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The rate of cesarean sections has been rapidly increased in the last few decades in all the developing as well as developed countries. The rate of cesarean sections determined by the World Health Organization has been crossed by many countries, like Brazil, India, China, USA, Australia, etc. Similarly, this rate has also increased in Pakistan. The purpose of this paper is to explore and identify the factors that are responsible for the rising rate of cesarean sections in Pakistan.

These factors are categorized under medical and non-medical factors. The medical factors include the obesity of mother, age of mother, weight of the baby, umbilical cord prolapse, fetal distress, abnormal presentation, dystocia and failure to progress. The non-medical factors include financial incentives of doctors, time convenience for doctors, high tolerance to surgery, patient’s preference toward cesarean section, private hospitals, public hospitals, income status of patients, rural areas, urban areas and the education of patients. To identify the critical factors, data have been collected and a multi-criteria decision-making technique, called Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory, is used.

The result shows that the medical factors that are responsible for the rise in the rate of cesarean sections are umbilical cord prolapse, age of mother and obesity of mother. On the other hand, the non-medical factors that are the reasons for the increase in cesarean sections are the large number of private hospitals and the unethical acts of the doctors in these hospitals, preference of patients, and either the unavailability of doctors or poor conditions of hospitals in rural areas.

Cesarean section is an important surgical intervention and is considered to be very essential in the cases of existing as well as potential medical problems to the mother or the baby. Cesarean section is also performed for non-medical reasons. In Pakistan, the number of private hospitals has increased and these hospitals provide good health care. However, these hospitals do not work under the rules and regulations set by the government. The doctors in private hospitals perform unnecessary cesarean sections in order to fulfill the demands of private hospital’s owners. In addition to this, it is also found that, nowadays, most women prefer to give birth through cesarean section in order to eliminate the pain of normal vaginal delivery.

This study determines the relationship between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their support providers during three phases: pre-conflict environment, during conflict environment, and the post-conflict (uncertain) environment with the reference to institutional theory in the northwest region of Pakistan where there is ongoing unrest between the authorities and the insurgents.

Using a qualitative approach, a total of 23 semi-structured interviews were conducted, 19 with the owner-managers of small manufacturing firms and 4 from small business support providers in the region.

The authors theorise the changing role of support agencies as differing institutional gaps, while conflict is destructive for SMEs and support agencies; paradoxically the crisis results in stronger relationships between the support providers and SMEs which was weaker in the pre-conflict environment. Such stronger relationship enhanced the cognitive pillar of institutional theory where entrepreneurship is supported by various groups including government agencies and SMEs to alleviate unemployment in the region which is one of the potential reasons of terrorism in the country.

The study may have value for policymakers who need to know more about how small businesses and support providers develop a support network in difficult regions and give a comprehensive framework to other conflictual regions who face similar circumstances.

This research contributes to the previous literature in several ways. First, the study reveals the impact of conflict environment on small businesses and support providers where a little research has been undertaken. Second, the study shows the support mechanism in three different intervals pre-conflict, during the conflict and post-conflict and how the Talibanization in the region has a positive impact by strengthening the support structure among small businesses and support providers. Finally, the study contributes to the growing body of literature on entrepreneurship in conflict environments.

China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects are widely spread throughout Pakistan with the potential to have a massive impact on Pakistan’s economic future. CPEC projects have, therefore, made it imperative that green practices are adapted to provide sustainability to the CPEC projects. The adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) framework will significantly increase the value attained from CPEC projects through the increased benefits to the socio-cultural and economic conditions of Pakistan without causing harm to the environment. The purpose of this paper is to identify and rank the GSCM practices for implementation in the construction industry of Pakistan according to expert opinion.

This study targets the experts who are employed as supply chain managers in the different construction industries of Pakistan. The opinions of these experts have been extracted through an online questionnaire that was based on six alternatives along with four criteria. The tool of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) that is a Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) has been used to analyze the results.

