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This study aims to investigate how gamification, namely, WeChat’s cultural gifting function, improves emotional involvement among three generations (Y, X and silver) in mobile payments. It draws attention to the beneficial effects of cultural components and digital intimacy on gamified mobile payment systems.

The data were collected from Y, X and silver generation in Dalian, China. The users were well equipped with the WeChat pay features and had experience. The PLS-SEM software was used to assess the data.

The findings show that consumer word of mouth and loyalty are positively impacted by perceived utility, fun, and enjoyment. Besides, gamification components like fun and playfulness have a favourable effect on how useful mobile payments are judged to be. It demonstrates how delighted and ecstatic users are with WeChat Hongbao. In addition, the positive moderation effect of intimacy on the hypothesised connections shows that all three generations are likely to accept gamified money features. These results provide a substantial contribution to our comprehension of gamification in the context of mobile payment services for all three generations.

The study is distinctive because it focuses on how China’s three generations use WeChat Pay for routine transactions. The framework confirms that the gamification elements improve user performance and encourage continued usage of mobile payment systems.

Este estudio investiga cómo la gamificación, específicamente la función de regalos culturales de WeChat, mejora la participación emocional entre tres generaciones (Y, X y plata) en los pagos móviles. Se presta atención a los efectos beneficiosos de los componentes culturales y la intimidad digital en los sistemas de pago móvil gamificados.

Los datos fueron recopilados de las generaciones Y, X y plata en Dalian, China. Los usuarios estaban familiarizados con las características de pago de WeChat y tenían experiencia. Se utilizó el software PLS-SEM para evaluar los datos.

Los resultados muestran que la reputación y la lealtad del consumidor son positivamente influenciadas por la utilidad percibida, la diversión y el disfrute. Los componentes de gamificación, como la diversión y la jugabilidad, tienen un efecto favorable en cómo se juzga la utilidad de los pagos móviles. Se demuestra cuán encantados están los usuarios con WeChat Hongbao. Además, la moderación positiva de la intimidad en las relaciones supuestas muestra que las tres generaciones tienen probabilidades de aceptar las características de dinero gamificado. Estos resultados contribuyen sustancialmente a nuestra comprensión de la gamificación en el contexto de los servicios de pago móvil para las tres generaciones.

El estudio es novedoso ya que se centra en cómo las tres generaciones de China utilizan WeChat Pay para transacciones rutinarias. El marco confirma que los elementos de gamificación mejoran el rendimiento del usuario y fomentan el uso continuado de los sistemas de pago móvil.

本研究探讨了游戏化, 即微信的文化赠送功能, 如何提高三代人（Y、X和银发族）在移动支付中的情感投入。它引起了人们对文化成分和数字亲密关系对游戏化移动支付系统的有益影响的注意。

数据来自中国大连市的Y、X和银发族用户。用户对微信支付功能非常熟悉, 并具有使用经验。采用PLS-SEM软件对数据进行评估。

结果表明, 消费者的口碑和忠诚度受到了感知效用、乐趣和享受的积极影响。乐趣和趣味等游戏化组件对移动支付的有用性评估产生了积极影响, 展示了用户对微信红包的喜悦和兴奋程度。此外, 亲密关系对假设连接的正向调节效应表明, 三代人都可能接受游戏化货币功能。这些结果为我们理解移动支付服务背景下游戏化对三代人的贡献提供了实质性的帮助。

该研究独特之处在于它着眼于中国三代人如何将微信支付用于日常交易。该框架证实了游戏化元素如何提高用户绩效并鼓励继续使用移动支付系统。

Based on the arguments of conservation of resource theory (COR), this study aims to investigate the mechanism underlying the linkage of COVID fear, work-family conflict (W-FC) and family-work conflict (F-WC) while investigating the mediating role of COVID stress and social distancing. The study also tests the moderating role of religiosity in these relationships.

In total, 401 survey responses from doctors and university teachers are collected through online and personally administrated questionnaires. Partial least square-based structural equation modeling technique is applied using Smart PLS software.

