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Achieving social sustainability has become a critical challenge in global supply chain networks, particularly during complex crises such as terrorism. The purpose of this study is to explore how institutional forces influence the social sustainability approaches of logistics service providers (LSPs) in high terrorism-affected regions (HTAR). This then leads to investigating how the key factors interact with Institutional Theory.

An exploratory multiple-case study research method was used to investigate six cases of different-sized logistics LSPs, each in an HTAR. The data was collected using semistructured interviews and triangulated using on-site observations and document analysis. Thematic analysis was used in iterative cycles for cross-case comparisons and pattern matching.

The findings interact with Institutional Theory and the three final-order themes. First, management processes are driven by coopetition and innovation. Second, organizational resources, structure and culture lead to an ineffective organizational design. Finally, a lack of institutionalization creates institutional uncertainty. These factors are rooted in many other first-order factors such as information sharing, communication, relationship management, capacity development, new process developments, workforce characteristics, technology, microlevel culture and control aspects.

This study answers the call for social sustainability research and enriches the literature on social sustainability, Institutional Theory and LSPs in HTARs by providing illustrations showing that institutional forces act as driving forces for social sustainability initiatives by shaping the current management processes. Conversely, the same forces impede social sustainability initiatives by shaping the current organizational designs and increasing institutional uncertainty.

The purpose of this study endeavour is to delve into the perceptions and sense-making of both spiritually empowered leadership and workplace spirituality at the Akhuwat Foundation, a prominent social sector microfinance organization in the Muslim majority economy of Pakistan.

Using a qualitative research approach and an intrinsic instrumental case study research methodology, a series of 16 in-depth semi-structured interviews and three focus group discussions (each focus group contained five members) were conducted with employees and leaders at the Akhuwat Foundation of Pakistan from June 2020 to June 2021.

The findings from thematic data analysis show that the spiritual leadership at Akhuwat Foundation implemented workplace spirituality by creating a spiritual environment, such as brotherhood, at the workplace. Moreover, the employees exercise workplace spirituality by voluntarily performing their duties at lesser salaries. Alternatively, spiritual leaders care for employees by reducing organizational problems and improving their employees’ well-being.

Although this research explores spiritual leadership and workplace spirituality in the national context of Pakistan, further investigation in other contexts is required to cross-check and validate the research findings.

Regulators and policymakers of organizations operating in Muslim-majority countries should focus on brotherhood, inspire employees through vision, resolve organizational challenges and create a spiritual environment for spiritual leadership and workplace spirituality to improve employee well-being, broader societal welfare and organization’s overall performance.

This study revealed new themes of workplace spirituality and spiritual leadership in the organizational context of a Muslim-majority country, Pakistan, identified context-specific themes and enhanced the theory of spiritual leadership and workplace spirituality.

This study aims to test the Kuznets curve between economic growth and child labor, along with the influence of exports, household size and rural population in the context of Pakistan.

To achieve the research objective, this study applied the unit root test, bound co-integration test, and autoregressive distributive lags (ARDL) method for the period of 1972–2021.

The findings show an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and child labor indicating that at the beginning stage of economic development, child labor increases due to lower per capita household and subsequently, in the long-run of economic development, child labor decreases due to the higher per capita households. Moreover, the results also show that exports, household size and rural population have a positive influence on increasing child labor.

The policymakers and government of Pakistan need to focus on long-term economic growth policies, ensure free quality education and cheap equipment which practices minimum manpower to reduce the threat of child labor.

Having long-run economic growth, the government of Pakistan need to equally benefit the households and the poor population to reduce child labor and enhance the social welfare of society.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the Kuznets curve relationship between economic growth and child labor in the context of Pakistan. Moreover, this study contributes to the reduction in child labor through long-term economic growth in the context of Pakistan.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-05-2023-0387

The study hypothesized that the impact of board diversity on financial distress (FD) is not direct but rather mediated by the firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of CSR as a mediator in the board diversity–FD relationship.

The study examined six board diversity dimensions – age, gender, nationality, education and tenure in 81 nonfinancial Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX)-listed firms from 2010 to 2021. The CSR engagement of the sample firms is evaluated using a multidimensional financial approach and the likelihood of FD is computed using Altman’s Z-score. The system-generalized method of moments estimator is used to meet the study objectives. In addition, several tests are run to determine the robustness of the study’s findings.

Based on the procedure for mediation analysis outlined by Baron and Kenny (1986), the authors found that CSR is significantly inversely associated with the likelihood of FD. Second, board diversity variables age, gender and national diversity were positively associated with CSR. Third, board age, gender and national diversity are significantly inversely related to FD. Finally, it was found that there is partial mediation between board age diversity and FD, whereas full mediation is shown between board age diversity and FD and between board nationality diversity and FD.

This study provides practical insights into PSX’s board diversity for companies, regulators and policymakers.

This research studies the connection between board diversity and FD. In addition, the current study extended the analysis by testing for the first time the mediating role of CSR in the diversity–distress relationship, particularly in the context of an emerging economy.

This paper aims to address the flow features of Ree–Eyring fluid between two rotating disks subject to the magnetic field. Heat transfer features are discussed through viscous dissipation and nonlinear thermal radiation. Impact of thermophoresis and Brownian movement are elaborated. Physical characteristics of entropy generation optimization in nanofluid with homogeneous and heterogeneous chemical reaction are discussed.

