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Delay in histologically confirming rectal cancer may lead to late treatment as histological confirmation is required prior to chemo-radiotherapy or surgical intervention. Multidisciplinary colorectal meetings indicate that there are patients who require multiple tissue biopsy episodes prior to histologically confirming rectal cancer. The purpose of this paper is to examine a quality improvement (QI) measure’s impact on tissue biopsy process diagnostic yield.

The authors performed the study in two phases (pre- and post-QI), between February 2012 and April 2014 in a district general hospital. The QI measures were derived from process mapping a rectal cancer diagnostic pathway. The primary outcome was to assess the tissue biopsy process diagnostic yield. The secondary outcome included total breaches for a 62-day target in the pre- and post-QI study phases.

There was no significant difference in demographics or referral mode in both study phases. There were 81 patients in the pre-QI phase compared to 38 in the post-QI phase, 68 per cent and 74 per cent were referred via the two-week wait urgent pathway, respectively. Diagnostic tissue biopsy process yield improved from 58.1 to 77.6 per cent after implementing the QI measure (p=0.02). The 62-day target breach was reduced from 14.8 to 3.5 per cent (p=0.42).

Simple QI measures can achieve significant improvements in rectal cancer diagnostic tissue biopsy process yields. A multidisciplinary approach, involving process mapping and cause and effect modelling, proved useful tools.

A process mapping exercise and QI measures resulted in significant improvements in diagnostic yield, reducing the episodes per patient before histological diagnosis was confirmed.

This study aimed to know principals' intentions of implementing nutrition education (NE) and explore the challenges they may anticipate while implementing NE in their respective schools.

The study employed a sequential mixed-method design using a questionnaire and interviews to collect data. The quantitative data were collected from 378 secondary school principals, while 16 school principals were interviewed.

The study found principals with positive intentions towards implementing NE. The results also highlighted challenges related to capacity building, resources (both human and physical), policies and plans, roles, and responsibilities of the implementers (teachers and principals), support from higher authorities, community participation and teachers' unions. This study concludes that principals' intentions remain central to the implementation of NE in schools. However, it is necessary to overcome those challenges before its implementation.

The study sought to ascertain principals' intentions rather than their actual behaviour of NE implementation and hence remains limited in this area, which future research may consider. Furthermore, the research is limited to the principals' opinions on the anticipated challenges associated with NE implementation. The study did not solicit the opinions of other stakeholders, such as education managers, policymakers, teachers and communities.

The article is significant in terms of NE being implemented in schools to improve students' physical and academic wellbeing. The critical role of principals has been investigated by determining their intentions and the anticipated challenges associated with implementing NE. The authors declare the originality of the data.

The purpose of this paper is to get an insight into which form leadership either transactional leadership (TAL) or transformational leadership (TFL) is most effective in the educational sector of Pakistan and to determine the impact of each on the employee job satisfaction (EJS) and employee job performance (EJP). Given research site observation, appropriate leadership was essential to high-quality education in Pakistan.

Data are collected through a survey based on e-mail/interview from 189 employees working at private education institutes in Pakistan. Analysis methodology includes frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, paired samples t-test, Pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis.

Only management by exception (MBE) and idealized influence (II), inspirational motivation (IM), intellectual stimulation (IS) and individualized consideration (IC) had significant positive association with both EJS and EJP. MBE had a positive significant effect on both EJS and EJP, while contingent rewards had no significant relation with EJS and weak positive significant association with EJP. Furthermore, II, IM, IS and IC had a positive significant impact on EJS and EJP.

Respondents were from major private educational institutes in Islamabad and Lahore. The leadership style – TAL–TFL – was the sole variable to judge EJS/EJP. Multifaceted populations’ perspectives might enhance the attributes of TAL/TFL. This study might influence the authorities to adopt the right leadership style securing high-quality education system for both private and public education institutes in Pakistan.

The study filled the gap in the educational sector of Pakistan, where research works into leadership styles-satisfaction-performance links were few and far between.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of green intellectual capital in fostering societal sustainability. Also, this study investigated how co-creational customer capital mediates the relationship between green intellectual capital and societal sustainability. The paper draws attention to co-creating customer capital and understanding its impact on societal sustainability in high-contact service startups.

Data were collected from responses from 376 high-contact service startup firms headquartered in the Indian subcontinent, particularly emerging markets. The proposed conceptual model was analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach. The analysis is based on primary data obtained from strategic-level employees.

The results highlight the impact of co-creational customer capital in the Green Intellectual Capital – Societal Sustainability (GICS) model. Green intellectual capital components significantly influence societal sustainability outcomes in the existence of co-created customer values. It establishes customer capital as an essential factor that mediates the relationship between green intellectual capital and societal sustainability.

This research provides conceptualization and subsequent investigation of customer value creation in service-led startups. The construct co-creation is more appropriate for the service industry in common.

