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Objective: Non-performing loans have become a chronic problem in the banking industry of Pakistan over the last few decades. In this aspect, the study assessed the causal impact of Banks’ specific factors and bankers’ perceptions on non-performing loans. Methodology: The study is based on the data collected from 170 bankers of ten Commercial Banks of Pakistan. From bankers’ perspective, the study reported that the manager’s capability, the society’s orientation, interest waiver, and lenient credit terms have a negative impact on non-performing loans. Findings: In the light of finding the study suggests that the banks need to strengthen their internal control system and accountability arrangement for selecting genuine borrowers. Besides, the banks need to address moral hazard i.e. the borrowed funds are being used for the intended purpose. Implications: The study concludes that the banks may formulate an effective loan policy and revamp procedures within different phases of the “loan cycle”.

Objective: Inclusive finance aims to escalate the access and usage of financial services among SMEs and individuals as well. Therefore, it is mainly concerned with efforts towards financial inclusion, which means easy access and usage of a wide range of affordable financial products and services by everyone, provided by a variety of sound, responsible, and sustainable financial institutes. In Pakistan, SMEs face severe issues towards access to formal finance and bound to meet their financial needs by using informal finance. This study aims to highlight the supply-side factors impacting SME's access to finance in Pakistan. Methodology: This quantitative research has been conducted in the five big cities of Punjab province. By using a stratified sampling technique SMEs from three main sectors have been included in this study manufacturing, services and trading. Findings: In line with prior research study concluded that for inclusive growth and development, provision of resources, favourable policies and regulatory reforms, financial and other national institutions, international bodies support can bring significant change in the status of SMEs in Pakistan. Implications: Current study will be helpful for policy makers and financial institutions to formalize their structure and strategies to facilitate SMEs in Pakistan.

Purpose:  This study has emphasized that understanding SMEs’ financial behavior towards Islamic/conventional banking products is prerequisite for policy makers and managers of banking and non-banking financial institutions. Design/Methodology/Approach:  A conceptual framework has been discussed in present study to understand financial behavior of SMEs towards adoption of conventional or Islamic financial products. Moreover, to identify the determinants of SMEs owner-managers behavioral intention which influence their financial decisions towards adoption of Islamic/conventional banking products. Findings: Prior research highlighted that for growth and development of SME sector it’s vital to fulfill their financial needs. In Islamic countries like Pakistan a large population of SME owner-managers interested towards Islamic financial products, however, current study has presented a conceptual framework and after examining these determinants study will explore which factors influencing SMEs intention to adopt Islamic/conventional financial products.   Implications/Originality/Value:  The study will help the global and Pakistan banking industry (both Islamic and conventional) to look into the areas which are ignored and need attention, which is necessary for the growth of both sector of banking industry as well as for the growth of SMEs.            &nbsp

Purpose: The primary objective of the paper is to synthesise the available literature on technology and innovation management in business firms.  The study examines and elaborates the sequential relationship between all constructs that ensure innovation and technology management happen in an integrated way.  Approach/Design/Methodology: The study employs a qualitative approach of deductive reasoning,  based on the reverse engineering method. Existing literature has been used as secondary data to harmonize the constructs as delineated in the conceptual framework for the research. Findings: Several empirical and conceptual studies besides academic contributions have reasonably helped to find that innovation and technology management require essential support of creativity, knowledge and leadership vision. Not only a significant relationship exists but a sequential order is also affirmed for the whole process. Originality / Value: This study presents the mechanism through which organizations can ensure better innovation and technology management. The inclusion of vision, knowledge and creativity in an orderly manner has added another dimension to the subject matter as a new contribution. It will help researchers, academicians and decision-makers to look into the process in a different yet practical manner.

Purpose: The goal of this study is to make an attempt to find out the relationships between infrastructural investments and economic growth. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study employs time series data over the years from 1972 to 2020. To observe the long-run and short-run impact of infrastructural investments on economic growth, an ARDL modeling approach to co- integration is used that is most suitable technique over some other techniques of integration after inspecting the stationary level of data via ADF test. Findings: The findings of the study indicate that Investments on Railways, Roads, Gas Projects, Telecommunication, Water Projects and Power Projects appear as efficient factors for enhancing economic growth of Pakistan in the long run. Implications/Originality/Value: It is suggested that government should increase the public and private investment for development of Railways, Roads, Telecommunication and Water projects in Pakistan.

