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The purpose of this paper is to explore the salient factors in adoption of innovations in university libraries of Pakistan. The topic is important because academic libraries need to be innovative for meeting the new vision/mission of higher education. A previous study conducted by the same researchers concluded an inappreciable state of a large majority of university libraries in Pakistan (Awais and Ameen, 2018). It is, therefore, necessary to examine and investigate the ground realities and important factors influencing in the local context.

Qualitative design is used to explore the important influencing factors. Data are collected through conducting a series of semi-structured interviews from 15 academic library leaders belonging to traditional and 15 with a better status of innovations.

Major factors like behavioral issues of library staff, lack of trainings, lack of budget and leadership skills are causing hindrance in leading to adopt new trends and innovations. Vision of higher authorities, library team with new skillsets, funding by the Higher Education Commission, etc. favor adoption of innovations. All leaders of the academic libraries need to have a positive strong attitude, vision and planning to overcome the barriers in the path of adoption of innovations to survive and thrive.

The study is conducted in local context of Pakistan. Only viewpoints of librarians at top level are taken. Viewpoints of higher authorities, library staff and users are not taken for this study. Similarly, viewpoints of only 30 library leaders are taken, which is also a limitation of this study.

Traditional-type library leaders can overcome the barriers by going through the findings and conclusion. They can get ideas from the discussion of innovative-type library leaders.

University libraries can be improved by the help of policy makers and higher authorities. Eventually, users would get better learning, teaching and social environment.

The study is conducted in a local context of Pakistan. It may provide a guideline for some future planning and development of university libraries. The research will be also useful in creating awareness among professionals of other developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the current status of innovations in the university libraries of Pakistan because desire for reshaping the university libraries is now the necessity for full filling the mission of higher education, i.e. to be competitive and compatible in international market.

Quantitative method is adopted for measuring the occurrence of innovations. The content is based on the literature, the researchers’ 20 years’ experience and the websites of all the 183 universities of Pakistan have been reviewed for this purpose. A checklist of 40 innovation used in ACRL libraries and prepared by a researcher, Jantz (2013) is used as a yard stick.

The findings indicate that a large majority (85%) of university libraries, have not adopted these innovations. Only 15 percent of university libraries all over Pakistan are relatively better on the innovation adoption scale.

The aspects discussed in the context of Pakistan may catch the attentions for improvement of university libraries, and growth of respective professional. It is assumed that the situation is similar to other type of libraries (college and public) and also in neighboring developing countries. So, the work will raise the awareness among professionals of other countries as well.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the current status of innovations in the university libraries of Pakistan because the desire for reshaping the university libraries is now necessary to fulfill the mission of higher education, i.e. to be competitive and compatible in the international market.

The content is based on the literature. For this purpose, the researchers’ 20 years’ experience and the websites of all the 183 universities of Pakistan have been reviewed. A checklist of 40 innovations (Jantz, 2013), used in ACRL libraries and prepared by the researcher, is used as a yardstick to measure the innovation status of university libraries.

The findings indicate that a large majority of university libraries, ranging from 70 to 100 percent, have not adopted these innovations. Only 15 percent of university libraries all over Pakistan are relatively better on the innovation adoption scale.

The data are explored by reviewing the websites of university libraries of Pakistan. Viewpoint of librarian and administrators of university librarian is not taken at this stage.

It will be helpful for the practitioner community to brain think on serious grounds for future improvements by having a clear picture of current status.

By analyzing the standings of university libraries of Pakistan vs developed countries, the professionals would get awareness and they might be take initiatives for extending the services suitable and compatible with the present and future needs of users. Ultimately, profession and users satisfaction could be obtained.

The aspects discussed in the context of Pakistan may catch the attention of policy makers for the sake of improvement of university libraries, and growth of their professionals. It is further assumed that this situation is similar to the other neighboring developing countries. So, the work will raise the awareness among professionals of other countries too.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the degree to which Islamic banks in Pakistan use risk management practices (RMPs) and techniques in dealing with different types of risk.

A standardized questionnaire is used which covers six aspects: understanding risk and risk management (URM), risk assessment and analysis (RAA), risk identification (RI), risk monitoring (RM), credit risk analysis (CRA) and RMPs.

This study found that the Islamic banks are somewhat reasonably efficient in managing risk where URM, RM and CRM are the most influencing variables in RMPs.

The paper's findings are limited to the RMPs of Islamic banks in Pakistan.

This paper explores the RMPs of the Islamic banks in Pakistan. The results can be used as a valuable feedback for improvement of RMPs in the Islamic banks in Pakistan and will be of value to those people who are interested in the Islamic banking system.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship that exists between financial depth and economic growth in Poland for the years 1995–2019. This paper utilizes integration and co-integration techniques to capture the long-term and short-term linkages between various determinants of financial deepening, economic growth and a few selected growth variables. Financial depth is measured using two distinct measures: the monetization ratio (i.e. the ratio of broad money in the economy to the gross domestic product (GDP)) and the domestic credit provided to private sector by banks.

The paper uses a combination of Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) and Phillips–Perron unit root tests, autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) model and Granger causality tests to estimate results.

This paper finds that there is a bidirectional causal relationship between financial deepening and economic growth in the short run, but this relationship does not hold in the long run. The control variables comprising trade volume, investment, government spending and volatility in oil prices and inflation have a significant, positive relationship with economic development in the long run.

The findings are indicative of the need for further strengthening of the financial sector in Poland, such that the relationship between financial depth and economic growth is substantiated in the long run. This paper also finds room for more stringent regulation of the financial system and transparency in information available.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the author’s experience related to several attempts of getting approved a paper of their authorship about gender and organizations by the lens of a researcher trying to meet his goal.

