Past research has recognised the influence of religion on marketing, particularly the role of religious cues in marketing communications. Drawing on symbolic interactionism theory, this empirical study identifies symbols that possess symbolic value with Muslims, and how these symbols on product packaging may influence the response of Muslim consumers. Furthermore, we examine how this influence may vary between products of low versus high symbolic values, and across consumers of varying level of religiosity. An elicitation survey identified five symbols, five high symbolic-value products, and five low-symbolic value products. Afterwards, a quasi-type experiment examined the influence of a symbol on product purchase intentions. The presence of the symbol significantly increased purchase intentions, but only for low symbolic-value products. Also, the presence of symbol affected those with high religiosity more than those with low religiosity. This study is the first to investigate the role of religious symbols on product packaging. An implication is for marketers to recognise the importance of such symbols for Muslim consumers.
Purpose – This study examines the differential influence of religiosity, materialism and guilt on consumer ethical judgment. It further investigates how the influence may differ across two religiosity dimensions (intrinsic and extrinsic) and two types of unethical behaviour (active and passive). Design/methodology/approach – A quasi-experimental approach assigned Pakistani university students randomly to two groups. One group (n=144) answered a survey regarding an active unethical behaviour (changing price tag), while the other (n=123) answered a similar survey but regarding a passive unethical behaviour (given and pocketing surplus change). This paper used projective technique to help reduce respondents' sensitiveness to the two scenarios. The data was methodologically analysed and fitted using structural equation modelling. Findings – Religiosity does not influence ethical judgment directly, but is mediated by guilt. As expected, materialism negatively determines ethical judgment, and the influence is stronger with active than with passive unethical behaviour. Materialism influences ethical judgment more (less) than guilt does when unethical behaviour is active (passive). Religiosity stems more from intrinsic than extrinsic dimension regardless of the unethical-behaviour type. Research limitation/implications – Overall, this study highlights that the effects of religiosity on consumer ethics is not straightforward in that the relationship cannot be fully understood without accounting for the role of guilt and materialism, as well as the types of religiosity and ethical behaviour. Significant academic and managerial implications are presented. Originality/value – This is an initial study on consumer ethics to consider the differential influence of religiosity, materialism and guilt across different religiosity dimensions and unethical behaviour. The context of a Muslim market is also under-researched compared to Western markets.
This study aims to examine the nexus between green growth and carbon neutrality targets in the context of the USA while observing the role of ecological innovation, environmental taxes, and green energy. For this purpose, data were collected from 1970 to 2015 for all the variables of interest. This research utilized the quantile autoregressive distributed lag (QARDL) method due to its various benefits, such as depicting the causality patterns based on different quantiles for different variables like green growth, ecological innovation, environmental taxes, and renewable energy. The findings through the QARDL method showed that the error correction coefficient was significant and negative with the expected negative sign for the different quantiles. The findings showed a significant and negative impact of green growth, square of green growth, ecological innovation, and environmental taxes in determining the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions for the USA's economy under the longrun estimation. Meanwhile, the outcome for the short-term estimation confirmed that the past and lagged values of CO 2 emission were significantly and negatively linked with the current and lagged values of CO 2 emission. On the other hand, it was found that green growth and square of green growth, ecological innovation, environmental taxes, and renewable energy played their vital role in reducing haze pollution like PM2.5. Besides, this research also covers the limitations and policy implications.
The objective of this study is to identify the role of effective management in social equity in the micro-finance banking sector of Pakistan. It is understood that in the micro-finance banking sector, the deficiency of effective management is reported and it is creating hurdles in the way of promoting social equity in the banking sector. This study was based on the primary data collected on a five-point Likert questionnaire. The target population for this study was the employees and customers of the micro-finance banking sector of South Punjab. The results of this study demonstrate that there is a critical role for effective management to ensure the implementation of social equality practices in the banking sector to improve the loyalty of customers and the performance of the organization. This study fills in the gaps in the literature about the micro-finance banking sector by showing how corporate social responsibility, non-discrimination, and social awareness work together to create social equity.
Background: Perceived severity of COVID-19 (SARS-COV-2) is known to be associated with mental health of people in general and health professionals in particular in Western societies. However, its association with the mental health of students in Pakistan, which is predominantly a Muslim society, remains unclear so far. Moreover, the role of Muslim religiosity for such an association has not yet been investigated. We aimed to examine the association and report findings on the impact of perceived severity on mental health with a sample of students from all five provinces of Pakistan.Methods: We did a cross-sectional online survey from 1,525 Pakistani students in March 2020 using standardized measurement tools. We then determined the prevalence of perceived severity among students and its impact on their mental health. The strength of associations between these variables was estimated using generalized linear models, with appropriate distribution and link functions. Structural equation modeling through SmartPLS (3.0) software was utilized to analyze the results.Findings: The perceived severity of COVID-19 is significantly associated with mental health of Pakistani students, whereas Muslim religiosity is a strong mediator between perceived severity and mental health of Pakistani students.Conclusions: Though the perceived severity of COVID-19 is associated with mental health, this relationship can be better explained by the role of Muslim religiosity. When tested individually, the perceived severity accounted for only 18% variance in mental health that increased up to 57% by the mediating role of Muslim religiosity. This difference clearly indicates the mediating role of Muslim religiosity in the association between perceived severity and mental health for Pakistani students.
The purpose of this study is to find extrinsic and intrinsic motivation that has positive impact on employee’s engagement. The study was conducted in the health care sector in Pakistan. A sample size of 100 employees was selected using convenient sampling techniques. The data were collected from doctors, nurses and managerial level of employees. 100 questionnaires were distributed among these employees out of whom 80 filled questionnaires were received forming percentage of 80%. These properly filled questionnaires were used for data analysis. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, reliability analysis and regression analysis. Findings of the study reveal that there is significant relationship of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on employee’s engagements in the health care sector of Pakistan.
Social exclusion is manifested in inability of the masses to eradicate its causes resulting in perpetual obstruction in attaining vital facilities of life. A level of human and social progress is directly linked with enabling populous to maintain sustained level of financial depth and development. Societies with sufficient supply of entrepreneurs comfortably sustain a balanced progression of societal goals especially in current global atmosphere. With weak institutional setting and vaguely defined goals, there is a need to change the orientation of public sector in developing countries like Pakistan. The public sector entrepreneurship is essential to create enabling environment for creating entrepreneur friendly policies. It is especially important for Pakistan with CPEC connecting most poor of the regions of the country with the main stream to create policies that can reduce the impact of social exclusion of people of these regions. Urban fringe and labor skills development with efficient institutions having participatory and modern outlook (e-governance) to cater for the needs of entrepreneurs are essentially required for creating a socially vibrant and thriving population in Pakistan.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.