Wang Qing, Asif Ali Safeer and Muhammad Saqib Khan
This paper aims to examine the influence of social media communications, particularly firm-generated content (FGC) and consumer-generated content (CGC) on predicting consumer…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the influence of social media communications, particularly firm-generated content (FGC) and consumer-generated content (CGC) on predicting consumer purchase decisions (CPD) through the lens of perceived brand authenticity (PBA). This paper also investigates the moderating influence of brand prestige (BP) and brand familiarity in the luxury hotel sector.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected data from 390 consumers who were regularly using social media platforms, traveled frequently and stayed in luxury hotels. Following stringent data filtering, 371 responses were analyzed via structural equation modeling.
Findings
The findings indicate that FGC and CGC significantly strengthened PBA. However, CGC was the effective driver that directly influenced CPD. Likewise, PBA directly and indirectly substantially impacted CPD. Finally, BP’s direct and moderating effects significantly influenced CPD in the luxury hotel sector.
Originality/value
This novel study contributes to signaling theory, social media communications and branding literature in the luxury hotel sector.
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Muhammad Naveed Khan, Piyya Muhammad Rafi-ul-Shan, Pervaiz Akhtar, Zaheer Khan and Saqib Shamim
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Ummara Yousaf, Muhammad Faizan Khan, Ismail Khan, Muhammad Zubair Khan and Muhammad Nadeem Dogar
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Research limitations/implications
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.
Practical implications
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Muhammad Nazir and Shahab E. Saqib
Considering the speedy growth of Islamic finance and limited research work on Muslim behavior regarding Islamic Banking, this study aims to investigate to comprehend the stimulus…
Abstract
Purpose
Considering the speedy growth of Islamic finance and limited research work on Muslim behavior regarding Islamic Banking, this study aims to investigate to comprehend the stimulus of religiosity on customer’s behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual model is developed on existing literature. The key dimensions of religiosity in the model include practice, knowledge, experience and consequences to capture the whole religiosity of customers. Model of the study investigates the impact of customer’s religiosity on their behavior in decision-making about selection of Islamic bank. Analysis of the study is based on the sample of 370 customers of Islamic banks from District Nowshera Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The data for the study collected through random sampling by a comprehensive survey questionnaire. Binary logistic model is used to test the data for statistical analysis.
Findings
The key findings of the study suggest that religiosity influence customer behavior positively in decision-making regarding Islamic finance. Service standards of Islamic banking has also significant impact on customer perception, while the financial education of the customers has insignificant impact on customer behavior.
Research limitations/implications
This study mainly focused on the curiosity of the customer religious commitment, so religiosity is a vast phenomenon; there are deep sections in each dimension of religiosity, so further study is suggested for the comprehensive capture of each dimension of religiosity.
Practical implications
The results of the study have a great importance for the managers of Islamic finance industry to identify and detect the potential customers and divide the target market of banking industry on the base of religiosity. Furthermore, the study may bring significant managerial suggestions for marketing planners and can help them in market segmentation strategies.
Originality/value
The study examined the association between Muslim religiosity and Islamic banking customer’s selection behavior. This study spread the understanding of religiosity and its impact on Islamic banking customer’s behavior. Furthermore, the study is valuable to discover the level to which religiosity determines the inclinations of customers. This study helps marketing practitioners and researchers to grow their knowledge about customer’s motives in terms of religious commitment.
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Muhammad Faisal Malik, Muhammad Asif Khan and Saqib Mahmood
Organizations take a more oriented approach to the management of business processes since business processes are core elements of organizational performance. The purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
Organizations take a more oriented approach to the management of business processes since business processes are core elements of organizational performance. The purpose of this study is to bridge certain knowledge, theoretical, literature and contextual gaps that have not yet been addressed, in line with the organizational approach. The current study is also carried out in order to satisfy the needs of the industry for sustainable development that lead to economic prosperity in the country.
Design/methodology/approach
Positivism research philosophy was espoused followed through a deductive approach. A structured questionnaire was used in order to collect the data from the employees working in public-sector organizations with a purposive sampling technique. In total, 364 respondents’ data were analyzed by using Analysis of a Moment Structures guidelines and tested the sequential path accordingly.
Findings
The results suggested that authentic leadership through sequential mediation of relational identification and positive emotions had a significant impact on employee engagement. Overall, three hypotheses were formulated on the basis of literature, and all hypotheses were supported.
Research limitations/implications
The first significant limitation is the use of a single source of information. All variables (authentic leadership, employee engagement, gratitude, happiness and compassion and relational identification) were asked to be reported to individuals. In addition, the current study took only three positive emotions (gratitude, happiness and compassion). There are, however, a number of other emotions that can be taken to identify the relationship between authentic leadership and employee attitude.
Originality/value
The plethora of research seeks to identify mechanisms that can overcome the challenge of employee engagement in the organizational sphere. To this end, organizations are continually identifying and implementing strategies to enhance employee engagement. Recently, the adoption of a bottom-up approach identified as a potential contributor to increasing employee engagement. It has also meant that authentic leadership is the best source of support for a bottom-up approach. However, limited research has been identified in relation to authentic leadership and positive employee emotions.
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Muhammad Farooq, Hikmat Ullah Khan, Tassawar Iqbal and Saqib Iqbal
Bibliometrics is one of the research fields in library and information science that deals with the analysis of academic entities. In this regard, to gauge the productivity and…
Abstract
Purpose
Bibliometrics is one of the research fields in library and information science that deals with the analysis of academic entities. In this regard, to gauge the productivity and popularity of authors, publication counts and citation counts are common bibliometric measures. Similarly, the significance of a journal is measured using another bibliometric measure, impact factor. However, scarce attention has been paid to find the impact and productivity of conferences using these bibliometric measures. Moreover, the application of the existing techniques rarely finds the impact of conferences in a distinctive manner. The purpose of this paper is to propose and compare the DS-index with existing bibliometric indices, such as h-index, g-index and R-index, to study and rank conferences distinctively based on their significance.
