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This research designed, optimized and tested a context-specific scale to evaluate public sector employees' pension choices.

The authors developed the scale using a comprehensive process of interviews and focus groups with experts across academia and finance. The authors used the refined scale to collect data from 564 faculty members in public sector universities following a multistage systematic cluster sampling technique. The findings revealed diversity in choice across different socio-economic and demographic variables.

The results revealed that items related to the defined benefit pension system explain most of the data variance and are preferred widely. This is followed by a preference for monetizing pension benefits and a defined contribution system. These findings indicated the need for flexible pension plans.

Therefore, the progressive movement towards monetization and the shift from defined benefit to a defined contribution pension system due to economic pressures must be accurately calculated and introduced where it is suitable.

Although the theory of introducing a defined contribution pension system and monetization system is appealing, its practical implementation may not be encouraging for all employees.

The integration of social media and e-commerce has resulted in a rising phenomenon among individual content providers (ICPs), who used to offer free content, to provide consumers with paid content, such as online courses, Q&As or consultations. Despite the prevalence of ICPs’ content monetization, empirical research has rarely studied its underlying mechanism. This paper examines how the characteristics of free content contributed by ICPs on social media platforms influence their paid content sales, focusing on the perspective of human brand.

The empirical setting is an online knowledge exchange platform, where users are allowed to provide free content (e.g. answers) on the social media platform and launch paid content (e.g. lectures) on the e-commerce platform. A machine learning technique is employed to construct measures for the characteristics of free content, and fixed-effects estimation is presented to confirm which factors have a significant influence on the sales of paid content.

The empirical results show that the quality, diversity and expertness of free content have a significant positive impact on the sales of the ICP-paid content, with the brand popularity of ICP playing a mediating role.

This study is the first attempt to demystify the relationship between content contribution and ICPs’ content monetization from the perspective of human brand. The findings validate the effectiveness of the “Selling by Contribution” strategy and provide valuable insights for ICPs and social media platforms.

The research examines how behavioral intentions, as a higher-order construct, indirectly affect financial inclusion through service trust, usage behavior and financial literacy in mobile money adoption.

Following the positivist research philosophy, a cross-sectional study design was used to collect data through questionnaires comprised of scales adapted from prior studies. With a usable sample size of 340 respondents, this study employs partial least squares structural equation modeling to assess the model.

The study revealed the significant indirect role of behavioral intention on financial inclusion through use behavior, behavioral intentions on use behavior through service trust, and use behavior on financial inclusion through financial literacy. The role of behavioral intentions on financial inclusion through serial mediation of service trust, use behavior and financial literacy was also found to be significant.

This study's novelty resides in examining the indirect relationship between behavioral intentions and financial inclusion, specifically via the serial mediation of service trust, use behavior and financial literacy.

The study was initiated to test the relationship of social media site addiction on librarians' performance. Furthermore, the study also tested the mediating role of task distraction and moderating role of effective self-control in aforesaid relationship.

This was an empirical study, and data for the research were collected through a standardized questionnaire from 503 librarians who were having Facebook accounts and are questionnaire developed through “Google Forms” and the link of the questionnaire was distributed using Facebook groups. Data was analyzed using descriptive analysis, correlation, Baron and Kenny's approach, and Normal Test Theory.

Results indicate that social media addiction is an important factor for that is reducing librarians' performance. At the same time task distraction also adds to negative impact of social media addiction on librarians' performance. However, effective self-control can reduce the negative impact of social media addiction on their performance.

This research has some important theoretical as well as practical implications for librarians, library management, and well as for policy makers and government.

Social media is commonly used for communication but when it becomes addiction, it can reduce the employees' performance. Most of existing researched focused on positive aspects of social media; only few researches explored the negative impacts of social media. The proposed relationship was never tested on librarians. This study filled this literature gap and proposed as well as empirically tested a model for evaluating negative impact of social media on librarians' performance.

Pakistan has experienced financial liberalization with rapid ups and downs in economic growth due to domestic issues during the last 2 decades. Motivated by inconclusive and conflicting time-driven findings about the performance of the business groups, this study examines the performance of business groups in Pakistan for a relatively long period from 2003 to 2018.

The study uses 3,821 firm-year observations from non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). For the estimation, pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) with industry- and year fixed effects and two-step system generalized methods of moments (GMM) are used.

