Search results

In this chapter, we critically interrogate Pakistani Higher Education Commission (HEC)'s “Policy Guidelines against Sexual Harassment in Institutions of Higher Learning” (HEC, 2011, 2020) to reveal that the policy represents a form of rhetorical genderwashing, rather than a concerted attempt to effect structural change (Fox-Kirk et al., 2020). Through this critical interrogation, we introduce a new methodological approach to investigate genderwashing, that of collaborative feminist policy analysis. This chapter is based on the theoretical framework of Sara Ahmed's concept of “institutional nonperformativity” (2012). Pakistan recognized workplace harassment as a legal issue for the first time in the 2010 Sexual Harassment Act (Jabbar & Imran, 2013). The Act, and subsequent policies, was an attempt to practice equity and fairness in sexual harassment cases. Our investigation revealed that the policy reinforces gender power inequality, gendered language, and is an example of institutional silence, and genderwashing in the workplace (Fox-Kirk et al., 2020).

This study explores the adoption of crowdfunding in Pakistan, focusing on the challenges and opportunities within its unique entrepreneurial ecosystem. The research aims to provide insights into the regulatory mechanisms, stakeholder engagement and institutional factors influencing crowdfunding adoption.

Seventeen semi-structured interviews were conducted using a purposive sampling technique. Data was collected from diverse stakeholders involved in the crowdfunding process including investors, entrepreneurs, platform owners and regulators.

The study identifies various challenges, including regulatory gaps, investor concerns, platform-related issues and systemic challenges such as political instability and weak institutions. These challenges hinder the effective implementation of crowdfunding in Pakistan. Moreover, the study highlights opportunities for financial inclusion, bridging the gap between investors and entrepreneurs, and leveraging Pakistan’s entrepreneurial landscape for crowdfunding growth. While several challenges were common to both developed and developing countries, the study also identified distinct challenges such as digital literacy, reliance on the undocumented economy, insufficient regulatory frameworks and investor mindset specific to developing countries.

Since crowdfunding is an emerging phenomenon in Pakistan, this study had limitations as no official crowdfunding platform other than the Pakistan National Investor Portal had started operations. Therefore, this study involved only those stakeholders who were involved in designing regulatory sandbox suggestions. The sample size could be increased to include stakeholders from other developing countries in the future. This article, however, provides significant strategic guidance for policymakers in developing a framework to improve financial inclusion in development.

The study provides critical areas of concern for regulatory authorities for developing appropriate legislation to help overcome the challenges to the institutionalization of crowdfunding. This study also encourages stakeholders like investors and entrepreneurs to participate in crowdfunding while looking at the perspective of other parties.

This research highlights the need for the Pakistani society to be well-informed about alternative investment opportunities, like crowdfunding. The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector, along with the government, can also explore the benefits of crowdfunding to address their lack of access to capital and enable the inclusion of an informal economy to reduce poverty in a developing country.

Crowdfunding is a new phenomenon in Pakistan, and the scope of its application in the MSME sector has not been thoroughly investigated. This study reveals how micro and small firms can use crowdfunding to boost their economic operations by overcoming challenges and taking advantage of fintech (financial technology) to achieve financial inclusion, leading to economic sustainability.

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 study was designed to discover the readiness of the higher education commission (HEC)-recognized journals of Pakistan in terms of human, financial and technological resources, technical expertise, institutional support, availability of open access (OA) policy, availability of guidance and training, willingness, motivation and so on for OA journal publishing and to expose the challenges in OA journal publishing.

A quantitative research approach was used and a structured questionnaire was developed to meet the objectives of this study. A survey method was used to collect data from the editors of all 329 HEC-recognized journals in Pakistan.

The respondents of all the HEC-recognized journals of Pakistan are neutral and are not of the view that they have sufficient financial, human, technological/infrastructural resources and technical expertise to continue/initiate an OA journal publishing. ‘No academic reward’; and ‘no monetary reward for the editorial staff’ are both enormous challenges for OA journal publishing. The perceived challenges of OA have a negative impact on readiness for OA publishing. The readiness level of the respondents of the OA journals is higher as compared to the readiness level of the respondents of non-OA journals.

This study covered the lists of HEC-recognized journals of 2019. More studies may be conducted based on updated lists of HEC-recognized journals. Qualitative studies may also be conducted to discover the readiness of the HEC-recognized journals of Pakistan for OA journal publishing.

