Leadership style is an important factor that affects the enhancement of organizational performance and employee’s job performance, and what objectives they should pursue, which also makes a profit for their employees or makes another social and economic contribution to society. The present study was developed to observe the impact of transformational leadership on job performance and to investigate the mediating mechanism of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Primary data were collected from the employees by using a cross-sectional design method. Employees who participated in the study are working in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of Pakistan. A total of 300 questionnaires were circulated, and 130 were received. The Regression analysis was executed to examine whether CSR mediated the correlation among transformational leadership and job performance. The results of the study suggest that transformational leadership positively and completely predicts job performance. Particularly, the study finds that CSR significantly mediated the effect of transformational leadership on job performance. On the basis of these findings, it can be explicated that transformational leadership, job performances, and CSR are important elements of an organization. These elements can improve organizational performance. Theoretical implications of the recent study are discussed, and offer directions for future research in the area.

This study attempts to examine the role of sustainable Human Resource Management (HRM) practices on job performance and encompasses training as a moderator variable to further evaluate the association among HRM practices and employee’s job performance.The study seeks to measure the effect of selection, participation, and employee empowerment on job performance in the publicly owned universities of Pakistan. The descriptive survey research design was utilized for this study. The target population was the entire teaching staff of two publicly owned universities (namely “The University of Agriculture Peshawar” and “Hazara University Mansehra” Pakistan). By using a convenient sampling technique, 130 sample participants were selected from the target population. The reliability scales were tallied by using Cronbach’s Alpha. The findings of the study are gleaned by using regression to investigate the role of HRM practices in job performance and whether training moderated the association between HRM practices and employee performance. Through Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS), Hayes process was used regarding the moderation effect of training between HRM practices and job performance. The main results of regression analysis validate that HRM practices, such as selection, participation, and employee empowerment, have a significant and positive effect on employee job performance. Specifically, the study suggests that training significantly moderates the effect of HRM practices on the performance of employees and that sustainability of HRM practices has a great impact on job performance. Based on the outcomes the study confirms that the proposed hypotheses are statistically significant. Furthermore, directions for future research are offered.

No abstract

No abstract

The key objective of the formation of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is to join hands collectively for slow economic growth, poverty eradication, deprived health and education sectors. In the 12th SAARC Summit, it has been declared that poverty eradication is the main area of concentration and SAARC countries would strive their best to minimize all types of poverty with the help of any possible strategy. The main objectives of the current study are to evaluate the development of the agenda of poverty eradication in SAARC countries through small and medium enterprise (SME) development because it would be considered as a short-routed remedy to mitigate poverty. The poorest 20% income holder as a percentage of GDP has been used as the proxy for poverty in the SAARC region. SME development has been measured through the SME share in GDP in respective countries. The panel dataset has been developed for the period of 1990 to 2015. The fixed effect method (FEM) and regression equation techniques were used to analyse the observed data. The results of the FEM were misleading. The regression equations for the respective countries were used for empirical analysis. The results have identified that there are three main factors that are essential in reducing poverty in the SAARC region: SME growth, openness of trade and social sector development.

PurposeThis study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on investors' sentiments, behavioral biases and investment decisions in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).Design/methodology/approachThe authors have assessed investors' behaviors and sentiments and the stock market overreaction during COVID-19 using a questionnaire and collected data from 401 investors trading in the PSX.FindingsResults of structural equation modeling revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic affected investors' behaviors, investment decisions and trade volume. It created feelings of fear and uncertainty among market participants. Evidence suggests that behavioral heuristics and biases, including representative heuristic, anchoring heuristic, overconfidence bias and disposition effect, negatively influenced investors' decisions at the PSX.Research limitations/implicationsThis study will contribute to behavioral finance literature in the context of developing countries as it has revealed the impact of COVID-19 on the emerging stock market, and its results are generalizable to other emerging stock markets.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study will help academicians, researchers and policymakers of developing countries. Academicians can formulate new behavioral models that can depict the solutions of dealing with an uncertain situation like COVID-19. Policymakers like the Securities Exchange Commission and the PSX can formulate crisis management strategies based on behavioral finance concepts to cope with situations like COVID-19 in the future and help lessen investors' losses in the stock markets. The role of the Securities Exchange Commission is crucial as it regulates the financial markets. It can arrange workshops to educate investors to manage their decisions during crisis time and focus on the best use of irrational and rational decision-making at the same time using Lo (2004) adaptive market hypothesis.Originality/valueThe novelty of the paper is that the authors have introduced overconfidence and disposition effect as mediators that create a connection between representative and anchoring heuristics and investment decisions using primary data collected from investors (institutional and retail) to demonstrate the presence of psychological biases during COVID-19, and it has been done for the first time according to authors' knowledge. It is a contribution and addition to the behavioral finance literature in the context of developing countries' stock markets and their efficiency.

The main objective of this study is to examine the effect of self-sacrificial leadership on organizational citizenship behavior within the health sector through a moderated mediation approach. The study has been conducted on nurses working in public hospitals in Sargodha, Pakistan, and data have been collected through a questionnaire survey method. In this study, psychological empowerment is used as a moderator, and psychological wellbeing is used as a mediator between self-sacrificial leadership on organizational citizenship behavior based on the fundamental premise of Conservation of Resource (COR) theory. The data have been analyzed through Partial Least Square Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) to examine the hypotheses. Empirical results demonstrated that psychological well-being plays a significant and positive mediating role in the relationship between self-sacrificial leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. The results further explain that nurses’ psychological empowerment moderates the mediating effect of psychological well-being between self-sacrificial leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. This study adds to a better understanding of the role of self-sacrificial leadership in encouraging organizational citizenship behavior.

Novelcoronavirus-19 has created a challenging situation for developed as well as developing countries to sustain economic stability. There are a lot of controversies for policymakers to formulate an effective policy for reviving economic stability and minimizing the economic effects of this pandemic. The present study focuses on the internal mechanism of the Sustainability Oriented Innovation System and its subsequent effects on economic stability in most innovative economies. For empirical analysis of the most innovative countries (12 countries) high-income, middle-income, low-income, and lower-middle-income countries are selected. The Sustainability Oriented Innovation System is represented through the innovation input index and innovation output index. Economic stability is measured through the GDP growth rate of respective countries. A set of panel data was developed for the period of 11 years and Fixed Effect Methods were used to ascertain the empirical findings. The outcomes indicate that innovation is the main force of economic stability. The study’s results are important to policymakers to promote, stimulate and support economic stability through their strategies. Future studies may focus on the effects of the Sustainability Oriented Innovation System on economic stability in regional blocks like the EU, ASEAN, and G-20 countries.