This paper establishes co-created customer capital as an enabler in transforming underlying components of green intellectual capital into societal sustainability measures. Firms may generate higher customer value by pooling green human and relational capital along with active customer response and shared knowledge. This creates an organizational asset termed co-created customer capital specific to service industries.

The article proposes a novel way to analyze customer value in service organizations. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has looked at how co-creational customer capital could act as a mediator between green intellectual capital and societal sustainability in the service industry context, particularly for SMEs and startups from emerging economies. Co-created customer capital may be used as an instrument to overcome managerial challenges in the context of transforming green intellectual capital into societal capital.

English is the language of global communication, worldwide mobility, job progress, and access to new information and research. Given the numerous roles that English plays in today's society, higher education institutes (HEIs) all over the world are pursuing English-medium education. For Pakistan, however, English-medium education is a colonial legacy rather than a deliberate choice. Research suggests that English-medium education is not devoid of controversy in higher education in Pakistan; nonetheless, students have to seek English-medium education in universities to compete with the world. In fact, being committed to SDG 4.7 Education for sustainable development and global citizenship, Pakistan is supposed to educate its citizens to become global citizens, for which English-medium education is essential. Given the fact that each of the five provinces of Pakistan has a distinct culture and sub-cultures, it is important to see how Pakistani students’ attitudes to English-medium education to become global citizens are different based on their cultural identities. Therefore, the present study aims to analyze undergraduates’ attitudes toward English-medium education based on their cultural identities to become global citizens.

Under the quantitative research paradigm, the present research adopted a comparative design. One hundred and fifty undergraduates participated in the study. The data were collected using a 15-item questionnaire on a 5-point Likert scale, and it was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 27.0.

The results of the study revealed that participants regardless of their cultural identities have positive attitudes towards English-medium education as they believe it to be a source of career development, and improvement of their language, communication, and interpersonal skills. The participants also did not see English-medium education posing any threat to traditional culture and local languages. The findings of the present study also revealed that there is no statistical difference across the different categories of cultural identity.

The findings of the present study regarding students’ attitudes toward English-medium education will have implications for policymakers and university administration. Since cultural identity does not hinder acceptance of English-medium education, students’ positive attitudes can help policymakers promote multilingualism and English-medium education for career development. However, high-quality English language programs are crucial for maximizing the benefits. Likewise, positive attitudes of students towards English-medium education in Pakistan suggest students’ openness to intercultural dialogue. Therefore, university administration can further enhance student exchange programs for transnational research and development. Likewise, the study implies that cultural identity may not hinder English-medium education implementation in developing countries provided that practical benefits like career advancement and communication skill are emphasized.

The study is unique in the sense that it analyses undergraduates’ attitudes towards English-medium education concerning students’ cultural identities and global citizenship which have not been studied previously.

This study aims to investigate the effects of incorporating seaweed composite flour on soft roll dough rheological characteristics and quality.

In this study, wheat flour was substituted with seaweed powder obtained from red seaweed (Kappaphycus alvarezii) at varying proportions (100:0; 99:1; 98:2; 97:3; 96:4; 95:5, 94:6, 93:7 and 92:8) and applied in soft roll production. The effects of seaweed composite flour were evaluated in terms of rheological characteristics, proximate composition and physical properties. The sensory characteristics of the soft rolls was evaluated by 40 untrained panellists by using a hedonic scale.

Farinograph analysis of the soft roll doughs showed that the incorporation of seaweed powder promoted an increase in water absorption, development time and mixing tolerance index, whereas it decreased stability time. Analysis of the proximate composition of the soft rolls showed that protein and carbohydrate contents decreased, but moisture, ash and crude fibre contents substantially increased. Dietary fibre increased with the increase in the proportion of seaweed powder added. The specific volume, bulk density and firmness of the soft rolls ranged from 3.01 to 5.48 cm³/g, 0.18 to 0.33 g/cm³ and 1.86 to 20.63 N, respectively. Sensory evaluation results showed that the mean score of sensory attributes decreased as the proportion of seaweed powder added was increased in the formulations. With regard to the overall acceptability, the panellists preferred the soft rolls with the least amount of seaweed powder added. The results of hedonic tests revealed that the panellists' acceptance decreased as higher amounts seaweed powder were added in the formulations.

This study showed that the seaweed powder of K. alvarezii can be utilised as an ingredient to improve the nutrient composition of baked products.

The main objective of this paper is to highlight the unprecedented growth of Islamic banking and finance in the contemporary finance world. It captures the advancements of Islamic banking and finance industry across the tools, systems, sectors, markets and over 75 countries from Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

The paper deals with the paradigm of Islamic banking and finance. It constitutes a general review that bears special features, facts and figures over the recent developments of Islamic banking and finance across the globe. It takes stock of the growing institutional and infrastructure support for the Islamic banking and finance system in Muslim countries and Western financial markets.

