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1 – 10 of 24Muhammad Umar Nadeem, Rosli Mohammed, Syarizan Dalib and Samavia Mumtaz
The purpose of this study is to highlight the importance of intercultural communication competence (ICC) of international students living in Malaysia. This study considered the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to highlight the importance of intercultural communication competence (ICC) of international students living in Malaysia. This study considered the culture-general factors of integrated model of ICC (IMICC) established from the West with an addition of empathy and further addressed these influencers on the international students from a Malaysian university. It is proposed that empathy, sensation seeking, ethnocentrism, attitude and motivation have a direct influence on ICC.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative research methodology was considered to address the relationship between the variables of this study. Data were collected through a survey by visiting different parts of the university campus. A total of 388 international students took part in the study voluntarily. Data were analysed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) and structural equation modeling-analysis of a moment structures (SEM-AMOS).
Findings
The findings revealed that empathy, sensation seeking and attitude are the antecedents of ICC. However, ethnocentrism and motivation do not influence ICC significantly.
Originality/value
Through the findings of this study, a series of training sessions can be conducted by Malaysia (host country training) and sender countries (home country training) to educate international students regarding ICC. Furthermore, ministry of higher education (MoHE) Malaysia and higher education institutes (HEIs) can improve their infrastructure and services in terms of hosting and accommodating more international students by considering the findings of this study. These approaches could help international students to adjust in a new cultural setting of Malaysia.
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Naeem Akhtar, Muhammad Nadeem Akhtar, Umar Iqbal Siddiqi, Muhammad Riaz and Weiqing Zhuang
The present study develops a conceptual model that shows how the manipulation attributes of word choice, sentence fluency, convention of meaning, and organization of sentence…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study develops a conceptual model that shows how the manipulation attributes of word choice, sentence fluency, convention of meaning, and organization of sentence structure in online hotel reviews are connected to linguistic errors, such as spelling and grammar and argument errors, how such errors intensify the likelihood that messages will be misunderstood, and how these misunderstandings affect customers' responses.
Design/methodology/approach
A structured questionnaire was employed to collect data from 591 inbound tourists in Beijing, China. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 25.0 and Amos Graphics 23.0. Descriptive analysis was performed to explain the sociodemographic characteristic of respondents. Structural equation modeling was performed to examine hypothesized relationships.
Findings
Results demonstrate that manipulation attributes increase linguistic errors, and two linguistic errors have profound positive effects on customers' understanding of meaning, which influence their responses in the form of negative online ratings and low purchase intentions.
Originality/value
The study's findings contribute to the literature on hospitality, linguistics, and consumer behavior, and have managerial implications for online review websites, online travel agents, and hotel management. Research limitations lead to suggestions for future research for hospitality scholars.
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Naeem Akhtar, Umar Iqbal Siddiqi, Muhammad Nadeem Akhtar, Muhammad Usman and Wasim Ahmad
This study aims to offer a conceptual framework that elaborates on how tourists’ perception of contradictory features in reviews’ factuality and comprehension – within a single…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to offer a conceptual framework that elaborates on how tourists’ perception of contradictory features in reviews’ factuality and comprehension – within a single hotel review and across multiple hotel reviews – trigger attitude ambivalence and psychological discomfort, which determine their behaviors – choice deferral and hotel booking intentions. It also investigates the moderating role of anticipated conflicting reactions (ACRs) through contradictory features on consumers’ attitude ambivalence.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a Chinese setting, researchers collected data from 524 inbound tourists who were the consumers of hotels in Beijing. The study used IBM Amos 23.0 to test measurement and structural models for the proposed relationships. It also used PROCESS macro 3.4 for the moderation analysis.
Findings
The findings reveal a positive association between contradictory features in reviews and the resulting ambivalence that affects consumers’ discomfort and leads to the decision to defer the choice of hotel. Conversely, consumers’ discomfort has a positive impact on the hotel booking intentions. ACRs have positive moderating effects on the associations between contradictory features and consumers’ attitude ambivalence.
Originality/value
By investigating the contradictory features in hotel reviews, this study extends the body of research on dual information processing (i.e. the heuristic–systematic model) and the literature on service management, psychological behaviors, travel intermediaries and hotel firms. Future research directions are recommended for tourism and hospitality researchers.
