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This paper aims to explore how sustainability practices were implemented in a higher education institution within a local setting in the Gulf and Arab Emirates Region. This study examined the impact of social and cultural requirements on the development of the master plan for the New Kuwait University campus with regards to sustainability to illustrate how current social and cultural requirements impact the design of a future learning environment whilst highlighting the essential role of organisational actors in this implementation process.

Using an in-depth case study approach, the authors conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with educators and administrative staff who had been involved in the sustainability implementation process at Kuwait University. These participants were involved at different stages in the implementation of a major sustainability project at Kuwait University. The interviews were further supplemented by analysing supporting documents and communications.

The analysis reveals that sustainability was embedded in a narrative that was repeated at the practice level; this directed the setting of objectives for the project and its various sub-tasks. It also helped actors to develop their understandings of practice and the importance of social emotions, self-intentions and patterns of culture in the process. This study further reveals that participants mainly focused on environmental issues regarding saving paper/electricity and overlooked aspects of a wider concepts and core values of sustainability, and there is a significant amount of lack of knowledge and awareness on matters about sustainability, especially with the understanding of its definition.

This study draws on practice-organisation framework used by Schatzki (2002, 2010), suggesting that sustainability implementation is a process led by rules, practical understanding, general understanding and teleoaffective structures, to highlight the role of agency and change among various actors in implementing sustainability. A practice-theory framing is used to signpost the roles played by various actors in establishing goals and tasks for the project while taking account of local understanding and independence in the implementation of sustainability practices. Engaging with practice theory framework offers us theoretical basis that is fundamentally different from the theories of interaction-oriented approaches in sustainable design.

This study aims to explore how organisations use institutional language in Green Bond reports to explain and justify their activities using language that describes and reflects narratives while simultaneously constructing and shaping ideology. The paper mobilises Wodak and Meyer’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) to examine reports and related documentation relating to Green Bonds issued in France.

The study uses three legitimating discourses: technocratic, environmental and social and business performance to develop a linguistic perspective that permits contributions to existing knowledge in the area.

The analysis attempts to identify the discursive strategies used to legitimise Green Bond issuance via claims linked to environmental management improvements and business activities’ social impact.

The study contributes to the critical literature on organisational legitimation and responsibility, investigations of Green Bond narratives and an understanding of broader environmental reporting in the financial sector.

This paper aims to examine the effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the relationship between UK universities and professional accounting bodies (PABs) in the context of the accreditation system and how well prepared this relationship was to observe and respond to the pandemic.

The research draws on 10 semi-structured interviews and correspondence, with six English universities in the context of their relationship with three PABs to build an extended analytical structure to understand the nature and extent of the accreditation system in light of COVID-19.

The study shows that COVID-19 has highlighted pedagogical and ideological conflicts within the PAB–university relationship. The analysis shows that, in an attempt to resolve these conflicts, universities demonstrate “unrequited love” for PABs by limiting changes to assessments to meet the PABs’ criteria. Indeed, PABs face very little resistance from universities. This further constrains academics by suppressing innovation and limiting their scope to learn and adopt new skills, habits and teaching styles.

The paper highlights the weakness of the PAB–university relationship. Moreover, it shows that rather than using the pandemic crisis to question this relationship, PABs may seek to promote their accounting pedagogy and retain greater control of the accounting curriculum. This can entail the transformation of academics into translators of PABs’ accounting pedagogy rather than exercising academic freedom and promoting critical thinking.

The aim of this study is to examine the perceptions of consumers on Islamic banking and finance in Pakistan. Islamic finance is an emerging phenomenon, and its survival depends on the availability, affordability and awareness. This paper attempts to fill the gap in the literature by exploring the perceptions of consumers and bankers in an attempt to gain insights so that the availability of products and awareness can be increased.

The study uses a regression model by using perception as a dependent variable and awareness, knowledge and religious motivation as independent variables. Primary data is collected using 150 questionnaires distributed amongst finance students in several universities and employees of Islamic banks in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Province of Pakistan.

The findings reveal that overall consumers’ perception is positive about Islamic banking and finance in Pakistan. Statistical analysis shows that awareness, knowledge and religiosity level have a positive influence on the perception of consumers about Islamic financing products and services in Pakistan. To improve the awareness and understanding, Islamic banks could make better marketing strategies and could increase their presence by mosque visits and conferences. Cooperation between the industry and scholars could help in providing more innovative products to the consumers.

There has been a limited amount of work carried out on the perceptions of consumers about Islamic banking in Pakistan. The present study represents the start of a larger context for examining Islamic banking practices in Pakistan. The findings of the study can be used as a reference in future research projects in the areas of perceptions and awareness.

