Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide the overview of factors responsible for materialism and compulsive buying among adolescents and young adults. In today’s world, materialism is a crucial phenomenon of the modern age. According to social comparison theory, comparisons are a significant factor affecting the behavioral intentions of adolescents and young adults. Thus, this study develops a framework based on the stimulus–organism–response model and uses the framework to examine the impact of interpersonal communication and marketing factors on social comparison, materialism and compulsive buying, with social media acting as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach Using a survey method, data were collected in Study 1 from adolescents (n = 298) and in Study 2 from young adults (n = 345). Structural equation modeling analysis using partial least squares technique was used to analyze the data. Findings The results show that social comparison plays a significant role in developing materialistic values and compulsive buying among adolescents and young adults. Through these two studies, it was found that young adults are more socially comparative, materialistic and compulsive in buying as compared to adolescents. Moreover, social media use moderated the relationship between social comparison with peers and media celebrities, which means that rapid increase of social media use leads adolescents and young adults to create high social comparison and materialistic values. Research limitations/implications This research is based on the cross-sectional method, which limits the research findings. Practical implications This research helps corporate managers understand the interpersonal communication role in creating social comparison among individuals. The study found that peer communication plays a more important role in enhancing the social comparative values among young adults than among adolescents, which provides clear implications for the practitioner. Originality/value This study makes a significant contribution to extant literature by discussing the above issue and presenting quantitative data. The study extends the literature by examining and validating a theoretical model of how interpersonal communication among socializing agents affects social comparison among young adults and adolescents. This research examines outcomes of the social comparison with parents, peers and social media, based on the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) model.

This research seeks to determine what makes young adults materialistic. The study examines the mediating role of materialism between the contextual factors and compulsive buying. Data was gathered from 219 Pakistani undergraduate university students. Partial Least Square (PLS) technique was used to analyze the data. The study confirms the intuition that more materialistic young adults are more likely to be involved in compulsive buying than are less materialistic young adults. The results were similar with the previous literature conducted in the western culture, indicating that also applies in a modern Islamic society. The findings of the study reveal that materialism mediated the relationship between certain sociological factors (i.e., group, media Celebrity endorsement, and TV advertisement) and compulsive buying. The study highlights the importance of understanding young adults' materialistic attitudes and consumption decisions and provides key knowledge for researchers, policymakers, and managers of leading brands.

Business transactions are going to be fast day by day because of dynamic changes in the global environment. Merger and Acquisition is a strategy adopted by the organizations globally to meet the needs of recent dynamic business environment. It has achieved much attention and importance in corporate world. In Pakistan, this strategy has been used widely in banking sector. Therefore, the objective of the study is to evaluate the financial performance of banks in Pakistan after M&A. The financial and accounting data for 10 banks was taken from the Financial Statement Analysis by State Bank of Pakistan. Profitability & Efficiency, Leverage, and Liquidity ratios were used to measure the financial performance, where pre and post ratio analysis was done. Results of the study show that there is no positive improvement in the financial performance of the banks in Pakistan after Merger and Acquisition.

The sustainability of food waste is one of the most important contemporary economic, social, and environmental issues that encompasses useful academic, practical, and policymaking implications. Under the domain of sustainability, food waste is a serious global challenge with a growing public, political, and corporate concern. Existing literature regarding the sensitization of consumers and the promotion of waste cautious behaviors still has much room for improvement in household waste. To bridge the gap in the literature, this study identifies and examines determinants of young consumers’ food waste reduction behavior in households. Using a sample size of 391 young consumers of household food products from Pakistan, a full-scaled administrative survey is conducted, and our hypotheses are empirically tested by using the PLS structural modeling equation. Our findings reveal significant impacts from both cognitive and emotional aspects on sustainable food waste reduction behavior. Our results have several important implications for policymakers and all the stakeholders, especially for marketers, including advertising strategies, policies to mitigate the impact of food waste, and the development of educational programs related to food waste.

Abusive supervision (". .. subordinates' perceptions of the extent to which their supervisors engage in the sustained display of hostile verbal and nonverbal behaviors, excluding physical contact"; Tepper, 2000, p. 178) is a type of workplace mistreatment that has gained momentum in research and practice. Indeed, "the boss" may be one of the major factors that can lead employees to experience stress in their jobs (Michie, 2002) and literature shows far-reaching consequences of abusive supervision for employee attitudes and behavior (Martinko, Harvey, Brees, & Mackey, 2013). In addition to affecting employee well-being, abusive supervision affects employees' discretionary behavior. Abusive supervision predicts reductions in positive discretionary behaviors (e.g., Xu, Huang, Lam, & Miao, 2012) such as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). These desirable OCBs can entail behaviors such as helping colleagues (individual-directed OCB; OCBI) or attending nonmandatory organizational meetings (organization-directed OCB; OCBO). Abusive supervision also relates positively to negative discretionary behaviors (Mitchell & Ambrose, 2007), such as counterproductive work behaviors (CWB). CWBs can entail behaviors such as ridiculing or embarrassing coworkers (individual-directed CWB) or leaving work early and taking longer breaks (organization-directed CWB). Recent research suggests that, when employees have better resources to cope with abuse, they may show less of the detrimental behavioral effects (e.g.