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Organizations are full of contradictions and leadership dilemmas. Managers often face challenges such as selecting between two contradicting options such that which one is more important can hardly be judged. To manage contradicting dynamics, today’s managers can adopt the paradoxical leadership approach. We build a theoretical model to investigate the influence of paradoxical leadership on multi-dimensional project agility (proactivity, adaptability, and resilience), and multi-dimensional project success (management, investment, and ownership success).

Drawing on survey-based data from the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) megaproject (N = 209), we performed covariance-based structural equation modeling to test the conceptual model.

The findings show that (1) paradoxical leadership has a significant positive impact on megaproject success, (2) paradoxical leadership has a significant positive influence on project agility, (3) project agility has a significant positive effect on megaproject success, and (4) project agility has a significant effect that mediates the link between paradoxical leadership and megaproject success. This research provides a theoretical and practical comprehension of paradoxical leadership with a new perspective on megaprojects.

This study provides an extension of the existing studies on paradoxical leadership and identifies the role of contradicting dynamics and their impact on multiple facets of megaproject success. It not only clarifies the relationship between paradoxical leadership and megaproject success, but also identifies the mediating role of project agility that can play an effective role in mobilizing success in megaprojects.

Project managers are under a never-ending pressure to demonstrate the expected value of projects to the project sponsors; however, in most cases, project managers fail to realize this strategic value due to the loopholes left in project governance throughout various stages of the project life cycle. Furthermore, another root cause of project failure might be linked to an exceedingly self-interested project leader who is exploitative of his/her team. This is a recurring yet still unexplored aspect of destructive leadership that requires attention from the scientific community as well as practitioners. Hence, the present study explored the relationship between project governance and information and communication technology (ICT) project success, as well as the moderating effects of exploitative leadership on this relationship.

With this aim, 357 responses were collected from project professionals in the emerging ICT industry in Pakistan, and the results were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS).

The findings provide new evidence that project governance significantly improves project success opportunities in the ICT industry; however, this relationship is negatively moderated by exploitative leadership.

The study findings extend the project leadership literature by uncovering the influence of the dark side of project leadership (i.e. exploitative leadership), in addition to revalidating the impact of project governance on project success through a multi-dimensional context.

There is increased social discussion of the emerging issues of opioid use, health and well-being of young adults within contemporary Asian society. The purpose of this study is to contribute new knowledge of opioid-using young adults through ethnographic perspectives of the five main cultures of Pakistan. Furthermore, it tried to explore the values of opioid users.

It is a qualitative study. Semi-structured interview and observation techniques were used to gain the participants’ information, in a non-judgmental environment. Observation and life focus history interview methodology were used for data collection. The sample consisted of 18 male opioid users (approximately three from each area including: Punjab, Khyber Pakhtoon Khah, Balochistan, Sindh, Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir). An interview script was used in interviews after written informed consent. After the detailed interview and observation of non-verbal behaviours, the researchers analysed the data by using the content analysis of qualitative method.

The result showed that poor relationships, conflicts over property, lack of social support and family problems increased with the use of opioids by individuals. The individual’s mental health, such as hopelessness, curiosity, mistrust and lack of interest in social activities, was the major cause of opioid addiction. Moreover, peer influences and friends may also have played contributing roles in opioids use among men.

The current study added to the understanding of the relationship of different environmental, behavioural and social factors involved in developing opioid use among young individuals. The homogeneity of the sample may have weakened the generalisability of the findings of the study as all participants in the study were male.

Clinicians and allied professionals have shown a great interest in early intervention with opioid users. At the same time, there is a lack of qualitative studies exploring the lived experiences of young opioid users. That is why this study was done, to empower counsellors.

Opioids, including heroin, have strong addictive tendencies. They are easily available, particularly in unplanned urban areas of Pakistan. The present study tried to understand the lived experiences and beliefs of opioid users belonging to different cultures of Pakistan.

At the same time, there is a lack of qualitative studies exploring the lived experiences of adult opioid users. Therefore, this study presented 18 interview-based facts from the opioid users belonging to different areas of Pakistan residing in capital of Pakistan. The content of these vignettes was examined in the context of an ethnographic perspective, as it has a strong connection and contribution to drug abuse.

Brand crowdfunding, launched through brands’ social media platforms, can provide a myriad of crowdfunding and branding benefits, such as strengthening brands’ social networks, validating product launches, generating mass exposure and enabling cocreation. Gamification positions brand crowdfunding as an exciting and joyful activity that more deeply engages prosumers. Anchored on resource-based theory, theory of planned behavior and service-dominant logic, this paper aims to develop a brand crowdfunding framework for established brands with insights from two emerging markets: China and India.

