Imtiaz Arif

Purpose: In the light of rising environmental concerns, this study aims to examine the drivers of sustainable banking practices (SBNP) and the resulting outcomes. It evaluates theory of planned behavior (TPB) constructs as drivers of SBNP and triple bottom line (TBL) indicators as the resulting performance outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: Data was collected using a Likert-scale questionnaire. Using purposive sampling, the authors collected 310 usable responses from banking professionals in commercial banks across Karachi, Pakistan. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test research hypotheses. Findings: The results demonstrate that TPB constructs – attitude toward sustainable banking, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control – favorably drive SBNP. Consequently, SBNP positively impacts environmental, social and financial performance. SBNP exerts the strongest substantive impact on environmental performance, while its practical influence on social and financial outcomes is more modest. Practical implications: These findings offer practical insights for policymakers and bank executives, emphasizing that internal sustainability strategies must be contextually tailored to achieve multidimensional performance targets. Originality/value: This research study applies TPB constructs to examine internal SBNP adoption and comprehensively assesses all TBL indicators, introducing social performance as an important outcome which was previously overlooked.

Purpose: The crux of this paper is to unveil efficient features and practical tools that can predict credit default. Design/methodology/approach: Annual data of non-financial listed companies were taken from 2000 to 2020, along with 71 financial ratios. The dataset was bifurcated into three panels with three default assumptions. Logistic regression (LR) and k-nearest neighbor (KNN) binary classification algorithms were used to estimate credit default in this research. Findings: The study’s findings revealed that features used in Model 3 (Case 3) were the efficient and best features comparatively. Results also showcased that KNN exposed higher accuracy than LR, which proves the supremacy of KNN on LR. Research limitations/implications: Using only two classifiers limits this research for a comprehensive comparison of results; this research was based on only financial data, which exhibits a sizeable room for including non-financial parameters in default estimation. Both limitations may be a direction for future research in this domain. Originality/value: This study introduces efficient features and tools for credit default prediction using financial data, demonstrating KNN’s superior accuracy over LR and suggesting future research directions.

The world has changed drastically in terms of telecommunication, running online businesses and daily life activities to keep social distancing and to perform the regular everyday tasks since the pandemic COVID-19. Governments have several times declared smart, partial or full lockdowns to deal with the health crisis situation, that has impacted the social activities, gatherings and has impacted the functionality of several professions, including education that are directly or indirectly impacted by the lockdowns. In the education environment the students in large numbers are expected to gather for lectures, labs and meet folks from industry and/or other sectors. The lockdown required the teachers to come up with alternative to meeting in person to online meetings and adapting to online-synchronous and asynchronous teaching styles. To meet the targets set for an academic year, a distinctive rise in e-learning has been observed where teaching and learning is undertaken remotely using digital platforms. This study aims to reveal the impact of computer-assisted teaching on the development of technostress among Pakistani teachers during the pandemic COVID-19. In addition, the role of teachers’ self-efficacy is evaluated and motivation to leave the teaching profession is investigated in the coming endemic climate. The researchers have opted to a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional survey to generalize the statistically obtained results and test hypotheses. A total of 242 teachers at different levels of education voluntarily participated in the research during the lockdown from March to April 2020, where all regular educational activities were suspended and online classes were introduced as an alternative way to meet educational goals. The findings revealed that Learning Teaching Process Oriented and Technical Issues Oriented are the main contributing factors towards the development of technology stress and motivation to leave the teaching profession. Moreover, teachers' perception of self-efficacy in using computers is negatively associated with technology stress. It is recommended that computer-based instructional coaching be designed for teachers prior to engaging them in digitally oriented online courses to improve their self-efficacy in using computers and to promote a well-developed digital infrastructure to avoid the development of technology stress and discouragement for tutelage.

The study aims to determine the impact of vlogger’s reputation on viewers’ trust on vlogger’s recommendations (TVR) and perceived usefulness of vlogger’s recommendations (PUVR). Moreover, the study examines the impact of TVR and PUVR on attitude and intention to shop online. A sample of 250 responses was collected from social media users and structural equation analysis technique was employed. The findings indicate that vlogger’s reputation has a significant role in building TVR, and PUVR and TVR and PUVR significantly influence the attitude and intention to shop online. The study also identified a positive impact of attitude towards online shopping on online shopping intention. The research provides insights to the marketers and practitioners as the findings guides on crafting promotional strategies using vloggers.

