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The study aims to identify the preferred factors among economic, social and governance (ESG) that influence the decisions of Pakistani retail investors.

The researchers collected the required responses through self-administrative comparison questionnaires from a sample of 512 individual investors of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). To test the study’s hypothesis, the researcher applied a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP).

The findings indicate that the most crucial dimension for an individual investor in Pakistan when making investment decision is environmental criteria. However, investors prioritize governance second and social factors third, according to fuzzy AHP estimations.

The findings are applicable and generalizable to the financial equity market of Pakistan for an individual investors only. Future research may explore ESG priority among institutional investors.

The study enhances the theory of responsible investment by incorporating the ESG dimensions that influence individual investors’ decisions in Pakistan. It holds practical implications for individual investors, investment/financial advisors, companies, regulatory authorities, stockbrokers, investment firms and society.

The study contributes to extending the theory of socially responsible investment and fills a research gap in the domain of ESG dimensions as a priority for investment decisions by individual investors in Pakistan.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2023-0791

This study aims to examine the influence of voluntary disclosure on bank value in Pakistan, considering the moderating effect of corporate governance characteristics: ownership control, board independence and board size.

The study uses data from 20 listed Pakistani banks for the period 2011–2021. The estimation contains robust fixed effect and its assumptions, and a model of standard error with panel corrections.

The findings revealed a weak positive impact of voluntary disclosure on bank value. However, the increase in the number of independent directors strengthens the positive impact of voluntary disclosure on a bank’s value. Conversely, increasing the ownership concentration, and board size (other than independent directors) may strongly decrease the impact of voluntary disclosure on a bank’s value in Pakistan.

The study’s limitations include its exclusive focus on the Pakistani banking industry. Future research should take into account newer contexts and data. The findings suggest that future research should investigate the topic in various contexts, including a comparison of Islamic and conventional banks.

The practical implications for Pakistani banks emphasize transparency, board composition and ownership structure. In terms of managerial implications, using independent directors, aligning ownership interests and addressing disclosure challenges are highlighted.

Focusing on independent directors, ownership concentration and board size, this study enhances knowledge of the impact of voluntary disclosure on bank value in Pakistan. It contributes to agency theory and the literature in this domain.

Drawing from the combined theoretical approaches of the conservation of resources theory, broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions and social cognitive theory, the current study examined the relationships between employee financial well-being and employee productivity via employee happiness while exploring the moderating role of gender in this mediated relationship.

Using partial least squares approach for structural equation modeling, the hypothesized model was tested employing primary data collected from banking employees.

The results showed that employee financial well-being has a significant positive effect on employee productivity and this effect was mediated by employee happiness. In addition, the results showed that this indirect effect was moderated by gender such that the relationship was more pronounced in males (versus females).

This study contributes to the nescient research on the consequences of financial well-being especially at an organizational level, with several implications for individuals, employees and organizations, while at the same time offering new insights for future investigation.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2023-0676

This study aims to develop a framework that demonstrates the role of social capital in alleviating knowledge hiding behaviour in organisations while also considering the moderating roles of perceived organisational politics and the perceived value of knowledge in this process.

The authors conducted a systematic literature review of research papers on the topic of knowledge hiding to develop a framework for mitigating knowledge hiding.

This paper conceptualises social capital into three interrelated dimensions (e.g. structural, cognitive and relational). Based on the findings of the review, all the three social capital dimensions can potentially mitigate an individual’s propensity towards knowledge hiding. Additionally, the paper integrates two potential moderators: perceived organisational politics and perceived value of knowledge, which could undermine the outcomes of social capital in mitigating knowledge hiding.

Although the proposed framework may provide preliminary insights to practitioners and scholars, one of its key limitations is that it is conceptual. Future empirical research is needed to validate the proposed framework.

Existing research has focused on studying the antecedents and consequences of knowledge hiding. However, scant scholarly work explores how such behaviour can be mitigated. This paper addresses this gap and contributes to understanding how organisations can alleviate the prevalence of knowledge hiding by developing their social capital and by focusing on contextual factors.

The study examined the comprehensive assessment of the efficacy of Library and Information Science (LIS) CPD programmes in the particular setting of Indian academic libraries in Northern India. The study systematically assessed the programmes' impact on four levels: behaviour, reaction, learning, and results, using Donald Kirkpatrick’s widely recognised evaluation model.

The research employed a census sampling method and a questionnaire to gather information from 177 respondents employed in university libraries.

The findings demonstrated that professionals were satisfied with the CPD programmes, eager to learn more and apply their newly acquired knowledge and skills at their workplaces, and interested in applying learning to get results. Moreover, the significant factors that hindered the implementation of learning in the workplace were a lack of management support and poor IT infrastructure.

The paper’s uniqueness and significance come from carefully examining the effects of CPD programmes in LIS within the particular setting of university libraries in Northern India.

Drawing from social exchange theory, this paper aims to examine the role of five mediating mechanisms between the relationships of critical constructs of frontline employees’ performance, and both transformational leadership and proactive personality to find out which mediating mechanism highly boosts frontline performance in 3-star hotels, Pakistan.

By testing parallel mediating linkages, this study used a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique using partial least square-SEM. This empirical investigation used a quota sampling technique to collect data from the frontline employees of 3-star hotels from the top five big cities of Pakistan. The study administered online survey questionnaires among 500 frontline workers in 3-star hotels.

