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Abstract Despite having to rely on hybrid payment systems that combine manual and electronic methods, less developing countries such as Pakistan still manage to perform business transactions successfully. This success is partly due to the indigenous collectivist cultural practices in Pakistan society. However, an explanation of how indigenous culture supports information systems in general, and in particular payment systems, is scarce. This study adds to the knowledge of culture and information systems by exploring how indigenous culture in Pakistan enables hybrid payment systems to flourish. A case study was conducted in the marble industry of KPK Pakistan where qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the industry’s participants. The findings highlight the role of the indigenous collectivist cultural practice of Pakhtunwali in successfully implementing the hybrid payment system in SMEs in Pakistan. The study makes a theoretical contribution to knowledge about culture and payment systems by examining the role of collectivist cultural practices in supporting the hybrid payment system in Pakistan. The study highlights the role of collectivist cultural practices in overcoming the limitations of the hybrid payment system. The study also informs SME owners/managers about the importance of local cultural practices in Pakistan and how these can be utilized and maintained to improve the transactional practices of businesses.

In recent years, there has been significant advancement in virtual reality (VR) technology development. VR headsets have become lighter, offer higher resolution, and possess more powerful computational capabilities. Previous research has indicated that the level of immersion in operating technological products can positively impact user experiences. This study explores the effects of interaction, vividness, embodiment, and media novelty on immersion, perceived usefulness, satisfaction, and continuance intention. This study collected data from 150 users of virtual reality devices with the help of a survey methodology and analyzed the data with the help of the Partial Least Square – Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) technique. The results indicate that interaction and vividness do not directly influence immersion. However, embodiment and media novelty indirectly affect perceived usefulness, satisfaction, and continuance intention by increasing immersion. Our findings underscore the importance of embodiment and media novelty for users in virtual environments. When users can experience a genuine sense of embodiment and novelty in the virtual environment, their perception of usefulness, satisfaction, and intention to continue using VR is enhanced. These results provide valuable guidance for designing and applying virtual reality, aiming to improve user experiences and continuance intention. This study contributes to analyzing the antecedents and consequences of immersion and offers insights that can assist academic research, VR-related development, and businesses’ marketing efforts.

Purpose: The World Bank's "Ease of Doing Business" index, among other business rankings, can help a country's economic progress by attracting foreign investments, encouraging entrepreneurship, and improving the business climate. Superior rankings indicate an optimised environment for business activities, which could boost investments, job opportunities, and overall economic growth. The research is conducted to assess the impact of a country's business ranking on economic development. Design/methodology/approach: The Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) method was used to assess the impact of a country's business ranking on its economic trajectory. The official World Bank report was used to obtain data from 2015 to 2021. Panel data of Global Innovation Ranking, Ease of Doing Business Ranking, and Business Freedom Ranking from 2016 to 2021 is the basis of this study. The researcher has used a conceptual framework to establish and understand the dependence among the dependent and independent variables. For measuring statistical association, the researcher has used structural equation modelling and path diagram along with correlation and regression analysis. The correlation has been used to assess their association, while the researcher has used regression to determine the impact of country business ranking. Findings: The investigator investigated the impact of India's standings in the Global Innovation Ranking, Ease of Doing Business Ranking, and Business Freedom Ranking on its Economic Development, specifically GDP, in this study. The study's findings show that India's business rankings have a significant impact on its economic development. Such global business rankings provide critical data points for policymakers, businesses, and investors to make informed decisions, thereby promoting economic growth. Furthermore, the study examined the effects of GDP growth on the combustion of fossil fuels, as measured in million tonnes, emphasising the environmental consequences of economic expansion. Research limitations/implications: It's imperative to note that this is just an estimate, and the actual relationship between the variables in the population may differ from this estimate. The estimate is based on the sample data used to fit the model and may not accurately reflect the true relationship in the population. Further analysis and interpretation of the model's goodness of fit and consideration of other factors, such as outliers or omitted variables, are essential to fully apprehend the relationship between "GIR" and the dependent variable. The results of global business rankings can help policymakers identify areas for improvement in their country's business environment. By focusing on the areas where their country is lagging behind, they can develop policies and initiatives to attract more investment, create a more favourable business environment, and support economic growth. Businesses can use the results of global rankings to evaluate potential locations for expansion or investment. It can provide insights into the ease of starting and running a business, access to credit, property rights protection, and other important factors to businesses. Investors can also use the results of global rankings to make informed decisions about where to invest their capital. Higher rankings indicate a more stable and favourable business environment, leading to increased investment and economic growth. Global business rankings generally provide valuable information that policymakers, businesses, and investors can use to make informed decisions and support economic development. Originality/value: I hereby attest that the research paper I have submitted is the result of my own independent and unique labor. All of the sources from which the thoughts and passages were derived have been properly credited. The work has not been submitted for publication anywhere and is devoid of any instances of plagiarism.

