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Despite the deployment of state-of-the-art methodologies for project management, employee turnover in projects remains high. Such turnover has significant costs in terms of replacing personnel, potential deadline overruns and financial expenditure. Employee turnover in project contexts may stem from time-related issues associated with multiple parallel projects and short deadlines. Using person–environment fit and time congruence theories, this research examines the relationship between employee turnover intentions and individual–organizational (I–O) polychronicity fit, which captures the degree of match between individuals’ and organizational preferences for focusing on multiple tasks simultaneously.

Survey data were collected from 309 software project employees in Pakistan. Hypotheses were tested using polynomial regressions and response surface modeling.

I–O polychronicity fit is related to turnover intentions. Turnover intentions are lower when I–O polychronicity fit occurs on the lower end of the polychronicity continuum, whereas turnover intentions are higher when fit is observed on the higher end of the polychronicity continuum. The relationship between I–O polychronicity fit and turnover intentions is significantly explained by exhaustion and perceptions of work overload.

The study’s insights provide recommendations for organizations to optimally manage multitasking to help retain project employees.

These findings extend our understanding of the underlying mechanisms between I–O polychronicity fit and turnover intentions. Furthermore, this research expounds on how employee exhaustion and perceptions of work overload explain the relationship between I–O polychronicity fit and turnover intentions.

The present study aims to identify and evaluate the socioeconomic barriers to effective COVID-19 pandemic transmission control in Pakistan.

The study identifies multiple socio-economic barriers through an extensive literature review. The preliminary analysis unveiled 15 socio-economic barriers. Nine experts were contacted to collect data and finalize the most prominent barriers to COVID-19 transmission control using the DELPHI method. The Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method was used to process and interpret the data collected and a cause–effect relationship was established among the barriers.

The finalized barriers to effective COVID-19 pandemic transmission control were evaluated using DEMATEL which grouped criteria into two grouped criteria – cause and effect. The DEMATEL analysis shows that poor safety culture, lack of strategy and goal setting, lack of resources, late realization and recognition of the pandemic problem and lack of expertise and capacity in disaster and risk management fall into the cause group. These factors are critical as they directly affect the remaining barriers identified in the study.

Despite the collective global efforts, the national economies have been struggling to completely control COVID-19 transmission control. Pakistan’s economy has been facing the third wave of the pandemic. It is mandatory to identify the barriers and evaluate them to develop a comprehensive strategy ensuring that there would be no fourth wave. The study identifies and evaluates the barriers to COVID-19 transmission control in Pakistan using the integrated DELPHI-DEMATEL framework. The findings would help the government, experts and strategists to develop a comprehensive disaster and risk management strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the key attributes that drive Muslim consumer purchase behavior in the context of imported Western food in Pakistan.

In-depth, semi-structured interviews were used as a data collection tool. In this research, the in-depth interview data were analysed by using the manual content analysis (MCA) technique. Moreover, Leximancer software was used to reanalyse the data to enhance the trustworthiness of the MCA results. A total sample of 43 Muslim consumers from three metropolitan cities in Pakistan participated in the research. The sample comprises professionals, housewives and both college and university students.

Muslim consumers in Pakistan look at both the intrinsic and extrinsic attributes when purchasing imported Western food. The ruling factors explored were product taste, ingredients, freshness, hygiene, brand name and overall product quality. However, product packaging and labeling also play a significant role. Participants were of the view that imported Western food provides a better, unique consumption experience and an opportunity to choose from a wide variety of food options. Interestingly, interview findings reveal that Western food product attributes surpass the Islamic concept of moderate spending, thus convincing Muslim consumers to engage in the consumption of imported Western food.

The presence of imported Western food may improve quality of life by having more opportunities and healthier options for the nation. If the Western food products are stamped Halal or made with Halal ingredients the product has a fair chance of adoption and penetration in the society. Further, it may result in overall health improvements within the society, which is already a major concern in the Pakistani consumer market. Also, food products coming from the Western world induces mindfulness; people are more aware about innovative and useful ingredients that can satisfy their taste buds.

