Search results

Introduction: This study investigates the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on the sustainability of the supply chain. It investigates how modern supply networks and procedures were equipped for such a catastrophe, and the pandemic’s effects on the environment, highlighting the significance of studying resilience and sustainability concurrently.

Purpose: The study acknowledges the importance of environmental sustainability for businesses and the need to examine trends in organisational, customer, policy, and distribution networks.

Need for the Study: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted supply chains. This study aims to provide insight into the long-term repercussions of the crisis and the importance of incorporating environmental considerations.

Methodology: The study uses a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply networks and environmental sustainability indices. Data from industry reports, governmental publications, polls, and qualitative research techniques have been gathered.

Findings: The results of this study advance our understanding of how to preserve supply chains in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights the need for enhanced resilience and sustainability measures, expose the flaws and weaknesses of contemporary supply networks, and uncover developing patterns and tactics in customer behaviour, policy frameworks, distribution networks, and supply chain management.

Practical Implications: The COVID-19 pandemic has provided businesses, decision makers, and researchers with guidance on handling its potential and challenges – increasing the supply chain’s resistance to future interruptions, incorporating environmentally friendly practises, developing policies to support resilient and sustainable supply chains, adapting to changing consumer tastes, increasing effectiveness, and minimising the environmental impact of distribution networks.

This chapter offers a comprehensive review the literature on authentic leadership (AL). The authors employ a bibliometric approach to identify, classify, visualise and synthesise relevant scholarly publications and the work of a core group of interdisciplinary scholars who are key contributors to the research on AL. They review 264 journal articles, adopting a clustering technique to assess the central themes of AL scholarship. They identify five distinct thematic clusters: authenticity in the context of leadership; structure of AL; social perspectives on AL; dynamism of AL; and value perceptions of AL. Velt and Sinkovics assert that these clusters will help scholars of AL to understand the dominant streams in the literature and provide a foundation for future research.

In this chapter, I uncover the jail diaries of a revolutionary woman of the 20th century Pakistan, Akhtar Baloch. Although feminism in Pakistan has oscillated between liberal and postcolonial camps, through reading Akhtar's diaries, compiled as Prison Narratives (2017), I center Akhtar's own struggles for Sindh, along with the resistance of the women she met in the prison convicted for the murders of their husbands, to better theorize Marxist Feminism in Pakistan that overturns the structures that commodify women through love and revolution. My article will show the commodification of women's bodies; the “sale” of women through marriage as the goal of this commodification; the lovelessness and alienation women experience in commodified marriages; the unexpected fall in love with someone whom it is subversive for the commodified wife to love; the subversion of this unexpected event that leads to the attempted resolution of this tension through murder; the separation of the lovers through the incarceration of the woman by the capitalist-patriarchal state; and finally, the unexpected outcome (albeit the most common one) that the male lover abandons his female lover once she's jailed, but the defiantly brave female lover finds platonic love in jail through close female friendships with other women who are similarly brave in both love and in revolution. Through this exposition, I show that Akhtar's diaries provide a way for us to build on Marxist Feminist theory through a theory of love and revolution from a Sindhi feminist perspective.

The COVID-19 crisis has forced the majority of higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide to transition to distance education. All countries have faced several challenges, such as the deteriorating economy, poor ICT infrastructure, and insufficient training, in their transition to distance education, with the severity of these challenges being remarkable for developing countries. This chapter aims to investigate tertiary students’ perceptions, attitudes, experiences, and expectations of their higher education journey amid COVID-19 across four developing countries: Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh through an online questionnaire that was administered in each of these countries. This study found that many of the stances, attitudes, concerns, and challenges related to online learning experiences and the emergency status of higher education were common amongst the Lebanese, Afghani, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi participants. The participants across the four countries favored the physical classroom over online learning and identified the disadvantages of distance education that included lack of ICT skills, poor infrastructure, and insufficient training. The few differences that were identified across participants from these countries were mainly attributed to differences in contexts, including socio-economic and political contexts. These findings voice the concerns of one of the key stakeholders, tertiary students, that address the transition to distance education during emergency times and call for immediate intervention from decision and policy-makers.

Drawing on new insights from the perspectives and experiences of board members, the purpose of this study is to determine the board attributes that influence board roles in improving the integration of corporate social responsibility (CSR) into corporate governance structures. In total, 10 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with directors of listed Jordanian companies to explore their perceptions of the effect of board of directors' composition on CSR and CSR disclosure (CSRD). The key findings show that boards with a diverse range of directors is essential independent/nonexecutive members, directors with business and/or accounting backgrounds, and foreign members to determine if they aim to better manage their CSR. To take CSR to the next level in the Arab region, we need to strengthen corporate governance mechanisms, and put more pressures on companies to make changes in board composition. For example, we suggest that companies that appoint business-educated and foreign members to their boards tend to engage in more impactful social and environmental-related activities and reflect their sustainable development more effectively. The study responds to calls for further research adopting qualitative methods, such as case studies and interviews in order to obtain a complete and in-depth understanding of the influence of board composition on CSR/CSRD. The findings provide useful insights for practice, policymakers, and future research.

