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Tackling discrimination, stigma and inequalities in mental health is a major UK government objective. Surveys have suggested that mental health services are institutionally racist. Most research has focused on stigma associated with schizophrenia despite well‐documented prejudice against people with other psychiatric disorders.The aim of this study was to assess stigmatised attitudes towards people from two ethnic groups with substance use disorder and learning disability. The 20‐point Attitude to Mental Illness Questionnaire (AMIQ) was used to assess stigmatised attitudes. A representative panel of members of the general public were randomised to receive a questionnaire with a picture of a European or African‐Caribbean man and a fictitious description of alcoholism (first round) or Down's syndrome (second round) six months later. Results were received for over 198 subjects (response rate 79‐84%). There was no difference between the score for the African‐Caribbean vignette or the European vignette for either alcoholism (mean AMIQ score 0.43 standard error = 0.39; n = 100 Vs 0.98 standard error = 0.53; n = 110; effect size r = 0.11; p = 0.2059;) or learning disability (mean 1.71 standard error = 0.22; n = 100 Vs 1.98; standard error = 0.30; n = 98; effect size r = 0.07; p = 0.2559).The study showed that ethnic origin had no significant difference on stigmatised attitudes towards someone with alcoholism or learning disability. Although a larger study would have increased power to detect a statistically significant difference it seems unlikely that a difference of the observed magnitude would be of any practical relevance.

Injectable opioid therapy (prescribing heroin for heroin addicts to inject) remains a highly controversial and expensive option. Recent research has shown significant benefits for this therapy in otherwise refractory patients. The aim of this paper is to assess the public opinion regarding heroin prescribing to addicts and to determine what effect the cost of this might have on their opinions.

Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire after reading a vignette which described current opioid maintenance therapy. Two vignettes were generated and the experimental group was randomised to receive the additional information that the cost of heroin prescribing was £15,000 per addict, per year.

Questionnaires were received from 187 subjects (response rate 74 percent). For the control group, 23 percent agreed and 58 percent disagreed with prescribing heroin to addicts (23 vs 62). For the experimental group, where the additional cost of £15,000 per addict was introduced into the vignette, 10 percent agreed and 75 percent disagreed (10 vs 71). The difference was statistically significant (p<0.05; χ²). In total, 58 percent of people were opposed to the idea that heroin should be prescribed to heroin addicts on the National Health Service but this rises to 75 percent when the annual cost of prescribed heroin (£15,000) is included.

This study supports an earlier survey that showed over 80 percent of the general public opposed the prescription of diamorphine to addicts even to reduce crime. Heroin prescribing remains controversial and lacks public support.

Pakistan is one of the most climate change and natural disaster-affected countries in the globe, where the lives and livelihoods of people are repeatedly affected due to these natural disasters. Over the past few decades, the country has been impacted by numerous devastating floods, droughts, and storms. As a result, households face enormous complications, particularly those dwelling in disaster-prone areas. Therefore, this study intends to explore the status of household vulnerability and resilience practices of hazard-prone communities in Pakistan from existing literature. This study has identified the 17 most relevant documents. It argues that household vulnerability is increasing consistently with the increasing rate of disaster intensity. Frequent flooding, landslide, erosion, and crop loss are the leading causes of household vulnerability. This study reveals five types of household vulnerability components which look into several livelihood vulnerability indicators of Pakistani households. Moreover, the study unfolds that the main causes of disaster vulnerability are widespread crop loss, a lack of water, loss of soil fertility, and low socioeconomic situations. The major vulnerability components of dwellers are exposure (increasing summer duration, the rapid increase of population house build-up in the riparian areas, and increasing occurrence of hailstorms), sensitivity, low access to education facilities, human loss, diseases infestation, food insecurity, and social conflict), and less adaptive capacity (social networks, migration, poor emergency services, multiple income sources, and less access to the health facility). To address the household vulnerability, this study has also identified four key aspects of resilience, like social resilience, economic resilience, institutional resilience, and physical resilience. The findings will effectively help to understand the dynamics of household vulnerability and resilience and its measurement and management strategy from developed indicators.

Employee participation in budgeting enhances motivation and commitment, leading to better performance by enhancing ownership. Within Iraqi higher education institutions (HEIs), the current investigation delves into the influence of participative budgeting on managerial performance. Drawing upon goal-setting theory, this study discerns budget goal commitment as a mediating variable while also examining directive leadership as a moderator in the dynamics of this association.

The current study used partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS 4.0. 373 questionnaires were collected from managers in Iraqi public universities, with 58.37% responding.

The findings show that budget goal commitment partially mediates the connection between budget participation and managerial performance. Furthermore, the results showed that directive leadership increases the positive associations between budget goal commitment and managerial performance.

This study expands the existing literature by shedding light on the mediating role of budget goal commitment and the moderating influence of directive leadership. It also enriches the discourse in management accounting by providing a more elucidation of how employee involvement in the budgeting process enhances managerial performance.

The strict regulations and reporting requirements in microfinance institutions require a high level of knowledge and expertise in finance, accounting and risk management. Therefore, microfinance institutions (MFIs) must possess a high absorptive capacity to understand their customers’ needs and develop appropriate products and services to meet them. This study explains how organizational culture influences absorptive capacity in MFIs, with a particular focus on the mediating role of knowledge sharing.

Data were collected from 450 randomly selected employees of microfinance banking institutions in Pakistan. The data were tested for reliability and validity, and hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling in WarpPLS 8.0.

The findings show that knowledge! sharing mediates the relationship between organizational culture and absorptive capacity. Thus, MFIs should promote knowledge sharing as a cultural value to improve their ability to acquire and utilize new knowledge, enhance absorptive capacity to drive innovation and facilitate the development of new products and services.

