Khaliq Ur Rehman

The paper focuses on strategic sourcing in the upstream supply chain of the footwear industry in Pakistan. It intends to explore the drivers and enablers of strategic sourcing and how the performance of these sources is measured. The study develops a framework for the Performance Measurement (PM) of Strategic Sourcing process. The research has been undertaken using the qualitative research methodology and is a case study of the footwear supply chain in Pakistan. The data is collected through semi-structured interviews, direct field observation, and related documents. The paper contributes to finding out the current practices to measure the performance of strategic sourcing and developing the criteria to measure strategic sourcing, especially in the footwear industry of Pakistan. Eleven approaches are proposed based on a case that will result in better prospects for supply chain development and strategic sourcing in the Pakistani footwear industry. The framework will serve as a guide for developing strategies for strategic sourcing. No previous study has been done in this region concerning strategic sourcing performance. Since this is a single case study, it cannot be statistically generalized. Analytical generalizations have been made nonetheless.

Purpose: This study intends to explore the key challenges the financial sector faces today about employees’ perspectives and how these challenges eventually play a role in the employee’s work-life balance. Design/Methodology/Approach: A Focus group was conducted with a leading multinational bank in Pakistan. Six managerial cadre employees participated in the focus group study. The focus group analysis suggests very stringent rules and regulations incorporated by SBP that bind each bank to undergo strict compliance. Findings: The challenge of customer retention, declining interest rates, coping with the frugal economic situation of the country, meeting customer satisfaction, incorporating personal relationship management, use of ancillary support services by customers, reward and recognition to employees, dealing with information savvy knowledgeable customers, work-life balance and overall motivation of the bank employees are assumed by the participants as the key challenges that drive the banking industry of Pakistan. Implications/Originality/Value: Senior management of the banking sector of Pakistan can learn from the problems discussed, and the possible solution proposed to the said problems. This research contributes to the body of knowledge while explaining the issues faced by the professionals working in the banking sector of Pakistan.

The main objective of this research is to investigate the nexus between entrepreneurial leadership and product innovation performance. In addition, the mediating mechanism of absorptive capacity, intra-firm networks, and design thinking through which entrepreneurial leaders influence product innovation performanceis also studied. The researcher contacted three hundred (300) plus firms; 157 firms showed a willingness to participate, and 96 firms provided the data with a response rate of 61.15%. Out of those 96 firms, the data from 71 firms were used for the final analysis, yielding an effective response rate of 45.22%. Only middle and top-level employees from the marketing and research & development departments from Pakistani firms were selected as respondents because these two departments are directly related to product innovation performance. To test the hypothesis, the Smart PLS-SEM technique wasused. The empirical analysis revealed that entrepreneurial leadership impacted product innovation performance through the mediating mechanism of design thinking, intra-firm networks, and absorptive capacity. The current research contributes to entrepreneurial leadership theory by proposing and empirically testing how entrepreneurial leaders affect product innovation performance.

The primary objective of this research is to investigate the role of strategic human resource management practices in developing resilient organizational behavior. This research aims to test the mediating function of individual resilient behavior between strategic human resources management practices and resilient organizational behavior. Data was collected from 780 managerial level employees working in small and medium Chinese enterprises in Hubei Province through a self-administrated questionnaire. The Smart partial least square structural equation modeling technique was used for data analysis. The analysis showed a significant positive relationship among SHRM practices, employee resilient behavior, and resilient organizational behavior. Results also show that employee resilient behavior partially mediates the relationship between SHRM practices and resilient organizational behavior. Individual resilient behavior is needed when an organization is in crisis, restructuring, transformation, turbulent, and unfavorable conditions. Without individual resilient behavior, it is difficult for an organization to be resilient. Therefore, strategic human resource management practices are essential to develop an employee’s resilience. This research contributed to the body of knowledge by bringing new concepts together. The main contribution was testing the role of individual resilient behavior between strategic human resource management practices and resilient organizational behavior.

Although, knowledge has been recognized as a key business asset, firms are still in the infancy stages of comprehending the practical implications of knowledge management. Developing countries are widely believed to be falling far behind in competitiveness and socio-economic development, due to their inability to develop capacities to enable themselves to take part in the emerging global networks of knowledge creation. There is a dire need for a more organized and purposeful study, on critical success factors for knowledge management adoption in developing countries like Pakistan. However, no research, so far, has been conducted to empirically investigate a detailed list of CSFs for KM adoption in Pakistan. This paper evaluates and disseminates the findings of a self-administered survey to investigate the critical success factors for the implementation of KM in banking sector of Pakistan. A survey questionnaire having 11 factors, consisting 66 items is adopted in this study, which is statistically tested for its validity as well as reliability. Data are collected from banking officials. The level of importance, as well as the ranking list of the critical success factors for KM adoption is statistically examined. This paper provides a priority list of CSFs—figured out in order of their importance—for KM adoption in the banking sector of Pakistan. Human resource management, motivational aids, and processes and activities are found to be the most important, while measurement and organizational infrastructure are found to be the least important factors, perceived by the bankers.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has imperatively shaken the behavior of the global financial markets. This study estimated the impact of COVID-19 on the behavior of the financial markets of Europe and the US. The results revealed that the returns of the S&P 500 index have been greatly affected by a lockdown in the US owing to COVID-19. However, the health crisis generated due to the novel coronavirus significantly decreased the stock returns of the Nasdaq Composite index. The results also showed that the economic crisis generated from the pandemic in Spain has had more impact on the IBEX 35 as compared to the health crisis itself. On the other hand, in the long-run, Italy’s stock markets are more affected by the health crisis as contrasted with the economic crisis, while, in the short-run, both lockdown conditions and economic instability lower the stock returns of FTSE MIB. The UK stock markets witnessed that in the short-run, deficiency of health management systems imperatively damaged the stock returns of the London Stock Exchange. The investigation revealed that deficiency of health systems and lockdown conditions have imperatively damaged the structure of financial markets, inferring that sustainable development of these nations is at risk due to COVID-19. The study suggested that governments should allocate more of their budget to the health sector to overcome a health crisis in the future.