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COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Considering the restricted and enclosed nature of prisons and closed environments and the prolonged and close contact between individuals, COVID-19 is more likely to have a higher incidence in these settings. This study aims to assess the prevalence of COVID-19 among prisoners.

Papers published in English from 2019 to July 7, 2023, were identified using relevant keywords such as prevalence, COVID-19 and prisoner in the following databases: PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus and Google Scholar. For the meta-analysis of the prevalence, Cochrane’s Q statistics were calculated. A random effect model was used due to the heterogeneity in COVID-19 prevalence across included studies in the meta-analysis. All analyses were performed in STATA-13.

The pooled data presented a COVID-19 prevalence of 20% [95%CI: 0.13, 0.26] and 24% [95%CI: 0.07, 0.41], respectively, in studies that used PCR and antibody tests. Furthermore, two study designs, cross-sectional and cohort, were used. The results of the meta-analysis showed studies with cross-sectional and cohort designs reported 20% [95%CI: 0.11, 0.29] and 25% [95%CI: 0.13, 0.38], respectively.

Through more meticulous planning, it is feasible to reduce the number of individuals in prison cells, thereby preventing the further spread of COVID-19.

This research aims to conceptualize and validate the mall service design as a multidimensional construct and then test a conceptual framework by investigating the impact of mall service design on customer mall experience and its subsequent outcomes, that is, intention to revisit and desire to stay in mega shopping malls.

The survey data of 455 shopping visitors in Pakistan were collected using a mall intercept technique and tested through structural equation modeling in AMOS.

The study reveals that service design significantly impacts customer experience and subsequent outcomes. Customer mall experience mediates the relationships between mall service design and the intention to revisit and desire to stay at malls.

Data from a collectivist culture country (Pakistan) were collected. To explore the impact of service design on customer mall experience, researchers should conduct similar studies in individualistic societies like Europe and North America. Additionally, the authors recommend assessing the effect of each dimension of service design on customer experience separately.

The research provides policy guidelines for the owners and operators of mega shopping malls in developing experience-oriented retailing strategies based on service design.

The research conceptualizes and validates the mall service design as a multidimensional construct using the service theater model and empirically tests its relationship with the customer mall experience.

The present study aimed at analyzing the hypothesized relationship between human resource (HR) flexibility and firm performance with the mediating effect of firm innovation and the moderating role of firm-level power distance orientation.

The proposed hypotheses were tested with the two-wave data collected from 209 registered information technology (IT) firms operating in Pakistan. The SMART-PLS examined the model’s hypothesized moderated, mediated and moderated-mediation relationships.

The results confirmed significant relationships between HR flexibility, firm innovation and performance while showing that the link between HR flexibility and firm performance is mediated by firm innovation. The results demonstrated that the firm-level power distance orientation negatively affected the HR flexibility–firm innovation link. These findings provide implications on how HR flexibility leverages firm innovation and performance. However, a power distance orientation in firms may diminish the positive effect of HR flexibility.

HR practitioners and top management can leverage these findings to design and implement policies that promote HR flexibility within IT firms for superior innovation and performance.

Our study offers valuable insights into the contribution of HR flexibility to firm innovation and performance. Specifically, the findings indicate that power distance orientation negatively affects the relationships between HR flexibility, firm innovation and performance. Therefore, HR practitioners and top management can leverage these findings to design and implement policies that promote HR flexibility within IT firms for superior innovation and performance.

Despite its devastating nature, the COVID-19 pandemic has also catalyzed a substantial surge in the adoption and integration of technological tools within economies, exerting a profound influence on the dissemination of information among participants in stock markets. Consequently, this present study delves into the ramifications of post-pandemic dynamics on stock market behavior. It also examines the relationship between investors' sentiments, underlying behavioral drivers and their collective impact on global stock markets.

Drawing upon data spanning from 2012 to 2023 and encompassing major world indices classified by Morgan Stanley Capital International’s (MSCI) market and regional taxonomy, this study employs a threshold regression model. This model effectively distinguishes the thresholds within these influential factors. To evaluate the statistical significance of variances across these thresholds, a Wald coefficient analysis was applied.

The empirical results highlighted the substantive role that investors' sentiments and behavioral determinants play in shaping the predictability of returns on a global scale. However, their influence on developed economies and the continents of America appears comparatively lower compared with the Asia–Pacific markets. Similarly, the regions characterized by a more pronounced influence of behavioral factors seem to reduce their reliance on these factors in the post-pandemic landscape and vice versa. Interestingly, the post COVID-19 technological advancements also appear to exert a lesser impact on developed nations.

This study pioneers the investigation of these contextual dissimilarities, thereby charting new avenues for subsequent research studies. These insights shed valuable light on the contextualized nexus between technology, societal dynamics, behavioral biases and their collective impact on stock markets. Furthermore, the study's revelations offer a unique vantage point for addressing market inefficiencies by pinpointing the pivotal factors driving such behavioral patterns.

This study investigated the role of brand experience dimensions (behavioral, intellectual, sensory and affective) to predict consumer loyalty (repurchase intention (RPI), word of mouth (WOM) and willingness to pay more (WPM)) through the mediating role of perceived brand authenticity (PBA) in the global branding context.