Employee satisfaction and high performance is every organization’s goal. When seen through the lens of stakeholder theory, these goals could be achieved by CSR practices through certain ways. Stakeholder theory affords an initial point to assimilate stakeholder pressure and corporate social responsibility practices. This research studies the effect of pressure from stakeholders over organization performance and wellbeing of employees by including the mediating effect of CSR oriented culture, CSR practices, organizational citizenship behavior, organizational commitment, and organizational trust in Pakistan’s banking sector. The study employs quantitative and cross sectional research design. A sample of 180 banks was studied through employing SmartPLS3.0 software using mediation analyses.The findings reveal that CSR oriented culture mediates between stakeholder pressure and CSR practices; CSR practices affect organization performance through organization citizenship behavior. Further, trust is a partial mediator among CSR practices and wellbeing of employees. Serial mediators play their role between stakeholder pressure and organization performance, and also play a role between stakeholder pressure and employee wellbeing. Implications/Originality/Value: The findings suggest Pakistani banks to acknowledge pressure from all stakeholders, and concentrate on CSR practices for their bank performance and staff wellbeing.

SMEs paly major role in poverty reduction and employment generation, therefore experts considered this sector as engine of economic growth. However, access to finance in developing countries is one of major issue in development of SME sector as well as hurdle in economic growth. Financial institutions banking and non-banking shows reluctant behaviour in providing financing to SMEs and the issue is more severe in emerging economies. Bank financing has been found as main source of funds for SMEs in Pakistan, however, to obtain these funds not easy for small and medium firms. Recently digital micro financial services have been introduced by a number of micro finance banks.  Current study examines the role of digital micro financial services in enhancing SMEs’ access to finance and thereby enabling a more inclusive financial market for SMEs especially in context of emerging and developing economies. By digging out the existing literature and secondary data, the study discusses that digital financial services have greatly helped owner managers of SMEs in smooth management of their transactions and finances. The study concludes that to strengthen SME sector for economic growth, it is important to further reduce the cost of using digital financial services and increase the financial product portfolio on digital platforms.

Academic institutions cannot survive and perform well without competent and committed academic staff. Therefore, it is important to address the issue of faculty members’ turnover. Focus of this study is to investigate the impact of human resource practices (salary, performance appraisal, training and development) and career growth (career goal progress, professional ability development, promotion speed, and remuneration growth) on faculty members’ turnover intention. The study has used a cross sectional survey data from a sample of 270 full time faculty members of universities in Pakistan.  The Partial Least Square (PLS) two step path modeling was used to test the direct and indirect hypotheses. The results indicate that salary and performance appraisals are significantly and negatively related to turnover intention. Besides, it was found that out of four dimensions of career growth, only promotion speed and remuneration growth have significant direct relationship with turnover intention. With regards to mediated relationships, it was found that organizational commitment mediates the relationships between career growth (career goal progress, promotion speed, remuneration growth) and turnover intention. These findings suggest that in order to reduce turnover intention among faculty members, the higher education institutions must institutionalize human resource policies and practices that enhance career growth and employees’ development.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of leadership commitment on implementation of green banking in Pakistan through the lens of moderating role of responsible leadership. The concept of green banking in modern banking industry is associated with provision of environment friendly banking services through environment friendly banking operations and infrastructure. It can be referred to sustainable lending and depository product and services provide by banks through sustainable banking operations and infrastructure. Design/Methodology/Approach- An exploratory qualitative research design is used to postulate the theoretical model relating leadership role with implementation of green banking practices in Pakistan. Limitations/Implications- Further studies are needed to empirically examine the postulated relationships signified by proposed model of the study. Originality/ Value- The proposed model and relationship will significantly contribute to better understanding of role of banks leadership towards transformation of conventional banking into sustainable banking practices and products.

Sociological perspectives about organizational founding, survival and growth under organizational ecology theory offer research avenues to look into their implications for new organizational forms. Women entrepreneurship or female run businesses in developing countries risk the liability of newness due to lack of their presence in commercial business activities. Though the presence and role of women in rural economy of these developing countries is more than significant yet the urban sector still lacks the luster of new social values to accept and value this new organizational form. There is need to explore into sociological processes involved in the growth of women entrepreneurship. The present study, using qualitative exploratory research design, elaborates the key sociological processes postulated by ecology theory by which female run businesses make their way to create inclusive markets and shared growth in a socially constrained business environment. The organizational ecology framework is postulated to study the women entrepreneurship process i.e. birth, survival, and growth of female run businesses through change in the social value structure of the society. This perspective treats women entrepreneurship as a distinct organizational form and depicts it as a social process involving the population of organizations than the individual process targeting the women entrepreneurs themselves. The propositions resulting from the postulated linkages can be tested using quantitative methods. The theoretical framework developed here nonetheless offers fresh insights into the women entrepreneurship, its process and outcomes.

