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The purpose of this study is to particularly define the usability regarding interface of digital library Web site. It discusses the multi-dimensional constructs of usability and methods applied in the evaluation of the usability of digital library Web site interface. The Usability of HEC National Digital Library Web site interface is measured in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction.

For this purpose, a qualitative approach, that is, focus group technique, is used. This study includes eight members in the focus group. These members were MA students from the Department of Information Management, University of the Punjab Lahore.

Usability evaluation was made by using effectiveness, efficiency, learnability and satisfaction constructs. It also discovers the opinion of focus group members on the “ease of use”, “organization of information”, “terminology and labeling”, “visual attractiveness” and “mistake recovery”. “Click cost” is particularly examined.

No usability study has been conducted in Pakistan about the National Digital Library of HEC. This library is a very important source of electronic content for academic community. This study will explore the usability evaluation, problems faced by users and solutions to solve these problems.

Statistical methods are important for meaningful analysis, critique and interpretation of results. The current study aims to investigate the use of statistical methods used in LIS research articles produced by Pakistani authors during 2001–2016.

Content analysis method with both the qualitative and quantitative components was used. LIS articles published by Pakistani authors in national and international journals from 2001 to 2016 were selected. The descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the usage of statistical techniques.

The findings show that use of descriptive statistics remained higher as compared to inferential statistics in the LIS research produced by Pakistani authors. However, a visible growth trend in the use of inferential statistical techniques is found. Males are two times more likely to use inferential statistics as compared to female authors. Articles published in foreign journals and impact factor journals used more inferential statistics as compared to local and nonimpact factor journals. Parametric inferential statistics is more popular among Pakistani authors as compared to nonparametric. Faculty was more inclined toward using parametric statistic. The percentage of collaboration was higher in the papers using parametric statistics. Few articles reported the tests to fulfill the assumptions of parametric and nonparametric statistics.

This study can be used to better understand the trends of statistical techniques used in LIS research and authors' orientation in this regard. It will be helpful for future researchers in the selection of appropriate statistical techniques to be used.

Deeni Madaris of Pakistan and their libraries are playing an important role in educating the large fraction of society. They have always been engaged in the development of social and cultural values of the Pakistani society. This study aims to investigate the organization of information resources and their utilization at Deeni Madaris libraries in the central Punjab, Pakistan.

Quantitative research approach was adopted for this study. A questionnaire was developed on the bases of related literature and discussions with experts of librarianship as well as Islamic studies in Pakistan. The questionnaire was sent to 49 Deeni Madaris, of which five did not have libraries and four did not respond. Forty (81.6 per cent) Deeni Madaris responded and provided the relevant data about their libraries. The collected data were analyzed through SPSS 22. Mostly descriptive statistics were applied to calculate the frequencies, percentage, means and standard deviations. A two-tailed t-test was applied to check the impact of cataloguing and automation on the use of information resources.

It was found that majority of the respondents developed their own classification and cataloguing methods for the organization of information resources and did not have a proper retrieval system. Majority of the respondents were providing lending services to readers. Teachers and final-year students were the key users of the libraries. They mostly referred to books, theses and serials written in Urdu and Arabic language. The situation of library computerization was very weak; only 19 libraries had computers and 11 of them have partially automated the library activities. Library automation and catalogue put positive effects on the use of library resources.

The exploration of the literature showed that libraries of Madaris in Pakistan have always been a priority, but these libraries did not get a position in the library literature as they deserve. This study will fill this gap.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating impact of corporate governance (CG) on the relationship between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and the sustainable growth (SG) of Chinese firms.

The study collects data of 975 Chinese non-financial listed firms for the period from 2010 to 2017. The study measures SG using a comprehensive index based on nine financial indicators and applies industry and year fixed effects regression to investigate the direct and moderating impact of CG on the relationship between EPU and SG of Chinese firms.

