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The intense competition among restaurant brands made it difficult to retain and engage customers. Service innovation can play a vital role to serve this purpose, however, restaurant brands' efforts to bringing innovativeness may not yield desired results unless customers perceive them innovative. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the role of customer perceived innovativeness (CPRI) in enhancing brand love and evangelism among customers. This study compares these effects between fast-food and continental restaurants to offer deeper insights.

Data were collected from 303 customers of fast-food and continental restaurants through self-administered structured questionnaire. The reliability and validity were established through confirmatory factor analysis. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling and multi-group SEM with MPlus.

The findings of this study reveal that menu, experiential and promotional innovativeness dimensions of CPRI positively influence brand love. The effects of CPRI dimensions transcend to brand evangelism dimensions, i.e. brand purchase intension, positive brand referrals and oppositional brand referrals via brand love. The multi-group analysis showed that continental restaurants' menu innovativeness strongly impacts brand love and evangelism while promotional innovativeness matters more in the context of fast-food restaurants.

This study helps restaurant managers in devising tailor made strategies for fast-food and continental restaurants by focusing on the relevant attributes to bring innovation.

This research is one of the pioneering studies to investigate the relationship of CPRI with brand evangelism through the mediating role of brand love. This study also marks an initial attempt to compare fast-food and continental restaurants in the context of CPRI.

This paper aims to investigate the tacit knowledge-sharing framework among Pakistani academicians. The objective is to study trust and social networks as antecedents to foster tacit knowledge sharing with the mediating role of commitment. Furthermore, the moderating role of organizational knowledge-sharing culture is also examined.

The study applied a survey-based quantitative research design to test the proposed model. The nature of data are cross-sectional and collected with stratified random sampling among public sector higher education professionals of Pakistan. The total sample size for the present research is 247 respondents. The variance-based structural equation modeling technique by using Smart_PLS software is used for analysis.

Data analysis and results reveal that trust and social networks are significant predictors of tacit knowledge sharing among Pakistani academicians while commitment positively mediated the relationships. While the moderating role of organizational knowledge-sharing culture is also established.

The current research explains tacit knowledge sharing among academics with fewer antecedents i.e. social network and trust with limited sample size and specific population. There is still a great deal of work to be done in this area. Hence, the study provides direction for including knowledge-oriented leadership and knowledge governance in the current framework. Moreover, the framework can be tested in different work settings for better generalization.

The study gives an important lead to practitioners for enhancing tacit knowledge sharing at the workplace through a robust social network of employees, building trust and boosting employees’ commitment, as well as through supportive organizational knowledge sharing culture.

The research comprehends the tacit knowledge sharing framework with theoretical arrangements of trust, social networks, commitment and culture in higher education workplace settings under the umbrella of social capital theory.

Microfinance emerged as an essential catalyst for socio-economic development and financial inclusion to reduce poverty. Microfinance institutions cannot meet their primary objective of poverty reduction if they are not sustainable financially. With the theoretical support of profit incentive theory, this paper aims to investigate the impact of organizational structure (OS), growth outreach (average loan per borrower [ALPB] and number of active borrowers), women empowerment (percentage of women borrowers [PWB]), liquidity, leverage and cost efficiency (cost per borrower) on the financial sustainability of microfinance providers (MFPs) in India and explore the possible moderating effect of the national governance indicators (NGIs).

A financial sustainability index has been developed by using principal components analysis, including both conventional measures (return of assets and return on equity) and efficiency measures (operational self-sufficiency and financial self-sufficiency). Due to the existence of endogeneity and heteroskedasticity, this study uses two-step system generalized method of moments estimates to examine the relationships for a period of 2006 to 2018.

The finding reveals that there is a strong significant relationship between financial sustainability and its influential factors. Organizatioanl Structure, loan size, women borrowers, Gross Domestic Products and inflation enhance the financial sustainability of India’s microfinance sector. However, a number of borrowers, liquidity, leverage and operating costs negatively affect the financial sustainability of MFPs of India. The estimates demonstrate that NGIs significantly moderate the association between financial sustainability and its influential factors. The NGIs negatively affect the positive impact of Organizatioanl Structure on financial sustainability. National governance increases the positive effect of loan size (ALPB) and reduces the negative effect of a number of borrowers and leverage on the financial sustainability of MFPs of India. However, NGIs negatively affect the positive relationship between Percentage of Women Borrowers and Financial sustainability of Microfinance Providers of India.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind that incorporates all of the six dimensions of the National Governance Indicators (NGIs) and uses as a moderator. Secondly, a financial sustainability index has been developed for measuring the financial sustainability of Microfinance Providers (MFPs).

