phase, experimental design was adopted. Two groups, the experiment group and the control group, were formulated to check the effectiveness of proposed processes.

Rigorous statistical analysis, employing paired sample t-tests, unequivocally demonstrates a significant elevation in mean scores post-implementation of standardized training and development process. These findings affirm the efficacy of the policy in enhancing the effectiveness of training and development activities in private sector educational SMEs.

The research highlights profound implications. By establishing a structured approach to training and development, educational SMEs can not only advance educators’ professional growth but also propel organizational progress and enhance education quality. It will provide a structured and step-by-step process to boost the work quality of staff. The study emphasizes the need for consistent implementation.

This research marks a substantial stride in revolutionizing how human capital is cultivated in private sector educational SMEs. It positions them to exert a transformative impact on Pakistan’s educational landscape, furthering the journey toward excellence. The study suggests avenues for future research, including the adaptation of this model to diverse educational contexts and an assessment of its scalability.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and validate the process of parent teacher meeting in private schools through applying BPM life-cycle approach and using quality tools to fill the gap of standardized practices for parent teacher meeting (PTM).

BPM life-cycle approach (Dumas et al., 2013) was used and two focus groups were conducted at first and second stage. The recommendations of previous studies for third, fourth and fifth stage of BPM and quality tools like SIPOC chart, responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) and CTQ trees were used for process management.

The previous studies reveal that, in developing countries, most of the private schools are not fully aware from the benefits of PTM. Beside, where the evidence of PTM is seen in few instances, no standardized process is available to conduct an effective PTM process. Owing to long-term sustainability and reciprocate economic benefits, school management is desired to have a standardized PTM process for an effective all-round performance. Likewise, the parents have a lot of expectations from schools and they want to be treated in a mannered way in which their complaints are formally addressed from the school management. The authors formulated all three phases from start to end process. The proposed process is validated in four private schools and got satisfactory results in terms of increased parents’ participation and decreased number of complaints.

This process will facilitate school managers to deal with parents effectively, collect the data from PTM, analyze it and use for the continuous improvement. Implementation of this process will ensure better meeting environment for the parents as well as for the teachers. The study bridges between quality management tools and BPM approach to improve the state of art of BPM practices that will lead to generate a trend of application of quality tools and management theories in private schooling industry.

The authors first time used BPM life-cycle approach to manage the process of PTM in private schools. The authors design a process to match the working of schools and the application of desired quality tools.

There will probably be nine billion people on the earth by 2050, meaning food consumption will rise dramatically. Pakistan, the fifth most populous nation in the world, is rapidly expanding its population, making it difficult for the nation to sustain its food supply. Unfortunately, the country's focus on ensuring food security has not kept up with the demographic shifts in its population. However, innovative solutions are sorely needed in the face of several worldwide problems, especially in the crucial agriculture sector. This underscores the need to integrate sustainable financial practices. Considering these circumstances, this research thoroughly examines the intricate relationship inside Pakistan between financial stability (FS), agricultural subsidies, and productivity. Acknowledging the underlying intricacies and asymmetries at work, this study aims to analyze the complex relationships influencing the nation's agricultural production.

The research tries to shed light on the subtle processes at the intersection of financial stability, agricultural subsidies, and agricultural productivity through a comprehensive investigation of these multiple challenges. A non-linear autoregressive distributive lag (NARDL) technique is used, using a dataset from 1980 to 2022.

The results show that FS has a mixed impact on agricultural productivity, both positive and negative. Increasing FS_POS has a beneficial influence on agricultural output, linked to a notable 1.404% increase in output. On the other hand, increasing FS_NEG causes a significant 11.441% decrease in agricultural output, demonstrating its negative impact on output. Subsidies for agriculture also have asymmetric impacts; SUB_POS and SUB_NEG influence variations in agricultural productivity. A substantial 2.414% rise in agricultural output is shown by SUB_POS, demonstrating its noteworthy beneficial influence. Conversely, SUB_NEG adds a relatively small increase of 1.659% in agricultural output. However, the different amounts of each person's contribution show how subtle their effects are.