The results of the study explain that EPU negatively affects SG, while concentrated ownership, board independence and board gender diversity (BGD) positively contribute to the SG of the Chinese firms. The results also explain that concentrated ownership and BGD reduce the negative impact of EPU on the SG of the Chinese firms.

The study considers only non-financial firms; therefore, the results of this study cannot be generalized for financial firms. Future research can be carried out while considering financial firms as a unit of analysis.

The investigation of the negative impact of policy uncertainty on SG is essential for the government and policymakers to devise policies to reduce uncertainty. The investigation of the moderating effect of CG enriches the literature on corporates’ response to policy uncertainty. It provides valuable insights for corporates regarding CG mechanisms to attain SG.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the moderating impact of CG on the SG of Chinese firms using an index-based measurement of SG.

Purpose: The book chapter seeks to investigate the numerous green finance measures already taken by various banks in the direction of Bangladesh’s sustainable development. The chapter also demonstrates the extent to which banks in the nation will use green finance between 2019 and 2022.

Need for the study: This study indicated that practically all banks participated in green finance initiatives to promote sustainable economic growth. Private commercial banks (PCBs) and foreign commercial banks (FCBs) have taken more measures than the other banks, although their efforts still fall short. Therefore, it will be better for the environment and sustainable growth if the financial industry adopts more green finance projects.

Methodology: The study mostly relied on secondary data and information gathered from Bangladesh Bank annual reports, numerous studies on green financing, and the websites of several institutions. Microsoft Excel has been used to examine the data. Data have been presented using tables, graphs, and charts.

Findings: Green financing is now the demand of the time because the whole world, especially Bangladesh, is facing adverse impacts from global warming and climate change. So environmental issues have become the main concern of the government, Bangladesh Bank, stakeholders, and society, and they wish to know about the initiatives towards green financing taken by the various banks to reduce the impact of global warming.

Implications: Policymakers, governments, private and public organisations, banking industries, and their stakeholders will benefit from the book chapter.

This paper aims to explore the impact of lean, Six Sigma and environmental sustainability on the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan. The firm performance has been measured in terms of operational, business and environmental performance.

A survey-based methodology is adopted for collecting data from the main cities of Punjab, Pakistan. SMEs related to different industries such as service, manufacturing, automotive and retail were targeted. The data gathered were ordinal, and Spearman's correlation test was used as the data analysis technique.

The findings indicated that the three management styles positively impacted the environmental performance of SMEs. Moreover, no significant relationship was found between the three management styles and the SMEs' business and operational performance.

To counter the inefficient and wasteful practices of SMEs and their detrimental impact on overall firm performance, SMEs have to refocus and reconfigure their management strategies. It is implied to use lean, Six Sigma and environmental sustainability practices to achieve this goal.

The study empirically investigates the impact of lean, Six Sigma and environmental sustainability on the performance of SMEs in Pakistan, which is the first study to be conducted in the Pakistani context.

The principle of the medial axis calculation is complicated and difficult to implement. Moreover, the accuracy is not high. Then, as the generated path has an endpoint at the boundary of the polygon, burrs may appear on the surface of the molded piece. This paper aims to improve the warpage deformation of SLM molded parts and the surface quality of molded parts, an improved mid-axis path generation algorithm is proposed.

First, the center point is calculated by the seed point growth method based on the distance transform, and the obtained medial axis has high precision and is suitable for simple polygons and complex polygons. Then, based on the extracted medial axis, a preliminary path is generated, the path is trimmed with MATLAB to remove the redundant path. Finally, a scan along the contour of the polygon is performed to improve the surface quality of the molded part.

The algorithm reduces the internal stress generated during the molding process by continuously changing the scanning direction of the path along the boundary curve of the scanning area, thereby reducing the amount of warpage of the molded part. The result of extraction has a higher precision and wider scope of application than other methods to extract central axis, such as the Voronoi diagram-based method. The path is trimmed to remove redundant paths and the polygon boundaries are scanned to further improve the surface quality of the molded part. The results show that warpage deformation of the proposed algorithm is significantly smaller than the other two methods, thus the forming precision is higher.

