Salman Mahmood, Shuhui Wen, Shoaib Aslam, Muhammad Rizwan Khan and Fahad Ur Rehman
This research aimed to find out both direct and mediating relationships between the fear of COVID-19 (FC) and the usage of digital financial services (UDFS) via mediator financial…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aimed to find out both direct and mediating relationships between the fear of COVID-19 (FC) and the usage of digital financial services (UDFS) via mediator financial anxiety (FA). It also attempted to ascertain the moderated effect of education of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners (ESO), i.e. business degree holders (BDH) vs nonbusiness degree holders (NBDH), in the relationship between FC and the UDFS.
Design/methodology/approach
This research employed a simple random sampling technique. In total, 387 complete responses were collected from Pakistani SMEs. The complete analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 23, AMOS 24, Process Marco 4.1, and Interaction 1.7.
Findings
According to the findings, FC leads to UDFS and FA mediates this relationship. Additionally, the findings show that the ESO between FC and UDFS was moderated. However, conditional analysis shows that BDH-SME owners strengthened the moderated relationship between FC and UDFS compared to NBDH-SME owners, who did not show any relationship.
Research limitations/implications
Policymakers might use the study's findings to promote business education, which has been recognized as essential for making sound financial decisions. Finally, because the study is cross-sectional, the authors are unable to draw definitive generalizations.
Originality/value
The key novelty of this research work lies in the inclusion of FA as a mediator and the education of SME owners as a moderator in understanding the relationship between FC and the UDFS. This study illuminated the positive aspects of the COVID-19 epidemic based on the theory of emotional finance, risk avoidance theory and theories of emotion.
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Rizwan Ullah Khan, Munir A. Abbasi, Abedallah Farouq Ahmad Farhan, Mohammed Alawi Al-sakkaf and Karpal Singh Dara Singh
As a result, the current study attempted to investigate the impact of green human resource (GHR) practices on long-term performance, and the path has been explained through…
Abstract
Purpose
As a result, the current study attempted to investigate the impact of green human resource (GHR) practices on long-term performance, and the path has been explained through organizational identification, which is supported by social identity theory.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve the present study's primary goal, data were obtained from manufacturing businesses and analyzed using partial least square (Smart PLS) on the data of 284 Pakistani small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) registered with the small and medium-sized enterprises development authority (SMEDA).
Findings
As a result, the findings show that organizational identification explains the indirect relationship between sustainable performance and green human resource management (GHRM).
Practical implications
To limit the limited negative effect on the environment and society, the findings provide several suggestions for the government authorities and policymakers to adopt green practices and policies.
Originality/value
Green practices are essential for a company to limit its negative environmental effect. Environmental critical problems among shareholders put pressure on the firm to implement GHR practices and organizational identification with long-term success.
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Ume Kalsoom, Sheheryar Javed, Rizwan Ullah Khan and Arif Maqsood
The authors examine the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the stock market, forex market and gold market of Pakistan.
Abstract
Purpose
The authors examine the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the stock market, forex market and gold market of Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
By using the daily data of COVID-19 confirmed cases, stock index, foreign currency rates and gold prices for the period 10 March 2020 to 16 October 2020, the authors explore that the stock index negatively responds to the corona pandemic.
Findings
Additionally, the authors observe the price hikes in gold and foreign currency corresponding to the number of COVID-19 positive cases.
Practical implications
The study analysis unveils that the stock market adversely responds to a pandemic, whereas, forex and gold markets serve as a safe haven for investors at the time of financial distress.
Originality/value
This study complements the literature and provides empirical evidence of the stock market, the gold market and foreign currency market, in the perspective of Pakistan.
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Sidra Shahzadi, Rizwan Khan, Maryam Toor and Ayaz ul Haq
The accounting system plays an important role in the company’s organizational structure. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the integration of management accounting…
Abstract
Purpose
The accounting system plays an important role in the company’s organizational structure. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the integration of management accounting practices is subject to coordination between external and internal factors and accounting management practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Therefore, the authors move to the contingency model to determine the most significant external “unexpected factors” that explain the introduction of management practices for the management of the various stages of development. The exploratory study examines a sample of Pakistani companies from various sectors.
Findings
This study reveals that the main factors of uncertainty that affect the organizational structure, environmental uncertainty, advanced production technology, just-in-time method strategy, integrated management of quality and structure findings reveal that MAP affected all process and changes all system in simple to complex system in Pakistani’s industries.