Before the British colonial regime, Muslims in South Asia recognized a transnational notion of education that stretched on all sides, including the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Central and South-East Asia, with a great social awakening and consciousness about the importance of inclusive education. Academia included theological and secular subjects and focused on producing thoughtful, sophisticated, and confident individuals ready to defend their beliefs with sound knowledge and reasoning. However, the British Raj in the 19th and 20th centuries had a lasting and indelible impression on the Muslims and the Islamic education system. British colonial regime challenged the theological discourse and education and compelled a Western style of education. These transformations in the education system raised several dilemmas and impasses for the Muslims of South Asia. Pakistan has remained a silent recipient of this tension underpinned in its educational systems even before its inception. This chapter traces the roots of education systems operating in Pakistan starting from the ninth century with the victory of Mohammad Bin Qasim through the 19th-century colonial rule of Great Britain until today, when the country offers a blend of diverse education systems. The study explores values embedded in different education systems operating in Pakistan. It is essential to understand the values inherent in these systems to see the harmony or conflict prevailing as a consequence which might have repercussions for the different societal segments and communities. Renewed focus toward value realization will facilitate refining educational frameworks and a promise for the acceptance of global and international advancements.

The purpose of this study is to explore the indigenous business incubators with special emphasis on the Kente weaving industry. The study highlights the formation, incubation, challenges, opportunities and strategies for success based on the Kente indigenous business model. The Kente subsector is in the clothing industry and accommodates small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana. The study adopts a qualitative and descriptive case study design with five SME Kente shop owners as respondents. Findings reveal that some owners inherited their business, whilst others established them themselves. Owners incubate their business via shared services, ad hoc business advice, financial management, family support, employee relationship management and prayers. The challenges often encountered were inadequate financial backing, lack of government support and business competition. The opportunities harnessed were technology, growing market demand and innovation.

Finally, in respect of the knowledge of Kente weaving, it was found that the weavers learnt from their elders that weaving is the skill of a spider, a prestige to Asantes. The chapter concludes that Kente business has the potential to contribute to the socio-economic development of Ghana and Ghanaians. It is recommended that SME owners invest in individual, team and organisational learning and build capacity for technology implementation. The study also provides recommendations for business actors in the textile industry to engage in collaboration with owners of SME Kente businesses to address the challenges.

Digital financial inclusion is a need of the recent era in order to flourish the growth of economies as well as businesses and individuals. Thus, varieties of digital technologies are launched to provide ease and leverage to customers’ financial needs. Among the well-known digital technologies, Fintech emerged as a well-known and accepted form of digital technologies. However, the acceptance level is much lower, especially in developing sides of the world like Pakistan where issues related to cyber-security are the major hindrance in the way of digitization and n-tier online payments. However, with a massive youth population, Pakistan also has the opportunity to use Fintech as the major tool for economic and social development. Therefore, this chapter has been written purposely to shed light on the importance, use, and role of Fintech in the growth of developing countries like Pakistan. The purpose is to increase the knowledge of youth about financial technologies especially Fintech so they may embrace their abilities with technological innovation, especially for their financial needs. On the other side, the chapter will also address the lack of research on this emerging trend to diverge the focus of researchers and academicians towards Fintech and its uses, scope, implications, and benefits for developing countries.

Purpose: This research investigates how producers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) in Karachi, Pakistan, embrace sustainable manufacturing and consumption practices.

Study design/methodology/approach: This study employed a mixed research design, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The primary method of data collecting utilised in this study was semi-structured interviews. The survey sampled 11 FMCG manufacturers, and the data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Findings: The research revealed that economic variables were crucial in adopting sustainable consumption and production (SCP) practices among Karachi’s FMCG businesses. The economic reasons were motivated by the notion that adopting sustainable practices could result in financial benefits and enhanced market competitiveness. The research additionally discovered that consumer preferences were pivotal in stimulating sustainable practices within the FMCG business. Manufacturers indicated that adopting sustainable products and packaging was driven mainly by consumer demand.

Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature on SCP within the FMCG business. It offers valuable insights into the factors influencing sustainable practices and customer preferences. This study emphasises the importance of economic, social, and environmental aspects in fostering sustainable practices within the FMCG industry, specifically focusing on developing nation environments such as Karachi. This study’s findings can contribute valuable insights for policy formulation and decision-making processes about SCP within Karachi’s FMCG business and other similar contexts.