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Rashid Zaman, Stephen Bahadar, Umar Nawaz Kayani and Muhammad Arslan
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of corporate governance, with particular reference to the role of independent directors on boards and audit committees, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of corporate governance, with particular reference to the role of independent directors on boards and audit committees, and media coverage on corporate transparency and disclosure. In addition, the paper also investigates the role of the media on independent directors’ behaviours towards corporate transparency and disclosure.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses the well-developed two-step system generalised method of moments approach on a sample of 99 Pakistan stock exchange (PSX) listed financial firms over the period 2007-2012.
Findings
The empirical analysis shows that media and independent directors on audit committees play a significant positive role in line with agenda setting and agency theories in promoting corporate transparency and disclosure. On the contrary, the boards’ independent directors are risk-averse and hold the information to protect their reputation. Nevertheless, the study does not find any significant influence of media coverage on independent directors’ behaviours in promoting corporate transparency and disclosure.
Practical implications
The findings provide some useful insight into cost benefits analysis of media coverage towards an understanding of independent directors’ behaviours for promoting transparency and disclosure in financial sector. Moreover, the study findings can be useful for both shareholders and stakeholders in taking decisions about firm activities.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that proposed and tested a multi-level framework for corporate transparency and disclosure practices. In addition, this study is also among the very few studies that use financial sectors as a sample, in particular, and media coverage, specifically, thus adding some value to the limited literature.
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Ummer Farooque, Muhammad Usman Awan and Muhammad Shafiq
The purpose of this study is to develop a scale for measuring housing quality in the context of Pakistan.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop a scale for measuring housing quality in the context of Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
The inductive and deductive approaches for item generation have been combined, and items have been purified using multistage expert review. Data was collected from a sizeable purposive sample of 445 respondents, and exploratory and confirmatory factor approaches used for assessing psychometric properties of the scale.
Findings
The result is a 21-item scale covering five dimensions, namely, Design and Construction Quality, Neighborhood Quality, Adequacy of Space, Quality of Institutional Services and Proximity of Basic Amenities.
Originality/value
This study contributes to housing quality literature by deepening our understanding of the concept of housing quality in the context of Pakistan, the world’s fifth most populous country. The findings of the study have important implications for both theory and practice.
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Bashir Tijjani, Murtaza Ashiq, Nadeem Siddique, Muhammad Ajmal Khan and Aamir Rasul
The purpose of this study is to provide quantitative information on the growth of Islamic finance literature. The study focused on publishing trends, countries producing research…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to provide quantitative information on the growth of Islamic finance literature. The study focused on publishing trends, countries producing research on Islamic finance, key authors, major contributing organizations, authorship patterns, keywords and articles with the highest citations.
Design/methodology/approach
Bibliometric analysis is applied to analyse the growth and publishing trends in Islamic finance literature. The Web of Science (WoS) database was used to extract bibliometric data covering the period 1939–2019 for Islamic finance literature.
Findings
The study finds that Islamic finance research has gained remarkable momentum in the literature. However, such growth is largely manifested in Malaysia because of a conducive atmosphere for this type of research. Interestingly, the study finds that the three most productive journals are located in the UK and Malaysia, while Professor M. Kabir Hassan from the University of New Orleans, the USA appears to head the list of authors with 23 publications on Islamic finance.
Practical implications
This study provides up-to-date literature on the current state of Islamic finance in the world; as a result, it supports the development of policies by the Islamic finance industry. The findings of the study also serve as a reference point for Islamic finance training and educational institutions.
Originality/value
Islamic finance is an emerging financial discipline; as such, there is a need for more awareness of this financial system in the world. Muslim-majority countries, especially Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Pakistan and Bahrain, have to include Islamic finance in their curriculum and establish research institutions and research journals. In addition, Arabic language journals should be indexed in WoS and/or Scopus to provide a high-quality publication platform. This study provides a more comprehensive bibliometric analysis on the growth of Islamic finance literature (1939–2019) in the WoS database; most of the prior studies have covered relatively few areas of focus and a lower range of years in some cases.