This study is the first comprehensive study on this phenomenon and is an effort to fill this gap to invigorate scholarly literature. It may attract the attention of policymakers, funding bodies, parent institutions of the journals and the HEC regarding the readiness of journals in terms of financial, human, technological/infrastructural resources, technical expertise of the journals and challenges of journals to prompt the OA journal publishing paradigm.

In this study, we aim to investigate entrepreneurial intention (EI) among potential entrepreneurs who were students at Pakistan’s higher education institutes (HEIs) of technical and vocational education and training (TVET).

We used a quantitative and correlational method in this study, and we based its theoretical framework on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the entrepreneurial event model (EEM). We based this study’s findings on 367 samples collected from Pakistan’s HEI TVET students who were potential entrepreneurs.

By employing path analysis, the findings reveal that TPB constructs, such as personal attitudes (PA), subjective norms (SN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC), have a positive and significant effect on EI. The findings show, also, that EEM constructs, such as perceived desirability (PD), perceived feasibility (PF) and propensity to act (PT) are positive and significant predictors of EI. Moreover, self-efficacy (SE) and the quality of TVET (QTT) positively and significantly affect EI.

This study’s findings support the improvement of Pakistan’s HEIs in developing TVET to enhance individuals’ skills and, ultimately, to create employment and socioeconomic circumstances. They also assist Pakistan’s HEIs in developing EI among their TVET potential entrepreneurs to ensure that they are sufficiently equipped for the job markets.

This study’s findings empirically confirm that TPB, EEM, SE and the QTT provide an integrated path for Pakistan’s entrepreneurs.

This investigation is based on the rich experiences of alumni from a reputable public higher education institution (HEI) in Pakistan. Its primary goal is to assess and investigate the relationship between the institution’s long-term sustainability strategies and alumni impressions. The inquiry aligns with the global changing landscape of HEIs, which demands more robust and marketing-driven strategies to achieve long-term sustainability through engaging various stakeholders.

The study employs a phenomenological research design to offer fresh insights into the effectiveness of alumni engagement practices. This research uses semi-structured interviews with nine alumni to contribute an interesting and important narrative regarding alumni’s experiences with engagement strategies.

The findings show that alumni strongly desire to maintain contact with their institution and support in various ways, thus signifying the importance of alumni engagement. In the broader context, alumni engagement can support HEIs to avoid the risks of losing education standards in financially strict times and achieve sustainable development.

By actively involving alumni, HEIs in Pakistan can support their sustainable development, strengthen their financial position, raise educational standards, access resources and more. This research provides a way for Public HEIs to attract external support to address the growing institution’s sustainability concerns and avoid the risk of deteriorating education.

The present research extends to the existing body of knowledge regarding Pakistan’s developing economy, while earlier studies have primarily concentrated on alumni studies from developed nations. The study has theoretically expanded the use of the stimulus-organism-response framework and introduced several new constructs not examined or utilized in earlier alumni studies.

The role of academic libraries in dissemination of information and facilitating research of academic community is well-established world over. However, a significant role of libraries in ensuring fair use of information to promote an ethical research culture at the higher education institutes is also flourishing. This study aims to explore the perceived causes of unethical use of literature by university scholars and deterrents to plagiarism in universities of Pakistan.

The design of the study was qualitative, and interviews were conducted on nine university library heads in Pakistan who were officially administrating anti-plagiarism (Turnitin) software service at their universities and were providing “similarity index certification” of PhD and MPhil research work through the software. They were purposively selected for the interviews because of their direct interaction with the researchers and faculty on matters of information searching as well as its ethical use. The study is based on PhD thesis work of the first author.

The findings of the study depicted that conceptual unawareness of plagiarism, lack of information skills, socio-cultural factors and weak policies were the prime reasons for unethical research practices among graduate scholars. Participants were positive that a role of university library in combating plagiarism through provision of anti-plagiarism software and guidance could prove more beneficial for both the researchers and libraries.

Multiple studies have been conducted, in and out of south Asian region, to gather the views of the students and faculty on the matters of academic misconduct. However, no study was found presenting the views of the other stakeholders in promotion of academic integrity. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is first of its kind in South Asian context and provided observation-based views of a group of university library heads who are also administrating anti-plagiarism service in their universities on the causes and deterrents to plagiarism.

This study aims to investigate the digital information needs and seeking behaviour of legal practitioners practising at the Lahore High Court in the Punjab province of Pakistan.

This study adopts a quantitative approach based on an e-questionnaire survey to collect data from legal practitioners following a comprehensive census. Among the 9,933 registered legal practitioners, a random sample size of 370 respondents was determined, of whom 302 responded to the survey, resulting in a response rate of 81.6%.