The current study is limited to the relationship between financial stability, agricultural subsidies, and agricultural productivity, considering the inherent complexity and asymmetries at work in Pakistan only. Further studies are required in Asian markets to have a bigger picture of the agricultural sector.

Considering these critical empirical findings, the report recommends strategic strategies to promote long-term agricultural growth in Pakistan. These include providing integrated financial services customized to farmers' needs, such as credit, insurance, and savings alternatives. Transparency and efficiency in procedural frameworks and the formation of efficient public-private partnerships should be prioritized. Furthermore, improving agricultural subsidy schemes emerges as a crucial priority. Targeting marginalized farmers more effectively and optimizing distribution through transparent, digitally driven systems can significantly improve program performance.

Recently, a shift regarding the negative consequences of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) has put them forward as employees’ negative aspects carrying dangerous consequences for organizations. Considering this issue’s seriousness, the purpose of this paper is to examine the process through which compulsory citizenship behavior fosters citizenship fatigue.

A total of 370 nurses working in Pakistani public-sector hospitals were this study’s final data set sample using SmartPLS4.

Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) results revealed that when employees are compelled to engage in extra-role actions, they frequently experience work-life conflict, which results in citizenship fatigue. The higher the employee’s age and the lower the education level, the lower his/her citizenship fatigue. On the other hand, findings revealed that workaholic personality aspects tend to reduce the strength of the relationship between work-life conflict and citizenship fatigue.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to examine the recently emerged concept of citizenship fatigue among health-care professionals through conservation of resources theory. Besides, this research will highlight how the demand for voluntary actions in routine or forced citizenship behavior can become the reason for work–family conflict and ultimately create citizenship fatigue. Additionally, this paper presents the novel concept of workaholic personality and how it can play a positive role in the linkage between work–family conflict and citizenship fatigue.

Drawing on ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) framework, this study investigates the direct effect of innovation-oriented HRM on SMEs’ innovation performance, both directly and through intrapreneurial behavior. Besides, the study assesses the moderating role of innovation-oriented leadership in the relationship between innovation-oriented HRM and intrapreneurial behavior.

A two-wave dataset collected from 183 SMEs was used to test the proposed hypotheses by partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

Findings suggest that innovation-oriented HRM positively impacts SMEs’ innovation performance directly and through intrapreneurial behavior. Evidence also confirms that innovation-oriented leadership positively moderates the effect of innovation-oriented HRM on intrapreneurial behavior.

Through the AMO framework, this study advances our understanding of how the interaction between innovation-oriented HRM and leadership fosters intrapreneurial behavior, ultimately contributing to superior innovation performance in SMEs.

The study recommends that SMEs implement innovation-oriented HRM practices to encourage intrapreneurial behavior and achieve superior innovation performance in SMEs.

Limited research has addressed the contributions of innovation-oriented HRM and leadership toward realizing strategic innovation objectives. Our study offers valuable insights into the functions of innovation-oriented HRM and leadership in stimulating intrapreneurial behavior, thereby enhancing the innovation performance of SMEs.

Research on training and/or L&D effectiveness is predominantly conducted in a traditional L&D context. Little research is conducted on training and/or L&D in the context of artificial intelligence (AI)-based learning. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between the adoption of AI-based learning systems and learners’ behavior. Drawing from the theory of planned behavior, the research examines the impact of attitude (ATT), subjective norm (SN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC) as AI-based learning intention (ALI) factors relate to changes in learners' behavior. Additionally, inspired by the self-determination theory by Deci and Ryan, the study further examines the mediating role of learner engagement between ALI and behavioral change.

Following a theoretical framework and using a systematic literature review method, the survey research has been planned by considering a sample from Indian industries. The collected data have been analyzed using SPSS-AMOS 27. While path analysis has been conducted to analyze the direct impact of ALI on learners' behavior, Hay’s PROCESS macro has been used to check the mediating impact of learner engagement between ALI and learners' behavior.

The results proved a significant and positive impact of all ALI factors such as ATT, SN and PBC on learners’ behavioral change. Further, the research found that learning engagement (LE) successfully mediates between AI learning intention and behavioral change.

In the absence of any empirical study in identifying the relationship among learning intention, LE and behavioral outcome, the result of this study may provide useful insights to researchers and practitioners.