The results of the study supported a substantial direct influence of transformational leadership and proactive personality on employees’ performance. Nevertheless, it was observed in the findings of this investigation, significant mediating relationships between frontline employees’ performance and the key constructs of transformational leadership and proactive personality. However, the construct of work engagement was not found to have a significant mediating relationship between front-line employees’ performance and both constructs of transformational leadership and proactive personality. Moreover, leader-member exchange was identified as the highest mediating mechanism among the five. It is noteworthy, the results of this study highlighted that the notion of leader-member exchange is extremely embedded in transformational leadership to enhance the frontline performance than proactive personality.

The empirical evidence of this study insinuates that the management may establish a system of collaborative learning and social exchange between leaders and followers. This approach might be the essence to improve the work outcomes of frontline employees specifically within the 3-star hotels and hospitality organizations at large.

This study contributes to novel findings particularly to determine the five mediating mechanisms, i.e. work engagement, job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, organizational commitment and leader-member exchange between frontline employees’ performance and the constructs of transformational leadership and proactive personality. It might be noteworthy, the empirical and anecdotal pieces of evidence of this study indicated a social exchange system within transformational leadership optimizes the frontline employees’ performance that ultimately contributes to the overall organizational outcomes.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of financial and nonfinancial information in determining individual investor's investment decisions by analyzing the mediating effect of corporate reputation.

The approach of this study is deductive; therefore, the quantitative strategy is used for data collection. Primary data are collected from individual investors actively involved in stock trading at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). Structural equation modeling is used to assess structural relationships.

The key findings of this study posit that financial and nonfinancial information positively influence an individual investor's investment decision. This study also provides empirical evidence confirming the mediating role of corporate reputation. Categorically, the findings indicate that financial and nonfinancial information remain significant to build perceived corporate reputation and influence investor's investment decisions.

he proposed model presents novel insight into the individual investor's investment decision in the context of Pakistan. The findings of this study remain robust for firms listed on the stock exchange and individual investors involved in stock trading. The results of this study are substantial to individual investor's and broker for making informed financial choices. Moreover, the firms listed on the PSX can use the findings to establish improved corporate reputation through reporting detailed financial and nonfinancial information.

Studies based on subjective measures in finance are lacking. This study contributes to the existing literature of behavioral finance by analyzing variations in investor's investment decisions explained by informational factors. The proposed model testifies the mediating role of corporate reputation in guiding investor's investment decisions, which has been overlooked by past studies. Therefore, this study seeks to fill this gap in the context of the PSX.

The research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm performance (FP) has seen a surge over the years. However, the role of corporate reputation (CR), advertising strategy and market competition is still unclear. The purpose of this study is to consider this gap and test an integrative model of CSR-FP, in the context of India.

The data for CSR expenditure were collected from the annual reports of the selected companies. CR was captured using the ranks of Fortune India 500, Business Standard 1,000 and Economic Times 500. The financial data were collected from CMIE (Prowess) database.

Results of structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed a significant relationship between CSR expenditure of the firm and its reputation; but no relationship between CR and performance. When CR increases, the performance of a firm may not improve. Competitive intensity (CI) had no statistically significant role in the CR-FP relationship for performance. Results suggest that reputed firms perform well despite high competition within an industry. High reputation is effective in improving performance irrespective of competition. CI has a positive impact in the reputation–performance linkage. Advertising intensity (AI) played a significant moderating role in the CSR intensity and CR relationship.

This research represents an added value for the literature on CSR by highlighting the importance of CR, advertising strategy and market competition in the relationship between CSR and FP. The findings have several implications for theory and practice, which have been discussed in the study.

Purpose: This research investigates how producers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) in Karachi, Pakistan, embrace sustainable manufacturing and consumption practices.

Study design/methodology/approach: This study employed a mixed research design, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The primary method of data collecting utilised in this study was semi-structured interviews. The survey sampled 11 FMCG manufacturers, and the data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Findings: The research revealed that economic variables were crucial in adopting sustainable consumption and production (SCP) practices among Karachi’s FMCG businesses. The economic reasons were motivated by the notion that adopting sustainable practices could result in financial benefits and enhanced market competitiveness. The research additionally discovered that consumer preferences were pivotal in stimulating sustainable practices within the FMCG business. Manufacturers indicated that adopting sustainable products and packaging was driven mainly by consumer demand.

Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature on SCP within the FMCG business. It offers valuable insights into the factors influencing sustainable practices and customer preferences. This study emphasises the importance of economic, social, and environmental aspects in fostering sustainable practices within the FMCG industry, specifically focusing on developing nation environments such as Karachi. This study’s findings can contribute valuable insights for policy formulation and decision-making processes about SCP within Karachi’s FMCG business and other similar contexts.

The size of non-performing loans (NPLs) plays a key role in the stability of the banking sector of a country. The factors that explain the NPLs contain very important information for banks. Studies in this regard with respect to developing states such as Pakistan have received little attention. This study aimed to scrutinize the determinants of NPLs observing a case of the banking sector in Pakistan over the period from 2005 to 2017.

The sample consists of the banking sector (i.e., commercial banks) listed in Pakistan Stock Exchange over the period of 2005–2017. The banking factors, including profitability, operating efficiency, capital adequacy and income diversification, were evaluated. The estimations were done by regression modeling using random and fixed effects through STATA software.

Results show that the operating efficiency and profitability indicators have a negative association with NPLs but were statistically significant, while capital adequacy and income diversification have a negative association with NPLs but were statistically insignificant.

The present study has considered limited banking indicators as determinants of NPLs and was limited to a specific time period from 2005 to 2017.

The study is an attempt to investigate various banking factors that affect the NPLs with respect to developing economies such as Pakistan.