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Muhammad Umar Farooq, Ahsan Ullah, Memoona Iqbal and Abid Hussain
The purpose of this paper is twofold: to find out the perception of university librarians about the current and required competencies and to identify the current rank and to point…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: to find out the perception of university librarians about the current and required competencies and to identify the current rank and to point out the benchmark for competencies of library professionals at public universities in Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative research design is used for the conduct of the current study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The Special Libraries Association instrument “Competencies for Information Professionals of the 21st Century” was used to design the questionnaire. A paired sample t-test is used to establish whether there is any noteworthy distinction between the current and required levels of skills. Inferential statistic was also used and independent sample t-test and ANOVA was used to identify the difference in perception on the basis of different demographic variables.
Findings
There is a significant gap between the perceptions of university librarians about their present skills and required skills. The present level of skills is lower than the desired level of competence. There is no significant relationship between the length of job (i.e. experience), grade and skills of academic librarians. But in the case of gender, male have a higher score on the current level of competencies while female have a higher score on the required level of skills.
Originality/value
The findings of this study are helpful for universities in the recruitment, management and training of their librarians on the basis of required skills. Furthermore, it will be useful for librarians in their career planning and continuing education and library schools to revise their curriculum in accordance with needs.
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Gul Afshan, Umar Farooq Sahibzada, Hira Rani, Yasir Hayat Mughal and Ghulam Muhammad Kundi
Past studies have largely focused on leaders' influence on employees' attitudes and behaviors, largely ignoring the followership and its consequences. This study investigates the…
Abstract
Purpose
Past studies have largely focused on leaders' influence on employees' attitudes and behaviors, largely ignoring the followership and its consequences. This study investigates the social impact that followers induce on leaders through their intentions and actions. Following social impact theory (SIT), this study contributes to the growing research on supervisory knowledge hiding (KH) and related positive consequences beyond the traditional leader-centered approach. This paper investigates the serial mediation link between supervisory KH and supervisory knowledge-based trust (KBT) via perceived prosocial impact and supervisor directed citizenship behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Time-lagged dyadic data of 348 employees working in a bank under 54 supervisors were collected from Saudi Arabia.
Findings
The findings suggest that supervisory KH entails a potential prosocial impact on employees to engage in supervisor-directed citizenship behavior that builds the KBT in supervisors about subordinates. The empirical support provides an understanding of the social impact of subordinates' influence on supervisors above and beyond traditional leadership literature by depicting the active role of followers in influencing leaders' behavior in building trust in knowledge management. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are also discussed.
Originality/value
By studying the followership effect on leadership, this study extends the social impact process beyond a social phenomenon to the workplace in a supervisor–subordinate relationship. Moreover, examining the positive framing of a leader's KH to transform such behaviors through active followership role provides a new insight into positive consequences of supervisory behavior through social impact.
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Muhammad Muavia, Ghulam Hussain, Umar Farooq Sahibzada and Wan Khairuzzaman Wan Ismail
This research aims to investigate the direct and indirect (via creative self-efficacy [CSE] and thriving) effects of regulatory focus (RF) on employee intrapreneurship (EI) in…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to investigate the direct and indirect (via creative self-efficacy [CSE] and thriving) effects of regulatory focus (RF) on employee intrapreneurship (EI) in Pakistan’s small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Design/methodology/approach
A time-lagged (six weeks apart) design is used to collect data through self-administered questionnaires. The researchers retrieved 492 usable responses from frontline employees working in SMEs.
Findings
The results showed the positive direct and indirect (via CSE and thriving) effects of promotion focus on EI. As expected, the results showed negative direct and indirect effects of prevention focus on intrapreneurship. The follow-up analysis revealed the mediating effect of CSE is stronger for the promotion focus and intrapreneurship, and the mediating effect of thriving is stronger for prevention focus and intrapreneurship.
Practical implications
This study reveals the importance of RF facets as important predictors of EI. The study highlights the importance of intrapreneurship in emerging economies, but expecting such behavior from every employee is a fallacy. Thus, decision-makers in organizations can nurture prevention-focused employees to engage in intrapreneurship.
Originality/value
This is a pioneer study to include RF (promotion focus and prevention focus) in an emerging country – Pakistan – to reveal its significance in EI. It establishes CSE and thriving as mediating mechanisms between RF and EI for the first time to offer new insights into theory and practice.
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