A deductive cross-sectional design is used to gather data from an established brand’s (e.g. Xiaomi) social media followers in China (n = 826) and India (n = 358), which is analyzed through PLSc-SEM.

The results reveal that social media brand engagement is an antecedent of brand crowdfunding participation, brand crowdfunding intention is a predictor of brand loyalty and gamification is a significant moderator in technology-oriented societies.

The paper develops a brand crowdfunding framework that provides insights on how established brands can leverage crowdfunding to enhance their new product development process. The results contribute to the social media brand engagement, crowdfunding, gamification and emerging markets literature.

COVID-19 pandemic triggered unexpected crises, which were beyond the imaginations of a common man. It changed the order of routine life and the business world. In this challenging condition, the survival of the small business was at high risk. Following experiential learning theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore women's entrepreneurial learning obtained during the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenges experienced by them and strategies undertaken to transform businesses.

To explore Pakistani women entrepreneurs' lived experiences and learning during the COVID-19, researchers used a qualitative interview design. The interviewees reported their experiences about the effects of COVID-19 on their business and entrepreneurial learning from such a crisis.

The findings of the study indicate new fractions of knowledge from the novel learning of the female entrepreneurs throughout the experience of the COVID-19. The transformation from manual business dealings and financial transactions to virtual dealing and the online transaction was the addition of novel learning. Furthermore, the analysis provides insights into the challenges experienced by women entrepreneurs, strategies undertaken and lessons learned from COVID-19. The life lessons learned showed the importance of technical skills and their business operations during the crisis.

This study is very specific in its context and limitations of this study offers new avenue for research to extend study in different perspectives. First, interviews were conducted from women entrepreneurs running businesses in sub-urban cities of Pakistan, where study can be extended to include both male and female in a comparative study which can expose new dimensions. Second, this study is conducted in the sub-urban areas of the Sindh province of Pakistan, which can be extended to other areas of the country because Pakistan is multicultural and multilingual, which offer different gender specific factors for entrepreneurial activities in general terms but in case of the Covid-19 situation, there exists great variations and social stratifications. Third, this study can be extended to other developing or developed countries or comparative study can provide a new flavor of knowledge.

The study's finding offers few implications for the entrepreneurs, societies and government at large. Although the pandemic crisis has had devastating effects on health and lifestyle activities, there is always a ray of coming to innovative approaches to fulfill the entrepreneurial desires and serve the community. Thus, entrepreneurs are encouraged to contribute to the economy as a part of society through their sustainable products and services for the greater good. There is also a need for some social policies to find entrepreneurial ways to deal with the COVID-19 crisis that integrates value co-creation for society (Ratten, 2020b). Government and society should also intervene and play their role to encourage women entrepreneurs to feel a sense of empowerment, contribute to family income, alleviate poverty, create jobs and help in economic growth.

This study's unique contribution and origin are to explore the COVID-19-related entrepreneurial learning experiences of women entrepreneurs in a developing country (Pakistan). Moreover, this study theoretically contributes to the development of experiential learning theory by expanding its insights during COVID-19.

Knowledge management in the public sector is relatively an ignored avenue of research and practice that has recently been given attention. Knowledge management initiatives in the public sector are now not limited to the developed countries anymore. The public sectors of various developing countries including Pakistan have developed knowledge management functions to address the problems of low organizational commitment (higher turnover rates) and knowledge-workers’ performance. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to examine the mediation role of organizational commitment in the relationship between knowledge management practices and knowledge-worker performance.

The data were gathered from 341 knowledge workers of the public sector health department of Punjab Province, Pakistan, where knowledge management unit initiative has been taken. It was then analyzed using the structural equation modeling.

Organizational commitment partially mediates the relationship between knowledge management practices and knowledge-work performance.

The public sector policy makers are strongly advised to implement knowledge management units and practices in order to enhance knowledge-work performance as well as organizational commitment.

First, the model on the mediating role of organizational commitment has never been examined before. Second, the data collection from the public Health Department of Pakistan, a developing country, is relatively rare because the public sector knowledge management studies have mostly been conducted in developed countries. Finally, this study extends the literature on knowledge management in the public sector that is the developing theme in knowledge management discipline while adding knowledge management as a toolkit to enhance knowledge-workers’, organizational commitment and knowledge-work performance.

