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Ohmic heating generates temperature with the help of electrical current and resists the flow of electricity. Also, it generates heat rapidly and uniformly in the liquid matrix. Electrically conducting biofluid flows with Ohmic heating have many biomedical and industrial applications. The purpose of this study is to provide the significance of the effects of Ohmic heating and viscous dissipation on electrically conducting Casson nanofluid flow driven by peristaltic pumping through a vertical porous channel.

In this analysis, the non-Newtonian properties of fluid will be characterized by the Casson fluid model. The long wavelength approach reduces the complexity of the governing system of coupled partial differential equations with non-linear components. Using a regular perturbation approach, the solutions for the flow quantities are established. The fascinating and essential characteristics of flow parameters such as the thermal Grashof number, nanoparticle Grashof number, magnetic parameter, Brinkmann number, permeability parameter, Reynolds number, Casson fluid parameter, thermophoresis parameter and Brownian movement parameter on the convective peristaltic pumping are presented and thoroughly addressed. Furthermore, the phenomenon of trapping is illustrated visually.

The findings indicate that intensifying the permeability and Casson fluid parameters boosts the temperature distribution. It is observed that the velocity profile is elevated by enhancing the thermal Grashof number and perturbation parameter, whereas it reduces as a function of the magnetic parameter and Reynolds number. Moreover, trapped bolus size upsurges for greater values of nanoparticle Grashof number and magnetic parameter.

There are some interesting studies in the literature to explain the nature of the peristaltic flow of non-Newtonian nanofluids under various assumptions. It is observed that there is no study in the literature as investigated in this paper.

In the presence of informal sector in the country, designing an energy policy and the pursuit of higher economic growth become challenging for emerging economies. These economies are usually resource starved, and the presence of underground economy leads to faulty estimates of energy demand. The authors explore the energy–growth nexus in the presence of underground economy for Pakistan, an emerging economy host to large informal sector and facing recurring energy crises.

The authors evaluate the impact of underground economy on energy demand in the presence of explanatory variables, including official gross domestic product (GDP), foreign direct investment and financial development. The authors first assess the influence of official economy on the consumption of energy. The authors investigate how energy consumption is influenced solely by underground economy. Finally, the authors evaluate the impact of true GDP on the energy consumption. The authors employ combined cointegration method of Bayer and Hanck (2013) and then apply vector error correction model.

The results reveal that official GDP, underground economy and true GDP positively and significantly affect energy consumption in both short and long run. Similarly, financial development as well as foreign direct investment enhance energy consumption. The authors find unidirectional causality between energy consumption and official GDP variables (OGDP → EC), underground economy (UE → EC) and true GDP variables (TGDP → EC) in the long run. The authors observe bidirectional causality in the short run between energy consumption and official GDP (OGDP ↔ EC) and true GDP (TGDP ↔ EC).

To the best of the authors' knowledge, no study examines the causal relationship of energy consumption and underground economy. Overall, the findings assist policymakers to consider and implement different energy-related policies considering the significant role of underground economy for energy consumption in Pakistan.

This study aims to investigate the comparative importance of factors influencing the customer shift behavior from conventional to Islamic banking for consumer finance in Pakistan.

First, a comprehensive analysis of the existing literature was conducted to identify a broad range of factors related to customer shift behavior. Through an expert sampling, 14 essential factors were chosen for further investigation. Second, a questionnaire was developed using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). This questionnaire was then distributed among customers who had previously been using conventional banking services but had made a shift toward Islamic banking. The purpose of this questionnaire was to gather data and insights regarding their motivations and decision-making process behind the shift, and a sample 215 customers are taken in the study.

The results of AHP depicts that the religiosity is a most important factor influencing customers to shift from conventional to Islamic banking, and the second most important factor is pricing. The other subsequent important factors are reputation of the bank, marketing and promotion, service quality, behavior of banks staff, Shariah compliance, management, convenience, fastness and charges/fees. Whereas documentation, ambiance and recommendation are found least important factors to patronize Islamic banking.