The potential role of higher education institutes is indispensable for realizing the dream of a sustainable future. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of knowledge-oriented leadership on the sustainable service quality of higher education institutes. Furthermore, it also investigates the mediating role of organizational innovation and psychological empowerment.

Data of this study is collected from 306 faculty members of the public and private universities of Pakistan. Structural equation modeling technique was used for data analysis and testing of hypotheses.

The results demonstrate the positive impact of knowledge-oriented leadership on sustainable service quality. Organizational innovation and psychological empowerment partially mediate the relationship of knowledge-oriented leadership and sustainable service quality.

The policymakers including the higher education commission of Pakistan and university administration are highly recommended to promote a knowledge-oriented leadership style in the higher education institutes to improve innovation and psychological empowerment at the workplace which leads to foster sustainable service quality.

The concept of sustainable service quality in higher education institutes is in the infancy stages in developing countries. There is a dearth of studies that explore the relationship between knowledge management enabler and sustainable service quality. This study attempts to explore the unexplored relationship and extends the literature of higher education institutes and sustainable service quality.

This paper aims to present an overview of permanent magnet linear flux-switching machines (PMLFSM), field excited LFSM and hybrid excited LFSM (HELFSM) topologies as presented in literature for transportation systems such as high-speed trains and maglev systems.

The structural designs of different configurations are thoroughly investigated, and their respective advantages and disadvantages are examined. Based on the geometry and excitation sources, a detailed survey is carried out. Specific design and space issues, such as solid and modular structures, structure strength, excitation sources placement, utilization of PM materials, and flux leakage are investigated.

PMLFSM provide higher power density and efficiency than induction and DC machines because of the superior excitation capability of PMs. The cost of rare-earth PMs has risen sharply in the past few decades because of their frequent use, so the manufacturing cost of PMLFSM is increasing. Owing to the influence of high-energy PMs and magnetic flux concentration, the efficiency and power density are higher in such machines. PM is the only excitation source in PMLFSM and has constant remanence, limiting its applications in a wide speed operation range. Therefore, the field winding is added in the PMLFSM to flexibly regulate the magnetic field, making it a hybrid excited one. The HELFSM possess better flux linkage, high thrust force density and better flux controlling ability, leading to a wide speed range. However, the HELFSM have problems with the crowded mover, as PM, field excited and armature excitation are housed on a short mover. So, for better performance, the area of each excitation component has to compete with each other.

Transportation of goods and people by vehicles is becoming increasingly prevalent. As railways play a significant role in the transportation system and are an integral part of intercity transportation. So, this paper presents an overview of various linear machines that are presented in literature for rail transit systems to promote sustainable urban planning practices.

The particle distribution in a fluid is mostly not homogeneous. The inhomogeneous dispersion of solid particles affects the velocity profile as well as the heat transfer of fluid. This study aims to highlight the effects of varying density of particles in a fluid. The fluid flows through a wavy curved passage under an applied magnetic field. Heat transfer is discussed with variable thermal conductivity.

The mathematical model of the problem consists of coupled differential equations, simplified using stream functions. The results of the time flow rate for fluid and solid granules have been derived numerically.

The fluid and dust particle velocity profiles are being presented graphically to analyze the effects of density of solid particles, magnetohydrodynamics, curvature and slip parameters. Heat transfer analysis is also performed for magnetic parameter, density of dust particles, variable thermal conductivity, slip parameter and curvature. As the number of particles in the fluid increases, heat conduction becomes slow through the fluid. Increase in temperature distribution is noticed as variable thermal conductivity parameter grows. The discussion of variable thermal conductivity is of great concern as many biological treatments and optimization of thermal energy storage system’s performance require precise measurement of a heat transfer fluid’s thermal conductivity.

This study of heat transfer with inhomogeneous distribution of the particles in a fluid has not yet been reported.

A growing challenge for organizations is to keep their brand relevant and connected to consumers. This can be achieved by connecting the consumer not only through conventional lines but also through means of developing emotional bonding, leading to brand gratitude. This study aims to develop a conceptual model by identifying a set of components and establishing a probable linkage between them for the development of brand gratitude.

A qualitative study involving three focus group discussions with industry experts was conducted to identify the brand elements that can help build a strong emotional connection between the brand and customers, leading to brand gratitude.