This study aims to identify the developer’s objectives, current state-of-the-art techniques, challenges and performance evaluation metrics, and presents outlines of a knowledge-based application programming interfaces (API) recommendation system for the developers. Moreover, the current study intends to classify current state-of-the-art techniques supporting automated API recommendations.

In this study, the authors have performed a systematic literature review of studies, which have been published between the years 2004–2021 to achieve the targeted research objective. Subsequently, the authors performed the analysis of 35 primary studies.

The outcomes of this study are: (1) devising a thematic taxonomy based on the identified developers’ challenges, where mashup-oriented APIs and time-consuming process are frequently encountered challenges by the developers; (2) categorizing current state-of-the-art API recommendation techniques (i.e. clustering techniques, data preprocessing techniques, similarity measurements techniques and ranking techniques); (3) designing a taxonomy based on the identified objectives, where accuracy is the most targeted objective in API recommendation context; (4) identifying a list of evaluation metrics employed to assess the performance of the proposed techniques; (5) performing a SWOT analysis on the selected studies; (6) based on the developer’s challenges, objectives and SWOT analysis, presenting outlines of a recommendation system for the developers and (7) delineating several future research dimensions in API recommendations context.

This study provides complete guidance to the new researcher in the context of API recommendations. Also, the researcher can target these objectives (accuracy, response time, method recommendation, compatibility, user requirement-based API, automatic service recommendation and API location) in the future. Moreover, the developers can overcome the identified challenges (including mashup-oriented API, Time-consuming process, learn how to use the API, integrated problem, API method usage location and limited usage of code) in the future by proposing a framework or recommendation system. Furthermore, the classification of current state-of-the-art API recommendation techniques also helps the researchers who wish to work in the future in the context of API recommendation.

This study not only facilitates the researcher but also facilitates the practitioners in several ways. The current study guides the developer in minimizing the development time in terms of selecting relevant APIs rather than following traditional manual selection. Moreover, this study facilitates integrating APIs in a project. Thus, the recommendation system saves the time for developers, and increases their productivity.

API recommendation remains an active area of research in web and mobile-based applications development. The authors believe that this study acts as a useful tool for the interested researchers and practitioners as it will contribute to the body of knowledge in API recommendations context.

The paper aims to analyse the current trends and set the future research agenda for pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) research.

The bibliographic data on pro-environmental behaviour research have been extracted from the Scopus database.

Based on the analysis of 2,173 publications, the study presents a performance overview of PEB research in the perspective of different aspects such as the most influential publications, authors, institutes and countries. Also, the study visualises the intellectual network by mapping bibliographic coupling (BC) and co-citation.

The study provides a holistic view of trends and future research directions for PEB research based on performance and science mapping, which is a unique contribution to the literature.

In recent times, mobile banking has become the best alternative for transactions associated with payments like bills, fees, and peer-to-peer payments. Therefore, the pace of adoption is increasing day after other. However, the numbers of customers are not equal to the expectations as there are several challenges and threats hindering in the way of excellence and growth of mobile banking. Therefore, this chapter has been written purposively to address all the elements that are associated with the use of mobile banking with special emphasis on Pakistan and other developing sides of Asia. In fact, concern towards Asian sides is mandatory as the continent has the massive charm to attract users towards the use of mobile banking, but there is a need for proper policy and concern from stakeholders in order to give a push to the technology, which is fruitful for society, environment, as well as economy. The study includes an in-depth discussion on factors that need attention to make the study implicative and thorough for conducting further research in the field of Fin-Tech and mobile banking.

In a modern business scenario, firms have implemented customer-centric approaches to enable customer relationship management (CRM) to trigger business excellence. Business strategies are modernizing business marketing operations that mainly focused on the retention of profitable customers. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the impact of marketing strategies (MS), information technology support (IT-S) and knowledge sharing (KS) in the effect of CRM in the pharmaceutical sector of Punjab, Pakistan.

Data were collected from the field force of national and international pharmaceuticals companies (N = 263) through a convenience sampling technique. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to examine data in SmartPLS 3.2.6.

The results indicated that IT-S and KS mediate the relationship between MS and CRM. More specifically, MS positively develops CRM through IT-S and KS.

This research contributes to the existing literature of pharmaceuticals by disclosing the field-force (medical representatives) specific role in developing CRM performance between pharmaceuticals firms and health-care physicians that are mainly based on knowledge advancement and influence these firms to adopt customer-centric business approaches to gain a competitive advantage to drive firm profitability.