Throughout the endeavor, the author received substantial feedback and evaluations from editors and reviewers that allowed him to understand better the motivation of those that are dedicated to carry out such task; enhance his work whenever was possible; increase his resilience and self-motivation; and identify several inconsistencies of the peer-review process. Furthermore, that ample opinionated material allowed him to conduct the current autoethnographic study.

Accordingly, the author’s findings identified three aggregate dimensions, namely, demotivating assessments, mixed perceptions and motivating assessments. Moreover, the author did not identify any trace of developmental review (help), bill of rights or notion of being an “artist,” as some scholars suggest, from both the reviewers’ or editors’ part, but only from a specific journal’s editor and one of its reviewers. On the one hand, the majority of the reviewers/editors showed a harsh view about the author’s work or even a lack of interest to ponder his arguments and difficulties to carry out that study. Even though the author alluded to the limitations and unsurmountable hurdles that he faced along the way, they showed neither sympathy nor comprehension to his comments. On the other hand, it was not an easy task to the author to sift the hints provided by them.

Nonetheless, the author also recognizes his own limitations that eventually affected his analysis and point of views. It is also worth noting that this method relies on a unique source (the author).

The author believes that his ideas and opinions have some base and merit. Rather, his findings embrace profound implications for reviewers and editors, particularly in terms of how they perform their work.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first endeavor focusing on peer-review system related to organizational studies and grounded in an autoethnography approach. Therefore, their contribution is derived from a researcher that is familiar with the system and its flaws.

Women are rarely seen in positions of leadership in patriarchal societies, which is unsurprising. Following gender equity policies, few women have been able to break through the gender equity barrier and assume leadership positions in schools. Few research investigations have delved into the experiences and challenges that women encounter in positions of leadership in patriarchal societies in government schools in Northern Ghana. The study seeks to comprehend the experiences and challenges that women confront in positions of leadership in patriarchal societies in Northern Ghana.

The study aimed to gain a better understanding of the experiences and challenges that women encounter in educational leadership roles in patriarchal societies in Northern Ghana. To achieve the study's objectives, a quantitative research approach and a social survey design were used, as well as descriptive and inferential statistics.

The findings of the study revealed that in patriarchal societies in Northern Ghana, women experience conventional gender roles that conflict with roles, cultural values, gender stereotyping, family responsibilities and cultural beliefs and perceptions of women and attitudes and low expectations of women's managerial skills discourage women from taking on leadership positions in men-dominated societies.

There is a need to shift the gender position and question the negative cultural convictions of cultural and patriarchal societies. Equal opportunities for men and women necessitate equal access to leadership positions. It proposes that in patriarchal societies, education and community stakeholder involvement in leadership training programmes for women be considered, as policy documents alone would not be sufficient to eradicate deeply embedded cultural social practices and dispel negative notions about women in leadership positions in men-dominated societies.

The study established that in patriarchal societies, women experienced conventional gender roles that conflict with roles, cultural values, gender stereotyping, family responsibilities, cultural vulnerability of women and the interplay between cultural expected roles and management goals influence women from taking on leadership positions.

Despite the advancement, it appears that much has to be done to clarify the understanding of the effects of the meaning of work (MOW) in the lives. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explore such a theoretical stream by means of the Spiritism Doctrine (SD) tenets. In fact, the spiritual knowledge derived from this religion alludes to aspects worthy of investigation.

Religious lens serves as a robust frame to approach the MOW, given that people’s beliefs likely shape their view about work. Toward that end, it examines pivotal aspects of MOW literature and the SD revelations thereof.

The wise revelations and teachings from the spirits examined throughout this paper suggest that work embraces one of God’s laws. In this regard, the SD tenets deepen this by providing sound explanations, reflections and arguments about the MOW, as well as highlighting that we all must do the best in the work regardless of the profession or activity. In doing so, this paper is serving the neighbors by fulfilling or at least mitigating their needs and consequently engaging in something indefinitely greater than the own desires, that is, the celestial Father’s wish.

There is no denying that the knowledge brought by the SD, as a source of transcendental epistemology, has deep implications for workers and organizations likewise. Overall, such knowledge enriches the understanding of a very important theme to human beings through an understudied but also insightful lens.

Therefore, this essay contributes to the MOW through transcendental epistemology (Maslow, 1993). Rather, it focuses on a very sensitive issue (work) and its corresponding implications to mankind through the knowledge of a spiritual and religious framework. In addition, such endeavor also adds to the field of management, spirituality and religion Interest Group of Academy of Management.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between Latin American migrants and the Spanish healthcare system, from the users’ perspective, in order to examine the socio-cultural determinants for access and attention, as well as the possible difficulties faced when attending institutional facilities.

This work is based on qualitative ethnographic research with the Latin American community established in the region of Castile and León, Spain. Analysis was established through a thematic approach and illustrated with the testimonies of participants involved, to inspect personal meanings and interpretations, as well as specific practices regarding healthcare.

The encounter between foreigners and health services is frequently expressed with negative emotions, such as feelings of fear facing a system that is perceived as designed “for others.” For many Latin American immigrants in Spain, institutional healthcare is not considered their first choice for treating illness. This has been related to economic, bureaucratic, ideological and emotional factors.

Most of the existing literature about immigrant healthcare in Spain has focused on sanitary conditions or patterns of service use from an institutional perspective and a quantitative approach. This paper highlights the perceptions of users to enrich comprehension of the rapport between migrants and medical care.