Six alternatives that have been used for this study are green design, green procurement, green production, green warehousing, green transportation and green recycling. The top-ranked alternative as a practice for GSCM is green warehousing followed by green production. The lowest ranked alternative in this study is green recycling. The alternatives have been ranked on the basis of “cc” values derived through TOPSIS.

As the advancement in the construction industry will definitely going to impact the environmental sustainability of the country, the results derived through this research will assist the managers of the construction industry of Pakistan to adopt best practices among green supply chain in order to lower their impact.

Framework using TOPSIS in order to find the best GSCM practice in Pakistan has not been reported before this study.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the performance of bio-based lubricants (BBL), namely, palm mid-olein (PMO) enriched with an antioxidant agent, tertiary-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) and a viscosity improver, ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), in journal bearing (JB) applications.

Samples of the BBL were prepared by blending it with TBHQ and EVA at various blending ratios. The oxidative stability (OS) and viscosity of the BBL samples were examined using differential scanning calorimetry and a viscometer, respectively. Meanwhile, their performance in JB applications was evaluated through the use of a JB test rig with a 0.5 length-to-diameter ratio at various operating conditions.

It was found that the combination of PMO + TBHQ + EVA demonstrated a superior oil film pressure and load-carrying capacity, resulting in a reduced friction coefficient and a smaller attitude angle compared to the use of only PMO or VG68. However, it was observed that the addition of TBHQ and EVA to the PMO did not have a significant impact on the minimum oil film thickness.

The results would be quite useful for researchers generally and designers of bearings in particular.

This study used PMO as the base stock, and its compatibility with TBHQ and EVA was investigated in terms of its OS and viscosity. The performance of this treated BBL was evaluated in a hydrodynamic JB.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-11-2023-0363/

The purpose of this study was to examine whether servant leadership (SL) buffers the negative relationship between perceived organizational politics (POP) and employee performance outcomes.

Time-lagged multi source data were collected from 236 supervisor-subordinate dyads in a public sector university in Pakistan. SL, POP and several control variables were measured in subordinates at time 1, and supervisor ratings of organization citizenship behaviors and task performance were measured at time 2. The authors performed moderated multiple regression analysis to test the hypotheses underpinning the study.

Findings revealed that POP was negatively related to employee task performance and two types of organization citizenship behavior (individual and organizational). Findings also revealed that SL attenuated the negative effect of POP on employee task performance and the two types of organization citizenship behavior.

SL is particularly important in organizational cultures characterized by high politics; therefore, managers seeking to enhance task performance and citizenship behavior in employees should adopt this style of leadership if possible.

This is the first study conducted in the South Asian context that has examined whether, and how, SL buffers the negative effects of POP on employee task performance and organization citizenship behavior.

The main purpose of this study is to examine the catalytic impact of perceptions of politics in organizations on the relationship between perceived unfairness and deviant behavior at work.

To test the proposed research model, the authors collected field data in a public sector university located in Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan. A two-wave questionnaire was distributed to 400 employees. In the first wave, the questionnaire was used to collect data on participants’ perceptions of perceived injustice and organizational politics. After two weeks, the second wave of data collection was conducted by sending another questionnaire to the same respondents to collect data on their organizational and interpersonal deviance.

Empirical findings revealed that perceived interactional injustice results in interpersonal deviance, and perceived distributive and procedural injustice results in organizational deviance. Moreover, the direct relationship between perceived injustice and deviant behaviors was stronger when the perception of politics factor was high.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to test the detrimental effect of perception of politics on deviance in a public organization in Pakistan.

This article shows operational excellence achieved during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic using the Lean, Six Sigma and Sustainability practices in small medium enterprise (SME) manufacturing firms and its impact on the performance dimensions of efficiency, growth and profit for firms located in the industrial zones of Pakistan.

A quantitative methodology was used and data were collected from a sample of top-level managers from 28 SME manufacturing firms located in the five industrial zones in Pakistan. A total of 62 questionnaires were included in the study.