Practical implications
This study is to acquisition the impact of external factors on management accounting practices, to find the impact of internal factors on management accounting practices, to establish the management accounting practices undertaken by the companies in Pakistan.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature by enhancing our understanding for the impact of external and internal factors on management accounting practices in Pakistan.
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Rizwan Khan, Erwin Adi and Omar Hussain
This paper aims to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) audit tool for auditing text-based evidence and determine its efficiency and effectiveness.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) audit tool for auditing text-based evidence and determine its efficiency and effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
A manual audit checklist and an AI audit tool are developed with fuzzy front-end (FFE) from Innovation Management System Standard (IMSS) as the audit scope, First, a manual audit of five organisations is conducted to determine their compliance scores. The transcripts of the audit are recorded which are used by the AI audit tool to assign compliance scores for the same organisations. The effectiveness and efficiency of the AI audit tool are determined by comparing their results with the manual audit.
Findings
This paper demonstrates the development of the FFE AI audit tool which led to 92% improved efficiency while being 95% effective compared to a human auditor.
Practical implications
The publication of new financial and non-financial standards (such as ISO56002: IMSS) have implications for internal auditing (IA). The scope of IA must expand to include new standards while remaining efficient. Emerging technologies, such as AI help achieve this. Even though the use of AI in financial auditing is widely studied, it has not received similar attention in non-financial auditing. This paper develops a non-financial AI audit tool to audit an essential component of the IMSS, the FFE of innovation and determine its efficiency and effectiveness.
Originality/value
The study develops an FFE AI audit tool for the first time. The methodology used has practical and academic implications for the use of AI in non-financial auditing.
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Ali Amin, Rizwan Ullah Khan and Arif Maqsood
This study examines whether financial development affects entrepreneurship, and how financial openness moderate this relationship.
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines whether financial development affects entrepreneurship, and how financial openness moderate this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs panel data consisting of 781 country-year observations of 48 countries of Asia for the period 2001–2018.
Findings
The study provides empirical support for the eclectic theory of entrepreneurship in Asian countries. The findings of the study indicate that effective allocation of resources and ease of transactions increases the entrepreneurial activities in the country. Additionally, the less stringent regulations, allowing for the cross border transactions, increase the funds availability to the entrepreneurs which in turn increase innovation and establishment of new businesses.
Research limitations/implications
The study only considered the moderating influence of financial openness on the nexus. Other indicators such as governance quality and political stability could also have significant impact on entrepreneurship. Further, our study was based on countries belonging to Asian continent. Since Asian continent has culture distinguished from other regions, therefore, the results cannot be generalized to the other continents.
Practical implications
The study’s results provide insight to policymakers and regulators that in order to increase the entrepreneurial activities, the financial sector improvement is of paramount importance. The regulators should focus on well-functioning financial system and availability of capital to improve the investor's confidence and boost economic activities.
Originality/value
The study provides novel evidence on the effects of financial development on entrepreneurship and moderating influence of financial openness in the context of the entire Asian region, which is yet an unexplored area. This paper offers a fresh contribution in this area.
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Krishna Moorthy, Loh Chun T’ing, Seow Ai Na, Chew Tze Ching, Lee Yuin Loong, Lim Sze Xian and Teoh Wei Ling
This paper aims to study the factors that influence customer loyalty toward the internet service providers in Malaysia. The five factors used are corporate image, perceived…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the factors that influence customer loyalty toward the internet service providers in Malaysia. The five factors used are corporate image, perceived quality, perceived value, price fairness and promotion. The mediating variable of this study is customer satisfaction, while customer loyalty is the study variable.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary data collection has been done by distributing survey questionnaires to 338 internet users in Malaysia. The data collected have been analyzed with SAS software.
Findings
The results showed that perceived quality has the strongest influence on customer satisfaction toward internet service providers in Malaysia. However, corporate image has no relationship with customer satisfaction toward internet service providers in Malaysia. Furthermore, customer satisfaction has a significant and positive relationship to customer loyalty toward the internet service providers in Malaysia.
Originality/value
European Customer Satisfaction Index has been adopted and combined with price fairness and promotion as a new research model that other researchers may look into it further. This research may also serve as a guide to internet service providers as they may learn about the underlying factors that affect the satisfaction and loyalty of customers and which factor has the strongest impact.
