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The study examines how adopting e-paisa technology (a mobile payment system) enhances micro-entrepreneurs' perceived success and subjective well-being during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The study also theorizes the moderating effects of gender through a moderated-mediation model.

The data are collected from 282 micro-entrepreneurs in Pakistan using a two-week time-lagged approach to test the hypothesized framework. The analysis was conducted using the PROCESS macro moderated-mediation method.

The results affirm that adopting e-paisa technology positively relates to perceived entrepreneurial success, ultimately increasing the entrepreneur's subjective well-being. Furthermore, in hypothesized moderated-mediation paths, the moderation effect of gender was stronger for women than men.

From the perspective of diversity, equality and inclusion, adopting a digital mobile payment system can be regarded as a catalyst for the inclusion of women entrepreneurs in marginalized communities, enabling them to continue their micro-businesses in times of global crises. Further, it is also suggested that public–private sector partnerships are essential for promoting a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem that subsequently leads to social and financial inclusion in marginalized communities.

The mediating role of perceived entrepreneurial success contributes to understanding the importance of psychological functioning among technology acceptance model (TAM) attributes and entrepreneurs' subjective well-being. In addition, theorizing gender differences in TAM and subjective well-being relationships revealed women's advantages, challenging the prevailing belief that women are less fortunate in entrepreneurial endeavors. This raises the need to reconsider and maybe change the perspective to consider women as a disadvantaged group in entrepreneurship.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of the revised Code of Corporate Governance 2017 (CCG-2017) clauses pertaining to board independence, mandatory inclusion of female directors, audit committee (AC) chair independence and directors’ expertise on earnings manipulation.

Using an unbalanced panel of 323 listed companies from 2015 to 2019, this study uses panel data regression models with a robust methodology called difference-in-differences to tackle the potential endogeneity.

This study’s findings show that, as compared to the pre-CCG-2017 period, board- and AC-related variables increased significantly in the post-CCG-2017 period. Furthermore, financial experts on the board and board independence have a negative effect on discretionary accruals (DAs), whereas female directors and DAs are positively related, as is real activity manipulation. The AC-related variables, such as AC independence, expertise in AC, and AC chair independence, are significantly different from the preperiod to the postperiod, whereas their relationship is not according to the hypotheses of the study. Moreover, these results are robust to additional analysis of the alternative proxies for female directorship and the endogeneity problem.

The findings of this study have implications for regulators and practitioners who are concerned with the functions of the board of directors (BOD). The findings of this research study show that earnings management (EM) may be reduced by independent and expert directors. However, board gender diversity is not reducing the EM. Therefore, the decision to appoint female directors to the board should be based on their business and professional attributes rather than simply filling quotas or blindly adhering to regulations. Moreover, the findings of this research may assist the regulator in encouraging listed firms to enhance board governance via independence, diversity and competency, which are useful for effective monitoring.

This study fills a gap in the literature by providing the first evidence of country-specific regulation (CCG-2017), concerning the BOD and AC-related clauses on EM in Pakistan, which is missing in the relevant literature general and in Pakistan in particular.

To create and sustain a resource-based competitive advantage, managers acquire and develop specialized resources as they grow their firms. The authors argue that an important part of committing to a resource-based strategy is a willingness to keep spending on specialized resources during periods when sales and profits are down. The authors seek to validate this conjecture by examining whether such resource-based commitment to a customer-centered strategy results in improved customer satisfaction. The authors use the stickiness of selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses to capture this commitment empirically. The authors first document that future customer satisfaction is positively associated with SG&A cost stickiness, consistent with the premise that the retention of specialized SG&A resources during low demand periods helps firms to build and maintain relationships with customers over time. Next, the authors test whether expected future benefits of customer satisfaction are enhanced when SG&A cost stickiness is higher. The authors find that the positive relation between Tobin’s Q and customer satisfaction is positively moderated by SG&A cost stickiness. Finally, the authors test whether earnings persistence, a quality of earnings associated with sustained performance over time, is positively associated with the interaction between customer satisfaction and SG&A cost stickiness. The authors find that it is. Their evidence supporting these predictions is consistent with the conjecture that resource-based commitment reflected in cost stickiness is an important dimension of creating and sustaining a resource-based competitive advantage.