This paper found that Pakistani Muslim consumers are not really concerned about the Islamic concept of moderate spending, and thus, established that Pakistani Muslim consumers are more concerned about product value rather than their Islamic teaching of moderate spending. From a population, with 97 per cent Muslim majority, product packaging and labeling were found to be a dominant and deciding factor, which, in itself, is an interesting finding. Further, established Western brand names help Muslim consumers to recognize products and plays a vital role in their purchase decisions. However, within product labeling, the element of halal ingredients was found to be a deciding factor, but not a leading factor, in purchase decisions.

Using the lens of conservation of resources (COR) theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of humble leadership on project success by integrating the mediating role of goal clarity. The authors also argue that organizational culture moderates these direct and indirect relationships through goal clarity.

Time-lagged data were collected from 329 employees in the civil construction sector of Pakistan.

The results indicate that humble leadership enhances project success through mediating and moderating mechanisms.

The present research ends with an argument, managerial consequences, limits and guidance for future research.

The results influence a project-based organization on the selection and promotion of humility among project managers.

This research answers the following research question, which has been ignored in the literature: What are the suggested mechanisms for humble leadership in promoting project success?

Islamic finance and Halal product sectors are thriving successfully. This chapter is a general review of the perception of Asian consumers on Islamic finance and Halal sectors in the global Halal economy.

The first section will briefly describe the Halal concept in both Islamic finance and Halal industries, and the growth of both sectors in Asian countries. The second part highlights the review of Asian consumers’ perception towards Islamic finance products and Halal products.

The review found that the consumers’ perception towards the Islamic finance products and Halal products is distinctive. This is due to the diversity of Asian countries in terms of geography, religion, culture, ethnic, school of thoughts (madzahib), income per capita and government’s involvement.

The third part of the chapter concentrates on planning towards Halal marketing, which involves the move and future challenges in different layers of industries to gear up and strengthen the Halal economy.

Nanosized honeycomb-configured materials are used in modern technology, thermal science and chemical engineering due to their high ultra thermic relevance. This study aims to scrutinize the heat transmission features of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) honeycomb-structured graphene nanofluid flow within two squeezed parallel plates under Joule dissipation and solar thermal radiation impacts.

Mass, energy and momentum preservation laws are assumed to find the mathematical model. A set of unified ordinary differential equations with nonlinear behavior is used to express the correlated partial differential equations of the established models, adopting a reasonable similarity adjustment. An approximate convergent numerical solution to these equations is evaluated by the shooting scheme with the Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg (RKF45) technique.

The impression of pertinent evolving parameters on the temperature, fluid velocity, entropy generation, skin friction coefficients and the heat transference rate is explored. Further, the significance of the irreversibility nature of heat transfer due to evolving flow parameters are evaluated. It is noted that the heat transference rate performance is improved due to the imposition of the allied magnetic field, Joule dissipation, heat absorption, squeezing and thermal buoyancy parameters. The entropy generation upsurges due to rising magnetic field strength while its intensification is declined by enhancing the porosity parameter.

The uniqueness of this research work is the numerical evaluation of MHD honeycomb-structured graphene nanofluid flow within two squeezed parallel plates under Joule dissipation and solar thermal radiation impacts. Furthermore, regression models are devised to forecast the correlation between the rate of thermal heat transmission and persistent flow parameters.

This study aims to analyze the relationship between mindfulness and study engagement focusing on the mediating mechanism between the relationships proposed. Based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors examine whether psychological capital (PsyCap) and intrinsic motivation mediate the relationship between mindfulness traits and study engagement.

Path analysis was conducted to test the hypothesized relationships among a sample of 428 international students studying in Chinese universities in Shanghai.