This study finds that COVID fear has a positive and significant impact on COVID stress and social distancing while religiosity negatively impacts COVID fear. Further, COVID stress and social distancing mediates the relationships between COVID fear and W-FC/ F-WC. However, the study found that COVID stress is a more effective mechanism as compared to social distancing in explaining the mediation process. It is also found that religiosity significantly moderates the nexus between COVID stress and both W-FC and F-WC negatively.

Findings imply that the teachers, as well as doctors, must be immediately be provided with the proper facilitation to maintain their work from home operations with the best of the institutional facilities. Moreover, the recruitment policy in such professions can also consider religious practices to be the indicators of problem-solving and stress management in such a challenging context.

This study provides timely and novel insight into the interplay between the domains of work and family during the period of stressful COVID outbreak. By distinguishing W-FC and F-WC, it provides a detailed understanding of the process during the COVID period. The groundbreaking finding in the research is with the moderation of religiosity.

Acceptance and use of mobile shopping as the preferred shopping medium is becoming the new normal today. The proliferation of mobile shopping practices follows unsteady growth patterns in different countries. Despite challenges of price, quality and privacy matters, young consumers still lead the race to engage in mobile shopping activity in developing countries. This research investigates the determinants that either support or hinder the mobile shopping intentions of aspirant young consumers in Pakistan.

The present research applies a consumer-centric approach to the technology adoption framework to unearth the behavioral patterns of these young consumers in Pakistan. Employing the structural equation modeling technique, this research examines the significant effect of structural assurance, perceived risk, trust and various unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model constructs on behavioral intention to engage in mobile shopping.

This research examines the significant effect of structural assurance, perceived risk, trust and various UTAUT model constructs on behavioral intention to engage in mobile shopping. Results also demonstrate a significant moderating effect of structural assurance and prior shopping experience on the relationship between perceived risk, trust and mobile shopping intentions. Further, the mobile shopping patterns for the male and female segment indicate a significant difference for perceived risk, trust structural assurance and social influence. The research contributes to the growing body of knowledge which advocates the application of consumer-centric customized model approach to explore various factors that either facilitate or impede the adoption of mobile shopping in a developing economy.

The study validates the need to enforce structural assurance mechanism for facilitating mobile shopping in a developing country. It also offers practical implications for online businesses and marketers striving to attract and retain more mobile customers.

The study offers practical implications for online businesses and marketers striving to attract and retain more mobile customers.

This study offers fresh insights about driving elements and impediments of mobile shopping behavioral intentions. Structural assurance and prior shopping experience appear to influence the mobile shopping behavior through direct and indirect effect.

Drawing upon conservation of theory, this study aims to extend the scant literature on the effect of leader-member exchange (LMX) on workplace deviance behaviour (WDB) and adaptive performance by investigating the role of Islamic work ethics as moderators.

A time-lagged and multi-source data of (269 paired responses) of employees working in Islamic banks were used for hypotheses testing.

Taken together, the findings revealed that Leader Member Exchange (LMX) has a positive and significant impact on adaptive performance and is negatively related to employees’ WDB. The results of the moderation effect showed the positive relationship of LMX with adaptive performance and the negative relationship with WDB is stronger for high Islamic work ethics (IWE).

This study provides practical insight that Islamic business ethics plays a significant role in fostering adaptive performance and reducing the deviance behaviour of employees.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examined the moderating role of IWE between LMX-adaptive performance and LMX-WDB. This study has also filled the gap of scant literature about the impact of LMX on adaptive performance and WDB.

The aim of this research is to examine the relationship between spiritual leadership and employee resilience. Specifically, this research explores how meaning mediates the relationship between spiritual leadership and employee resilience.

This quantitative study collected data from the 439 respondents using a seven-point Likert scale. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the relationship among spiritual leadership, meaning and employee resilience.

The results shows that spiritual leadership, directly and indirectly, influences employee resilience. Spiritual leadership also instills meaning among employees through exhibiting genuine concern and communicating a shared vision. This research also demonstrates that meaning cultivates employee resilience to survive and thrive in a challenging business environment.