According to the literature, general personality traits are less strongly related to the creation of new ventures than specific/proximal personality traits. Therefore, this study aims to understand the different proximal personalities that influence the entrepreneurial intention to start a new venture and the relationship between them.

Data were gathered through a self-administered questionnaire filled in by students of entrepreneurship or related courses at the end of the second semester (2019/2020 academic year), and the research option is based on covariance-based structural equation modelling.

The results of this study show that entrepreneurial intentions can be predicted by specific individual traits, namely, risk-taking, entrepreneurial alertness, creativity, proactivity and self-efficacy. Moreover, it was found that risk-taking mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial alertness and proactivity. On the other hand, students’ creativity mediates the relationship between risk-taking and proactivity. Finally, students’ self-efficacy mediates the relationship between proactiveness and entrepreneurial intention.

The results have implications for entrepreneurship education given that a better understanding of the personality traits that influence entrepreneurial intentions can lead to the development of new approaches and pedagogical tools.

This model can be used as a diagnostic tool for designing an effective and efficient entrepreneurship curriculum and pedagogy, acting as an (ongoing) audit of students’ entrepreneurial intentions to get a scientific basis in case of further course/module adjustments.

This study aims to investigate religiosity and entrepreneurial motivation roles in the goal-specific, involving Muslim students’ entrepreneurial intention and self-efficacy. Besides, it examines the robustness model based on group context.

Partial least square structural equation modelling is employed to examine 502 data collected from Muslim students in Indonesia through an online survey. Meanwhile, partial least square multigroup analysis tests the robustness model.

Religiosity plays a powerful role in increasing goal-specificity. Meanwhile, entrepreneurial motivation and self-efficacy perform as full mediations in the pathway mechanism of religiosity's effect on entrepreneurial intention.

The current study is conducted based on the previous recommendations and contradictions. Therefore, it clarifies and develops a study on the role of religiosity and entrepreneurial motivation in the goal-specific motivation of Muslim students.

To increase the goal-specificity of entrepreneurship activities, policymakers in the ministry of education and universities must implement and revitalize Muslim students' understanding of the relationship between religiosity and entrepreneurship.

This study defines the role of religiosity in goal-specific, especially Muslim students’ entrepreneurial intentions, by gender, faculty/department and age. Furthermore, it completes the opportunity for research agendas on the relationship between religiosity, entrepreneurial motivation, self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention.

Nonlinear mixed-convective entropy optimized the flow of hyperbolic-tangent nanofluid (HTN) with magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) process is considered over a vertical slendering surface. The impression of activation energy is incorporated in the modeling with the significance of nonlinear radiation, dissipative-function, heat generation/consumption connection and Joule heating. Research in this area has practical applications in the design of efficient heat exchangers, thermal management systems or nanomaterial-based devices.

Suitable set of variables is introduced to transform the PDEs (Partial differential equations) system into required ODEs (Ordinary differential equations) system. The transformed ODEs system is then solved numerically via finite difference method. Graphical artworks are made to predict the control of applicable transport parameters on surface entropy, Bejan number, Sherwood number, skin-friction, Nusselt number, temperature, velocity and concentration fields.

It is noticed from present numerical examination that Bejan number aggravates for improved estimations of concentration-difference parameter a_2, Eckert number E_c, thermal ratio parameter ?_w and radiation parameter R_d, whereas surface entropy condenses for flow performance index n, temperature-difference parameter a_1, thermodiffusion parameter N_t and mixed convection parameter ?. Sherwood number is enriched with the amplification of pedesis-motion parameter N_b, while opposite development is perceived for thermodiffusion parameter. Lastly, outcomes are matched with formerly published data to authenticate the present numerical investigation.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, no investigation has been reported yet that explains the entropic behavior with activation energy in the flowing of hyperbolic-tangent mixed-convective nanomaterial due to a vertical slendering surface.

This study aims to dye silk with natural pigments extract of Coreopsis tinctoria, by treating the fabrics with appropriate mordant under suitable dyeing conditions, to achieve good dyeing depth, fastness and ultraviolet (UV) protection.

