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The study investigates the impact of competition and concentration on bank risk-taking behavior and stability in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region.

Data from 100 banks from 2013 to 2021 was analyzed using dynamic and static measures by using dynamic system GMM.

Results showed that higher competition reduces stability, while concentration in the banking sector produces stability and reduces risk-taking behavior. The findings suggest that regulatory agencies should take different actions based on the degree of banking market concentration to enhance banking sector stability in the SAARC area.

The research helps regulators and decision-makers establish capital requirements at levels that would prevent banks from increasing their risk-taking in order to boost profits and, therefore, reduces hazardous practices that might increase the risk.

The research helps establish capital requirements to prevent banks from increasing risk-taking to boost profits and avoid hazardous practices that could increase nonperforming loans and bank failure risks.

This study aims to estimate the regulatory compliance impact on the risk of banks operating in Pakistan. The direct and indirect regulatory compliance of conventional banks with Islamic operations in terms of risk from 2009 to 2017 are estimated.

This study used a two-step system generalized method of moment (GMM) (dynamic panel) to examine the relationship between regulatory compliance, Islamic operations and the bank risk and tested the direct and indirect impacts of regulatory compliance and Islamic operations on the said risk.

Regulatory compliance has a significant and positive relation with bank risk, whereas the Islamic bank operations have a significant and negative relationship. Thus, regulatory compliance creates pressure on banks, but the Islamic operations of conventional banks reduce this pressure in direct and indirect ways.

Per the policy of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), banks shall pursue Islamic operations to reduce regulatory pressure and widen their scope. The results suggest that regulatory compliance creates pressure on bank risk irrespective of the type of the bank. Thus, the SBP should seek the appropriate measure for this occurrence.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is the very first study that has considered the unique Islamic operations of conventional banks and estimated its impact on risk. Moreover, this work examined two types of bank risk instead of employing stability and market measure. This research is also the first to implement a two-step system GMM for the methodology.

The presence of heavy metals in milk causes many acute and chronic physiological dysfunctions in human organs. The present study aims to investigate the heavy metals in cow's and buffalo's milk of two major cities, Karachi and Gujranwala, Pakistan to estimate metal intake by humans from this source.

In total, 48 milk samples from 2 cities were drawn from animals' udder to avoid contamination. Each sample was digested with nitric acid at 105 ^oC (degree Celsius) on a pre-heated electric hot plate to investigate the metals by atomic absorption spectroscopy (flame type). Air-acetylene technique analyzed chromium, cadmium and lead, and the hydride method analyzed arsenic in the milk samples.

The results revealed the highest mean lead concentration (19.65 ± 43.86 ppb) in the milk samples, followed by chromium (2.10 ± 2.33 ppb) and arsenic (0.48 ± 0.73 ppb). Cadmium was not detected in any sample, assuming cadmium's occurrence was below the detection level. The concentrations of all the metals in the samples of the two cities do not differ statistically. Lead concentrations in the buffalo's milk were higher than in cow's milk (p < 0.05). However, the concentrations of arsenic and chromium between buffalo's and cow's milk do not differ statistically. The present study reveals a lower level of metals in the milk than those conducted elsewhere. The mean concentrations of all the metals met the World Health Organization's (WHO) safety guidelines (1993).

Although cadmium causes toxicity in the human body, cadmium could not be measured because cadmium's concentration was below the detection level, which is 1 ppb.

This study will help reduce the toxic metals in our environment, and the sources of heavy metals, particularly from the industrial sector could be identified. The feed and water consumed by the milking animals could be carefully used for feeding them.

This study will help reduce the diseases and malfunction of human organs and organ systems since these heavy metals cause toxicity and carcinogenicity in humans. Arsenic and chromium cause cancer while lead causes encephalopathy (a brain disease).

The study reports heavy metal concentrations in the two attributes of four independent variables of raw milk samples that were scarcely reported from Pakistan.

The purpose of this paper is to present a radiochromic film dosimeter containing polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) matrix and various concentrations of methyl red (MR) dye for high dose measurements.

The MR-PVA films were exposed to irradiation up to 60 kGy using ⁶⁰Co source of gamma ray. The ultraviolet and visible regions (UV/VIS) spectrophotometry were used to examine the optical density of pre-and post-irradiated dosimeters at 424 nm.

