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It has been established that innovation is determined by leadership and personality characteristics. Further inquiry in this line of research is encouraged. Accordingly, the authors propose inter-correlations between personality, leadership, innovation and job design characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to understand how proactive personality and leader member exchange can derive innovative work behavior, in employees of telecommunication industry, by increasing task feedback and task significance.

A deductive approach was used to propose hypotheses. Objective data were collected through a cross sectional survey of 292 samples from three large multinational telecommunication companies located in Islamabad (Pakistan). The survey instrument was a 25-item questionnaire adopted from previously developed and well-validated scales used by prior researches. The survey yielded findings in support of proposed hypotheses of the study.

Hierarchical regression analysis yielded findings, which suggested that proactive personality and leader member exchange (LMX) both have a strong positive relationship with innovative work behavior (IWB). Furthermore, task significance and task feedback were found to moderate the aforementioned relationships such that strong leader member exchange and proactive personalities resulted in increased innovative work behavior at higher levels of task feedback and task significance.

The managers can raise their innovation enhancing strategies one step higher by integrating it with enhanced task feedback and significance. This can be done while working on the relationship of their employees with the leaders/managers and by encouraging proactive personalities at work. Infusing the proposed integrated and holistic framework, of innovative behavior, into their organizations will lead to better retention of key employees, higher job satisfaction and increased loyalty.

This paper adds significance to the extant literature by examining proactive personality and LMX as determinants of innovative work behavior and the moderating impact of job design characteristics in the context of telecommunication companies, particularly from developing countries, such as Pakistan. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that has tested the interplay between a relational concept of leadership (LMX), proactive personality, task significance and task feedback and the outcome variable innovative work behavior.

This study aims to spotlight and explore various determinants of Islamic social reporting (ISR) in Islamic banks of Pakistan.

The authors have used firm size, firm profitability, firm age, board size and board independence as determinants of ISR. The authors collected data from Islamic banks listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange for the period 2012–2019. Multiple estimation techniques, i.e. fixed effect model, random effect model and one-step difference generalized method of moment (GMM), have been applied.

Random effect model was found to be more robust as compared to fixed effect model and one-step difference GMM. The results reported by the random effect model, preferred among the three, show that firm size, firm profitability, firm age and board size are important determinants of ISR in Islamic banks of Pakistan, while board independence does not determine social reporting for Islamic banks in Pakistan. Although social reporting in annual reports of Islamic banks in Pakistan is increasing, further improvement and compliance is required to ensure accountability and transparency in financial reporting as recommended by Islamic teachings. The study has certain managerial implications, especially for top management of Islamic banks.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to discuss determinants of ISR in Islamic banks of Pakistan. The developed framework herein provides a precise guideline for Islamic banking to enhance their performance, which has never been discussed before.

Despite widespread acceptance and exponential growth of Islamic banking across many countries, research indicates some critical issues that can potentially downturn this industry. Literature suggests that like other stakeholders such as customers, some employees too have ambivalent attitude towards its concept and practices. This calls for an empirical assessment. As no such comprehensive instrument was available, this study aims to develop a scale measuring employees' attitude towards Islamic banking.

This scale development process begins with literature review pertinent to employees’ perspective in Islamic banking, followed by a series of steps critical to achieve robustness and to ensure validity and reliability of the instrument. Research methods include a detailed set of qualitative interviews, content validation, pilot testing and exploratory factor analysis with subsequent confirmatory factor analysis.

The final scale embodies five orthogonal dimensions: awareness of Islamic banking, usefulness of Islamic banking, perception of Shariah compliance, patronage towards Islamic banking and attractiveness towards Islamic banking.

This instrument may be used both by research scholars and practicing managers to measure employees’ attitude towards Islamic banking system and practices. It may also serve as a diagnostic tool to identify the areas of strength and weaknesses in the Islamic banking system as perceived by the employees themselves.

An instrument to measure employees’ attitude towards Islamic banking system is much needed as no such comprehensive instrument is available to the best of authors’ knowledge. The study attempts to fulfil this need.

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of two types of social media videos used for destination image development: induced/commercial-oriented content and organic content (where content is made without commercial interest, such as vlogs classified as user-generated content).

