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This study aims to develop and empirically examine a model that investigates the mediating role of technology development capability (TDC) on the relationship between customer focus (CF) and technology leadership (TL).

The analysis and interpretation of a partial least square model include the following two stages: the first stage focuses on assessing the reliability and validity of the measurement model, while the second pertains to evaluating the structural model.

The general understanding prevailing in practice and literature is that management sponsorship (MS) has a positive impact on the relationship between CF and TDC. It is also generally understood that MS has a positive impact on TL initiatives. However, the findings of this study contradict these assumptions. Specifically, the study indicates that MS has a negative moderating effect on CF and technology development capabilities, and has no impact on CF and TL relationships.

CF, TDC and MS, and their interplay and impact in enhancing firms’ TL position, have not been explored thus far in an integrated manner in the context of the automobile industry in developing countries. The research relating to CF, technology development capabilities, technology innovation capabilities, MS and TL reported in the literature has drawn inferences from case studies, anecdotal evidence and experiences of industry leaders, experts and consultants. This study attempts to fill the gaps mentioned above by presenting and testing a new moderated mediation model that shows the relationship between CF, TDC, MS and TL.

This study aims to assess the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and development culture and the role of willingness-to-change in this relationship and analyzes their effect on new product exploration in small enterprises.

A model based on structural equations with partial least squares (PLS) analysis is used to test the hypotheses. This model was tested on a sample of 250 respondents from 125 small enterprises, with less than 50 employees, located in all seven emirates of the UAE.

The results suggest that EO will induce organizational members’ willingness-to-change and will favor the advancement of a development culture in small enterprises; in addition, EO, willingness-to-change and development culture can lead to new product exploration in small enterprises.

The study findings are subject to potential limitations. First, the research design for the quantitative study was cross-sectional and self-reported, which could cause problems of common method and inflation bias. Second, the conceptual model may not be completely representative of the perspective the authors aim to elucidate. Third, as this study is country-specific, further research investigation in other developing economies is recommended to further understand the possible influences of cultural or socioeconomic contexts on the relationships presented in the model.

The article includes several practical implications about the relationships between willingness-to-change and development culture. It sheds light on the controversial link between EO and new product exploration in small enterprises.

The present study expands current knowledge on the EO–new product exploration relationship by investigating some key mediating variables such as willingness-to-change and development culture in an under-researched context such as UAE.

The aim of this research is to uncover issues that inhibit patients' satisfaction and loyalty and identify factors that could enhance customer retention by government hospitals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The mediating impact of outpatient satisfaction on service quality, word of mouth (WoM), hospital image, outpatient–physician relationship and outpatient loyalty were tested.

The sample data used to test the hypotheses were drawn from a pool of patients served by a government healthcare agency in Abu Dhabi. Questionnaires were provided to 418 participants using methods such as short message service, e-mail and face-to-face delivery. The data were analyzed using SmartPLS 3.3.2 software.

The results indicate that service quality, WoM and outpatient–physician relationship positively impact outpatient satisfaction and indirectly effect outpatient loyalty; that hospital image positively impacts outpatient satisfaction and loyalty and has a partially mediating effect on loyalty; that waiting time satisfaction has no effect on outpatient satisfaction and no moderating effect on the outpatient satisfaction–loyalty relationship and that switching cost has a positive effect on loyalty but no moderating effect on the outpatient satisfaction–loyalty relationship.

The first limitation of this study concerns the fact that only patients who had previously been served by these hospitals' outpatient units were included. Furthermore, the research was not able to obtain extensive findings related to the various factors that negatively impacted patient satisfaction and loyalty among all of the departments of government hospitals, such as inpatient care and emergency care.

Centered on the findings from this research, increasing switching costs would prevent patients from switching to other healthcare providers. Therefore, it has the potential to create a false loyalty or a hostage customer (Jones and Sasser, 1995). Additionally, making patients feel connected to their treatment plan and engaged in their care by developing a tool to maintain their enthusiasm about their health is important. It is therefore recommended that government hospital care providers and management consider providing online tools that patients can use to self-manage their care.

The results regarding patients' satisfaction level suggest several areas for improvement. The first pertains to waiting area entertainment and comfort because patients indicated that there is not enough entertainment or ways to pass the time when waiting for services. In addition to enhancing the entertainment and comfort of waiting areas, government hospital staff should maintain contact with patients who are waiting to ensure that they are aware of the time they will spend. Another area for improvement is the parking lot. During summer, patients prefer to walk less in the sun, which causes them to seek parking closer to the door. Government hospital management should consider different methods for transporting patients closer to the door, such as golf carts or valet services.