The findings show that awareness levels of Lean, Six Sigma and Sustainability are emerging, and firms are trying to implement these concepts. However, the results show that while Lean and Six Sigma enhance firms’ performance in terms of efficiency, profit and growth, sustainability has no impact on these three performance dimensions.

The quantitative data of a sample of 28 manufacturing firms inevitably present limitations on the generalizability of this work. Future research could employ greater quantitative data to explore the topic further. Only one particular country is studied so that future research could be carried out in other countries or regions.

This study may have value for policymakers and other stakeholders who need to know more about how Lean, Six Sigma and Sustainability affect a firm’s performance in industrial zones in the context of a developing country.

This paper contributes to knowledge in the field by integrating Lean, Six Sigma and Sustainability with firms’ performance during the COVID-19 pandemic by assessing efficiency, growth and profit dimensions where otherwise no empirical research has been undertaken in the Pakistani context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of Muslim society marriages – forced, arranged or marriages of choice/love, on women entrepreneurial intentions (EI), with reference to Ajzen’s (2002) theory of planned behaviour. It is postulated that marriage type has a significant influence on women household dynamics towards EI and business growth.

A qualitative methodology was used and a total of 20 semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with Muslim married women entrepreneurs operating home-based and market-based small businesses.

The findings show that all these three types of married women entrepreneurs are active in the entrepreneurial process. However, the authors found different paradoxes in their EI and desire for business growth based on their marriage choices or marriage-related constraints that may have been imposed on them.

Qualitative research on a small sample size certainly presents a limitation on the generalizability of this work, because it is difficult to capture data regarding this sensitive issue. Future research could also be carried out in other cultural and religious traditions.

The paper provides good insights to understand the entrepreneurial journey of Muslim women entrepreneurs in the conservative society based on their marriages options.

The contribution of this research is twofold. First, the paper offers a theoretical perspective related to female EI and business growth based on religious marriages. Second, it applies Ajzen’s (2002) planned behaviour theory to establish how marriage constraints may influence women EI in the Muslim society.

This study aims to investigate the effect of servant leadership on employee organizational identification and career satisfaction through the mediating lens of leader-member-exchange (LMX). Furthermore, this study also examines whether perceived organizational support (POS) strengthens the positive effect of servant leadership on LMX and subsequently, on employee organizational identification and career satisfaction.

Survey data were collected from 314 respondents working in hotels in United States of America (USA). Structural equation modeling (SEM), hierarchical moderation analysis and bootstrapping were used to test the study hypotheses.

Servant leadership was found to positively influence employee organizational identification and career satisfaction. Further, analysis revealed that LMX partially mediated the positive relationship between servant leadership and employee career satisfaction and fully mediated the positive relationship between servant leadership and organizational identification. However, although POS moderated the indirect relationship between servant leadership and employee’ career satisfaction, it did not moderate the indirect relationships between servant leadership and organizational identification.

This study provides insight into the nexus of servant leadership and organizational support in hospitality industry to foster the employee organizational identification and career satisfaction which are extremely needed for competitive advantage in hotel industry.

This study addresses recent calls for future researchers to investigate the important of servant leadership in the hospitality industry.

The purpose of this study is to investigate employee trust in the leader as the underlying mechanism between transformational leadership and employees’ organizational identification and their continuous improvement efforts.

Survey data were collected from 282 employees, working in 8 different private and public sector organizations from the banking, higher education, telecommunications and health sectors in Pakistan. Structural equation modeling was used to test the study hypotheses.

The results support the hypothesized relationships showing that trust in the leader partially mediates the relationship of transformational leadership with organizational identification and continuous improvement efforts.

This study relied upon cross-sectional data, which does not satisfy the conditions to establish causality.

The results of this study will help organizations and practitioners to understand the importance of trust between transformational leaders and followers, which ultimately results in higher organizational identification and continuous improvement.

Using the broader framework of social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), this study contributes to the extant employee – organization relationship literature by proposing and testing trust in the leader as an underlying psychological mechanism that can explain the impact of transformational leadership on employees’ organizational identification and their continuous improvement efforts.