A large number of SMEs in North Africa, Middle East and South Asia prefer Islamic financial products over their conventional counterparts. Similarly, in Pakistan SME owner-managers prefer Islamic finance as 20-25 percent of SMEs are not willing to take conventional finance. Despite higher demand, however, these firms are unable to access Islamic finance from financial institutions. There are several factors behind this dilemma on both supply and demand side. The present study discusses demand side issues pertaining to lack of adoption of Islamic finance by SMEs in Pakistan. Among various demand side factors, this paper has focused on the issue of lack of financial knowledge or awareness of Islamic financial products. In Pakistan, due to financial illiteracy of SME owner-managers, they seldom are able to identify suitable available financing options for their business financial needs. Thus, this study intended to determine the importance of awareness factor in influencing intention of SMEs to adopt Islamic finance. A conceptual framework has been constructed based on Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and research propositions are developed in order to elaborate role of awareness in influencing SME managers’ intention towards Islamic finance adoption. A preliminary analysis has been conducted through pilot study to check the internal consistency and reliability of instrument and found valid for further research. These both outcomes of the study are expected to lay foundation for more structured research on the issue of demand side factors of adoption of Islamic financial products.

A large number of SMEs in North Africa, Middle East and South Asia prefer Islamic financial products over their conventional counterparts. Similarly, in Pakistan SME owner-managers prefer Islamic finance as 20-25 percent of SMEs are not willing to take conventional finance.Despite higher demand, however, these firms are unable to access Islamic finance from financial institutions.There are several factors behind this dilemma on both supply and demand side.The present study discusses demand side issues pertaining to lack of adoption of Islamic finance by SMEs in Pakistan. Among various demand side factors, this paper has focused on the issue of lack of financial knowledge or awareness of Islamic financial products.In Pakistan, due to financial illiteracy of SME owner-managers, they seldom are able to identify suitable available financing options for their business financial needs.Thus, this study intended to determine the importance of awareness factor in influencing intention of SMEs to adopt Islamic finance. A conceptual framework has been constructed based on Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and research propositions are developed in order to elaborate role of awareness in influencing SME managers’ intention towards Islamic finance adoption.A preliminary analysis has been conducted through pilot study to check the internal consistency and reliability of instrument and found valid for further research. These both outcomes of the study are expected to lay foundation for more structured research on the issue of demand side factors of adoption of Islamic financial products.

Given the key role of owner managers in the decision making process, understanding socio-psychological factors of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) financial behavior has often been prescribed as an important research direction.In accordance with the above, present study in context of Pakistan investigated the attitudinal factors of SMEs owner-managers’ towards adoption of financial products.The attitudinal factors are depicted as perceived relative advantage, perceived compatibility and perceived complexity.The proposed model has been adapted, which is composed of decomposed theory of planned behavior (DTPB) and decomposed attitudinal factors of SMEs owner-manager to investigate their intention to adopt financial products in Pakistan. Relying on a survey research design, and following stratified sampling method, after screening process 285 owner-managers responses have been considered for further analysis.The findings revealed that perceived relative advantage and perceived compatibility possess significant positive relationships with owner-manager attitude towards adoption of financial product which further significantly predicts behavioral intention.Moreover, perceived complexity has negative but significant relationship with SMEs owner-manager attitude towards adoption of financial products. SMEs owner-managers exhibit serious concern towards formal financial products adoption, the policy makers are suggested to focus on creating specialized products which are useful, compatible and easy to understand for SMEs owner-manager in Pakistan.

The history of banking is as old as Islam but the histoy of Islamic banking is only half a century old. It is agreed that Islamic banking started with a saving bank based on profit sharing in Mit Ghamr, Egypt in 1963. But, the first proper Islamic bank is deemed to be the Nasser Social Bank in 1971, again in Egypt. In 2013, after 50 years, there are about 400 Islamic banks and institutions in 53 countries with a fund based of USD 992 billion and asset based of USD 1.3 trillion. When Islamic banking started, Malaysia was busy with independence. Therefore, the start of Islamic banking in Malaysia was delayed by two decades. Malaysia passed Islamic banking Act in 1983 to start Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad with a capital based RM 80 million. The next three decades saw a tremendous growth. By 2013, there were 16 domestic and 5 international Islamic banks in Malaysia with an asset based of RM 442 billion, which does not include 15 Takaful operators. In spite of this tremendous growth, Islamic banking does not compare with conventional banking in terms of volume and acceptability. There have been studies which show that while 80% of the banking customers in Malaysia are aware of Islamic banking, but were not aware of Islamic banking products like Ijarah, Murabahah, etc. This conceptual paper brings out the challenges of marketing Islamic banking products in Malaysia and traces the roots of the problem to the lack of customer centricity.

Purpose: SMEs play an important role towards economic growth by generating employment and alleviating poverty, thus, SMEs importance is more evident in developing countries. Despite major contribution ineconomic development, SMEs around the world are facing several challenges including use of formal finance. This study seeks to investigate the impact of both social and religious beliefs of SMEs owner-managersattitude and their intention towards taking formal finance. Methods: Qualitative inductive methodology has been applied using literature review.Results: This study proposed a conceptual framework to elaborate sociocultural factors of owner mangers influencing SMEs' decision making with application of Theory of Reasoned Action.Implications: Findings of the study will be helpful for the financial institutions to better understand the financial behavior of SMEs owner managers in Pakistan.