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China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a framework of regional connectivity in which employees have to work in a cross-cultural environment. This study has extended the leader-member exchange theory by investigating the mediating role of employee commitment (EC) between the relationship of leader-member exchange (LMX) and employee's work-related behaviors.

PLS-SEM technique was used to test the model by utilizing a multi-wave/two-source data collected from employees and their supervisors (n = 500) working in different energy projects of CPEC.

According to the results/findings, LMX has a significant positive impact on employee commitment, employee performance (EP) and open-minded discussions, but insignificant impact on innovative work behaviour (IWB). Mediating role of employee commitment was significant between the relationship of LMX with EP and open-minded discussions, but insignificant with the IWB.

The study contributes empirical evidence to understanding the leader-member exchange relationship among Chinese managers and Pakistani workers. It also contributes to the LMX theory literature by investigating the effect of LMX on followers' outcomes (employee performance, IWB, open-minded discussions) through employee commitment.

This study explores value-added food products in smallholder dairy farming in developing countries by analyzing external pressures, supply chain learning, farmer innovation, education level, and food safety compliance.

We employed a quantitative approach by surveying 418 smallholder dairy farmers in three districts of Pakistan using interviewer-administered questionnaires. Data analysis involved confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that external pressure significantly affects value-added smallholder dairy farms. This relationship is mediated by supply chain learning and farmers' innovative behavior, and moderated by farmers' education level and compliance with food safety standards.

Further research is required to explore the drivers of value addition at the supply chain level.

This study contributes to the understanding of smallholder dairy farming dynamics and provides practical implications for improving value addition by managing the interplay between antecedents and promoting best practices in the industry.

This research seeks to examine the mitigating effect of religiosity on the relationship between abusive supervision and unethical behavior in employees, with moral disengagement serving as a mediating factor. Drawing on social cognitive theory, the study proposes an overarching moderated mediation framework to analyze this complex dynamic.

The testing of the model was based on hierarchical data obtained from 70 work units in services sector. Within this framework, 70 supervisors evaluated the unethical conduct of employees, while 700 employees assessed the abusive supervision they experienced and reported on their own moral disengagement and religiosity. For the analysis of both the measurement and the hypothesized models, multilevel modeling techniques in the Mplus software were utilized.

The study's findings indicate a direct positive link between abusive supervision and employees' unethical behavior, with moral disengagement mediating this relationship. Furthermore, the research discovered that abusive supervision leads to unethical behavior in employees through moral disengagement only in instances where their religiosity is low.

This research delves deeper by elucidating the role of moral disengagement in the dynamic between abusive supervision and unethical behavior. Diverging from prior research, this study uniquely highlights the moderating role of religiosity, showing its potential to weaken the impact of abusive supervision on unethical behavior in employees through moral disengagement.

This study aims to study the impact of corporate governance (CG) versus ethical investment on the firm performance. It takes into account the firms of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan for the purpose of the study. A composite variable of CG index and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) index is used to test the impact on the firm performance. Separate country wise and overall analysis is obtained. Regression analysis is used to obtain the results. Two measures of performance are used, one is return on assets (ROA) and other is Tobin Q. The findings of the study reveal that there is an impact of corporate governance index (CGI) on firm performance (overall and country wise) whereas ethical investment (EI) has an impact on firm performance when tested overall and no impact when checked for country wise results. The results further show that on country level, increase in CG measures may lead to positive results, but at the macro level, it may lower the performance. On the other hand, at the micro level, ethical finance may not show its impact; however, at the macro level, it has an impact. The study has implications for the investors and policymakers.

This study aims to empirically examine the influence of financial constraints on firm carbon emissions. In addition to the role of financial constraints in firm-level carbon emissions, this study also examines this influence in the presence of governance, environmental orientation and firm-level attributes.

Using pooled ordinary least square, this study examines the impact of financial constraints on firm-level carbon emissions using a panel of 1,536 US firm-year observations from 2008 to 2019. This study also used two-step generalized method of moment–based dynamic panel data and two-stage least square approaches to address potential endogeneity. The results are robust to endogeneity and collinearity issues.

The results suggest that financial constraints enhance the carbon emissions of the firms. The economic significance of financial constraints on carbon emissions is more pronounced for the firms that do not report environment-related expenditure investment and those that are highly leveraged. The authors further document that firms with a nondiverse gender board signify a statistically significant impact of financial constraints on carbon emissions. These results are also economically significant, as one standard deviation increase in financial constraints is associated with a 3.340% increase in carbon emissions at the firm level.

Some implicit and explicit factors like corporate emissions policy and culture may condition the relationship of financial constraints with carbon emissions. Therefore, it would be worthwhile to consider these factors for future research. In addition, it is beneficial to identify the thresholds and/or quantiles at which financial constraints may significantly make a difference in enhancing carbon emissions.