Experimental research using “Emotive EEG” (electroencephalogram) in a controlled environment was conducted with 30 participants (20 males, 10 females), age range 18 to 26. Emotive EEG recording was performed while the participants watched both types of video clips. Test results for both groups indicate that induced content is preferred over organic content.

This study opens up future research avenues where neuromarketing’s “Marketer Friendly” EEG equipment can be applied to the customer selection process.

Marketing analysts can gauge the interest and response of customers on different types of social media video content for destination marketing based on the findings of this study.

Construction management skills and competencies (CMSC) are of greatest importance for the industry to succeed and thrive. Some factors are critical to CSMC development. Hence, following the restrictions occasioned by the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, this study reviewed and examined these factors to understand their level of influence in the remote development of CMSC adopted by the industry within and post the disruptions induced by the pandemic.

This study adopted a quantitative and descriptive research method. Data were sourced from 155 completed and usable survey questionnaires with registered and licensed engineering and construction professionals practicing in both private and public sectors in Nigeria. Participants were drawn from the membership database of the Nigeria Society of Engineers.

The identified critical success factors (CSFs) are categorised into organisational factors which include leadership, engineering project networks and eLearning, measurement and review system, strategy and resources, organisational culture, tradition and structure. In addition to individual factors in this order of influence; willingness to learn, promotion and career development, obtaining certified qualification and obtaining respect of peers are CSFs of remote development of CMSC in Nigeria.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to identify and examine the CSFs to remote development of CMSC tailored to developing countries in Africa. It explored the two categories of CSFs in both remote and traditional CMSC developments and established that the organisational factors remain positively dominants in traditional as well as in remote development of CMSC. It further ranked the individual factors in their order of influence in Nigeria, offered insights into motivation of construction management trainees in developing countries and offered areas of improvements such as quality of training and certification.

The aim of this study is to examine the perceptions of consumers on Islamic banking and finance in Pakistan. Islamic finance is an emerging phenomenon, and its survival depends on the availability, affordability and awareness. This paper attempts to fill the gap in the literature by exploring the perceptions of consumers and bankers in an attempt to gain insights so that the availability of products and awareness can be increased.

The study uses a regression model by using perception as a dependent variable and awareness, knowledge and religious motivation as independent variables. Primary data is collected using 150 questionnaires distributed amongst finance students in several universities and employees of Islamic banks in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Province of Pakistan.

The findings reveal that overall consumers’ perception is positive about Islamic banking and finance in Pakistan. Statistical analysis shows that awareness, knowledge and religiosity level have a positive influence on the perception of consumers about Islamic financing products and services in Pakistan. To improve the awareness and understanding, Islamic banks could make better marketing strategies and could increase their presence by mosque visits and conferences. Cooperation between the industry and scholars could help in providing more innovative products to the consumers.

There has been a limited amount of work carried out on the perceptions of consumers about Islamic banking in Pakistan. The present study represents the start of a larger context for examining Islamic banking practices in Pakistan. The findings of the study can be used as a reference in future research projects in the areas of perceptions and awareness.

Little research has been conducted to study this problem from the perspectives of consumers and Islamic banking employees. Most of the research associated with Islamic banks fails to pay attention to these stakeholder groups in one study.

Most studies focusing on the transformational leadership style present the conclusion that compared with other leadership styles tends to be associated with a lower level of workplace stress experienced by employees. Yet, the literature is by no means extensive enough to put the issue of the relationship between this style of leadership and employee stress to rest. Given that this is the case, the purpose of this paper is to assess the relationship between the transformational leadership style and the work stress (WS) of employees in the banking industry. The extent to which this relationship leads to employee burnout and the extent to which WS correlates with multiple factors, such as demographic characteristics (gender, work experience and marital status), are examined in this context.

In total, 600 questionnaires were distributed to employees of government and non-government banks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in late 2017. The final sample comprised 250 complete sets, which were used in the analysis. The questionnaire consisted of four sections: transformational dimensions, WS, burnout and demographic profile. Before the authors proceeded to test the hypotheses developed in this study, the authors performed an exploratory factor analysis on the items designed to measure transformational dimensions, WS and burnout. Next, the authors performed confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that bank managers who use the transformational leadership style significantly increased the job-related stress of employees, indicating that bank managers who use a transformational leadership style increase the job-related stress of subordinate employees. However, the results in regard to the transformational leadership style show a significant though small positive effect on employee burnout, indicating that this type of leadership decreases employee burnout. Furthermore, job-related stress has a significant mediating effect in relation to the transformational leadership style and subordinate employees’ burnout. Finally, the results indicate that married status and a high level of work experience are each associated with lower job stress compared with unmarried status and a low level of work experience.