This study aims to dissect and understand the latent themes of Islamic work ethic (IWE) and explore the driving factors of IWE research.

Structural topic modeling (STM), a sophisticated machine learning technique, was used to analyze a corpus of 205 articles sourced from the Scopus database. These articles cover the 36 years of research on IWE, from 1988 to 2024. Moreover, negative binomial regression was applied to examine the driving factors of IWE research.

The STM analysis unfolds ten topics in conjunction with IWE including individual success, workplace dynamics, organizational work ethics, knowledge management, employee citizenship behavior, financial ethics, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, performance enhancement and leadership. The further STM outputs included word clouds, prevalence proportions, correlation matrix, heatmap, relationship of topics with metadata, topic prominence in the publishing journals and, finally, illustrating trends and future prospects of research on IWE. The results of negative binomial regression reveal that number of authors, article age, journal indexing, authors from multiple countries and number of references are strong drivers of fostering research in IWE, by having significant positive impacts on total citations.

The insights from this study provide valuable guidance for businesses and organizations looking to integrate IWE principles into their operations. By promoting values such as fairness, hard work and ethical behavior, organizations can foster a more inclusive and morally grounded workplace culture. This, in turn, may lead to enhanced employee satisfaction, greater organizational commitment and improved overall performance. Additionally, the emphasis on ethical practices can contribute to broader societal benefits, such as increased trust in business practices and a stronger alignment with social responsibility initiatives.

This is a unique study that explores the latent themes and characteristics of the IWE literature through STM and provides insights on the future research directions. In addition, this study also examines the driving factors of IWE research.

This paper aims to understand how firms promote innovation under disruptive technology by exploring the role of trust and risk-taking behaviour in enhancing product development towards competitive advantage.

This study proposes a structural equation model that entails seven hypotheses for the constructs and their relationship with support from the previous literature. The empirical analysis involves a survey of the 390 small firms in Indonesia to generate four scenarios following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The evidence indicates that trust allows the firms to take a risk for new product development, which is, in turn, help to achieve their competitive advantage. However, the impact of product development on competitive advantage varies depending on the capability of the firms to deal with the information technological turbulence.

This study adopted the concept of trust at the organisational level and did not cover the concept of trust at the family and community levels. Secondly, this study focusses on small and medium-sized enterprises as unit analysis during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results depend on the subject of study, which could be different from the normal condition.

This study provides four scenarios of foresight innovation strategy, which allow the firms to deal with various plausible futures. The proposed model devise strategies to prepare a strategy in the face of uncertainty. The findings encourage the firms to cultivate trust from their business partners to create innovation.

This study extends the discussion on how innovativeness leads to firm competitive advantage by examining the role of trust and risk-taking behaviour in product development under information technological turbulence. The results confirm the integration between social capital theory and the contingency approach.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of political connections on earnings quality by simultaneously controlling the firm characteristics; to test whether Pakistani firms’ ownership, specifically family ownership, plays a significant role in political connections–earnings quality association; to draw a conclusion about the agency theory in the context of Pakistan.

A quantitative approach was used to examine the influence of political connections and family ownership on the earnings quality of listed firms in Pakistan. The study uses historical data from 238 active non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange during the period of 2009-2015. The final data set comprises more than 1,600 firm-year observations from ten major non-financial industry classifications. To enhance the robustness of the empirical relationship, the study used several proxies of earnings quality in conjunction with robust regression methods and diagnostic checks.

The present study’s findings are consistent with the findings of the studies on agency theory previous literature, where politically connected firms have significantly lower earnings quality as compared to non-connected firms. The results also indicate that family firms have superior earnings quality than non-family–controlled firms. Furthermore, family ownership moderates the negative influence of political connections on earnings quality. This implies that family ownership diminishes the costs of political connections and improves the earnings quality of the firm.

This study is different from previous research in three respects. First, it examines whether family ownership concentration has a moderating influence on the relationship between political connections and earnings quality. Second, it uses a robust methodology and extensive data set to examine the influence of political connections and family ownership concentration on earnings quality. Further, this study is the first to analyze the nexus between financial reporting quality and the political business environment in the context of Pakistan.