The findings offer policy implications for investment in stakeholder engagement for capital acquisitions, thereby effectively enforcing environmental innovation and leading to a reduction in carbon emissions.

This study integrated governance and environment-oriented variables in the model to empirically examine the role of financial constraints on the carbon emissions of the firms in the USA over and above what has already been documented in the earlier literature.

This study aims to examine why tax reforms fail and explores how tax collection can be improved within a developing country context.

Data comprise 28 semi-structured interviews with taxpayers, tax experts and tax authority personnel based in Pakistan. The results are analysed using a combined lens of taxpayer trust and tax agencies’ capabilities.

Tax reforms failed to build taxpayers’ trust and tax agencies’ capabilities. Building trust is challenging and demands extensive ongoing engagement with taxpayers while yielding gradual permanent results. This requires enhancing confidence in government; educating taxpayers; removing complexities; introducing transparency and accountability in tax agencies’ operations and the tax system; promoting procedural and distributive justice; and reversing perceptions of corruption through reconciliation and stakeholder inclusivity. Developing tax agencies’ capabilities requires upgrading outdated technologies, systems and processes; implementing governance and organisational reforms; introducing an oversight board; and recruiting and training skilled professionals.

The findings can assist policymakers and tax collection authorities in understanding why tax reforms fail and identifying potential solutions.

This study contributes to the emerging literature by exploring tax administration failures in developing countries. It contributes to the literature by engaging stakeholders to understand why reforms fail and potential solutions to stimulate tax revenues.

This study aims to evaluate the usability of Google Drive (GD) in addition to measuring the effectiveness of GD and the challenges faced while using this cloud storage application among public library users of Lahore.

The study adopted a sequential explanatory mixed method design comprising the quantitative (QUAN) and qualitative (QUAL) parts. For the QUAN phase, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 384 users of public libraries through purposive sampling. For the QUAL phase, the think aloud technique was performed on several tasks during experiments and verbalized their thoughts and experiences while interacting with the system. The cloud usability model (CUM) was used to measure the “usability” of GD.

Findings indicated that most users were satisfied with GD's obvious features and inherent functions. QUAL results indicated that respondents did most tasks easily, whereas only some could complete the task.

The study is valuable as it is the first time used CUM to measure the perceived usability of GD. Second, the study used a mixed method study to get insights into perceived usability, effectiveness and challenges while using GD. The findings might be helpful for cloud support teams, including GD, as they can enhance certain features of usability, which lead to increased usage among users.

This research work is based on MPhil thesis.

The present study aims to elucidate the mediating role of relational energy between empowering leadership and its attitudinal (employee engagement), behavioral (knowledge sharing) and performance (task) related outcomes, respectively, and the moderating role of autonomy between empowering leadership and relational energy, using the social cognitive theory.

The study used surveys in the small and medium-sized enterprises sector and collected time-lagged data to address common method variance and reveal causal relationships. AMOS was used to conduct hypothesis testing.

The results suggest that empowering leaders have a positive impact on outcomes such as employee engagement, knowledge sharing and task performance, and this impact is mediated by relational energy. Autonomy moderates the empowering leaders and relational energy relationship, strengthening it when autonomy is high.

Organizations should focus on leadership development programs depending on the need. Empowering leadership should be promoted to get positive attitudinal and behavioral outcomes in terms of employees. Empowering the employee in terms of decision-making helps motivate employees to perform better.

The study contributes to the empowering leadership literature by associating social cognitive theory. Empowering leaders has the potential to increase employee engagement, knowledge sharing and task performance.

This study aims to develop a micro-meso-macro framework of brand pride to understand brand pride, its forms, characteristics and the interdependence of this construct, in a comprehensive manner.

Literature in brand pride has been systematically extracted, analysed and evaluated, to propose an integrated framework which presents a holistic view of brand pride.

At the micro level, brand pride is associated with owning individual level characteristics such as personality, culture, values, beliefs and motivation action and behaviour of the individual; at the meso level, brand pride is associated with characteristics at brand level, actions and behaviour such as brand personality, brand value and image. At the macro level, brand pride is associated with brand interactive characteristics, actions and behaviour, at a broader network of systems and environment such as brand responsible behaviour and brand’s adaptability in creating a robust network in uncertainty.

This paper identifies brand pride as a useful connecting point between brands and the surrounding environment, to achieve a more sustainable branding practice. Although previous researchers explored its effects on brand loyalty in various contexts, a comprehensive, holistic model for enhancing brand pride, suitable for application at various situations and various levels, was missing. This research fills this gap through a unique contribution by proposing a micro-meso-macro framework, which is a three-layered approach to brand pride.