With the growing development of the knowledge economy in recent years, the value of knowledge workers has increased substantially. On the basis of the broaden-and-build theory (B&B theory) and conservation of resources (CoR) theory the aim of this research work is to evaluate the mediating effect of leader-member exchange (LMX) and organizational learning (OL) between servant leadership and knowledge innovative work behavior (IWB). Current study included the participation of 496 knowledge employees from China's high-tech companies. The responses of the survey were analyzed using MPLS software while utilizing the structural equation modeling method. The findings validated the link between servant leadership (SL) and IWB. In the relationship between SL and IWB, LMX and OL mediated the relationship as parallel mediator. This study discovered a correlation between SL and OL and LMX. In addition, the findings signify that in the Chinese high-tech companies' SL style augments IWB through the support of OL and LMX. The results of the study are useful for harnessing the leader and member for achieving organizational objectives through enhancing the innovative work behavior in the knowledge workers of Chinese high-tech companies.

Literature on the sequence of relationships between social commerce constructs, attitudes, and behaviors is disputed. According to earlier scholars, behavior is followed by attitude, conversely, recent evidence suggests a slight relationship. To explore this phenomenon in digital marketing, the aim of the current study is twofold: to examine a parallel mediation of cognitive and affective attitudes between social commerce constructs and purchase intention followed by sequential meditation of cognitive and affective attitudes in the relationship between social commerce constructs and purchase intention. Data for the study was collected using Google Forms from individuals who have used social commerce sites for making purchases over the last six months. The hypothesized model was analyzed using PROCESS macro. The finding of the study revealed that the composite influence of Social Commerce Constructs (SCCs) on online Purchase decisions is significant. Interestingly, our empirical findings support the view of recent scholars that behavior in the social commerce context is not followed by attitude but the cumulative relationship is significant and small. In parallel mediation, the mediation effect of affective attitude between SCCs and purchase intention is considerable. This finding indicates that to grab the attention of current and prospective customers in the era of digital marketing, marketers must focus on emotional content in online reviews.

Climate change and its impact on economic growth or vice versa is an important burning issue in the present world and therefore the present world and its population, especially in West Africa, are bound to face various calamities in recent times and the excessive emission of carbon (1.8 per cent of total carbon emission by the world’s emission) is one of the important reasons behind it. Therefore, it is very important to examine the relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth in the region and for this, the present article is focusing over some selected countries of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and therefore the 10 ECOWAS countries are selected randomly, out of 15 ECOWAS countries and 32 years of data from 1991-2022 are utilized which is sourced from World Development Indicators (WDI), World Bank and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Bulletins. A panel data regression technique employed for the analysis of data. The Fixed Effect Model (FEM) estimates indicates that the out of eight explanatory variables four are negatively associated with Co2 emissions and one is statistically significant while other three are insignificant statistically. The Random Effect Model (REM) estimates pointed out that the out of eight independent variables three are having negative effects over the Co2 emission and five are having positive impact over the emissions. Therefore, the study perceived that emission of Co2, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and industrial growth are not enough to lead the climate change in the region.

Background: Organisations in the contemporary workplace lack meaningful work and life, resulting in psychological and physical pain for workers. Employees seek organisations that align their daily work activities with society. Partially limited research exists on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employee work-related attitudes, especially with the mediating mechanism of employee work meaningfulness (EWM) and organisation identification (OID) in developing country contexts such as Pakistan. This study has used Social Learning Theory (SLT) and Social Identification Theory (SIT).

The aim of the research was to explore the impact of social safety net programs in achieving the SDG target 3.8 at the union level of Bangladesh. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to collect the data. A total of 100 quantitative survey data and 10 KIIs were conducted. Statistically significant tests between variables (X2, p-value, and CI) were done. The average age of the respondents is 58.41 18.35 years. There is a strong association between the age of the respondents and receiving the government social safety net program support. We found an association between respondents monthly income and types of disability. The health expenditure of the study respondents is higher compared to the age range below 50 years in Bangladesh. There is a strong association between respondents' age and health expenditure. The majority of respondents (84.5%) bought medicine, 8.2% buy food, 4.1% expenses on children's educational purposes and 3.1% buy a dress with their SSPs money. About 69% of respondents think that SSPs' support money is not sufficient to survive and maintain the minimum quality of life. Study findings suggest that the majority of the respondents were happy with government SSPs. Further research should address the factors of disability of the SSPs beneficiaries and the quality of life of SSPs beneficiaries.

