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Businesses are increasingly striving to become sustainable in terms of economic, environmental and social aspects. However, in the fresh food retail supply chains (SCs), achieving environmental objectives can be challenging because of the unique characteristics of products such as perishability, bulkiness, short product lifecycle and the requirement for cold chain infrastructure. The retail industry is the face of a SC. Therefore, its role in achieving sustainable objectives is pivotal. This study examines the effect of green in-store operations on sustainability performance indicators of fresh food retail and examines the moderating role of organization size in this context.

Data are collected through surveys using self-administered questionnaires from 70 retail stores with 188 completed responses. Data are analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results show a positive relationship between green in-store operation with environmental social and economic performance. Furthermore, these relationships are moderated by the organization size such that the positive green in-store operation and performance relationships are stronger in the case of environmental and social performance only and for larger retail stores. No moderation is seen for economic performance.

The study broadens the understanding of green SC management’s effect on sustainability performance in the retail industry. It shows how the positive implications of a green SC are contingent on organization size and have prominence for environmental and social performance.

This study explores value-added food products in smallholder dairy farming in developing countries by analyzing external pressures, supply chain learning, farmer innovation, education level, and food safety compliance.

We employed a quantitative approach by surveying 418 smallholder dairy farmers in three districts of Pakistan using interviewer-administered questionnaires. Data analysis involved confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that external pressure significantly affects value-added smallholder dairy farms. This relationship is mediated by supply chain learning and farmers' innovative behavior, and moderated by farmers' education level and compliance with food safety standards.

Further research is required to explore the drivers of value addition at the supply chain level.

This study contributes to the understanding of smallholder dairy farming dynamics and provides practical implications for improving value addition by managing the interplay between antecedents and promoting best practices in the industry.

The present study aims to identify and evaluate the socioeconomic barriers to effective COVID-19 pandemic transmission control in Pakistan.

The study identifies multiple socio-economic barriers through an extensive literature review. The preliminary analysis unveiled 15 socio-economic barriers. Nine experts were contacted to collect data and finalize the most prominent barriers to COVID-19 transmission control using the DELPHI method. The Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method was used to process and interpret the data collected and a cause–effect relationship was established among the barriers.

The finalized barriers to effective COVID-19 pandemic transmission control were evaluated using DEMATEL which grouped criteria into two grouped criteria – cause and effect. The DEMATEL analysis shows that poor safety culture, lack of strategy and goal setting, lack of resources, late realization and recognition of the pandemic problem and lack of expertise and capacity in disaster and risk management fall into the cause group. These factors are critical as they directly affect the remaining barriers identified in the study.

Despite the collective global efforts, the national economies have been struggling to completely control COVID-19 transmission control. Pakistan’s economy has been facing the third wave of the pandemic. It is mandatory to identify the barriers and evaluate them to develop a comprehensive strategy ensuring that there would be no fourth wave. The study identifies and evaluates the barriers to COVID-19 transmission control in Pakistan using the integrated DELPHI-DEMATEL framework. The findings would help the government, experts and strategists to develop a comprehensive disaster and risk management strategy.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are engines of economic growth. Research indicates that the adoption of green procurement practices (GPPs) significantly influences the sustainable growth of SMEs. However, there is a lack of understanding of factors that link the adoption of GPPs with enhanced competitiveness. The purpose of this study is two-fold: first, to identify factors that affect the competitiveness of SMEs caused by adopting GPPs, and second, to test those factors whether they serve as necessary conditions in achieving that competitiveness.

A quantitative approach was used to survey 188 manufacturing SMEs in Pakistan. Cross-sectional data was collected through online questionnaires and analyzed using structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and necessary condition analysis (NCA).

Results indicate a less pronounced direct association between the adoption of GPPs and firm competitiveness. However, this association becomes strongly positive with the mediating roles of SSB and GI. On the other hand, NCA results reveal that the adoption of GPPs, SSB and GI acts as necessary conditions for achieving firm competitiveness.

This research highlights the fact that simply adopting GPPs is not sufficient to guarantee true competitiveness; a multifaceted approach is required. Moreover, it offers practical insights into effective planning of green investments leading to sustainable development.

Various practical measures can be adopted to manage the social outcomes of investment in the adoption of GPPs by SMEs.

This study relates and contributes to the natural resource-based view (NRBV) theory, the stakeholder theory and the necessity theory by developing a novel analytical framework.

Link prediction in social networks refers toward inferring the new interactions among the users in near future. Citation networks are constructed based on citing each other papers. Reciprocal link prediction in citations networks refers toward inferring about getting a citation from an author, whose work is already cited by you. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, the authors study the extent to which the information of a two-way citation relationship (called reciprocal) is predictable. The authors propose seven different features based on papers, their authors and citations of each paper to predict reciprocal links.

Extensive experiments are performed on CiteSeer data set by using three classification algorithms (decision trees, Naive Bayes, and support vector machines) to analyze the impact of individual, category wise and combination of features. The results reveal that it is likely to precisely predict 96 percent of reciprocal links. The study delivers convincing evidence of presence of the underlying equilibrium amongst reciprocal links.

It is not a generic method for link prediction which can work for different networks with relevant features and parameters.

This paper predicts the reciprocal links to show who is citing your work to collaborate with them in future.

The proposed method will be helpful in finding collaborators and developing academic links.