Firstly, single factor experiments were used to determine the basic dyeing conditions of Coreopsis tinctoria. The optimal process conditions for direct dyeing were determined through orthogonal experiments. After that, the dyeing with mordant was used. Based on the previously determined optimal process conditions, silk fabrics were dyed with different mordanting methods, with different mordants and mordant dosages. The dyeing results were compared, in terms of the K/S values of the dyed fabrics, to determine the most appropriate dyeing conditions with mordant.

The extract of Coreopsis tinctoria can dye silk fabrics satisfactorily. Good dyeing depth and fastness can be obtained by using suitable dyeing methods and dyeing conditions, especially when using the natural mordant pomegranate rind and the rare earth mordant neodymium oxide. The silk fabrics dyed with Coreopsis tinctoria have good UV resistance, which allows a desirable finishing effect to be achieved while dyeing, using a safe and environmentally friendly method.

The composition of Coreopsis tinctoria is complex, and the specific composition of colouring the silk fibre has not been determined. There are many factors that affect the dyeing experiment, which have an impact on the experimental results.

The results of this study may help expand the application of Coreopsis tinctoria beyond medicine.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first report on dyeing silk with the extract of Coreopsis tinctoria achieving good dyeing results. Its depth of staining and staining fastness were satisfactory. Optimum dyeing method and dyeing conditions have been identified. The fabric dyed with Coreopsis tinctoria has good UV protection effect, which is conducive to improving the application value of the dyeing fabric. The findings help offer a new direction for the application of medicinal plants in the eco-friendly dyeing of silk.

This research aims to unpack the relationship between employees' perceived organizational politics (POP) and their self-determined motivation by itemizing the mediating role of hostility and a moderating role of organizational injustice.

Data were collected at two different times from 270 employees working in various universities in Pakistan. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses.

The findings revealed that POP negatively influence intrinsic motivation, autonomous extrinsic motivation and positively impact amotivation, whereas POP does not affect employees' controlled extrinsic motivation. Furthermore, POP positively influences hostility. Moreover, hostility mediates the relationships between perceived organizational politics and self-determined motivation. Finally, the findings also revealed that the relationship between perceived organizational politics and hostility was stronger when the perceived organizational injustice was high.

POP can lead to intentional efforts to harm the organization by enhancing employee hostility, which divulges how this peril can be restrained by implanting organizational fairness. Moreover, proactive employees with superior emotional intelligence skills have a greater capability to control their negative emotions. Emotional intelligence (EI) training can effectively reduce the hostility between employees provoked by POP and ultimately diminish self-determined motivation.

The current study revealed that ambiguous forms of political behavior trigger isolated work emotions, negatively affecting organizational sustainability and outcomes. These results have valuable suggestions regarding organizational injustice as a moderator to diminish the hostility resulting from POP.

The study intends to evaluate the impact of inflation expectation on the performance of listed commercial banks in India during 2005–2021. Inflation expectation is considered as a direct policy tool by the policymakers for stability of the economy. The study explores how inflation expectation affects the performance indicators of the Indian banking industry while controlling for a wide range of bank-specific factors.

The study applies the generalized method of moments (GMM) on a panel sample of 27 listed bank to analyse the impact of inflation expectation on banking sector performance. The data on inflation expectation are obtained from the household inflation expectation survey introduced in India by the Reserve Bank of India in 2005. Return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and Tobin's Q have been considered as the banking performance indicators in this study.

Empirical results exhibit that inflation expectation is instrumental in deciding the banking sector's performance. Inflation expectation has been found to have a significant and positive impact on accounting-based measures of banking performance. At the same time, it shows negative impact on the marketing-based measure.

The study gives a clear picture about how inflation expectation affects the banking performance and the monetary policy of the country. The study provides crucial insights to develop strategic decisions for the Indian banking sector. The adoption of proper macroeconomic policies, taking into account inflation expectation levels, is instrumental in enhancing bank's performance and in achieving economic growth.

This study contributes to the growing body of literature on the impact of inflationary conditions on banking performance. The originality lies in capturing the role of inflation expectation solely in determining banking sector performance.