Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on micro-businesses owned by women borrowers of microfinance institutions and to provide policy suggestions to assist women entrepreneurs in managing such an unexpected crisis from a qualitative perspective within developing countries such as Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a qualitative research design to explore the impact of COVID-19 on women’s entrepreneurial activities. Seven women entrepreneurs were selected and semi-structured interviews with focused group discussion under case study research design are used. Thereby providing a contemporary view of the issues faced by women entrepreneurs in the period of huge social and economic upheaval. Findings The results provide valuable insights about how the COVID-19 crisis affected women entrepreneurs by particularly considering household income, business sales, lifestyle and mental health. The liquidation of women-led businesses indicated the necessity to reconsider creativity and digitalization for business survival. Moreover, the results also revealed that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the physical, mental and economic well-being of women highlights the need for considering gender gap issues in forming response policies for COVID-19 in developing countries. Originality/value As the COVID-19 crisis is a recent and existing phenomenon, this study is among the first to explore particularly the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on micro-enterprises mainly owned and managed by women. Thereby claiming that COVID-19 not only physically but also psychologically affected women entrepreneurs. Moreover, the study highlights a need of skill focused training programs for women entrepreneurs to make sure that they can protect their businesses during such difficult times.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the influences of informal organisational and family support on work-family conflict (WFC) and its subsequent impact on turnover intentions among female employees. Design/methodology/approach To evaluate the WFC among female individuals, data were collected through a questionnaire distributed among female employees in the service sector in Lahore, Pakistan, by using convenience-sampling technique. The collected data were analysed through a well-known statistical technique, SEM, using AMOS software. Findings The findings suggest that supports (informal organizational and family) have no impact to resolving the issues of WFC arising because of female members of the family working. Also, it was found that WFC is positively linked to employee turnover intentions. Practical implications By addressing WFC issues, this research has key implication for WFC practically. This study has essential implications for organization, so it can reduce the WFC by creating a supportive environment to create balance amongst work and family life. Specifically, managers need to be aware of the impact that social support and WFC have on turnover intention. Originality/value This study provides the model of WFC that helps in future research. The research also improves past studies’ methodology by testing the direct and mediation impacts between the constructs specifically in female employees. This study is a valuable addition to the existing body of literature.

The wave of global financial crises (2008-2009) caused a surge in the capital flows of developed countries particularly, between developed and developing countries. The crunch hit all financial sectors with unanticipated severity. The study evaluates the role of a country's political practices in moderating the impact of global financial crunch on microfinance performance. Using the fixed effect panel regression method on the dataset comprising of 95 MFIs operating in South Asia from 2003 to 2012, we determine that microfinance operational capability shares a positive relationship with the institutional attributes of a country and our output reveals that impact of country's political practices is pervasive on the financial output of MFIs, liable to different levels of implementation. The findings further reveals that MFIs situated in countries having vigorous political practices are less severely affected by the economic crunch.

Provincial connectivity and growth are connected to visualization of mutual progress and economic development. This is the viewpoint behind the establishment of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Developing new transport infrastructure, Gwadar Port Projects and several energy generating projects, are one of the key projects of CPEC, "All Weather Strategic Friendship" is therefore proved for Pakistan and China. China's pilot project of "Belt and Road Initiative" is the key plan, which led to the development of CPEC. It is expected from CPEC that it will reduce the transportation cost of China by providing a shorter route for China's trade to Persian Gulf and it will provide a solution to the energy shortfalls in Pakistan. Moreover, CPEC's projected prospects of economic advancement, there are some economic, security and political threats in Pakistan. This paper proposes to illuminate the significant Geo-strategic importance, opportunities and challenges for China Pakistan Economic Corridor, and it envisages to broaden the base, by including energy rich, Tajikistan economic role model Turkey and strategically located Iran. Hence, this paper provides a holistic view of previous researches on the planned subject and is not involving any data analysis as existing researches had used for analyzing a review of prospects and challenges.

Online learning systems owing to their nature are free of restrictions of time or place and can prove to be a useful platform for students where they can continue their studies when it is not possible for them to go to a university in person owing to different reasons. Such systems have also been used in Pakistan, particularly in private sector, for university and school education. This paper attempts to highlight various issues that the students are facing and the factors that have a significant effect on their online learning experience. We collected data through online questionnaires distributed to 1200 students enrolled in six private universities in Pakistan. This study employed the Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) to examine factors that influenced online learning. The results showed that teaching and professional behaviour, course instructional planning and methodology and online connectivity were significantly positively associated with online learning. With the identification of key factors that affects online learning of students, it will be more helpful to provide improved services for effective student leaning. Other crucial implications and a way forward are also discussed in the paper.