Little research has been conducted to study this problem from the perspectives of consumers and Islamic banking employees. Most of the research associated with Islamic banks fails to pay attention to these stakeholder groups in one study.

Financial shenanigans are the omissions or actions undertaken with the purpose of misrepresenting an organisation's financial statements. Many examples now exist of such behaviour emerging in the context of a desire to deceive the users of financial reports. In this context, research has illustrated how investors can find themselves impacted by such behaviour, with incorrect decision-making around investment decisions being a major issue. However, auditors' perspectives, of obvious importance in such scenarios, given these individuals' role in attesting to the veracity of financial disclosures, have not been investigated. The aim of this study is to address this gap by seeking the experiences of auditors in the developing nation of Pakistan, an environment in which the significant impact of financial improprieties is well-documented.

Interviews with 50 Pakistani-based auditors were conducted to gather perceptions about the nature and prevalence of financial shenanigans. The questions posed were structured to address issues relating to both the drivers of and methods used to operationalise financial malfeasance.

The views expressed by the participants suggest that this type of malpractice is common, with a variety of forms employed and a level of audacity and shamelessness is striking. The results indicate the absence of the three institutional pillars conventionally associated with motivating organisational attempts to legitimise behaviour and maintain social contracts. When considered alongside recent findings that the audit profession in Pakistan may not always play an effective monitoring role, we argue that the evidence suggests the existence of motivations for legitimising strategies are not yet fully understood.

This contention helps address recent calls for investigation of issues around legitimising tendencies where theoretical understanding is incomplete. A full understanding of the embedded practices will provide capital providers with the opportunity to make more informed decisions regarding their investments in Pakistani firms by highlighting the financial shenanigans involved, including the sheer audacity apparently associated with the observed behaviour.

Earnings management and auditing have not been studied widely in Pakistan despite the abundant and persistent nature of corporate scandals across the nation for many decades. Whilst implementation (and enforcement) of some accounting and auditing standards have taken place recently, the financial collapses continue, and understanding regarding the on-going fraud is urgently needed. The extent and shameless nature of the perceived behaviour are striking, suggesting that those closest to financial reporting in Pakistan see fraudulent financial reporting as being close to, if not yet fully representative of, normal practice.

This paper aims to analyze the effect of cerium addition on the microstructure and the mechanical properties of Tin-Silver-Copper (SAC) alloy. The mechanical properties and refined microstructure of a solder joint are vital for the reliability and performance of electronics. SAC305 alloys are potential choices to use as lead-free solders because of their good properties as compared to the conventional Tin-Lead solder alloys. However, the presence of bulk intermetallic compounds (IMCs) in the microstructure of SAC305 alloys affects their overall performance. Therefore, addition of cerium restrains the growth of IMCs and refines the microstructure, hence improving the mechanical performance.

SAC305 alloy is doped with various composition of xCerium (x = 0.15, 0.35, 0.55, 0.75, 0.95) % by weight. Pure elements in powdered form were melted in the presence of argon with periodic stirring to ensure a uniform melted alloy. The molten alloy is then poured into a pre-heated die to obtain a tensile specimen. The yield strength and universal tensile strength were determined using a fixed strain rate of 10 mm per minute or 0.1667 mm s^(−1). The IMCs are identified using X-ray diffraction, whereas the elemental phase composition and microstructure evolution are, respectively, examined by using electron dispersive spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy.

Improvement in the microstructure and mechanical properties is observed with 0.15% of cerium additions. The tensile test also showed that SAC305-0.15% cerium exhibits more stress-bearing capacity than other compositions. The 0.75% cerium doped alloy indicated some improvement because of a decrease in fracture dislocation regions, but microstructure refinement and the arrangement of IMCs are not those of 0.15% Ce. Different phases of Cu_6 Sn_5, Ag_3 Sn and CeSn_3 and ß-Sn are identified. Therefore, the addition of cerium in lower concentrations and presence of Ce-Sn IMCs improved the grain boundary structure and resulted refinement in the microstructure of the alloy, as well as an enhancement in the mechanical properties.

Characterization of microstructure and evaluation of mechanical properties are carried out to investigate the different composition of SAC305-xCerium alloys. Finally, an optimized cerium composition is selected for solder joint in electronics.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of picking sequence, weave design and weft yarn material on the thermal conductivity of the woven fabrics.

This work includes the development of 36 woven samples with two weave designs (1/1 plain and 3/1 twill), three picking sequences (single, double and three pick insertion) and six different weft yarn materials (cotton, polyester having 48 filaments, polyester with 144 filaments, spun coolmax having Lycra in core and coolmax in sheath, filament coolmax and polypropylene). The thermal conductivity was measured using ALAMBETA tester.