This is the first study to investigate the mediating impact of outpatients' satisfaction between its antecedents and loyalty in the UAE. These results provide an improved understanding of the factors influencing patient choices and establish more accurate methods for increasing patient loyalty to retain more patients.

Awareness of psychological problems is essential to address the problems adequately. It also contributes positively in the overall psychosocial well-being of a society. The rates of mental health literacy have been investigated in many countries and have been found to be lower than expected. The purpose of this study was to explore public awareness of psychological problems and psychological treatment in Pakistan.

The current study explored the latest levels of public awareness of psychological problems in the country by involving 3,500 respondents from five major cities. The sample of the study was sufficiently rich to represent Pakistanis based on gender, age, education, profession and income. Data were gathered from 3,500 respondents through interviews and a self-respondent questionnaire.

The study revealed that the awareness of psychological problems in Pakistan was 36 per cent. Several significant variations were also found based on different demographic factors. The study also revealed that 42.17 per cent of the respondents were aware of psychotherapy as a possible way of treating psychological problems followed by their awareness of social support (17.29 per cent), medicine (16.74 per cent), supernatural practices (6.29 per cent), religious practices (5.60 per cent) and self-help (3.57 per cent).

As a result of the findings of unsatisfactory levels of public awareness of psychological problems, this paper has implications for mental health practitioners and policymakers to play their active part in improving the situation.

The current study is the first large-scale study in the country.

This study aims to offer a bibliometric analysis of the already substantial and growing literature on global virtual teams (GVTs).

Using a systematic literature review approach, it identifies all articles in the Web of Science from 1999 to 2021 that include the term GVTs (in the title, the abstract or keywords) and finds 175 articles. The VOSviewer software was applied to analyze the bibliometric data.

The analysis revealed three dialogizing research clusters in the GVTs literature: a pioneering management information systems and organizational cluster, a general management cluster and a growing international management and behavioural studies cluster. Furthermore, it highlights the most cited articles, authors, journals and nations, and the network of strong and weak links regarding co-authorships and co-citations. Additionally, this study shows a change in research patterns regarding topics, journals and disciplinary approaches from 1999 to 2021. Finally, the analysis illustrates the position and centrality in the network of the most relevant actors.

The findings can guide management practitioners, educators and researchers to the most meaningful clusters of publications on GVTs, and help navigate and make sense of the vast body of the available literature. The importance of GVTs has been growing in the past two decades, and Covid-19 has accelerated the trend.

This study provides an updated and comprehensive systematic literature review on GVTs. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is also the first systematic literature review and bibliometry on GVTs. It concludes by suggesting future research paths.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss positive spillovers of this project, especially for Pakistan because the majority of the literature discusses challenges associated with China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

This study reviews the available literature to assess the role of CPEC in the sustainable economic development of Pakistan.

This study indicates that CPEC is an ambitious development project because it needs a larger restructuring of the economy of Pakistan and it will be productive with the successful blend of policy changes and participation of the business community in Pakistan. This project primarily creates a huge amount of foreign direct investment for Pakistan, at the same time, it will also create greater trade opportunities to China by giving access to a new market for its trading goods.

This study established that CPEC will improve the economic growth and trade, enhance regional connectivity, overcome energy crises, develop infrastructure and establish people-to-people contacts in both the countries, which will further help to improve the tourism sector.

This study aims to review the psychosocial determinants of divorce and their effects on women for a social reform in Pakistan. Enigmatic societal standards vandalize social status of divorced women and stress them to experience psychological trauma that triggers psychosocial disorders.

The study is categorized into three major determinants: the human emotional, the formal legal and societal aspect(s) in association with the deferential social status of divorced women. Rapid evidence assessment methodology was used to search the all-inclusive literature, collate the available descriptive evidences, critically analyze and evaluate it, sieve out studies of penurious quality and provide an aperçu of the evidence.

The research evinces domestic violence and abuse as an endemic cause of divorce in Pakistan; emotional and psychological consequences of domestic abuse damage women’s self-worth and well-being. Literature reported that all these determinants impacted the mental health stability of the divorced women. Divorce rates are climbing at a faster pace in the country and Punjab has been identified as a province of rocketing divorce rate. Lamentably, in various villages of other provinces, women risk face mutilation if they show courage to seek divorce.

More research needs to be carried out on the issue nationwide. Fundamentally, cultural norms around women’s roles in society need to be addressed and challenged where this research may become an impetus for further research.

