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The research concerning brand credibility of charity brands is scantly examined. The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating role of brand credibility within the customer-based brand equity model to investigate donor perceived brand equity of charity brands.

In a cross-sectional research design, a survey-based research strategy is followed to collect data from 448 active Muslim donors in Pakistan. The collected data are analysed by employing confirmatory factor analysis based on Smart PLS 2.0.

The results indicate that donor perceived brand association, brand awareness and brand loyalty strongly relate to perceived brand equity of charity brands. The brand credibility moderates the relationship between perceived quality, equity and brand loyalty, and equity paths.

The charity brands need to focus on building a strong brand image and reputation to uplift brand credibility which can be achieved by offering training programmes addressing various social causes such as HIV and Cancer prevention.

The proposed moderating effects of brand credibility and its application to charity brands operating in an Asian Muslim country context are unique products of this study.

Sustainability is essential to the ongoing operations of banks, though it is much less clear how Islamic corporate governance (ICG) promotes economic sustainability (ES) and thereby prevents bankruptcy. To explore the unexplored, this study aims to examine the efficacy of ICG in preventing bankruptcy and enhancing the ES of Islamic banks operating in Pakistan.

The current study measures ES through Altman's Z-score to analyze the level of the industry's stability and consequently examines the effect of ICG on the ES of Islamic banks in Pakistan for the post-financial-crises period. Using the country-level data, this study utilized a fixed-effect model and two-stage least squares (2SLS) techniques on balanced panel data spanning from 2009 to 2020 to provide empirical evidence.

The empirical results unveiled that board size and meetings have a significant positive influence on the ES while managerial ownership demonstrated an unfavorable effect on ES. Interestingly, the insignificant effect of women directors became significant with the inclusion of controlled variables. Overall, the findings indicate that ICG is an efficient tool for promoting ES in Islamic banks and preventing them from the negative effects of emerging crises.

The findings provide concrete insights for policymakers, regulators and other concerned stakeholders to execute a sturdy corporate governance system that not only oversees the economic, social and ethical aspects but also provides measures to alleviate the impacts of potential risks like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Examining the role of ICG in alleviating bankruptcy risk is an informative and useful endeavor for all social actors.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first efforts to provide evidence-based insights on the role of ICG in preventing bankruptcy and offers a potential research direction for ES.

This study investigates despotic leadership (DL) as an antecedent to bullying behavior with a mediating role of moral emotions at work. Another aim is to study the moderating role of self-concordance to buffer the relationship between DL and arousal of moral emotions.

The authors collected two-source (self-reported and supervisor reported) time-lagged data in the shape of a three-wave survey (i.e. one month time interval for each time) from 242 dyads in the health sector of Pakistan.

The results revealed that moral emotions mediated the relationship between DL and bullying behavior. Furthermore, self-concordance moderates the relationship between DL and moral emotions, such that the relationship will be stronger in the case of low self-concordance.

Managers need to promote a culture that accommodates diversity of opinion at the organization so that everyone is able to express and share their views openly. Organizations should encourage supervisors to participate in leadership development programs aimed at eliminating DL.

This study establishes the role of self-concordance and moral emotions in the relationship between despotic leadership DL and bullying behavior.

The desire to spectate at traditional events and festivals in different countries is dying. From a marketing perspective, researchers and practitioners need to understand why people spectate at these conventional events and festivals. Data-driven marketing approaches can help event and festival marketing policymakers in attracting potential spectators. Drawing on attachment theory, the current study fills this void and explores fans' motivation and intentions to follow Kushti (i.e. traditional wrestling) events while developing a new event attachment scale (EAS).

Three comprehensive studies were conducted. First, an exploratory study where 12 retired wrestlers, considered hardcore fans of Kushti were interviewed. The collected data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Second, a pilot study (n = 204) was performed leading to a main survey (n = 365). The survey data was analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis techniques.

Results revealed five types of attachments (i.e., ground attachment, game attachment, emotional attachment, cultural attachment and player attachment). An important intervention is the unique elements within each of these attachments, which may motivate fans to follow traditional gaming events. The new scale offers excellent psychometric properties.

Event and festival marketers should consider the role of tradition while marketing such events. The retired wrestlers can be used as influences/reference points to attract visitors to spectate at Kushti events. Furthermore, facilities such as smooth roads, approachable grounds and excellent service operations during these events can help policymakers to attract more spectators.

The study is unique in contextualizing Kushti and presenting a unique scale to measure fans' motivations and intentions to follow traditional gaming events.

The customer experience quality (EXQ) cannot be measured by using traditional tools to investigate service quality. There is a need to use new tools to directly measure EXQ from a customer perspective. The current study aims to contribute in this domain of knowledge and validate EXQ scale by linking it to marketing outcomes of satisfaction, loyalty and word of mouth in Malaysian private healthcare settings.

The authors collected data from 330 randomly selected Malaysians, visiting private hospitals in the city of Kuala Lumpur. The data analysis is performed by confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modelling – SEM – procedures.

The results reveal that two dimensions of EXQ scale moments of truth and peace of mind are highly valued by customers. Furthermore, the EXQ perceptions significantly contribute to satisfaction and loyalty. In a mediating relationship, the customer satisfaction is found to be a positive and significant variable.

Healthcare marketing policymakers should emphasize on recruitment of frontline staff – individuals with strong interpersonal skills and expertise who are able to create a memorable customer service experience.

The study is an original contribution to the existing body of knowledge – generally in services marketing literature and specifically in the field of healthcare marketing with a focus on customer experience in a developing country context of Malaysia.

The charitable organizations must understand the forces influencing donor behaviours. This issue has been debated rigorously among researchers belonging to Western societies; however, the exploration of donation experience among non-Western academics is limited. This study aims to discover the phenomenon of Zakat donation experience – an Islamic religious act of charity donation performed among Muslims to enhance our understanding of religious consumption practices in a Muslim country setting of Pakistan.