The proposed method uses reciprocal link prediction for bibliographic networks in a novel way.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the entropy optimization in magnetohydrodynamic hybrid nanomaterials flows toward a stretchable surface. The energy expression is modeled subject to dissipation, heat generation/absorption and Joule heating. Here silicon dioxide (SiO₂) and molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) as nanoparticles and propylene glycol (C₃H₈O₂) as base fluid, respectively. Furthermore, the authors discussed the comparative study of molybdenum disulfide and silicon dioxide diluted in propylene glycol. The total entropy optimization rate is computed through implementation of the second law of thermodynamics.

The nonlinear partial differential system is reduced to an ordinary one through implementation of transformation. Newton built-in shooting method is used for computational results for the given system. Influences of various flow variables on the temperature, Bejan number, velocity, concentration and entropy generation rate are examined graphically for both nanoparticles (SiO₂ and MoS₂). Gradients of velocity and temperature are computed numerically for various physical parameters. Also, take the comparison between the present and previously published results in tabulated form.

For higher estimation of ϕ both temperature and velocity are enhanced. Entropy optimization and Bejan number have the opposite outcome for viscosity parameter. Temperature and velocity have opposite behaviors for larger values of magnetic parameter. Molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) is more efficient than silicon dioxide (SiO₂).

No such work is yet published in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to present findings of a capacity building project on construction health and safety that is recently completed in Pakistan. The major objectives of this project are: first, to benchmark the current state of construction health and safety practices in Pakistan and to identify the data needs for continuous performance measurement; second, to develop health and safety guidelines; third, to develop adequate educational and training material; and finally, to improve the existing regulatory infrastructure for worker health and safety.

Mixed-methods approach is adopted for data collection which included site observations, surveys, semi-structured interviews, and case studies. The methodology consists of following major tasks: first, literature review and study of best practices; second, investigation of existing safety practices and development of guidelines; third, educational and training programs for construction professionals and educators; and finally, development of a strategic framework for continuous improvement in construction safety culture, laws, and practices. Collected data were analyzed using various qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods.

The enforcement of health and safety regulations on construction sites is very limited in Pakistan. Procedures for formulating, implementing, and monitoring safety rules and regulations are weak, and the implementation of safety management systems does not occur on most construction sites. The paper presents a detailed plan to improve the health and safety culture, laws, and practices in Pakistan.

Detailed proposals for improving existing construction health and safety laws and regulations are prepared for relevant regulatory and statutory bodies and ministries in Pakistan. From an educational perspective, comprehensive health and safety training material are developed and training workshops are conducted in major cities of Pakistan. Over 1,000 construction professionals benefited from these workshops.

The project helped in raising awareness about construction health and safety in Pakistan.

The project benchmarked existing health and safety practices in Pakistan. It identified data needs for continuous monitoring of health and safety performance and provided a mechanism for collecting such data. The project produced international standard health and safety training material that can fulfill the local needs. The project deliverables are extremely helpful for other developing countries in the region.

The focus of the paper is only on the contributions toward the use of entropy generation of non-Newtonian Casson fluid over an exponential stretching sheet. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the entropy generation and homogeneous–heterogeneous reaction. Velocity and thermal slips are considered instead of no-slip conditions at the boundary.

Basic equations in form of partial differential equations are converted into a system of ordinary differential equations and then solved using the spectral quasi-linearization method (SQLM).

The validity of the model is established using error analysis. Variation of the velocity, temperature, concentration profiles and entropy generation against some of the governing parameters are presented graphically. It is to be noted that the increase in entropy generation due to increase in heterogeneous reaction parameter is due to the increase in heat transfer irreversibility. It is further noted that the Bejan number decreases with Brinkman number because increase in Brinkman number reduces the total entropy generation.

This paper acquires realistic numerical explanations for rapidly convergent temperature and concentration profiles using the SQLM. Convergence of the numerical solutions was monitored using the residual error of the PDEs. The resulting equations are then integrated using the SQLM. The influence of emergent flow, heat and mass transfer parameters effects are shown graphically.

This study aims to examine the relationship between electricity consumption per capita (ELEC) and real per capita income (Y), as the direction of causation of this relationship remains controversial in the existing literature. It also seeks to explore the relationship between energy consumption per capita (ENC) and real per capita income, over a 34‐year period (between 1975 and 2009).

The study uses Johansen cointegration technique to determine the short‐ and long‐run relationship between the variables. The authors also utilize Granger causality test to determine the causal relationship between the selected variables.

The study provides evidence of bi‐directional causality between the electricity consumption per capita and real per capita income on one hand; and energy consumption per capita and real per capita income on the other hand as the direction of causality has significant policy implications.

This study does not include all dimensions of the energy growth, but is limited to the three variables which the authors consider to be critical to economic development, including energy consumption, electricity consumption and economic growth.

The study uses a sophisticated econometric technique with additional tests of forecasting framework to examine the effect of energy demand on economic growth over a period of the next ten years, i.e. 2010‐2019, in the context of Pakistan. The impulse response describes the reaction of the system as a function of independent variable that parameterizes the dynamic behavior of the system.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the entropy generation in magnetohydrodynamics stagnation point mixed convection flow of Carreau nanofluid through porous medium.

The system is solved using the homotopy scheme.

Minimizing radiation, magnetic, permeability and temperature difference parameters responds to minimizing entropy production.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no such analysis has yet been reported.