The study finds that group-affiliated firms outperform independent firms in accounting performance, while underperform in market performance. The outperformance is mainly driven by medium-sized business groups, while underperformance is driven by small and large business groups. Further, the study documents that the underperformance in terms of market performance of firms affiliated with small and large groups is greater before the economic downturn, while outperformance in terms of the accounting measure of firms affiliated with medium-sized groups is greater during the economic downturn. These findings support our time-driven concerns. Overall, the authors' findings are consistent with institutional and transaction cost theories.

Business groups are important channels to reduce market inefficiencies. Business groups may enhance the affiliated firms' resources and resistance capacity through active utilization of the internal capital market, specifically when market conditions are not ideal for affiliates. However, effective utilization of internal capital markets depends on group size. Therefore, investors should deliberate on the size of business groups and diversification within business groups.

The authors extend the literature by providing fresh evidence related to the performance of business groups in the Pakistani context while accounting for the role of the size of business groups.

Investor sentiment (optimism or pessimism) may influence investors to follow others (herding) while taking their investment decisions. Herding may result in bubbles and crashes in the financial markets. The purpose of the study is to examine the presence of herding and the effects of investor sentiment on herding in China and Pakistan.

The investor sentiment is captured by five variables (trading volume, advance/decline ratio, weighted price-to-earnings ratio, relative strength index and interest rates) and a sentiment index developed through principal component analysis (PCA). The study uses daily prices of 2,184 firms from China and 568 firms from Pakistan for the period 2005 to 2018.

The study finds that herding prevails in China while reverse herding prevails in Pakistan. Interestingly, as investors become optimistic, herding in China and reverse herding in Pakistan decrease. This indicates that herding and reverse herding are greater during pessimistic periods. Further, the increase in herding in one market reduces herding in the other market. Moreover, optimistic sentiment in the Chinese market increases herding in the Pakistani market but the reverse is not true.

Considering the greater global financial liberalization, and better opportunities for emotion sharing, this study has important implications for regulators and investors. Market participants need to understand the prevalent irrational behavior before trading in the markets.

Since individual proxies may depict different picture of the relationship between sentiment and herding therefore the study also develops a sentiment index through PCA and incorporates this index in the analysis. Further, this study examines cross-country effects of herding and investor sentiment.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of perceived usefulness of online reviews and crowd cues on restaurant selection. In addition, the authors also examine the moderating role of perceived crowding and gender in this process.

The proposed hypotheses were tested with survey data (N = 200) collected from customers visiting full-service restaurants in Malaysia. The data were analyzed using SEM through Smart PLS.

The findings supported that the perceived usefulness of online reviews and perceived crowding have a positive effect on a consumer's purchase intentions, i.e. their decision of restaurant selection. Besides, a higher level of perceived crowding strengthens the relationship between the perceived usefulness of online reviews and their purchase intentions. This finding delineates that consumers prefer to dine in a crowded place with useful online reviews in an unfamiliar place. Finally, the results show that the effect of the usefulness of online reviews on purchase intentions does not vary with respect to gender (no significant contingent effect). However, the effect of perceived crowding varies with respect to gender – male customers have higher intentions to join crowded restaurants as compared to females.

Limitation of this study is its cross-sectional research design; data were collected in a single time frame. Longitudinal research design can be used to get in-depth knowledge of this phenomenon. Secondly, a non-probability sampling technique was used in this study, future research can used probability sampling technique to enhance generalizability of the study. Moreover, this study focused on the human crowding aspect, future studies can cover both aspects of crowding (human crowding and spatial crowding) in retailing or other service sectors (Blut and Iyer, 2020).

This study has multiple practical implications.

This study extends the current research on usefulness of online reviews and perceived crowding by investigating its direct and conditional effects. Specifically, the authors contribute in extant research by explaining its differential effects for male and female customers, when they select which restaurants to dine.

The purpose of this study is to comparatively analyze the effect of dividend policy on shareholders’ wealth in Shariah-compliant (SC) and noncompliant (NC) nonfinancial firms in Pakistan.

All the nonfinancial firms listed on the Pakistan stock exchange have been taken as a sample for 2016–2021. The Karachi Meezan index screening criteria were applied to screen SC firms. Based on the BPLM and Hausman test results, the authors used the fixed-effect and pooled OLS model for SC and NC firms, respectively. The F-test was used to compare the effect of each dividend policy variable on shareholders’ wealth for both firm types.