Groundwater quality is deteriorating due to contamination of various pollutants from different anthropogenic functions and salt water intrusion in the coastal regions of Bangladesh. Three coastal villages denoted as shoreline (Rajoir), interim (Gangarampur) and inland (Ganopatipur) areas of south western coastal zone of Bangladesh were purposively selected to determine the temperature, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), dissolve oxygen (DO), total hardness (TH), chloride (Cl-), potassium (K+) and calcium (Ca++) ions. A total of 40 water samples were collected from 20 sampling sites based on the maximum water use declared by local communities. Temperature, pH, EC, TDS and DO were measured onsite and TSS, TH, Cl-, K+ and Ca++ were measured in the laboratory. Based on the EC values 100% water samples were within the desirable limit (1500 μS/cm). TDS classification showed that 100% sampling station's water were fulfilled the criteria for irrigation purpose in shoreline area and 100% sampling station's water were within desirable category in inland area. The study revealed that the trend of EC, TDS and Cl- concentrations were decreased from shoreline to inland villages, respectively. The study resulted the positive correlation between EC: TDS (r=0.712), TDS: Ca (r=0.585), DO: K (r=0.5041), Cl- : K (r=0.581), K: Ca (r=0.635) showed homogeneous sources of variables and same anthropogenic activities might be responsible for the excess concentrations in the study area. So, the water should not be used for drinking purpose without any proper treatment.

Internet-based services have emerged at a fast pace, but the literature thereon has not kept pace with it. Researchers and marketers still refer to the traditional marketing frameworks to define and manage these services. This paper argues that this approach is detrimental both to the academicians and the practitioners. The paper attempts to establish that Internet-based services are significantly different from the traditional services and require contemporary marketing frameworks. Further, a new-age marketing mix, SAFE, is proposed, which is expected to help marketers manage Internet-based service more efficiently.

A closure dam was constructed on Little Feni River at Musapur Union, Noakhali District by Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) in 2016. The study assessed crop production fluctuations between pre and post period of the construction of this dam. Data were collected from Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Companiganj Upazila, and BWDB, Noakhali. Besides, an inception meeting was arranged at DAE with different participants for two consecutive days and three focused group discussions (FGD) from almost all stakeholders were done to triangulate the result. The trend was calculated by the data retrieved from 2011 to 2018 for the projection of the study. The result showed a revolutionary increasing trend for Brassica juncea, Arachis hypogaea, and Allium sativum with 1214%, 1400%, and 1600%, respectively. Followed by, the positive trend was showed for Oryza sativa, Cajanus cajan, Pisum sativum, Capsicum annuum, wintry vegetables and Cucumis sativus with 30.97%, 116.41%, 200%, 145.83%, 52%, 475%, respectively. And nearly stable trend was found for Ipomoea batatas, spices and Lathyrus sativus with a positive trend of 4%, negative trend of 7.59% and 8.86%, respectively. The study concluded that construction of closure dam might be greatly influenced in the high production rate of crops in the study area.

This paper investigates direct and indirect impacts of an individual’s digital engagement on their financial satisfaction considering a significant role of an individual’s financial capability and financial advice. The study is administered on the individual level, surveyed the working youth in northern India. PLS-SEM were employed using SMART-PLS version 3 for a confirmatory analysis and structural model assessment. Digital engagement has been established as a vital factor substantially influencing the individual’s financial advice, financial capability and financial satisfaction both directly and indirectly. The outcome of the study strongly favours the role and importance of digital engagement in the individual’s financial satisfaction. What is more, this paper contributes to the current knowledge by clarifying digital engagement as a possible predictor of financial capability, financial advice and financial satisfaction in the context of a low-income, developing country and applies it as a variable with the selected financial constructs. The originality and novelty of the study may be found useful to design effective policies.