Legal practitioners prefer the Pakistan Law Site and law journals as primary sources of information acquisition, with a distinct inclination towards digital formats over traditional print. These resources are primarily used for court case preparation, significantly enhancing the research capabilities of legal practitioners and ensuring they remain current in their field. However, several challenges were identified, including time constraints, limited access to digital resources and inadequate availability of legal resources in digital format. These challenges emphasize the critical need for enhancing the digital infrastructure of law libraries.

The study calls for law libraries to adopt technological advancements and underscores the necessity of improving digital infrastructure to better serve the evolving information needs of legal practitioners.

This study underscores the preferred information sources and formats of legal practitioners for seeking information, their purpose for using law resources and the impact of digital media on their information-seeking behaviour. In addition, this study reveals the challenges they face in seeking them.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the research of knowledge management in higher education institutions (HEIs) by studying the enablers of knowledge entrepreneurship. Anchored in the dynamic capability theory, knowledge entrepreneurship is heterogeneously distributed in HEIs and is critical for the sustenance of organizations in the knowledge economy. This aim is realized by understanding the determinants of knowledge entrepreneurship and empirically investigating the relationship of knowledge-sharing behaviour and entrepreneurial leadership with knowledge entrepreneurship.

Data was collected through structured questionnaires from 550 faculty members of HEIs in Pakistan by adequately representing the sample size through regional stratification and proportionate sampling. Data was analyzed through the Analysis of Moment Structures software where the data validation and reliability were achieved using correlations, confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation modelling to generate generalizable results.

The findings revealed that knowledge sharing is an important component in developing knowledge entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial leadership is pivotal in providing the support, vision and autonomy to individuals with personal and professional capabilities to ensure the creation of new knowledge, collaboration and innovation.

The study contributes to an understanding of relationship of knowledge sharing and entrepreneurial leadership that leads to promotion of knowledge entrepreneurship in HEIs of Pakistan. In addition, the findings of the study extend the existing literature on knowledge entrepreneurship by offering the positive mediating role of entrepreneurial leadership in the universities of Pakistan, hence, addressing the specific challenges and opportunities faced by the HEIs of a developing country like Pakistan. The theoretical framework of the study elucidates the importance of knowledge sharing and entrepreneurial leadership by using the dynamic capabilities theory and extends the scope of the aforementioned theory in entrepreneurial leadership realm.

By generating an understanding of the dynamics of knowledge entrepreneurship this study tries to help policymakers and educational leaders to develop strategies to cultivate a culture of knowledge sharing and entrepreneurial leadership in Pakistani HEIs. Building the entrepreneurial ecosystem entails prioritizing knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and retention that can lead to innovative solutions for local and global challenges.

The study used dynamic capabilities theory to link the knowledge and resources together for the education sector for sustainable outcomes in the knowledge economy. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to empirically study the behaviour of HEIs to create and support knowledge entrepreneurship in the presence of entrepreneurial leadership in the context of a developing country, Pakistan. Becoming a knowledge-based society will help Pakistan upgrade itself to the list of developed countries.

The Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) plays a crucial role in the socioeconomic development of a country. Still, it is often stigmatized as a secondary choice in the Global South. This study explored the interrelationships and impacts of factors such as family, school, and society on the perception and reputation of TEVTA.

By employing quantitative methods, the analysis focused on how family, society, and school support influence these perceptions and reputations within TEVTA programs. Social Cognitive Theory is the theoretical underpinning of this study, in which 350 students from 13 TEVTA institutes participated by filling out questionnaires. The data was analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and IBM SPSS 28.

This study indicates that family and societal influences significantly shape students' perceptions, confirming their pivotal role in enhancing the reputation of these programs. School support also emerged as a critical factor, significantly impacting students' perceptions but not directly influencing the programs' reputation. The analysis underscores the importance of understanding the sociocultural context to develop effective strategies for the TEVTA sector in Pakistan. This clear understanding is essential for developing effective strategies to improve the reputation of TEVTA programs in this setting. Moreover, this research offers policy suggestions to make vocational education more attractive and accessible to diverse students, ultimately contributing to the country's socioeconomic development.

This study applied Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) to explore how individual thoughts, environmental influences (such as family, school, and society), and behaviors interact within the context of TEVTA programs. This approach fills gaps in current research and offers a clearer understanding of what affects TEVTA's perception and reputation.