The authors used phenomenological methodology to collect data from 35 donors via face-to-face interviews.

The informants advocate individuality while making Zakat donations and believe that an independent donation experience brings them with higher levels of happiness, intrinsic drive to spend more and spiritual comfort. The Zakat donation is regarded as a great source of self-protection against the realm of evil spirits which is entirely a new finding with respect to charity donations. The informants identified several reasons for not donating through charities which mainly include lack of trust and limited product mix offered by charitable organizations.

Based on the findings of this research, the authors suggest charitable organizations to ensure procedural transparency and emphasize on Zakat collection, distribution and utilization methods to attract more donors.

The study contributes generally to charity marketing knowledge and specifically to consumer decision-making of religious acts performed in Muslim societies. The phenomenological method of inquiry and its application to study an Islamic act of donation has limited discussion in previous studies, which is a unique product of this study.

The episodes of customer rage with employees during service encounters are common and adversely affect the long-term commitment of employees with an organization. The service organizations, in an effort to control employee turnover, are striving hard but have failed. There are a wide variety of studies that address employee turnover but the research which encapsulates a combined effect of perceived justice and organizational pride to study exhaustion-turnover path are almost scant. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of customer aggression on the frontline food service managers’ emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions. The mitigating effects of perceived distributive justice and emotional organizational pride are also investigated.

Survey data were collected from 250 frontline employees of global fast food chain outlets located in the city of Lahore, Pakistan. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling by AMOS.

The customer aggression is found to influence emotional exhaustion which in turn reduces job satisfaction and increases turnover intentions among frontline food service managers. The mitigating effects of distributive justice on the customer aggression to emotional exhaustion path and of emotional organizational pride on the job satisfaction to turnover intentions path are confirmed.

The results reveal importance of maintaining a supportive and justice-oriented organizational culture. Rewarding frontliners, celebrating the organizational successes that build pride, and acknowledging the emotional burden misbehaving customers place on employees are identified as shields to guard against employee dissatisfaction and turnover.

The turnover intentions resulting from the emotional exhaustion caused by customer aggression in the global fast food industry is studied for the first time. Furthermore, the inclusion of distributive justice and emotional organizational pride as cognitive and affective factors that reduce the effects of customer aggression on frontliners is unique to this study.

This study aims to explore how consumers gain identity from consumption of religious symbols in a Muslim, collectivist cultural context.

The authors interviewed 63 consumers, recruited by means of a purposive sampling technique. The interviews focused on exploration of Islamic services and religious symbols which were later categorized as high and low religious symbols and services.

The results reveal a typology of religious symbols and Islamic religious services as perceived by Muslim informants. They recalled Mosque for prayer, Hijab for promotion of Islamic education and Khana Kaaba for performance of Hajj and Umrah services. Furthermore, the spiritual and emotional connections via consumption of Islamic acts as services are explored.

The marketing managers need to understand and realize the importance of these classifications. A symbol which is perceived as non-religious must be avoided while branding various services. Furthermore, efforts are needed to advocate performance of religious activities in addition to consumption of various service brands. This can really add value to the lives of Muslim consumers – a realization that can emotionally connect consumers with service brands. However, religion is of paramount importance while designing, offering and promoting services.

The study of services marketing based on consumption of religious symbols and services in a Muslim context are unique to this study. The typology of low and high religious services and symbols is also significant contribution of this study.

Drawing on the social exchange theory, this study aims to investigate the destructive impact of abusive supervision and supervisor undermining on quiescent silence and turnover intentions among frontline employees. Whether quiescent silence and the desire to seek revenge mediate the path from aggressive supervisory behaviors to turnover intentions is explored.

Following a time-lagged design, the authors collected data from 350 frontline banking officers in Thailand by a survey. For data analysis purposes, structural equation modeling procedures are used through Smart partial least square version 3.2.0.

Uniquely, findings suggest that abusive supervision does not result in any form of retaliation. Supervisor undermining has a trickle-down effect on the desire to revenge, quiescent silence and turnover intentions. For supervisor undermining, the direct path, as well as mediating roles are supported by data.

The findings of this study suggests organizational systems should discourage supervisors from undermining the subordinates. There is a need to offer regular training to supervisors. Furthermore, employees should be provided some platforms and the freedom to positively speak at work. Above all, supervisors should be more inspiring which can dilute negative perceptions of abuse.

The proposed mediation of desire to revenge and quiescent silence is unique to this study. Moreover, the challenge to the traditional trickle-down effects of abusive supervision is a unique intervention in the organizational behavior literature.

The purpose of this study is to examine critical associations of transformational leadership, Laissez-faire leadership, transactional leadership, and authoritative leadership styles to predict perceived workplace ostracism among frontline employees (FLEs).

A snow-ball sampling technique is employed to collect data from 250 FLEs working in the telecommunication sector of Pakistan. The data are collected by means of a self-reported questionnaire.

All of the hypotheses are supported by the results. The authoritative leadership, transactional leadership, and Laissez-Faire leadership styles are found to positively relate to workplace ostracism while transformational leadership style is found to negatively relate to workplace ostracism.

The managers working in customer service organizations in general and telecom sector in particular should offer leadership training programs to transform supervisors (i.e., in their roles as being the leaders) by re-shaping their thinking as visionary leaders of future. Furthermore, the study has implications to strengthen the communication mechanisms by seeking opinions from FLEs about the leadership styles of their supervisors. This is to ensure that leaders actually transform themselves from being a highly traditional leader to more participative and positive leaders.

The relationships of different leadership styles to study their impact on workplace ostracism and the context of telecommunication service sector of Pakistan are unique to this study.