The study recommends Islamic banks to create awareness, concentrating on religious factor to have a greater impact on growth of Islamic banking and shrinking of conventional banking. Further, it suggests Islamic banks to apply Shariah-recommended approach of doing business, to help community in best possible way and to launch differentiated marketing techniques to attract customers. It also proposes regulatory authorities to provide facilitation to Islamic banking business by providing level playing field similar to conventional banking, tax equality and conversion of public financing from conventional banking to Islamic banking.

The originality of this study lies in its comprehensive analysis of factors influencing consumer shift behavior from conventional to Islamic banking in the context of consumer finance in Pakistan. By using the AHP, the study provides a structured approach to understanding the relative importance of these factors. This is the uniqueness of the paper that it applies the AHP for the analysis. Furthermore, the study offers practical implications for Islamic banks and regulatory authorities to effectively address and capitalize on this consumer shift trend.

In pursuit of good governance and better allocation of resources, corruption and informal economy are of interest to policymakers and citizens alike. The impacts of military spending on the informal economy are scant. Moreover, the effects of an external factor, such as corruption that moderates this relationship, have largely been neglected in previous studies. Hence, this paper investigates how corruption moderates the effects of military spending on the informal economy in 30 Asian countries from 1995 to 2017.

This paper utilizes the GMM estimation technique, which allows cross-sectional dependence and slope homogeneity in panel data analysis, to examine the moderating role of corruption on the relationship between military spending and the informal economy.

Empirical findings from this paper indicate that an increase in military spending declines the informal economy while corruption increases it. Interestingly, the negative effects of military spending on the informal economy will mitigate with a greater degree of corruption in the Asian region. We also find that enhancing economic growth and attracting more FDI has reduced the informal economy in Asian countries.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study conducted to examine the moderating role of corruption on the military spending – informal economy nexus. Thus far, this approach has not been investigated in the existing literature, particularly for Asian countries.

This study aims to examine the nonlinear threshold effect of shadow economy on sustainable development in Africa while providing additional evidence on how this nonlinear threshold effect play out in economies with high and low developed financial/credit markets.

This study uses 37 African economies between 2009 and 2017 in a dynamic GMM panel model that controls for country, year and technological effects to ensure consistency and reliability of results and findings.

The results reveal that there is an inverted nonlinear U-shape nexus between the size of shadow economy and sustainable development in both short run and long run in Africa and across economies with high and low developed credit/financial market. Also, the threshold points beyond which the size of shadow economies dampens sustainable development is lower for economies with high financial/credit market development and higher in the long run.

These results have policy implications and recommendations and suggest that shadow economies can be beneficial to sustainable development particularly when the size of shadow economies are restrained from increasing beyond certain thresholds/levels. Moreso, to restrict the adverse effect of shadow economies on sustainable development, policymakers can rely on developing their financial/credit markets to tame the destructive nature of shadow economies on sustainable development. These results are robust to technological, year/time and country effects.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study examines for the first in the context of Africa, the nonlinear effect of shadow economies on sustainable development under low and high developed financial markets.

It is widely evident that trust and commitment are important pillars for strengthening the relationship between financial service firms and their customers. However, it has not been explored how the service quality, perceived cost and role of agents are important for financial service firms. To overcome this gap, this study aims to investigate the role of service quality, perceived cost and the role of agents as the commitment–trust factors in the financial insurance service (Takaful) in Malaysia, enhancing customer satisfaction.

The study follows a quantitative design in which primary data was collected using a survey instrument. The measurement instrument was adapted from the previous research, and data were collected from 264 customers of the Takaful financial service organizations in Malaysia. The data were analyzed using variance-based structural equational modeling in Smart-PLS software.