This research paper contributes to the literature by investigating transformational leadership in the banking industry – an industry of fundamental economic importance in Saudi Arabia and globally. The research results, unlike those reported in most other studies to date, strongly suggest that the transformational leadership style can be associated with a high level of workplace stress, thereby pointing to new conclusions about this style and its effects on the health and well-being of the majority of employees. The results of this paper should be carried forward in this research direction, as doing so has the potential to challenge and even override what have become assumptions about the positive effects of the transformational leadership style. The insights derived from this research paper, therefore, should benefit academics and practitioners who can reference the outcomes in designing programs to support the recruitment, selection and development of effective leaders in the banking sector – especially given the broader ramifications both for overall firm performance and for the well-being of the majority of the country’s employees.

Despite the reasonable surge of remittances and imports in Pakistan, very less attention has been given to this area. To bridge the gap, this study aims to explore the relationship of worker’s remittances and imports of Pakistan at both aggregate and disaggregate levels. Also, this research focuses on investigating whether remitted income substitute or complement imports of the country.

To achieve these goals, the authors use annual time-series data from 1974–2016.

Empirical findings obtained from the autoregressive distributed lag model method suggest that remittances substitute imports in Pakistan. It is also found that remittances not only substitute aggregate imports but also act as a substitute at different disaggregated levels. Further, it is documented that higher economic growth increases imports, whereas the real exchange rate for imports is inversely related to imports at both levels.

These empirical findings also draw some substantive policy implications for the state owners and policy advisers.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of job embeddedness (JE) on the turnover intention (TI) of the public sector with the mediating effect of the individual factor (i.e. life satisfaction [LS]) and the moderating effect of the leadership style (i.e. ethical leadership [EL]).

This study adopted a quantitative design to collect data from 236 employees working in the public sector in Vietnam through field research using structured questionnaires. Data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypotheses.

The results show that JE negatively affects the TI of public sector employees through the mediation effect of LS. Additionally, this study indicates that EL moderates the relationship between JE and TI.

This study implies that public sector stakeholders should consider both individual and contextual factors to manage and retain employees. In addition to addressing employees' embeddedness with the organisation and community and their LS, public organisations need to focus on hiring, training and promoting ethical leaders.

This study highlights the role of embeddedness within both the organisation and the community, along with the role of EL in the LS and TI of public sector employees.

The main aim of this paper is to identify whether certain consumers behave irrationally when it comes to select banking products. This paper builds on one of the most significant banking products that is the credit card.

This is an exploratory research paper. Therefore, only descriptive analysis on the differences between three credit card user groups such as the Islamic credit card users, conventional card users and users who decide to use both credit cards, conventional and Islamic, were presented.

The demographic and psychographic factors for the three different groups differ. In addition, there are four factors that influence the credit card selection. The factors are insurance/takaful provided by the credit issuers, cost associated with the credit card, the reward points programme offered and the convenience factors. Furthermore, the study found that three of the factors except insurance/takaful are significantly different between three credit card groups.

This paper is limited to the context of Malaysia and the respondents are mostly from the same ethnic. Therefore, it could not be generalised in the context of other countries and further studies comparing different culture or ethnic could benefit and enrich the topic of study.

The Islamic and conventional banks could focus on several factors influencing customers’ selection and could focus to improve certain lacking areas as perceived by the consumers. The ability to increase the perceptions of the consumers regarding their credit cards will enable their products to be chosen in the market.

There was a significant amount of literature discussed in the Islamic banking selection factors. However, little attention being paid to the selection of a specific bank’s product. This study offers a study that looks into the selection of the credit card offered by the banks in respect to the irrational behaviours of the religious consumers in economic activities as compared to the conventional economists. This paper will contribute to the body of existing literature of banking selection.