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Samuel Famiyeh, Disraeli Asante-Darko and Amoako Kwarteng
The purpose of this paper is to understand the moderating role of organizational culture in the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the moderating role of organizational culture in the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty in the banking sector using data from the Ghanaian banking sector. The idea is to understand the relative importance of the various service dimensions to customers patronizing banking services in Ghana and to ascertain what drives customer satisfaction and whether this satisfaction has implication on their loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a survey and relied on partial least squares structural equation modeling to study the relationship between service quality and its impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
Findings
The result indicates that the reliability, ambiance and social factors all have a significant positive relationship with the satisfaction of customers doing business with these banks. However, assurance and responsiveness of the employees seem to have no significant relationship with the satisfaction of customers. It is also important to indicate that organizational culture seems to strengthen the positive relationship between the service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction. The results further indicate that customer satisfaction has a direct positive relationship with customer loyalty.
Research limitations/implications
Reliability, ambiance and social factors remain the three most important drivers of customer satisfaction in the banking sector in Ghana. It is, therefore, important for bankers to consistently undergo training and education in order to deliver more reliable services to customers. Managers should also make efforts to groom employees, provide attractive promotion materials, provide directions to the banks, make sure the banking halls are neat for customers while waiting and the provision of enough parking spaces for customers. One limitation of this work is that the data focused on only the Ghanaian banking environment.
Practical implications
The research shows the importance of the service quality constructs such as reliability, ambiance and the social factors on customer satisfaction and loyalty in the banking sector. The organizational culture seems to strengthen the positive relationship between empathy, reliability, tangibles and customer satisfaction. It is therefore important for banks to continue to build cultures that will commit employees to their work, so that they feel the sense of ownership of quality in order to contribute meaningfully.
Originality/value
The work illustrates and provides some insights and builds on the literature in the area of service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty from a developing country’s environment using the stimulus-organism-response model. In addition, this work further highlights the importance of the moderating role of organizational culture in the relationship between the service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction.
Elżbieta Marcinkowska and Joanna Sawicka
Nearly half of the surveyed SMEs in Poland admitted that there is a very strong competition on the market where they operate. Among the neuralgic factors they point to the lack of…
Abstract
Purpose
Nearly half of the surveyed SMEs in Poland admitted that there is a very strong competition on the market where they operate. Among the neuralgic factors they point to the lack of qualified employees (PARP, 2021). Companies can use CSR policies to attract competent employees and retain valuable ones. Therefore, the purpose of this research paper is to find out whether, according to employees working in SME companies, an active CSR policy influences their employment-related decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected through questionnaires received from 618 employees of 29 SMEs in Poland through questionnaires, which were analyzed with the IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0 and Microsoft Excel 2019.
Findings
The survey results provide evidence that CSR activities are an important factor in employees' decisions about potential employment and/or continued employment. In particular, the results show that almost all areas of CSR, except cooperation with the local communities, are important to employees. The survey also provides a clear answer as to which CSR initiatives benefiting employees of SME companies are the most important for them.
Originality/value
The conducted research fills a gap in CSR related studies on the SME sector in Poland. This is important, given the significant share of SME sector companies in the market in Poland and around the world.
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Najul Laskar, Jagadish Prasad Sahu and Khalada Sultana Choudhury
The main purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of gender diversity both at the board and workforce level on firm performance (FP) in the Indian context.
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of gender diversity both at the board and workforce level on firm performance (FP) in the Indian context.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on annual data of 200 companies listed on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for the period 2012–2019. The authors have used the fixed-effects (FE) regression and system generalized method of moments to estimate the impact of board gender diversity and workforce gender diversity (WGD) on FP. The authors have used Blau's Index (BI) and Shannon's Index (SI) to measure gender diversity. Further, the authors have used return on assets and Tobin's Q (TBQ) to measure FP.
Findings
The authors' panel regression results suggest that board gender diversity and WGD have a positive and statistically significant impact on FP. The authors' findings are robust across different methods of estimation and alternative measures of FP.
Originality/value
This paper examines the impact of gender diversity both at the board and workforce level on FP of 200 companies listed on BSE. The authors' study contributes to the literature that is sparse in the Indian context and provides new insights on the impact of board and WGD on FP. The findings have useful policy implications. To achieve better performance, it is imperative to appreciate gender diversity at the governance and workforce level in a fast-growing economy like India.