A total of 422 consumers participated in this study and provided feedback on top authentic global brands after completing a self-administered online survey. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to conduct the data analysis.

This study discovered that brand experience dimensions positively influenced PBA (predominantly sensory and intellectual experiences), which significantly predicted consumer loyalty (RPI, WOM and WPM).

This research uncovered some limitations that can be used to investigate new research possibilities. From a theoretical standpoint, this study offers new insights into brand experience dimensions (BEDs), PBA and consumer loyalty in order to develop consumer-brand relationships.

This study offered several managerial recommendations. By considering brand authenticity as a positioning tool, global managers can effectively develop and implement various experiential marketing strategies to develop long-term relationships with consumers to attain their loyalty.

This is a new study that uses Fournier's relationship theory to investigate BEDs on PBA to predict consumer loyalty in the context of authentic global brands.

In the field of knitwear, dimensional stability is assumed as a critical problem that affects the quality and salability of a product. Although much work has been done in this area with a focus on the factors affecting fabric shrinkage, however, there is a lack of work on knitwears with respect to their dimensional stability. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of stitching parameters and wash types on the dimensional properties of knitwear.

The crew-neck t-shirts were prepared by using pique knitted fabrics. Different sewing and finishing parameters were used that include stitch density, stitch type, stitching thread and wash type. The critical measurements of the selected garment are taken as output variables which are body width, sleeve length, body length and across shoulder. After laundering process, shrinkage percentage was calculated by using before-wash and after-wash measurements.

This study shows that the stitching parameters affect significantly on knitwear’s shrinkage. Thus, when patterns are being developed for the cutting of fabric, expected shrinkage, known as residual shrinkage, must be considered to avoid unexpected changes in garment shape.

This research will be useful for knitwear manufacturing industry.

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.

In today’s volatile global marketplace, cultivating human capital via efficient leadership has become an indispensable requisite for organizational growth. This study aims to examine how servant leadership affects employee creativity through employee empowerment. Moreover, this study examines the moderating effect of knowledge sharing in the relationship between employee empowerment and employee creativity.

Quantitative data were processed using Smart PLS-SEM to test the hypothesis. Survey data for this study were obtained from 368 employees working in two Islamic holy sites: the Masjid al-Haram and the Masjid an-Nabawi.

A positive correlation is found between employee empowerment and employee creativity. In addition, employee empowerment mediates the relationship between servant leadership and employee creativity. Lastly, knowledge sharing moderates the effect of employee empowerment on employee creativity.

The findings shed light on the need for servant leadership in service sector organizations. The findings imply that employee creativity in religious firms can be promoted by servant leadership. The results of this study can assist managers in developing a deeper understanding of contextual factors such as employee empowerment and knowledge sharing while formulating policies and development plans.

The impact of servant leadership in fostering creativity within religious organizations has not been investigated sufficiently. This study expands the literature by offering a thorough understanding of the contextual factors influencing employee creativity in religious organizations such as the mediating role of employee empowerment and the moderating role of knowledge sharing.

The success and long-term survival of service organizations depend on employee behavior such as work engagement and creativity. In this study, The authors intend to investigate employee engagement and creativity in the hospitality industry based on the theory of social exchange. In addition, The authors explore the mediating role of employee ambidexterity between ethical leadership and employee work engagement and between ethical leadership and employee creativity.

Through an online survey questionnaire, data were collected from 246 workers in the hospitality industry in Pakistan. Smart-PLS version 3 was used to analyze the data.

The results of the structural equation modeling reveal that ethical leadership has a positive association with work engagement and employee creativity in the hospitality industry. Results further reveal that employee ambidexterity significantly mediates the relationships between ethical leadership and work engagement and between ethical leadership and employee creativity.

This study not only makes an important contribution to the literature on the role of employee ambidexterity in the hospitality industry but will also help service businesses in managing their employees more effectively.

The aim of the paper is to determine the asymmetric impact of tourism on the deficit in the balance of payments (BOPs).

The research uses the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to investigate the asymmetric impact of tourism on Pakistan's BOPs deficit using quarterly data from 1995 to 2019.

The finding reveals that due to the positive change in tourism, the BOPs deficit decreases by 27%, although due to the negative change in tourism, the BOPs deficit rises by 2.3%. In addition, the significance of F-statistics (10.609) confirms the existence of co-integration between tourism and the deficit in the BOPs. The Wald test confirms the asymmetric association between tourism and the deficit in the BOPs over the long term.

In order to improve tourism in Pakistan, policymakers must consider the following implications. First, there is a need for an adequate infrastructure that can help the tourist. Second, the Government must maintain a stable law and order situation as a whole and particularly at tourist destinations. Finally, the Government should develop tourism-friendly policies in order to boost tourism in Pakistan.

The research provides new evidence of the impact of tourism on the BOPs using the novel non-linear ARDL (NARDL) technique. The evidence will help policymakers to develop policies to improve tourism in order to reduce the BOPs deficit.