Social media has become explosive, permeating every sphere of the socio-cultural lives of individuals and businesses, and causing nations to technologically evolve. The dramatic growth in the adoption and use of social media has become beneficial to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), significantly contributing to resolving a nagging challenge of effectively advertising their goods and services. Consequently, SMEs can achieve business growth and sustainability through increased adoption and harnessing the opportunities provided through the use of social media. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an impetus for both consumers and SME businesses to leverage interaction through social media, which may lead to business growth. This research thus sets out to identify how social media contributes to the growth of SMEs within a developing country context. To accomplish this objective, primary data was collected from SMEs in the hospitality industry across the sixteen administrative regions of Ghana using survey and simple random sampling techniques. Questionnaires were distributed to the managerial staff of each randomly selected survey participant. Out of the 900 questionnaires distributed, 718 were filled correctly for the data analysis. The researchers quantitatively analyzed the responses using Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling(PLSSEM) statistical software ADANCO 2.0 version. The results indicated that Small and Medium Enterprises are capable of using social media for customer attraction, business marketing strategy, communication channel and increased financial performance.

Purpose: The objective of this empirical study was to examine this relationship using 03 different dimensions of various elements of any Project management methodology i.e. having a comprehensive set of elements, supplementing missing elements & applying relevant elements, and assessing their impact on project success. Design/Methodology/Approach: Data is collected from 261 respondents from the construction industry of Punjab, Pakistan with the help of a research questionnaire. Partial Least squared-Structural Equation modeling is used to analyze the data through Smart PLS. Findings: The results of this study indicate that all three dimensions have a significant and positive impact on project success. Furthermore, mediation by risk management and moderation by organizational culture is also found to be present in these relationships. Implications/Originality/Value: These results implicate that by using relevant dimensions of various elements of project management methodology, the project success rate can be enhanced for construction projects.

Corporate organizations are experiencing the challenges of understanding the factor that has significant and positive relationship on their performance. The aim of this study is to determine the role of effective leadership style on organizational performance. The aim of the findings of this study focuses on a significant and positive relationship between appropriate leadership style and organizational performance. The development of this extensive literature review, suggestions and conceptualization would be helpful for researchers while they aim for further empirical investigation of job engagement and organizational performance.

The growing instability in labour markets, restructuring and downsizing workforce, precariatization and staff flexibilization underlie the increasing importance of a psychological contract and employees’ confidence in their employer in modern labour relations. The study aims to explore the role of trust and psychological contract in HR management at an enterprise. The methodological basis includes psychological contract theory and the concept of transition contract. Using the results of an annual sociological survey performed in five countries with different models of economic development (Russia, Сzech, Latvia, Pakistan and Italy), the authors try to identify the similarities and differences of these countries regarding the way in which the existing conditions of employee-employer relationships influence the fulfilment of explicit and latent aspects of a psychological contract. We identify the major reasons behind mismatches between employees’ and employers’ expectations that cause mistrust, uncertainty and erosion of labour relations. Empirical data obtained in 2015–2017 during the survey of employees in various economic sectors allow us to draw a conclusion about the multiplicity of forms of a psychological contract breach, to conduct a comparative analysis of the trends prevailing in the countries under consideration, as well as to identify their similar and distinctive features. The authors are certain that managers should understand the significance of trust and a psychological contract in HR management and take it into consideration when developing a human resource management strategy.

The study examines the long-run relationship between domestic debt and the fiscal policy of economic growth in Nigeria in the period from 1981 to 2013 owing to government reforms in the financial system, particularly due to the establishment of the Debt Management Office (DMO) in 2000 and a new fully funded pension fund scheme, both of which resulted in a resurgence of the debt market. The issue that is often raised is the doubt regarding the stability of the debt and its likely implications for the economy, as well as the unpleasant consequences for the government embarking on consolidation. The study employs the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach and the bounds test as proposed by Narayan (2005), anchored on the perspective of the endogenous growth theory. The results reveal that although overall the adverse negative domestic debt hurts the economy, it has a positive effect on the total aggregate government revenue and economic growth in Nigeria in the research period. Furthermore, the paper develops a system to assess the speed of the adjustment mechanism coefficient in an error correction model (ECM).