The paper contributes towards the redressal of the domestic abuse, social exclusion, marginalization and vilification of divorced women in Pakistan. The rising rates indicate an urgent need for social reforms to curtail offending behaviors toward them, to safeguard their mental health and well-being and to empower them with their legal rights to enjoy deferential social status in life.

There are many studies investigating people’s eating habits during the COVID-19 period, and people have been encouraged to eat healthier. Healthy nutrition is made possible by making healthy food choices and food labels are one of the tools that help consumers make healthy food choices. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumers’ food label reading behaviours and their level of trust in food labels.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 1,012 adults aged 18–65 years from seven different regions of Turkey. Participants’ food label reading behaviours and their trust in food label information were assessed using an online questionnaire, and COVID-19 fear scores were determined using the fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S).

Although not statistically significant, participants’ rate of reading food labels increased during the pandemic (65.6% vs 68.7%, p = 0.078). On the contrary, trust in label information decreased significantly (52.1% vs 43.9%, p < 0.001). In addition, increased COVID-19 fear was associated with an increased rate of food label reading and decreased trust in the label information (p < 0.001).

Because of the study’s cross-sectional nature, the authors cannot provide a causal link between COVID-19 fear and food label reading behaviours and trust in food label information. However, it is difficult to investigate this causal link due to difficulties in studies of consumer behaviour and food choice (e.g. multifactorial effects and complexity). Second, because the present study’s findings were based on self-report data, there may be a risk of resource bias. Nevertheless, the authors think that this study will shed light on future studies as it is the first time that the COVID-19 pandemic has investigated consumers’ food label reading habits and their trust in food labels.

Considering the pandemic as an opportunity to change consumer behaviour, it may be useful to provide food label reading education to consumers, especially during this period. In addition, the information given on the label should be clear and understandable for a better understanding of the food label information. Furthermore, it may be beneficial to conduct food inspections more frequently and share the results with the public to increase consumers’ trust in food labels. Moreover, as the food system shifts towards a “new normal”, it is critical for policymakers to understand the changes in consumer perceptions, preferences and trust in foods.

COVID-19 fear affected consumers’ food label reading behaviours. As far as the authors know, there is no study about the effects of COVID-19 on consumers’ food label reading behaviours.

The purpose of this paper is to draw a portrait of training and development ideals and practices from the Islamic point of view.

This is a conceptual paper. The paper reviews the relevant literature on training and development from an Islamic perspective portraying the interface between ideals and practices of training and development in Islam in order to bridge a gap in the extant literature.

The literature that deals with training and development in Islam seems to belong to two major categories: essays espousing a broad perspective and including catch‐all concepts or other generic Islamic principles; and studies addressing human resource management in Islam that mainly examine training and development from a narrow perspective. The findings of this limited body of literature are far from being consistent as they seem contradictory in nature. Simultaneously, in the area of training and professional development, Islam emphasizes practical wisdom and translating theoretical insights into behaviors and practices rather than solely relying on theoretical principles.

The literature review is not detailed due to the dearth of information on training and development from an Islamic perspective.

Training and learning methods from the Islamic tradition can provide constructive contribution to workplace practices as well as benefit organizations that anticipate offering efficient and effective custom‐designed training methods to best meet the training needs of their Muslim employees.

The present contribution is a unique synthesis of the literature related to the application of Islamic principles in training and professional development.

With the increasing concern over environmental pollution and global warming, companies are required to act responsibly to mitigate these environmental issues. Their activities should adhere to the standards of environmental sustainability. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the impact of green supply chain management (GSCM) and total quality management (TQM) on environmental sustainability, with environmental management practices (EMP) as the moderating factor.

A quantitative study was adopted using the management data from various manufacturing companies in Jordan. A total of 362 responses were collected, and the proposed hypotheses were tested using a structural equation model.

The study findings revealed that both GSCM and TQM significantly and positively influenced environmental sustainability. The impact of TQM on environmental sustainability was higher than that of GSCM. Moreover, no evidence was found on the moderating role of EMP.

The study’s results highlighted to the decision-makers the main practices to expand the quality implementation across their supply chain to improve environmental sustainability. The study also demonstrated the reasons behind the insignificance of EMPs in strengthening the relationships between GSCM, TQM, and environmental sustainability.

While there are very few studies examining the relationships between GSCM and TQM on environmental sustainability. This study adds to the literature body as one of a few empirical studies that tested the integrated effect of GSCM and TQM practices within the context of the manufacturing industry in a developing country. Moreover, this study takes a holistic approach by tapping into EMP to confirm whether it moderated the relationships between GSCM, TQM, and environmental sustainability.