The findings reveal that the dividend policy does affect the shareholders’ wealth in both firm types. Dividend per share (DPS), dividend yield (DY) and earnings per share significantly affect the shareholders’ wealth in SC firms. For NC firms, the dividend payout, DPS and DY are critical. Moreover, the F-test results show that the DPS, DY and leverage effect on the shareholders’ wealth significantly differ for both firm types.

This study fills the research gap in the Pakistani context specifically as well as globally by providing important insights into the relationship between a firm’s dividend policy and shareholders’ wealth for SC and NC firms. In addition, this study comprehensively compares the results for both firm types, which is also lacking in the existing literature. Because this study is based in Pakistan, the generalizability of the results would be limited.

The findings of this study are helpful for the management of SC and NC firms in devising their dividend policies that can maximize their shareholders’ wealth. This study also provides guidance and knowledge to investors in choosing companies for their investments that can maximize their wealth.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyzes the relationship between dividend policy and shareholders’ wealth for SC firms in Pakistan. It is also the first study that comprehensively compares the dividend policy relationship with shareholders’ wealth for SC and NC firms. In addition, using the F-test for joint hypotheses to compare the specific effect of each dividend policy variable is a methodological contribution of the study.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of green technology innovation on sustainability performance with the moderating effect of innovation capabilities in the Malaysian manufacturing listed companies.

This was a quantitative study and carried out by applying a research survey. The questionnaire was used to collect the data from 204 Malaysian manufacturing companies of the “consumer products and services” sector listed at Bursa Malaysia, incorporating a five-point Likert scale. All the hypothesized relationships were tested by using the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The empirical results showed that the comprehensive adoption of green technology innovation significantly promotes sustainability performance including economic, environmental and social performance. In addition, innovation capabilities significantly and positively moderate the relationship between green technology innovation and sustainability performance.

The scope of this study is specifically confined to the Malaysian manufacturing listed companies, operating within the consumer products and services sector listed at Bursa Malaysia. Consequently, the findings of this study may not be generalized to manufacturing companies of the different geographical contexts.

The findings of this study may help the top management and policymakers of the Malaysian manufacturing listed companies to scrutinize green technology innovation and innovation capabilities to achieve higher sustainability performance.

This study magnifies and provides new insights into the extant literature by developing a comprehensive research model that concurrently tests the direct and moderation effects between green technology innovation, innovation capabilities and sustainability performance. Additionally, this is the first study to examine the influence of green technology innovation on sustainability performance with the moderating effect of innovation capabilities in the Malaysian manufacturing listed companies. This distinct approach significantly bolsters the originality of this study.

This study provide an in-depth review on the knowledge structure of green information technology (GIT) adoption and behavior. Environmental degradation has escalated even further with information and digital technology development. Researchers have come up with a new concept of GIT to dampen the carbon emission due to the excessive use of IT in today’s everyday usage. A similar terminology, green information system (GIS), is a rather broad understanding of GIT, which relates to the environmental management system to improve operations in the organization and will be included in the scope of the study.

This study presents a science mapping analysis through a bibliometric review to explore emerging trends and predict future trends based on 293 publications in the Web of Science.

The bibliographic coupling analysis discovered five themes related to the theoretical foundation of GIT and the determinants of their adoption. The five themes are (1) theoretical foundation in GIT, (2) determinants of green IT and IS adoption, (3) fundamental of GIT and information science, (4) green technologies and green computing and (5) determinants of managers green IT adoption behavior. While co-word analysis presents the impact of GIT, driving performance and energy efficiency through the adoption of GIT producing four themes, (1) GIT acceptance through the theory of planned behavior, (2) impact of GIT’s: strategies for sustainable implementation, (3) driving sustainable performance through green innovation in information systems and technology and (4) energy efficiency and sustainability in green computing and cloud computing.

The finding is relevant to managers, researchers and stakeholders bounded by environmental responsibilities to mitigate its impact on the socioeconomic and environment through GIT adoption.

The contribution of this study is presenting an in-depth analysis of the knowledge structure through bibliometric analysis by providing network visualization on one of the crucial pro-environmental behavior.