The dose sensitivity of MR-PVA films increases significantly with increasing MR dye concentrations in the dose range of 5 to 60 kGy. The impact of relative humidity, irradiation temperature, dose rate and the stability of the films has been analyzed. The overall uncertainty of the MR-PVA film dosimeter is 6.12% (Double Standard-deviation, 95% confidence level).

It was found that the MR-PVA films may be used as high dose dosimeter with an acceptable overall uncertainty in routine industrial radiation processing.

The color bleaching of irradiated MR-PVA films in terms of specific absorbance curves increases significantly with increasing absorbed dose up to 60 kGy.

In recent years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, home textile production orders decreased significantly. This sudden drop in production has increased industry competition, making customer satisfaction more challenging. As a result, it has become imperative for the industry to deftly navigate such ongoing challenges.

This study examines textile production efficiency methodically. Customer requirements like quality, on-time delivery, better working conditions, cost-effectiveness and facility safety audits are understood first. Quality function deployment (QFD) turns client requirements into technical requirements. Prioritise and analyse risks using Monte Carlo simulation and Pareto charts. Consequently, experts and literature propose corrective measures, which are tested in a pilot run to see how they affect production.

QFD, define, measure, analyse, improve and control (DMAIC) and Monte Carlo simulation were used to reduce high-priority risks and meet client requirements in this study. The house of quality helped relate customers’ requirements and technical requirements. Monte Carlo simulation has also improved risk prioritisation by providing a flexible mathematical structure for identifying and managing the most important risks.

This study is novel in the way it applies this integrated approach to the understudied home textile sector. Unlike traditional DMAIC, this study introduces a novel matrix encompassing all defects. This study offers a data-driven approach to improve product quality, meet customer expectations and reduce prioritised risks in home textile manufacturing.

The present research aims to study the behavioural intention to use the digital currencies issued by the central bank through the lens of technology acceptance and switching behaviour perspective. The study also proposes to analyse the role of financial constructs to explain the adoption intention.

The current study develops a model by integrating the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and the push–pull–mooring (PPM) theory of switching behaviour. It amends the same by including financial literacy, financial inclusion and trust. A sample data of 419 respondents has been collected through a structured questionnaire and the PLS-SEM approach has been used for data analysis.

The findings suggest that UTAUT and PPM models can significantly predict individuals' readiness to adopt the central bank digital currency (CBDC). More precisely, performance expectancy, social influence, government support, relative advantage and task-technology fit jointly determine the adoption behaviour. Besides, the financial constructs also affect the intention to use CBDC.

The study is largely based on a quantitative approach with cross-sectional data from an Indian sample. Thus, the findings may benefit from a longitudinal approach with mixed-method data analysis. However, the study elaborates on several implications for policymakers and research scholars.

The present study uniquely integrates the technology adoption perspective with switching behaviour applied to the migration studies. Given the nascent stage of CBDC implementation in many countries, the current study uses a triangulation approach to enhance the understanding of its adoption behaviour.

This study aims to identify the status of virtual library system development in university libraries. It also attempted to examine the availability of virtual library services and reveal the challenges being faced by university librarians of Punjab province, Pakistan in providing virtual library services.

The study used a quantitative research method by using a questionnaire to address the study’s objectives. In total, 62 university libraries in Punjab province, Pakistan were the population of the study. A purposive sampling technique was applied to gather the required data from the respondents.

Results showed that most of the study’s respondents are well aware of the potential benefits of virtual library systems in universities for the delivery of innovative smart services to library patrons. The libraries delivered different virtual library services to meet the diverse needs of the library patrons. The respondents faced the challenges of funding, expertise, technical support, leadership, strategic planning and training to adopt virtual library systems and services in university libraries.

The study has provided a framework based on empirical findings of the study to efficiently adopt virtual library systems and services in university libraries for the delivery of smart services to end users. It has provided pertinent theoretical and practical implications.

This study aims to examine the mediating and moderating roles of cognitive trust and organizational culture in the relationship between leadership and employee task performance and turnover intention.

Data were collected from 543 employees through a survey from the Islamic banking sector in Pakistan. Structural equation modelling (partial least squares) was used to estimate the effect.

The results demonstrate that cognitive trust plays a positive and significant mediating role between leadership and task performance (O = 0.064, T = 2.005, p = 0.028). Moreover, there is a negative relationship between leadership and employee turnover intention with the mediation of cognitive trust (O = −0.061, T = 1.976, p = 0.021). In addition, organizational culture plays a significant moderating role between cognitive trust and employee task performance (O = 0.014, T = 2.141, p = 0.038).