The study identified the different brand elements and their relative influence on building the consumer-brand emotional connection. These components were then incorporated into a conceptual model for creating a “Unique Emotional Connection” (UEC). The outcome of the UEC model is enhanced and long-lasting association of the brand through brand gratitude.

An integrated study to understand the different elements influencing customer-brand emotional connection is rare. Also, papers studying the role of gratitude in brand management are limited. This study has tried to address these gaps through a conceptual framework that can help marketing practitioners to develop a long-lasting customer-brand relationship.

Stock markets are essential for households for wealth creation and for firms for raising financial resources for capacity expansion and growth. Market participants, therefore, need an understanding of stock price movements. Stock market indices and individual stock prices reflect the macroeconomic environment and are subject to external and internal shocks. It is important to disentangle the impact of macroeconomic shocks, market uncertainty and speculative elements and examine them separately for prediction. To aid households, firms and policymakers, the paper proposes a granular decomposition-based prediction framework for different time periods in India, characterized by different market states with varying degrees of uncertainty.

Ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and fuzzy-C-means (FCM) clustering algorithms are used to decompose stock prices into short, medium and long-run components. Multiverse optimization (MVO) is used to combine extreme gradient boosting regression (XGBR), Facebook Prophet and support vector regression (SVR) for forecasting. Application of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) helps identify feature contributions.

We find that historic volatility, expected market uncertainty, oscillators and macroeconomic variables explain different components of stock prices and their impact varies with the industry and the market state. The proposed framework yields efficient predictions even during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine war period. Efficiency measures indicate the robustness of the approach. Findings suggest that large-cap stocks are relatively more predictable.

The paper is on Indian stock markets. Future work will extend it to other stock markets and other financial products.

The proposed methodology will be of practical use for traders, fund managers and financial advisors. Policymakers may find it useful for assessing the impact of macroeconomic shocks and reducing market volatility.

Development of a granular decomposition-based forecasting framework and separating the effects of explanatory variables in different time scales and macroeconomic periods.

This study aims to enhance an enterprise’s private cloud services by optimally determining the ownership of cloud computing resources and responsibility for maintenance and operations. The core objective is to identify the most cost-effective private cloud deployment model at the intersection of technology and business considerations.

This study evaluates three ownership and responsibility models, each encompassing decisions related to candidate data center locations, resource provisioning, and demand placements. Drawing from the cloud computing literature, these models are referred to as deployment models. The research formulates a private cloud deployment model selection problem and introduces an established Lagrangian-relaxation-based optimization approach, combined with a novel greedy relieving-pooling heuristic, to facilitate model selection.

This study identifies the optimal deployment model for a representative instance using real test-bed data from the US, demonstrating the private cloud deployment model selection problem. Various numerical examples are analyzed to explore the influence of environmental parameters. Generally, the virtual PC model is optimal for low demand arrival rates and resource requirements, while the on-premises PC model is preferable for higher values of these parameters. Additionally, the virtual PC model is found to be optimal when enroute latency coefficients are large.

This study contributes to the literature by formulating an optimization problem that integrates performance, financial, and assurance metrics for enterprises. The introduction of a solution approach enables enterprises to make informed decisions regarding ownership and responsibility design. The study effectively bridges the gap between academic research and industry demands from a business perspective.

Drawing upon Drucker’s theory of productivity, this study proposes to examine the relationship between knowledge-oriented leadership (KOL) and knowledge worker performance (KWP) within the Chinese information technology (IT) industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, this study examines the direct connection between KWP and organizational performance (OP), as well as mediated via employee creative work behavior (ECWB), and digital citizenship behavior (DCB).

The data for the research was collected from a sample size of 322 individuals working in the IT industry context in China, with varying levels of seniority (lower, middle and upper). The relationship was examined by employing Smart PLS 4 in a current study.

The study findings revealed a significant and conspicuous effect of KOL on KWP. The outcomes divulged the fact that KOL has a positive impact on the ECWB, and DCB improves the performance of knowledge workers, resulting in an overall augmentation in the organizational performance of the IT industry.

Presently, there exist a scarcity of substantial empirical studies to thoroughly examine the influence of KOL, ECWB, DCB, KWP and OP in the domain of Chinese IT industry research, particularly in the setting of the pandemic. The study makes a substantial contribution to the extant literature on the topic via empirically examining the association among KOL, KWP and organizational performance, as well as evaluating the mediation mechanism of both employee creative work behavior and digital citizenship behavior.