First, organizations should assess, incorporate and promote altruistic values and shared vision in their leadership program and staffing process. Second, this study urges leaders and managers to create meaning in the workplace. Lastly, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the daily routines and order that humans are accustomed to, causing distressing circumstances for many people. This research calls for spiritual leadership to respond proactively by providing employees with support, appreciation and direction in those times.

This research moves forward the extant academic discussion on spiritual leadership, meaning and employee resilience in two ways. First, this study adds empirical evidence to the relationship between spiritual leadership and employee resilience, which has drawn scant attention from scholars. Second, this research buttresses the proposed framework from the perspective of positive psychology and broaden-and-build theory.

Leaders have been facing serious challenges in managing organizations during COVID-19, which has brought the need for implementing sudden technological change across the globe. Hence, it was important to identify effective leadership styles to successfully manage the transformational process during the period. Therefore, the current study aims to explore and compare the effectiveness of transformational and ethical leadership (EL) in terms of achieving organizational goals during COVID-19 in public and private sector organizations in Pakistan.

Comparative research was carried out to find out the effectiveness of transformational and EL during and pre-COVID-19 in public and private sector organizations using the lens of social exchange theory. Data was collected from 214 respondents representing 67.6% of public and 32.4% of private sector organizations of Pakistan at two different points in time. Detailed comparative analyses were conducted in AMOS version 24 to assess the effectiveness of leadership styles before and during COVID-19 times.

On the whole, transformational leadership (TL) was found to have a greater impact on organizational effectiveness (OE) in comparison with EL in both pre-and during COVID-19 situations. Moreover, the effectiveness of TL significantly increased and the same decreased for EL during COVID-19. Additional analyses indicated that TL was effective for the private sector and EL for public sector organizations during COVID-19.

The study has not considered the mediating mechanisms of employee motivation, engagement and performance in the relationship between transformational and EL styles and OE, which can be explored in the future.

These results have important implications for private and public sector organizations and suggest that the adoption of a TL style will generate better results in the private sector and an EL style in public sector organizations to achieve OE in uncertain situations such as COVID-19.

The study shows that leadership with more care and concern for humanity tends to perform better in terms of generating results for OE. Therefore, both transformational and EL are based on individualized consideration for employees and are effective during COVID-19 in private and public sector organizations in Pakistan.

The study has carried out the comparative analyses in three different ways, including leadership styles (transformational and ethical), type of organization (private and public) and time frames (pre and during COVID-19), which is a true contribution of the research in the Pakistani context.

The purpose of this study was to explicate how leaders’ knowledge hiding results in employees’ knowledge hiding. In addition, the study was intended to explore under what conditions leaders’ knowledge hiding affects employees’ moral disengagement more deleteriously.

Data were collected from 321 employees at three different times which were two months apart from each other. Structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

The study found leaders’ knowledge hiding to be related to employee moral disengagement. In addition, the study found moral disengagement to affect employees’ knowledge-hiding behavior. Moral disengagement was found to mediate the relationship between leaders’ knowledge hiding and employees’ knowledge hiding. Finally, the study found that employees with high moral identity show more perseverance to preserve their moral engagement when led by knowledge-hiding leaders.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study was first to establish a relationship between a leader’s knowledge hiding and employees’ moral disengagement. The study also established the mediating role of moral disengagement to work as a mediating mechanism linking leaders’ knowledge hiding to employees’ knowledge hiding. Finally, the study found that moral identity moderates the relationship between leaders’ knowledge hiding and employees’ moral disengagement.

The study highlights our findings, including the confirmation of phase stability through XRD analysis, the characterization of optical properties revealing high absorption and conductivity and the analysis of mechanical stability through elastic constants. Additionally, we present detailed results on the band gap, EELS analysis and the suitability of SrZrO3 perovskite oxides for next-generation optoelectronic devices.