This study aims to identify the perception of users, regarding characteristics of retail mobile applications (apps) on perceived benefits and their impact on post-adoption behaviour. On 264 useful responses, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model were applied via using SPSS 22 and Amos 22. The results showed that mobile app features, that is, perceived ubiquity, perceived informativeness, perceived personalization and perceived entertainment significantly impact mobile app usefulness and playful engagement. Only perceived informativeness has an insignificant impact on playful engagement. Both mobile app usefulness and playful engagement have a significant impact on mobile app stickiness, whereas they do not have any impact on mobile app word of mouth (WOM). Mobile stickiness also has a significant impact on mobile app WOM. This study highlights the post-adoption behaviour of the consumer towards retail mobile apps and expands practical knowledge of consumers’ behaviour towards using retail mobile apps.

Research on compulsive use of smartphones amongst students largely remains unexplored. The study seeks to investigate the feasibility and desirability motives—instant gratification, mood regulations, convenience, flow and personality—to understand the compulsive use of smartphones. The results of the useful data of 200 respondents following purposive sampling design, provided evidence of instant gratification, mood regulation and convenience motives, which significantly explain flow and compulsive smartphone use. Personality of users also appeared as a significant moderator between flow and compulsive smartphone use. The findings of the study reveal that the personality of smartphone users enhances the propensity to build compulsive smartphone use. Additionally, the findings reveal the double-edged sword impact of flow in forming compulsive smartphone use and allowing smartphone brands to design phones that help phone users to develop self-control over their behaviours related to using smartphones.

Purpose: This study aims to identify the factors that influence customer satisfaction in the banking sector from the perspective of employee characteristics. More specifically, this study identifies the impact of employee etiquettes, employee performance, technical selling skills and customer-oriented behavior on customer satisfaction in the banking industry. The study also seeks to investigate the mediating effect of employee etiquettes, employee performance and technical selling skills on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer-oriented behavior.Design/methodology/approach: The data were collected with the help of a Likert scale questionnaire from the active banking customers in Karachi, Pakistan, who visit bank branches once a month minimum. For 268 responses, partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was employed for hypothesis testing.Findings: The results showed a positive and significant relationship between customer-oriented behavior and employee etiquettes, technical selling skills and performance. The employee’s customer-oriented behavior, etiquettes, technical selling skills and performance were also found to be significantly related with customer satisfaction. Finally, the results revealed that technical selling skills, employee performance and employee etiquettes partially mediate the relationship between customer-oriented behavior and customer satisfaction.Practical implications: It is recommended that banking employees should adopt customer-oriented behavior in order to achieve and maintain customer satisfaction. The bank managers should also work on improving the etiquettes and performance of the employees and provide them detailed technical knowledge of the services and products offered by the bank.Originality/value: Arguably, it is one of the first studies to examine the mediating effects of employees' technical selling skills and employees' performance on the relationship between customer orientation and customer satisfaction, specifically in the banking industry.

In-stream advertisements have become a popular choice of brands. However, limited studies have compared the attitudes of customers towards in-stream advertisement types, i.e. skippable advertisements and full-length advertisements. This study explores the attitudes of consumers towards both types of in-stream video advertising and their effect on shopping intention. A total of 289 responses for skippable advertisements and 270 full-length advertisements responses were used to test the hypotheses using the technique of partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings showed that in skippable advertisements, the effect of irritation on attitude is less compared to full-length advertisements. For full-length advertisements, entertainment, advertising value, and emotional appeal significantly contribute to the creation of a positive attitude. Whereas, informativeness contributes only in developing a positive attitude for skippable advertisements. Further, the attitude towards advertising contributes to the intention to shop in both skippable and full-length advertising. This is the first study that provides comparative insights into the attitude of consumers towards skippable advertising and full-length advertising. This study also highlights the relationship of emotional appeal and attitude to online video advertising. This research is useful to marketers and brand managers to create effective content strategies for in-stream advertising online.