The results support the hypothesized relationships and imply that mindfulness is an essential antecedent of study engagement and more mindful students are more engaged in studying. Besides, the relationship between self-rated mindfulness and study engagement is mediated by PsyCap and intrinsic motivation.

For universities, these findings help develop unique educational strategies to resolve issues related to study involvement. The study has several theoretical and practical implications.

The current study explored the relationship between mindfulness and study engagement in international students studying in Chinese universities – an understudied context in higher education. The authors find that mindfulness has positive effects on study engagement through PsyCap and intrinsic motivation.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of big data (BD) analytics capabilities (BDACs) on green supply chain integration (GSCI) and green innovation (GI) in the context of a developing country, Jordan. In addition, the mediating effect of GSCI on the relationship between BDAC and GI is investigated.

Data collection was carried out through a survey with 300 respondents from food and beverages manufacturing firms located in Jordan. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was applied to analyze the collected data. Natural resource-based view (NRBV) theory was the adopted theoretical lens for this study.

The results revealed that BDAC positively and significantly affects both GSCI and GI. In addition, the results demonstrated that GSCI positively and significantly affects GI. Further, it is also found that GSCI positively and significantly mediates the relationship between BDAC and GI.

This study developed a theoretical and empirical model to investigate the relationship between BDAC, GSCI and GI. This study offers new theoretical and managerial contributions that add value to the supply chain (SC) management literature by testing the mediation model in food and beverages manufacturing firms located in Jordan.

By applying displaced aggression and conservation of resource theory, this paper aims to investigate the effect of supervisors’ workplace stress over subordinates' unethical behavior through displaced aggression as an underlying mechanism. Moreover, it tests the moderating effect of despotic leadership between supervisors’ workplace stress and displaced aggression.

The data consists of three hierarchy levels: despotic leadership (top manager), supervisor’s (immediate supervisor/middle manager) workplace stress and displaced aggression and subordinates’ unethical behavior. The data was collected from 80 managers about their workplace stress and displaced aggression besides perceived unethical behavior of their 240 subordinates.

The data analysis of 80 bank managers of Pakistan about their perception of top managers’ despotic behavior and unethical behavior of their 240 subordinates shows the support for all hypothesized relationships. Supervisors’ workplace stress positively affected their displaced aggression over their subordinates, which motivated subordinates to engage in unethical behavior. Moreover, the findings supported the moderating effect of despotic leadership in the relationship between supervisors’ workplace stress and displaced aggression.

This study contributes to the limited studies on the trickledown displaced aggression phenomenon in the service (banking) sector. Moreover, the manager’s despotic leadership role as a higher-level negative supervisory behavior in increasing the supervisors’ displaced aggression shows the critical aspect in such a stressful workplace situation.

This study investigates the impact of big data analytics capabilities on green supply chain performance. Moreover, it assesses the mediating effect of the green innovation and moderating effect of technological intensity.

This study is based on primary data that were collected from the food and beverages manufacturing sector operating in Jordan. A total of 420 samples were used for the final data analysis. Data analysis was performed via structural equation modeling (SEM) using SmartPLS 3.3.9.

The results of the data analysis supported a positive relationship between big data analytics capabilities and the green supply chain performance as well as a mediating effect of green innovation. It was confirmed that technological intensity moderated the relationship of green innovation on green supply chain performance.

The study faced many limitations such as the method of collecting primary data, which relied on a questionnaire only and the use of cross-sectional data, as well as studying one context and in one country.

The findings can guide managers and policymakers in the Jordanian food and beverage manufacturing sector on how to manage organizational capabilities related to big data analytics to enhance green supply chain performance and improve green innovation in these firms.

This study developed a theoretical and empirical model to investigate the relationship between big data analytics capabilities, green innovation, technological intensity and green supply chain performance. This study offers new theoretical and managerial contributions that add value to the supply chain management and innovation literature by testing the moderated mediation model of these constructs in the food and beverages manufacturing sector in Jordan.