Motivated by the previous literature on investor sentiment and assuming that terrorist activities affect investor mood, this study attempts to address the psychological impact of terrorism for investors in Pakistan stock market. Apart from a direct economic loss, major terrorist incidents create/exacerbate uncertainty and fear in the market. The investors are likely to over-respond to such incidents and once the dust settles the market tend to recover. The analysis of cumulative abnormal returns in the aftermaths of terrorist incidents and the volume analysis provide strong evidence that the terrorist incidents adversely affect investors' sentiments and confidence in the market as manifested through relatively feeble trading volumes. Keywords: Sentiment, Terrorism, Stock Market, Pakistan JEL Classifications: C33, E44, G15 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.9591

This article strives to work out the causal relationship between natural disasters and economic growth in Pakistan. The study empirically tests the linkage using econometric techniques autoregressive distributed lag bound model by Pesaran (2001) and Granger causality test. We develop a proxy for the loss of natural disasters by a similar method as Noy (2009) and Bergholt et.al, (2012) did. The results of ARDL bounds testing approach evidence a negative long run relationship between the proxies of natural disasters and economic growth. The results of Granger Causality depict the uni-directional causality from natural disasters to economic growth both in short-run and long-run. Overall, the study determines that natural disasters deteriorate economic growth in Pakistan. This is the first study in Pakistan to assess the causal relationship among natural disasters and economic growth. So, further empirical evidence may link natural disasters to microeconomics and financial indicators. In future, researchers might control the impact of foreign development aid, remittances, political stability and country’s corruption rating. Natural disasters are an alarming issue and, addressing the questions related to their impacts on welfare of human being and economic growth of the countries contain significant importance in order to attract the attention of global development agencies and policymakers. As per INFORM (2015) risk index, Pakistan has the highest vulnerability towards natural disasters after Afghanistan. So, the study contains more significant value in context of Pakistan.

Personality has been considered an important factor influencing trainee efficiency & organizational productivity. Similarly, work climate factors have been recognized as primary influencers in post training context influencing productivity. But research concerning the impact of personality and work climate on trainees’ learning motivation has been very scant and mostly conducted in the western context. The present study was an attempt therefore, to extend this line of research in the Indian context involving educational sector of the State of Jammu & Kashmir. A sample of 517 teacher trainees was drawn for the present study using convenience sampling method. Results indicate that personality traits (i.e., conscientiousness, openness to experience, and internal locus of control) do not influence training transfer directly or indirectly, while, transfer climate factors do affect training transfer both directly as well as indirectly via learning motivation. The implications of the results are discussed and the limitations of the study are noted, along with suggested avenues for future research.

Fiscal Decentralization is the devolution of fiscal assignments to lower governments for high growth and better delivery of public services. The current study covering the period from 1972 to 2009 is an attempt to find out the impacts of fiscal decentralization on public services deliveries in Pakistan. Public services are proxy by Gross enrollment at primary school level while fiscal decentralization by fiscal transfer and expenditure sides of devolution. Using time series data, it is found that the individual impacts of fiscal transfer are although insignificant but still support the theoretical proposition regarding fiscal decentralization and public services relationship while delegation of expenditure responsibilities helps in improving the gross enrollment at primary school level. Furthermore the study evident that complete delegation of fiscal responsibilities to lower governments enhance enrollment ratio in Pakistan.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship among online retailing information quality, e-satisfaction, e-trust and young generation customer’s commitment in mainland China. The study variables have considerable importance in e-tailers performance. The data were collected based on a sample of 383 students from Chinese universities during the first quarter of 2014. We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate the hypotheses about the relationship among model constructs. Thus, all the hypotheses developed in the study were positively confirmed except one. Therefore, the investigated variables are reinforcing the theory and previous research in this field. This study reveals interesting implications of information quality, e-satisfaction, e-trust and customers commitment that are useful to both academicians and practitioners.

Purpose: The aim of this research is to develop a more realistic approach to solve project time-cost optimization problem under uncertain conditions, with fuzzy time periods. Design/methodology/approach: Deterministic models for time-cost optimization are never efficient considering various uncertainty factors. To make such problems realistic, triangular fuzzy numbers and the concept of a-cut method in fuzzy logic theory are employed to model the problem. Because of NP-hard nature of the project scheduling problem, Genetic Algorithm (GA) has been used as a searching tool. Finally, Dev-C++ 4.9.9.2 has been used to code this solver. Findings: The solution has been performed under different combinations of GA parameters and after result analysis optimum values of those parameters have been found for the best solution. Research limitations/implications: For demonstration of the application of the developed algorithm, a project on new product (Pre-paid electric meter, a project under government finance) launching has been chosen as a real case. The algorithm is developed under some assumptions. Practical implications: The proposed model leads decision makers to choose the desired solution under different risk levels. Originality/value: Reports reveal that project optimization problems have never been solved under multiple uncertainty conditions. Here, the function has been optimized using Genetic Algorithm search technique, with varied level of risks and fuzzy time periods.