The results emphasize the critical role of organizational culture and cognitive trust in amplifying or reducing the impact of leadership on employee attitudes. This offers managers and leaders practical insights to boost employee performance and reduce turnover.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is unique in that it seeks to advance understanding of social exchange theory management by examining the moderated-mediation frameworks in the interaction between leadership and specific aspects of employee attitudes.

This study aims to find the determinants of internal and external customer satisfaction of Islamic banks of Pakistan through service quality indicators that are assurance, reliance, empathy, tangibility, responsiveness. Compliance has also been added as a determinant of customer satisfaction. In this study, customers are divided into two groups, internal customers are those who are an employee in the Islamic bank and also an account holder. While external customers are account holders only in Islamic banks of Pakistan.

In this study, a quantitative research approach is used for analyzing the behavior of internal and external customers of Islamic banks in Pakistan. The instrument which is used to analyze the study’s data, is a structured five-point Likert-scale questionnaire. The structural model was analyzed with the help of the partial least squares structural equation modeling approach.

This study concluded that internal customers of Islamic banking are well aware and have full information and their level of satisfaction is positive toward the bank’s services. While external customers feel satisfied while using the Islamic banking services in Pakistan. Service quality indicators are positively and significantly related to customer satisfaction in the external customer model. On the other hand, some of the indicators are not showing a significant impact on the internal customer multi-group analysis shows a difference of coefficients are insignificant between internal and external customers.

This study helps policymakers, to understand the behavior of internal and external customers of Islamic banking in Pakistan for creating favorable policies for an interest-free banking service.

This research study provides an analysis of the customer satisfaction of Islamic banks in Pakistan by dividing Islamic bank customers into two groups (internal and external customers). The purpose for dividing Islamic bank customers into two groups is that this study wants to highlight that external customer’s perception is the same as internal customers or not? Before this study, it is difficult to find single research on this topic, whereas only one study is find-out on the factors that affect internet banking adoption among internal and external customers.

This study aims to investigate the antecedents of Halal culinary repurchase intention. This research examines the role of health consciousness, past product quality experience, Halal literacy, subjective norm and attitude on Halal culinary repurchase intention.

This quantitative research involved 500 domestic tourists as the research subjects. This research was conducted in five cities/municipals in West Sumatra, Indonesia. To obtain the data, 500 questionnaires were distributed to research subjects. In addition, this research used partial least square structural equation model to analyze the data.

This study found that health consciousness is a significant antecedent of past product quality experience, subjective norms and attitudes. Subjective norms also significantly influence past product quality experience, attitude and repurchase intention. Moreover, past product quality experience leads to attitude and attitude is a significant antecedent to repurchase intention. Finally, halal literacy is a significant influence factor on repurchase intention.

This study is a cross-sectional study that has focused on one-time data collection. Therefore, this study has a limitation for generalization. Second, it was only conducted in one Muslim country (Indonesia). To obtain more comprehensive and conclusive results, this research can be conducted in several other Muslim countries such as Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Middle Eastern countries. Finally, this study only addressed health consciousness, past product quality experience and Halal literacy as the antecedents of repurchase intention. Future research can add some consequences and antecedents of repurchase intention such as customer loyalty, environmental awareness and perceived risk.

This study reveals that tourists repurchase intention of Halal culinary products is influenced by some factors such as health consciousness, past product quality experience and Halal literacy. Therefore, to increase the tourist repurchase intention, the management of Halal culinary restaurants in tourist destinations must pay attention on product healthiness. In addition, the management should also focus on the customer experience by conducting a survey regarding customer experience in consuming Halal culinary. Referring to the customer evaluation results, the restaurants can improve their product quality. Finally, the management should also pay special attention to customers’ Halal literacy by educating them with Halal food knowledge, which will make them repurchase Halal food in the future.

This study has addresses health consciousness, past product quality experience and Halal literacy as the antecedents of repurchase intention, especially in the Halal culinary marketing context. Previous studies have addressed health consciousness in the food or culinary studies. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is currently no study that examines the relationship between health consciousness, past product quality experience, Halal literacy and repurchase intention, especially in the context of Halal culinary product. Second, this study also revealed the link between health consciousness and past product quality experience in Halal culinary business, which has been overlooked.