An improved medial axis path generation algorithm is proposed in this paper. The proposed method is applied to improve warpage deformation occurring in the SLM process. Seed point growth of distance transformation is used to extracted central axis. The result of extraction has a higher precision and wider scope of application than other methods to extract central axis, such as the Voronoi diagram-based method.

This chapter investigates the effect of customer orientation and CRM organization on hotel financial performance. A model of enhancing hotel financial performance through customer satisfaction practices was tested. Customer satisfaction was hypothesized to be a mediator in the relationships between customer orientation and CRM organization and the result being financial performance. The sample consisted of 54 hotels that was made up of three 5-star, fifteen 4-star, and thirty-six 3-star hotels in Ghana. A quantitative deductive approach was employed to gather data using cross-sectional survey, which was analyzed using PLS-SEM to check the validity, reliability and factor loading of the data. The findings revealed that, CRM organization enhances customer satisfaction and financial performance of hotels. Also, customer orientation showed significant positively related to customer satisfaction in the hotels. Surprisingly, the effects of CRM organization and customer orientation on financial performance through customer satisfaction were insignificant. Thus, customer satisfaction failed to mediate the effect of CRM organization and customer orientation on the financial performance of hotels. This suggests that though an effective CRM organization enhances customer satisfaction, it directly affects the financial performance of hotels. The outcomes have useful implications for CRM implementation on hotel financial performance in Ghana.

Introduction: The global financial crisis has affected the financial markets and has had social consequences in addition to economic ones. The concept of ‘sustainability’ concerns firms reaching their main corporate goals. So, to maximise corporate financial performance (FINP), firms pay attention to non-financial data, such as elements of governance, social, and environmental concerns (henceforth referred to as ESG). Therefore, non-financial information provided by EGS factors measured by the ESG score has a crucial role in incorporating strategy and firm performance.

Purpose: This chapter looks at how ESG scores affect the performance of firms. The term ‘ESG’ describes how corporate operations include ESG principles. The ESG score is a novel way to gauge a company’s sustainability.

Methodology: ESG practices are a current phenomenon that has taken the attention of researchers in the last decades. Besides the amount of research conducted, researchers still need consensus regarding its impact. This chapter implements a systematic literature review to compile the research on ESG performance (ESGP) and how it affects business performance.

Findings: Businesses can incorporate sustainability practices into their operations with the help of ESG reports. ESG reports and scores provide non-financial information, which is crucial for businesses to achieve sustainability in their activities and attract more investors. The chapter contributes to the literature by creating value through a comprehensive and theoretical literature review.

This paper seeks to analyse the current poverty situation and poverty alleviation efforts of the NGOs in Bangladesh with emphasis on the impacts of two NGO programmes in two villages of Barisal district.

This research has employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The research has primarily used first‐hand empirical data. In order to substantiate primary data, relevant secondary information has also been used. Data were collected through household survey by applying both open‐ and closed‐ended questionnaires. With a view to analysing data, inferential as well as descriptive statistics have been applied.

The findings revealed that the economic condition of the poor in the study areas has not improved much when judged against some selected indicators, namely, income, food and non‐food expenditure, productive and non‐productive asset, food security, and employment creation. The Foster Greer Thorbecke index shows that the majority of the NGO beneficiaries remained below the poverty line in terms of income and the overwhelming majority of them remained below the underemployment line (less than 260 days of work in a year). The regression analysis shows that the income of the households is determined by landholding size, family labour, days suffered from morbidities and employment opportunity. The qualitative data on the perception of beneficiaries on the causes of poverty endorse this finding.

Controversies over the issue of widespread poverty in Bangladesh have been revolving among the government, NGOs and the donor agencies as well. NGOs have been claiming the entire success of the economic wellbeing made to the rural poor. However, this study has directly challenged their claims by casting an empirical lens on the impact of their interventions. This study has detected the paucities of the NGO interventions and gaps between their objectives and their achievement.