Cubic SrZrO₃ perovskite oxides were designed within the framework of density functional theory (DFT) via the CASTEP code under varying stress conditions (0–100 GPa), aiming to explore the key properties for diverse applications. The phase stability was confirmed by XRD analysis. From 0 to 40 GPa, there is an increase in the band gap from 3.330 to 3.615 eV, while it narrows from 3.493 to 3.155 eV beyond 60 GPa. The optical characteristics revealed high absorption, superior conductivity and a lower loss function. Significantly, the elastic constants (C₁₁, C₁₂ and C₄₄) satisfy the Born-stability criterion, ensuring the mechanical stability of the compound. Additionally, the Poisson’s ratio, Pugh ratio (B/G), Frantsevich ratio, Cauchy pressure (P_C) and anisotropy factor ensured both ductile and anisotropic characteristics. Higher values of Young’s modulus and shear modulus signify a superior ability to withstand longitudinal stresses. In the EELS analysis, distinctive energy-loss peaks resulting from absorption and emission correlated with diverse electronic transitions and energy levels associated with Sr, Zr and O atoms are used to probe the precise exploration of the electronic and optical characteristics of materials with a high degree of accuracy. Based on these findings, the designed SrZrO₃ perovskite oxides are particularly suitable for applications in various optoelectronic devices.

CASTEP codes were utilized to design the cubic SrZrO₃ perovskite under varying stress conditions ranging from 0 to 100 GPa. The phase stability was confirmed through XRD analysis. A distinctive trend in the band gap was observed: an increase from 3.330 eV to 3.615 eV as the stress increased from 0 to 40 GPa and a decrease from 3.493 to 3.155 above 60 GPa. A higher absorption and conductivity and a lower loss function were found for the optical properties. The mechanical stability was ensured by elastic constants (C₁₁, C₁₂, and C₄₄) satisfying the Born-stability criteria. Additionally, the Poisson’s ratio, Pugh’s ratio (B/G), Frantsevich ratio, Cauchy pressure (P_C) and anisotropy factor were used to verify the ductility and anisotropy of the materials. Higher values of Young’s modulus and shear modulus indicate a superior ability to withstand longitudinal stresses. EELS analysis revealed distinctive energy-loss peaks associated with Sr, Zr and O atoms, enabling precise exploration of the electronic and optical characteristics with a high degree of accuracy. As expected, the designed SrZrO₃ perovskite oxides exhibit favorable properties, making them particularly suitable for next-generation optoelectronic devices.

In this study, we utilized DFT within the CASTEP code framework to investigate the properties of cubic SrZrO₃ perovskite oxides under varying stress conditions ranging from 0 to 100 GPa. Our research aimed to explore the key properties of SrZrO₃ for diverse applications, particularly in optoelectronic devices.

The purpose of the study is to ascertain the role of servant leadership in causing innovative work behavior. The study also examines the mediating role of job crafting and sequential mediating role of trust and job crafting between servant leadership and innovative work behavior.

The data were collected from 258 knowledge workers employed in software houses in Pakistan through survey design. The data analysis was done through structural equation modeling.

The results of the analysis of 258 respondents show that servant leadership is related with trust, job crafting and innovative work behavior. The mediation analysis revealed that job crafting mediates the relation between servant leadership and innovative work behavior. Finally, the relation between servant leadership and innovative work behavior was found to be sequentially mediated by trust and job crafting.

The current study contributes to delineating the linking mechanism between servant leadership and innovative work behavior. The main contributions of the study are exploring the mediating role of job crafting along with the sequential mediating role of trust and job crafting.

This study aims to focus on delineating the drivers of intention to adopt mobile banking (m-banking) and its actual use among Islamic banking customers by extending the UTAUT2 model with the trust factor. The study also examined the moderating roles of age, gender and experience in the model.

An explanatory research design was used, and an online survey was conducted to collect responses from Islamic banking customers. A total of 329 completed responses were used to analyze the data. The partial least squares method was used for data analysis, and a multi-group analysis was applied for moderation-related analysis.

Trust positively and significantly influences the behavioral intention to adopt m-banking among Islamic banking customers. In addition, social influence, effort expectancy, hedonic motivation and habits significantly influence behavioral intentions among Islamic banking customers.

This study provides an extended UTAUT2 model that has never been tested in the context of Islamic m-banking. In addition, this study is expected to be the first scholarly research on Islamic banking in the Maldives.