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Open innovation has attracted the attention of experts and business entities for the sustainable survivability of firms, especially in the post-COVID-19 era. The food and beverage industry has been facing sustainable survivability problems. It is important to identify and evaluate the factors of open innovation from the perspectives of the food and beverage industry. This study serves that purpose by identifying and evaluating the factors of open innovation in the post-COVID-19 era with a special reference to Pakistan's economy.

The present study integrates the Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM), Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) and Matrice d’ Impacts Croises Multiplication Applique a Classement (MICMAC) methods to analyze the factors involved in the adoption of open innovation in the food and beverage industry in Pakistan. Firstly, based on an extensive literature review of the most relevant studies, the factors affecting open innovation have been identified and finalized using FDM and experts' opinions. Secondly, the hierarchical framework has also been prepared by implementing the ISM approach. Thirdly, the MICMAC approach was employed to evaluate the factors to examine the driving and dependence powers of the factors of open innovation adoption.

The study identified 17 factors of open innovation adoption in Pakistan's food and beverage industry and 16 factors were finalized using FDM. The ISM-MICMAC matrix unveiled that awareness seminars and training, along with a lack of executive commitments, were strong factors with high driving power, but these factors proved to be weakly dependent powers regarding the other factors. Moreover, a lack of innovation strategy, R&D and non-supportive organizational culture exhibited low driving power but strong dependent power.

The findings of the study could help firms and business entities understand the driving and dependent factors involved in open innovation for the sustainable survivability of the food and beverage industry. The study provides strong reasons to believe that an open innovation strategy, along with stakeholder collaboration, the adoption of rules and regulations and managerial commitment, could stimulate open innovation. Moreover, governments should promote the business sector, especially the food and beverage industry, to facilitate the sector while also providing awareness seminars and training, creating environments conducive to reducing innovation costs.

Some previous studies have analyzed the factors involved in green innovation from the perspective of the manufacturing industry and environmental protection. The present study is a pioneer study to examine the factors involved in the adoption of open innovation in the food and beverage industry in Pakistan from the perspective of the post-COVID-19 era. For this purpose, the present study uses an integrated Fuzzy Delphi-ISM-MICMAC approach for the analysis.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) ISO standards have been noted as an essential marketing strategy by which firms can achieve consumer trust while improving environmental, social, and quality factors. This study discloses the contextual relationship between CSR ISO standards and sustainable impulse buying behavior. This study also looks to uncover the CSR ISO driving and linkage factors that motivate consumers to make sustainable impulsive purchases.

Three distinct research methods were employed in this research. First, a consumer expert opinion-based Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) approach was adopted to reveal the contextual relationship between CSR ISO factors and sustainable impulse buying behavior. Secondly, Matrice Impacts Croises Multiplication Appliques Classement (MICMAC) was used to examine these factors' driving and dependent power. In addition, Minitab package software was also used to check the statistical validation of ISM-MICMAC results.

The results indicate that although environmentally responsible CSR ISO 14001, socially responsible CSR ISO 26000, and consumer perception of product quality CSR ISO 9001 standards contain strong driving power, their dependent power was weak. All these CSR ISO factors (14,001, 26,000, and 9001) strongly impact each other and sustainable impulse buying. Therefore, these three CSR ISO factors have been placed at the bottom of the ISM model. The CSR ISO 14020 standard (labeling of the product), knowledge of CSR ISO standards, consumer trust, and advertising about CSR ISO standards have been placed in the middle. The mentioned factors have intense driving and dependent power and are classified as linkage factors for sustainable impulse buying. Impulse buying behavior has weak driving and strong dependent power, yet this factor strongly depends on other CSR ISO factors. Hence, this factor is placed at the top of the ISM model. In addition, the Minitab package software results indicate that ISM-MICMAC results are statistically valid.

To the best of our knowledge, this research is unique and examines the influence of CSR ISO factors on sustainable impulse buying in the context of Pakistani consumers. Secondly, our study has thoroughly investigated several CSR ISO factors and allied these factors in the context of consumer buying behavior. Third, several CSR ISO factors and impulse buying behavior were examined using a mix of ISM-MICAC and Minitab methods. Thus, including these steps in our study has led to the development of a novel technique.

Under the unique context of COVID-19, this paper aims to analyze how the Government of Pakistan (GoP) provides financial and non-financial support to women entrepreneurs in Pakistan. Drawing on the resource-based theory of entrepreneurship (RBTE), the study advances the understanding of resources and grants offered by GoP to women entrepreneurs to help them in business survival.

The study adopts qualitative research method to address the questions: how does the Pakistani government respond to issues faced by women entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what assistance and initiatives were implemented by GoP? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty on-job government officials related to the entrepreneurial sector in Pakistan.

The paper reveals that during the pandemic, GoP keenly communicated with women entrepreneurial representatives to comprehend their business challenges. In addition, waivers and incentives were provided to support their business activities. GoP further invited women entrepreneurs to contribute their knowledge and give suggestions in policy making.

Lots of research have been conducted to identify the issues faced by women entrepreneurs during the pandemic. However, the specific strategies, policies, and support provided by the governments to address these issues have often been overlooked. This paper fills such gap with focus on the governing bodies and policymakers in Pakistan towards women entrepreneurship during the COVID-19 crisis.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between three corporate governance (CG) idiosyncrasies, namely audit committee characteristics, external audit quality (AQ), board diversity and firm performance (FP) in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations.

The study used a sample of 200 listed nonfinancial firms in the SAARC nations from 2012 to 2021. The System Generalized Method of Moment model was applied to the data consisting of 2000 firm-year observations. The Generalized Estimating Equation population-averaged model was also employed for added robustness. The study employed Tobin's Q as the measure of FP.

The findings revealed that amongst the CG variables tested, external AQ exhibited a significantly positive relationship with Tobin's Q. Significant negative influences on FP have been demonstrated by the variables of audit committee meeting and board's independence. Furthermore, gender diversity, CEO duality, audit committee strength and independence failed to record any significant association.

This study is one of the first to investigate the association between CG idiosyncrasies and FP in the SAARC nations. The study findings have important implications for policymakers and regulators in the region.

This paper aims to study the influence of some company-specific characteristics, corporate governance factors and macroeconomic factors on the Portuguese companies’ performance.

To achieve this aim, the authors have used data from 39 Euronext Lisbon companies for the period between 2014 and 2019. The authors used panel data methodology, specifically the generalized method of moments estimation method by Arellano and Bover (1995) and Blundell and Bond (1998).

The results point out that the sign and significance of the determinants of corporate performance change depending on the variable used to measure performance. The Tobin’s Q variable, as a market variable and variable of interest to potential investors, is explained by some corporate governance variables and company-specific factors. Specifically, potential investors are confident in the leadership power of the chief executive office (CEO) and the members of the Board of Directors, which contributes positively to corporate performance. However, the firms’ age has a negative impact on Tobin’s Q. Considering an accounting variable managed internally by the organizations, the results show that return on assets is negatively influenced by leverage, and positively affected by CEO duality, which the manager believes is decisive to maintain performance levels.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to analyze specific characteristics of companies and corporate governance factors, in a specific macroeconomic environment of high dependence on banking, considering the nonlinear effect of company age on company performance.