The nonlinear system leads to ordinary one through the implementation of adequate transformation and then tackled analytically for a convergent series solution by homotopy analysis method.

The prime objective of the present research has been given to investigate entropy generation in Ree–Eyring fluid flow between two rotating disks subjected to the magnetic field. Vital features, namely, Brownian motion and thermophoresis have been addressed. Total entropy rate is computed using the second law of thermodynamics.

No such work yet exists in the literature.

Given the lack of understanding surrounding search regret, this study aims to draw on the regret regulatory theory to investigate the outcomes of search regret and effective strategies to reduce its adverse effects.

Using time-lagged data from 331 salespeople-customers dyads, this study investigates the connection between search regret, store image, interaction quality, and store revisit intentions.

Customers develop negative perceptions of the store, subsequently reducing their intentions to revisit. Salespeople’s interaction quality can reduce the negative impact of search regret on store image and revisit intentions. Furthermore, store image serves as a mediator between search regret and revisit intentions.

This study marks the first attempt to investigate the store image and revisit intentions as outcomes of search regret and examines the moderating role of salespeople’s interaction quality in reducing the negative consequences of search regret.

The aim of this study is to investigate how green supply chain management (GSCM) practices mediate the effect of Industry 4.0 technologies on operational and green innovation performances.

To explore the study, data were collected from 225 different manufacturing industries in Pakistan. Gathered data were used to test the hypotheses using SmartPLS 3 software by using structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal that operational and green innovation performances are directly affected by the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies and GSCM practices. Furthermore, the GSCM practices positively affect operational and green innovation performances. The study also investigated that the GSCM practices partially mediate the effect of Industry 4.0 on operational and green innovation performances.

This study has some limitations, the data of this study were majorly collected from large enterprises of Pakistani firms and related to the manufacturing sector only. So, there is a huge need for attention toward small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Very few researchers are focusing on SMEs, so future research can be on SMEs. It can be suggested that the relationship between digital technologies and green innovation performance can be tested through a quantitative procedure. Moreover, the effect of GSCM's aspects can be estimated on manageable execution.

Through the mediating relationship of GSCM practices, this research has made a unique contribution by investigating the influence of Industry 4.0 on operational and green innovation performances. To the author's knowledge, no research has been undertaken in this area.

Blockchain, a groundbreaking technology that recently surfaced, is under thorough scrutiny due to its prospective utility across different sectors. This research aims to delve into and assess the cognitive elements that impact the integration of blockchain technology (BT) within library environments.

Utilizing the Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) theory, this research aims to facilitate the implementation of BT within academic institution libraries and provide valuable insights for managerial decision-making. A two-staged deep learning structural equation modelling artificial neural network (ANN) analysis was conducted on 583 computer experts affiliated with academic institutions across various countries to gather relevant information.

The research model can correspondingly expound 71% and 60% of the variance in trust and adoption intention of BT in libraries, where ANN results indicate that perceived possession is the primary predictor, with a technical capability factor that has a normalized significance of 84%. The study successfully identified the relationship of each variable of our conceptual model.

Unlike the SOR theory framework that uses a linear model and theoretically assumes that all relationships are significant, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first study to validate ANN and SEM in a library context successfully. The results of the two-step PLS–SEM and ANN technique demonstrate that the usage of ANN validates the PLS–SEM analysis. ANN can represent complicated linear and nonlinear connections with higher prediction accuracy than SEM approaches. Also, an importance-performance Map analysis of the PLS–SEM data offers a more detailed insight into each factor's significance and performance.

This study aims to examine the flow characteristics of Ree–Eyring fluid between two rotating disks. The characteristics of heat transfer are discussed in presence of viscous dissipation, heat source/sink and nonlinear radiative heat flux.

Nonlinear flow expressions lead to ordinary ones through adequate similarity transformations. The ordinary differential system has been tackled through optimal homotopic method. The impact of different flow variables on the velocity field, entropy generation rate and temperature fields is graphically discussed. The surface drag force and heat transfer rate are numerically examined via various pertinent parameters.

By minimization of values of stretching parameter and Brinkman number, the entropy generation rate can be controlled. The entropy generation rate enhances for higher values of magnetic parameter, while the Bejan number is decreased via magnetic parameter.

No such work is yet published in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the role of trust in leaders in the relationship between dimensions of servant leadership and dimensions of organizational commitment in the information technology (IT) sector of Pakistan in post-COVID era. This paper also highlights the role of trust in leader as mediating mechanism among the examined variables.

Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to IT professional working in the IT sector of Pakistan. The sample included 283 across Pakistan. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

Results indicated that trust in a leader has a significant indirect effect on the relationship between the dimensions of servant leadership and organizational commitment. Upon further investigation, it is found that in the majority of cases, the nature of mediation is partial in nature. Whereas, it is found that trust in leader fully mediates the relationship between persuasive mapping and normative commitment. Furthermore, trust in leader is also found to be fully mediating the relationship between emotional healing and continuance commitment.

This study is limited to the geographical boundaries of Pakistan, results obtained during the course of study have limited generalizability outside the country.

This paper aims at addressing a gap in the literature by developing a model of how trust in leader mediates the relationship between servant leadership and organizational commitment, and examine relationship between individual dimensions of servant leadership and organizational commitment.