Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to study brand credibility, customer loyalty and the impact of religious orientation in the Pakistani setting. Design/methodology/approach -In a study of 263 respondents, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted in order to check the fit of the data and the presence of common method variance. Correlation and hierarchical regression analysis was performed to evaluate the hypothesized relationships between the variables. Findings -Significant and positive relationships were observed between trustworthiness and brand credibility, perceived quality and brand credibility, brand credibility and customer loyalty, religious orientation and customer loyalty. Brand credibility was also found to mediate the relationship between trustworthiness, perceived quality and customer loyalty. Religious orientation was observed to moderate the relationship between trustworthiness and brand credibility. Originality/value -The paper evaluates brand credibility and customer loyalty in relation to trustworthiness and perceived value in a Pakistani setting. Religious orientation is a term coined up for this research and its impact as a moderator is also evaluated.

Purpose -The aim of this paper is to get an insight into the potential determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) for a panel of ten OECD member countries over the period of 1985-2009. Design/methodology/approach -Granger causality tests have been implemented in the study to identify causalities, both in the short-and long-run, between FDI and the variables that emerge as significant determinants of FDI during the regression analysis. Findings -The fixed effects estimation indicates that market size, labor cost and quality of infrastructure yield significant coefficients in relation to FDI for the panel of countries under study. A bi-directional short-run relationship is established between market size and labor costs in the short-run; whereas quality of infrastructure causes market size and labor costs in the short-run. For the long-run deviation of FDI from equilibrium, market size, labor costs and quality of infrastructure all bear the joint burden in the short-run to re-establish the equilibrium. Practical implications -The research findings have a number of policy implications for the OECD countries in specific and other developed economies in general. Labor costs seem to affect the FDI decision on the part of investors; therefore, the countries with low labor costs are preferred by investors in order to reduce the cost of their business and products. Policies should be devised to reduce the labor costs and improve the equality of infrastructure in the country in order to attract more FDI into the economy and for quick adjustment purposes in case of shock to the system. Originality/value -This paper investigates the relationship and significance of nine potential determinants of FDI in ten OECD member nations using panel data methods. The practices that are undertaken in developed and established economies are of vast significance to the economies that are in transition stages. The paper uncovers some important factors influencing FDI in the ten countries under study and provide a guide-map for other developed countries.

Purpose This study aims at finding the impact of teachers’ emotional intelligence on student achievement. Design/methodology/approach For a sample of 224 public school teachers, regression analysis has been conducted to find the impact of emotional intelligence on student achievement through the mediation of teacher commitment and school culture. Findings The study results indicate that the relationship between emotional intelligence and student achievement is mediated by school culture. Originality/value Previous studies on emotional intelligence and student achievement have focused on emotional intelligence of the principals only. Literature on the impact of teachers’ emotional intelligence on student achievement is scarce. The current study adds to this strand of literature by exploring the impact of teachers’ emotional intelligence in enhancing student achievement.

Purpose -The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between terrorist activities in Pakistan and the stock market development. Design/methodology/approach -Using Terrorism Impact Factor (TIF), a unique score developed for this paper, an insight is provided into the causal relationship that exists between terrorism and Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) index. Quantitative significance of the impact of terrorist activities on stock index is also discussed in the paper. Findings -Through the empirics of the study, it is analyzed that terrorism negatively impacts stock market returns in the long run; whereas no significant relationship between stock market returns and terrorism is estimated in the short run. Research limitations/implications -A potential limitation of the study was the constraint related to the available yearly economic growth and other economic variables' data. The TIF created for the study was based on the terrorist activities from 2001 to mid-2011 on an incident-to-incident basis. A yearly measure would have provided 11 data points for the study, which are considered insufficient for econometric analysis. Practical implications -It is recommended that governments pay particular attention to economic recovery in the aftermath of terrorist attacks. Policies aimed at combating terrorism must be the priority of the government, so that its harm can be reduced, if not exterminated. Social implications -Terrorism, with its all kinds of impacts, affects the society and its activities and therefore must be eliminated if an economy needs to prosper. Originality/value -This study envisions the overall impact of terrorist activities, not just a single activity, on the health of the economy. For studying this impact, a Terrorism Impact Factor (TIF) scale has been developed for this study, based on the impact of each terrorist activity in the country.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to find potential causality and comparative relationships between electric power consumption, foreign direct investment and economic growth for India and Pakistan.Design/methodology/approachGranger causality tests have been employed for estimating the short and long run relationships between the variables, along with the adoption of co‐integration and error correction mechanism.FindingsEmpirical evidence for India covering a period of 1975‐2008 indicates long run causalities for electric power consumption and foreign direct investment boosting economic growth, electric power consumption and economic growth impacting foreign direct investment. For Pakistan, causality was established for foreign direct investment and economic growth inducing electric power consumption in the long run.Practical implicationsFor India, there is a strong need of policy that would guarantee secure and continued supply of electricity, as enhanced electric consumption is expected to boost foreign direct investment and economic growth. Pakistan should aim for cost‐effective, stable and environment friendly alternate to fossil fuels as the main source of its electric power generation.Originality/valueLiterature on the electricity consumption‐FDI‐economic growth nexus is scarce. The present study adds to this strand of literature. Also for the first time, in this scenario, this paper uses two economies (India and Pakistan), provides a comparative analysis of the empirical results and presents prospective explanations for the observed causality differences between the two economies.

The aim of this research is to explore the relationship of corporate governance with firm risk. This study establishes a link between corporate governance variables and firm risk for a sample of 106 Pakistani firms over a time of six years (2005-2010). Based on the estimation results, family control and bank control have negative impact on the firm risk whereas ownership structure and chairman/CEO duality posit positive relationship with risk. This provides a direction for firms to introduce more non-family control to the board of directors and not allow banks to have majority shareholding in their stocks. Also, directors should be asked to have a reasonable ownership in the stocks of the firm so that they can decide in the best interest of the firm and for the increase of their stock value. Chief executive should also hold the chair in order to have unity of command and a better decision-making influence.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of instructional leadership, professional communities and extra “non-teaching” responsibilities for teachers on student achievement. Design/methodology/approach For a sample of 214 teachers from 88 primary schools in Pakistan, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to study the factor structure of the items. Correlation and hierarchical regression analysis was done to study the impact of the independent variables on student achievement; directly and through the mediation effect of teacher commitment. Findings The analysis of the data reveals that teacher commitment mediates the relationship between the independent variables and student achievement. Practical implications This study has implications for the education management and policy community in the sense that they should not engage teachers into non-teaching roles and promote instructional leadership within the school managers and help in development of teacher networks which will subsequently add to student achievement. Originality/value The role of teacher commitment in explaining the student achievement has not been researched extensively in the past. The study at hand intends to fill this research gap. Furthermore, the impact of extra “non-teaching” responsibilities on teacher commitment and subsequently the student achievement has not been studied before. Hence, this study is expected to open up a new dimension in this regard.