Design/methodology/approach
The DS-index is applied to the self-developed large DBLP data set having publication data over 50 years covering more than 10,000 conferences.
Findings
The empirical results of the proposed index are compared with the existing indices using the standard performance evaluation measures. The results confirm that the DS-index performs better than other indices in ranking the conferences in a distinctive manner.
Originality/value
Scarce attention is paid to rank conferences in distinctive manner using bibliometric measures. In addition, exploiting the DS-index to assign unique ranks to the different conferences makes this research work novel.
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Sacha St-Onge Ahmad and Mohsin Bashir
The purpose of this chapter is to critically examine the leaders of public–private partnerships (PPPs) in Pakistan through a social entrepreneurship lens. The literature on social…
Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to critically examine the leaders of public–private partnerships (PPPs) in Pakistan through a social entrepreneurship lens. The literature on social entrepreneurship was analysed to identify traits academics say social entrepreneurs have. Data were collected from primary and secondary sources. Primary sources of information were interviews with leaders’ former colleagues. Secondary research was conducted using grey literature, independent reports, web searches and the implementation of partners’ websites. The main finding from our analysis is that social entrepreneurship is an important driver of success in PPPs. All three PPPs had a focal person who exhibited important qualities found in social entrepreneurs and in one case, the decline of a partnership was observed shortly after the resignation of the social entrepreneur. Governments seeking to enter into partnerships with private organizations should prioritize finding social entrepreneurship in the partnering organization’s culture and/or leadership. Social welfare organizations are more likely to succeed if their management includes social entrepreneurs.
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Talat Islam, Muhammad Ali, Saqib Jamil and Hafiz Fawad Ali
This study aims to investigate individual-related consequences of workplace bullying among the health-care section. Specifically, this study examined the mediating role of burnout…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate individual-related consequences of workplace bullying among the health-care section. Specifically, this study examined the mediating role of burnout between workplace bullying and nurses’ well-being. Moreover, passive avoidant leadership is examined as a conditional variable between workplace bullying and burnout.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected data from 314 nurses working in various hospitals through a questionnaire-based survey using Google Form in two waves.
Findings
Structural equation modeling confirmed the negative effect of workplace bullying on nurses’ well-being, whereas burnout mediates this relationship. In addition, passive avoidant leadership was identified as a conditional variable that strengthens the positive association between workplace bullying and burnout.
Research limitations/implications
Although data for the study were collected in two waves, still cross-sectional design limits causality.
Practical implications
This study suggests management to focus on developing and implementing counter-bullying rules to avoid the adverse consequences of workplace bullying (e.g. capital loss, recruitment costs, burnout, well-being, etc.). In addition, leaders/supervisors must be trained to fulfill their responsibilities to reduce negative consequences.
Originality/value
Studies on workplace bullying in high-power distance cultures are scant. Therefore, drawing upon conservation of resource theory, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that has investigated the moderating role of passive avoidant leadership on the association between workplace bullying and burnout.
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Muhammad Naeem Khan, Shahab Alam Malik and Saquib Yousaf Janjua
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of Total Quality Management (TQM) practices on the performance of employees working in higher education institutions (HEIs). It…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of Total Quality Management (TQM) practices on the performance of employees working in higher education institutions (HEIs). It also examines the mechanism through which TQM practices affect the performance of employees.
Design/methodology/approach
Data for the current study were obtained from both public and private sector HEIs of Pakistan. In total, 400 questionnaires were distributed among the administrative and academic staff of 3 universities and 240 usable questionnaires were received. Data were analyzed through regression analysis using SPSS.
Findings
The results show that the TQM positively and significantly determines employee performance, and the mediating variables of job satisfaction and affective commitment. Both the mediating variables show a mediating role in the TQM/employee performance relationship.
Research limitations/implications
The study has practical implications for universities’ top management to focus on TQM practices that help in building and enhancing satisfaction, commitment, as well as performance of the employees that could ultimately result in better performance of the universities.
Originality/value
This research is an addition to the current literature and the first attempt in this area to the best of authors’ knowledge. This study will help in identifying how important and beneficial it would be for the services organizations to implement the TQM practices and identifying the impact of TQM practices on employee’s job performance.
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Muhammad Asif, Prem Chhetri and Rajiv Padhye
This paper explores the interaction and impact of political disruptions on textile supply chain performance in Pakistan. A qualitative approach is adopted to explore the linkages…
Abstract
This paper explores the interaction and impact of political disruptions on textile supply chain performance in Pakistan. A qualitative approach is adopted to explore the linkages and relationships between political disruptions and supply chain disruptions and performance. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at 25 different textile manufacturing firms. This study confirmed the prevalence of severe and variegated impacts of political disruptions on the textile supply chain. Supply chain disruption is found to be a key mediating factor that directly and indirectly affect supply chain performance through an increased production and delivery lead-time, transportation delays, interruptions of raw material supplies to plants and distributors and the restricted access to workplaces for suppliers and workers. The linkages are represented through vicious circles that illustrate the interactions and inter-relationships between disrupted supply chain and performance. This study provides empirical evidence to help government to formulate pertinent labour laws and industrial policy to mitigate political disruptions and minimise deleterious effects of supply chain disruption on production and distribution networks whilst respecting and protecting the democratic rights of people.