MFIs with higher absorptive capacity are more likely to be able to respond to changes in the market, such as new technologies or shifting customer demands. Therefore, managers should promote a culture of sharing knowledge and expertise to ensure adaptability in dynamic market conditions.

This research provides a framework for organizations to better understand the role of knowledge sharing in their success and how to leverage it to enhance their absorptive capacity. It is valuable for academics and practitioners seeking to improve organizational performance and competitiveness.

There are some Muslims who only hold conventional bank accounts, regardless that some believe that such banks implement an interest charging system that contradicts Islamic law concerning the prohibition of charging interest. This study aims to investigate the consumers’ tendency to regret (CTR) related to purchasing conventional banking services (CTR-P) and the failure to purchase Islamic banking services (CTR-NP). Then, this study investigates whether CTR-P and CTR-NP translate into regret, which, in turn, leads to the intention to save money in Islamic banks.

A survey of Indonesian Muslims who only hold conventional banking accounts was conducted. There were 323 participants. This study then applied a partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypotheses.

This study found that a combination of CTR-P and CTR-NP translates into regret, which then drives the intention to save money in Islamic banks as a means of releasing such feelings of regret. The findings suggest that Muslims evaluate their banking decision on an Islamic basis and that making a decision that contradicts the prohibition of charging interest tends to cause regret. Islamic banks have opportunities to penetrate the market by focusing on Muslims who only hold accounts with conventional banks.

The findings of this study help advance understanding of Muslims’ negative emotional experience due to making a decision that they perceive contradicts Islamic law. Also, the findings help predict the strategy that Muslims use to neutralize such a negative emotional experience.

This study aims to investigate whether the introduction of innovative financial products increases welfare for low-income households working in the manufacturing sector. Specifically, the authors measure the impact of mobile financial services (MFSs) on economic opportunities and wellbeing of garment factory workers in Bangladesh.

The study is based on Amartya Sen’s Capabilities Approach. Close to 400 textile factory workers were interviewed about their experience using Bangladesh’s most popular MFS, and how their household welfare has changed over time. Results were tabulated and analyzed with simple statistical tools.

While there remains an abundance of friction in the system, financial innovation still assisted low-income households in savings, and expedited and secured their fund transfers. The introduction of the new technology, especially when it is made mandatory, seems to have disempowered married women by reducing their financial independence from their husbands.

This study should help policy makers and international bodies in their efforts to design and support the inclusive growth of mobile financial technology.

This study aims to theoretically discuss and empirically test the mediating mechanism of psychological distress and the moderating effects of Islamic work ethics (IWE) in the relationship between despotic leadership and adaptive performance.

A three-wave survey was used to gather the data from middle managers and their supervisors of construction firms in Pakistan. The final sample consisted of 304 respondents and data analysis was performed through SEM analysis.

Despotic leadership enhances employees’ psychological distress which results in a negative impact on adaptive performance. In addition, IWE played a buffering role in mitigating the harmful impacts of despotic leadership on adaptive performance.

The study is among the pioneers that have investigated how despotic leadership impacts employees’ adaptive performance via the underlying mechanism of psychological distress through the conservation of resources and social exchange theory lens.

Entrepreneurship has become a widely accepted concept in the past few decades due to its prominent role in economic activity and economic development of a nation. Promotion of entrepreneurship can be ensured with the help of entrepreneurship teaching and learning through higher education institutions. Similarly, entrepreneurship skills play a significant role in the promotion of students’ intentions to become entrepreneurs. This study aims to examine the role of universities and entrepreneurship skills on the entrepreneurial intentions of students.

Business simulation games is taken as mediator between university role and entrepreneurial intentions as well as entrepreneurship skills and entrepreneurial intentions. This research has used Smart PLS to perform a PLS-SEM technique with a data of 378 students from higher education institutions of Malaysia.

The results of data analysis show a positive role of universities and entrepreneurship skills in the promotion of student’s entrepreneurial intentions. Moreover, business simulation games positively mediates the relationship between dependent and independent variables.

Results of this research prove that entrepreneurial skills and university support have a significant part in the promotion of entrepreneurship intentions of students. As students use the electronic resources such as business simulation games, their skills, attitude and practical knowledge is positively enhanced and eventually it positively impacts the intention of students to become entrepreneurs. Therefore, it is believed that promotion of entrepreneurial skills in students via business simulation games and positive role of universities in promoting entrepreneurship will have a significant positive influence on the students’ entrepreneurial intentions.

The imperative to conserve resources and minimize operational expenses has spurred a notable increase in the adoption of lean manufacturing within the context of the circular economy across diverse industries in recent years. However, a notable gap exists in the research landscape, particularly concerning the implementation of lean practices within the pharmaceutical industry to enhance circular economy performance. Addressing this void, this study endeavors to identify and prioritize the pivotal drivers influencing lean manufacturing within the pharmaceutical sector.

The outcome of this rigorous examination highlights that “Continuous Monitoring Process for Sustainable Lean Implementation,” “Management Involvement for Sustainable Implementation” and “Training and Education” emerge as the most consequential drivers. These factors are deemed crucial for augmenting circular economy performance, underscoring the significance of management engagement, training initiatives and a continuous monitoring process in fostering a closed-loop practice within the pharmaceutical industry.

The findings contribute valuable insights for decision-makers aiming to adopt lean practices within a circular economy framework. Specifically, by streamlining the process of developing a robust action plan tailored to the unique needs of the pharmaceutical sector, our study provides actionable guidance for enhancing overall sustainability in the manufacturing processes.

This study represents one of the initial efforts to systematically identify and assess the drivers to LM implementation within the pharmaceutical industry, contributing to the emerging body of knowledge in this area.