The findings of the paper hold that Islamic banking and finance industry has been making breakthrough improvements to become a truly viable and competitive alternative to conventional systems at the global level. Islamic banking and finance institutions have acquired booming grounds in the Middle East, South East and South East Asia. These growing Islamic hubs have been acting as a launching pad to promote Islamic banking in Western business and financial markets. There are some core factors contributing to the recent success of Islamic banking and finance, such as spiraling oil prices worldwide, prolonged boom in the Middle Eastern economies, product innovation and sophistication, increasingly receptive attitude of conventional regulators and information technology advancements that have been acting as a catalyst for the Islamic banking and finance industry to go global. Given all growth patterns, Islamic banking may be able to win over the majority of customers from the Muslim world that constitutes almost 24 per cent of the world's population (over 1.3 billion), and other ethical groups across the globe in times ahead.

The paper takes stock of on‐going developments in Islamic banking and finance industry worldwide. It deals with latest information, facts and figures, which however do not amount to a substantive volume to allow statistical testing and analysis to figure out the main factors and their actual contributions in making Islamic banking and finance emerge as the fastest growing industry of the global finance. This paper mostly bears a subjective outlook.

The paper aims to attract the global attention towards the fastest growing industry of the contemporary world of finance. It presents the case of the Islamic banking and finance industry in the most powerful, comprehensive and logical fashions to remove all misgivings about it in some circles, and let it be seen as an industry adding more ethical, competitive, flexible and diversified tools and systems to global financial markets. The paper highlights the increasing moral and material support that Islamic banking has been enjoying from Muslim governments and the public, and Western market players and regulators. It draws attention towards the growing number of products, systems, infrastructures and supporting institutions of Islamic banking over the recent years. The current trends of Islamic banking industry worldwide captured in this paper can tell all about its strength and weakness, future prospects and ambitions to become a truly innovative, competitive and integrated part of contemporary global finance.

This study aims to examine the associations between the three goals (hedonic, gain and normative) and university students’ proenvironmental behavior. After that, the authors investigate how environmental knowledge acts as a mediator between three goals (hedonic, gain and normative) and proenvironmental behavior.

The study used the quantitative approach adopting the goal framing theory (GFT) as the theoretical framework, for analyzing behavior of university students toward environment including both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The data was gathered through the distribution of a structured questionnaire to private universities in Chattogram and structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

Hedonic and gain goals have positive effects on students’ proenvironmental behavior while the normative goal has insignificant association. In addition, all the three goals are significantly linked with students’ environmental knowledge. Besides, environmental knowledge significantly mediates the association between three goals and proenvironmental behavior.

The findings can provide valuable insights for integrating sustainability and environmental education into the formulation and planning of curricular and extra-curricular activities, with an emphasis on students’ intrinsic motivation.

The mediating role of environmental knowledge between three goals and proenvironmental behavior is the unique contribution of this study.

The main objective of the paper is to understand the reasons why Islamic banking failed in Pakistan despite lots of efforts being made to implement in contrast to its success in other parts of the world.

The paper is based on a debatable conceptual approach. It provides a longitudinal view of the issue of replacing the interest‐based financial system in Pakistan with an interest‐free system by taking the religious, socio‐economic and political factors of the country.

The findings of the paper hold that piecemeal solutions to eliminate interest from the financial sector of Pakistan could never succeed. It concludes that all intellectual, practical, political, constitutional and legal efforts undertaken in Pakistan to enforce an interest‐free system were not meant in earnest and therefore they inflicted serious damage to the cause of Islam as well as Islamic banking. Interest is prohibited in Islam for its exploitative nature. In case of Pakistan, interest institution is not only deep‐rooted, but also strongly interlinked with other exploitative tools that are prevalent in the hands of some selected people to keep their control over political, economic and social spheres of Pakistan. There is an indispensable need to eradicate interest along with its allied forces from the polity of Pakistan. The practical success of interest‐free banking and finance movement in Pakistan could not be materialized unless the state and polity of Pakistan are not convinced seriously to discover the paradigm of their personal and state institutions based on Islamic guidance and principles.

The contents of the paper woven around normative and social disciplines and therefore, it is not possible to devise any statistical model to empirically test the contribution of these socio‐economic factors in a failure of interest‐free banking and finance movement for future research and any identified limitations in the research process.

The paper provides a broarder perspective over the issue of eliminating interest from the national economy and financial sector of Pakistan. The paper figures out some serious political, social and micro and macro economic constraints that should be first sorted out to pave the way for any viable strategy to succeed in replacing the existing system with risk‐sharing and alternative interest‐free mechanisms. The findings of this paper may be useful for the policy makers, researchers, academicians, financial experts, Islamic Shariah scholars, bankers, regulators, Islamic financial institutions and those Muslim countries who wish to undertake a similar kind of experiment as was attempted in Pakistan. This paper may also help the Western economist to think and debate about an alternative interest‐free economic and financial system of Islam.