This research has revealed several useful insights that demonstrate a significant impact on service quality, perceived cost and the agents’ role in forging close relationships with their customers. Corporate image has a moderating role in relationships and has significantly impacted takaful insurance companies. The results imply that regardless of the corporate image of the financial service organizations, customers are concerned about the prices and the quality of the agents’ services.

In this study, only the predictors such as service quality, perceived costs and agents’ roles as trust–commitment factors were examined to determine customer satisfaction. Other investigations are highly recommended, such as value co-creation in takaful, takaful customer experience and takaful trust. This study offers insights to takaful insurance companies on how to keep up a positive corporate image, which will boost their trust–commitment factors and ultimately increase customer satisfaction.

By presenting commitment–trust factors and company image in an identifiable framework, the current study has expanded the discussion on takaful financial insurance services. The methodology is developed and rigorously tested to gauge customer satisfaction in takaful financial service organizations’ context.

The aim of this paper is to review and categorise the body of existing research in order to better understand the state of food tourism. The primary objective of this study is to identify emerging themes in the area of food tourism and to highlight the relationships among them.

This research consists of a systematic literature review of academic articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases.

Ten themes of Food Tourism emerged from the analysis, i.e. Food Tourism and Local Food, Food Tourism and Sustainability, Food Tourism and Economy, Food Tourism and Food waste management, Food Tourism and Culture, Food Tourism and Environment, Food Tourism and Information Technology, Food Tourism and COVID-19, Food Tourism and Post pandemic consumer trust and Food Tourism and Tourism and Hospitality sector.

This study elaborates on the theoretical pieces of evidence on the connection between food and tourism. Not only limited to food tourism, but this paper also contributes to the literature in the area of economy, sustainability, post-COVID-19, food waste management, environment and technological innovations in food tourism.

This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the topic at hand. The study begins by systematically examining the topic to offer a thorough and in-depth analysis of food tourism. There is not a single study which has covered these many themes of food tourism, which makes it an important contribution to the literature.

Continuous professional development (CPD) plays a crucial role in the library workplace by equipping library and information science (LIS) professionals with the skills and technical knowledge to bridge the theory-praxis gap, assuring that library practitioners and their organisations continue to innovate and stay successful and tailored to the requirement of their users. The aim of the study was to investigate the channels of CPD for LIS professionals working in the university libraries of Northern India. Also, it explored the motivations and barriers related to the LIS professionals’ CPD.

The study adopted a quantitative research design followed by the survey research method. The study population included LIS professionals working in the university libraries of Northern India. Data was gathered from 177 respondents via the census sampling method.

LIS professionals engaged in CPD activities through multiple channels. Intrinsic factors primarily governed the motivation for CPD. Similarly, time and finance were significant challenges for LIS CPD. Lastly, most libraries were headed by in-charge librarians (non-professionals). De-professionalisation, or the deliberate de-skilling of professional roles, threatens the basis upon which librarians establish their credibility as professionals.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study is the first of its kind from the perspective of a developing country, adding to the CPD literature in academic libraries.

This study aims to explore green practices within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their implications for determining environmental performance. Targeting SMEs in Pakistan, the study examines the influence of green intellectual capital (GIC), innovation and creativity on environmental performance.

A comprehensive survey addressed top, middle, and lower-level managerial perspectives. A sample of 243 respondents was statistically selected, and the survey questionnaire was used to measure the key constructs of the study. Using a 5-point Likert scale, the study captured the respondents' insights regarding green practices. Data analysis was executed using SPSS for descriptive tests and Smart-PLS 4 for advanced structural equation modeling (SEM).

GIC significantly enhances green innovation within SMEs, leading to improved environmental performance. Green creativity is a crucial moderator, indicating that SMEs have higher creative approaches to counter environmental challenges. These findings accentuate the importance of fostering an environment that stimulates green creativity to uplift GIC in achieving environmental performance.

The study offers a profound understanding of how SMEs in Pakistan leverage GIC to elevate their environmental performance, thereby providing strategic insights for businesses aiming for sustainable growth.