The results showed that weft yarn material, weave design and picking sequence have a meaningful impact on the thermal conductivity of woven fabric. The value of thermal conductivity was lowest for the fabrics with three pick insertion and 3/1 twill weave in all weft yarn materials.

Plain woven fabric with single pick insertion is feasible for summer wear to enhance the comfort of wearer. By changing the warp yarn grouping and material, improved thermal conductivity/resistance can also be achieved.

The authors have studied the combined effect of different weft yarn materials with different picking sequences and different weave designs on thermal conductivity of the woven fabrics.

The effect of empowering leadership on knowledge sharing is well defined, but factors that stimulate employees for knowledge sharing are still limited. Therefore, this study aims to address to what extent empowering leadership is desirable to create a trustful and fair environment that is conducive for an employee’s knowledge sharing.

Through integration of social exchange, equity and uncertainty management theories develop a moderating mediating model that links empowering leadership to knowledge sharing. Three-wave data collection from the sample of 375 managers–subordinates’ dyads was done in Pakistan textile industries.

Hierarchal regression analysis and bootstrapping method were applied to test the hypotheses. The results indicate that affective trust partially mediates the relationship between empowering leadership and knowledge sharing. More especially, the findings demonstrate that the relationship between empowering leadership and knowledge sharing becomes strong with high level of distributive and procedural justices.

This research study uses empowering leadership as a proposed motivational pathway for stimulating employee’s knowledge sharing through development of affective trust and buffering effect of distributive and procedural justices.

Most of previous research in knowledge sharing just cynosure organizational-level elements like leadership and organizational justices but deteriorate individual factors like trust. Therefore, this study will combine both organizational- and individual-level factors for urging employees for knowledge sharing.

This study aims to investigate two important research questions. First, this research examines the impact of real earnings management on investment inefficiency of the non-financial listed firms in Pakistan. Second, this research further explores the moderating role of short-term debt on the nexus between real earnings management and investment inefficiency. This study attempts to highlight an important research problem i.e. the jinx of real earnings management from the context of an emerging economy.

This study employs the data from non-financial listed firms in Pakistan over the period from 2008 to 2018. The study uses panel data methodologies with firm and year fixed-effects to examine the proposed hypotheses. The results are robust to the use of sensitivity analysis, different estimation techniques and endogeneity issues (using two-stage least squares (2SLS) and generalized method of moments (GMM) techniques).

The results of the research are twofold. First, consistent with the theoretical arguments, the findings reveal that real earnings management increases investment inefficiency and results in over-investments by the firms. Second, short-term debt attenuates the relationship between real earnings management and investment inefficiency. It implies that a higher level of short-term debt weakens the adverse effects of real earnings management on the investment efficiency of the firm.

This study offers original findings on the issues pertaining to the quality of accounting and financial reporting in an emerging economy like Pakistan, where the implementation of regulations is weak in the corporate world and management frequently exploits shareholders' wealth for the short-term benefits.

The purpose of this study, thermal radiation and viscous dissipation impacts on double diffusive convection on peristaltic transport of Williamson nanofluid due to induced magnetic field in a tapered channel is examined. The study of propulsion system is on the rise in aerospace research. In spacecraft technology, the propulsion system uses high-temperature heat transmission governed through thermal radiation process. This study will help in assessment of chyme movement in the gastrointestinal tract and also in regulating the intensity of magnetic field of the blood flow during surgery.

The brief mathematical modelling, along with induced magnetic field, of Williamson nanofluid is given. The governing equations are reduced to dimensionless form by using appropriate transformations. Numerical technique is manipulated to solve the highly nonlinear differential equations. The roll of different variables is graphically analyzed in terms of concentration, temperature, volume fraction of nanoparticles, axial-induced magnetic field, magnetic force function, stream functions, pressure rise and pressure gradient.

The key finding from the analysis above can be summed up as follows: the temperature profile decreases and concentration profile increases due to the rising impact of thermal radiation. Brownian motion parameter has a reducing influence on nanoparticle concentration due to massive transfer of nanoparticles from a hot zone to a cool region, which causes a decrease in concentration profile· The pressure rise enhances due to rising values of thermophoresis and thermal Grashof number in retrograde pumping, free pumping and copumping region.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, a study that integrates double-diffusion convection with thermal radiation, viscous dissipation and induced magnetic field on peristaltic flow of Williamson nanofluid with a channel that is asymmetric has not been carried out so far.