Faisal Qadeer

The present research addresses the grand challenge entrenched in the upside of the dark triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy). To date, reviews have rarely examined the positive aspects of the dark triad. Therefore, this systematic review identifies key mechanisms, contextual conditions, and theoretical frameworks that may leverage the dark triad constructively and mitigate its potentially detrimental manifestations. We summarize the available evidence on the positive side of the dark triad in the domain of organizational behavior using data from 107 studies representing 51,124 respondents. Finally, we review theories used in studying the dark triad and identify significant gaps and trends. We emphasize the necessity of reframing dark triad as potentially context‐dependent, thus expanding the scope of both theory and research methodologies. Reframing the dark triad literature offers an opportunity to advance the field by integrating a range of constructs, theories, and methodologies, which ultimately contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the dark triad's context‐dependent association with work outcomes.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the digital signals and mechanisms involved in shaping consumer attitude towards online private label brands (OPLBs) in an emerging digital market under conditions of heightened uncertainty. Design/methodology/approach: A multi-method design focused on the cosmetics and personal care sector was employed. Study 1 used a survey of 637 OPLBs consumers in Pakistan. Study 2 employed a 2 × 2 experimental design that manipulated social media influencer reputation and heuristic cues (high vs low) and included 232 participants. Findings: Social media influencer reputation, consumer confidence and bandwagon positively affect consumer attitude towards OPLBs. While heuristic cues have no direct effect in the survey, experimental evidence shows that they influence attitude under conditions of heightened salience. Across both studies, consumer confidence and bandwagon effect mediate the effects of social media influencer reputation and heuristic cues on consumer attitude towards OPLBs. Originality/value: This study extends signaling theory by positioning OPLBs as a distinct digital retail context in which consumers rely heavily on externally observable digital signals. It develops a unified signaling framework explaining how source-based credibility signals and popularity-based engagement signals shape consumer attitude through receiver-side mechanisms of evaluative certainty and conformity in uncertainty-rich emerging markets.

The increasing use of AI in influencer marketing is changing how consumers interpret established credibility cues. This study examines whether AI disclosure alters the signaling value of social media influencer reputation (SMIR) in shaping consumer responses towards online private label brands (OPLBs). Drawing on signaling theory, the study conceptualizes SMIR as a source-based credibility signal and consumer trust as the receiver-side mechanism through which this signal influences subsequent behavioral intentions. A 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment was conducted with 252 social media users, who were randomly exposed to a simulated Instagram post featuring either high or low SMIR and either disclosed or undisclosed AI involvement. The findings show that SMIR significantly enhances consumer trust in OPLBs, and that consumer trust, in turn, positively influences both purchase and recommendation intentions. Consumer trust also significantly mediates the relationship between SMIR and both behavioral intentions. Importantly, the significant interaction between SMIR and AI disclosure demonstrates that AI disclosure weakens the positive signaling effect of high SMIR on consumer trust in OPLBs. The study extends signaling theory by showing that AI disclosure changes the interpretive context in which established human-based credibility signals are evaluated. In practice, the findings suggest that OPLBs should carefully manage AI disclosure in influencer campaigns to preserve the credibility of influencers' reputations and encourage favorable consumer responses.

The latest research on tax avoidance indicates that the number of female directors on a board increases the accounting accuracy and company performance by decreasing tax avoidance. The empirical research illustrates that women’s higher risk aversion and more conservative characteristics are key for company decision-making, especially when considering a tax strategy. We posit that the risk avoidance of women and other board attributes that enhance diversity influence the company’s sustainability through their effects on the company’s taxpaying activities. To verify this relationship, an empirical analysis was conducted using data for the period from 2009 to 2025 for the non-financial enterprises listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. The results showed that enhancing diversity on the board by attributes such as gender inclusion paves the way for firms to achieve firm performance. The results showed that tax avoidance partially mediates the relationship between corporate board attributes and firm performance. Effective board diversity encourages firms to engage in more tax-paying activities, which leads to positive firm performance. The research outcomes strengthen the existing proof of the link between board diversity and company financial performance, with tax avoidance behavior serving as an intervening factor. This also provides insights for policy-making authorities, encouraging them to make tax-related regulations that better promote long-term growth and prosperity. This study fills a gap in the research by highlighting the influence of board diversity on tax avoidance behavior and corporate financial performance.

This study argues that many renowned organizations depend on their employees' creativity for top industry performance and meeting customer expectations in the current business era of hyper‐competition. This study aims to understand the dark side of creative performance pressure (CPP) in the workplace through the lens of moral disengagement theory (MDT). We specifically argue that CPP results in organizational deviance (discretionary behavior that violates organizational norms and threatens the well‐being of an organization, its members, or both). Further, we have identified employee moral disengagement (the ability to separate oneself morally from a wrong behavior by cognitively altering the perception of the situation and, therefore, not feeling negative about it) as an underlying mechanism of CPP—organizational deviance relationship and supervisor bottom‐line mentality as the boundary condition of this mediated relationship. The data for the study were collected using a self‐administered questionnaire through a time‐lagged design from full‐time employees working in the IT industry in Pakistan. A total of 254 completed responses were used to test the model through confirmatory factor analysis (in AMOS 23) and SPSS Process Macro. The results of the analysis supported the theoretical arguments of MDT and the existing evidence. The results highlighted that CPP leads employees toward organizational deviance through the underlying psychological mechanism of moral disengagement, and this impact is further enhanced in the presence of supervisors who are high in bottom‐line mentality. The study makes significant theoretical contributions and suggests policy implications for organizations related to the code of ethics, incentivizing ethical behavior, and open communication.

Using the tenets of social cognitive theory, this study diverges significantly from the conventional research paradigm by shedding light on the pivotal role of job experience and self-efficacy in predicting psychopath's job performance. In the scholarly discourse where positive associations between psychopathy and performance metrics have received minimal attention, this study introduces a validated model proposing a constructive influence of psychopathy on job performance. While acknowledging job experience as a moderator, this study accentuates the pivotal role of self-efficacy as a mediator, challenging the traditionally hostile psychopathy- job performance relationship. We employ an experimental research design on the MBA executive class of 68 students of GC University Faisalabad. The results reveal the causal solid effect of psychopathic personality on self-efficacy in manipulated job experience conditions and a slight impact on no job experience control conditions. Meanwhile, at low values of psychopathy, the effect is diminished in both job experience conditions. Notably, job experience emerges as an indispensable agent, significantly shaping the impact of psychopathy on self-efficacy and subsequent employee performance.

Purpose: Drawing upon social learning theory (SLT), the study examines the consequences of ethical leadership on followers' voice behavior facets (promotive and prohibitive). The study tests hypotheses about the processing mechanism (moral identity) and the boundary condition (proactive personality) to understand these relationships. Design/methodology/approach: The study collected time-lagged survey data through an online structured questionnaire from 182 respondents. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to ensure the validity and reliability of the data. Moreover, structural equation modeling was run to test the hypotheses using AMOS. Findings: Ethical leadership positively affects followers' promotive and prohibitive voice behavior via the psychological mechanism of moral identity. Proactive personality moderates the moral identity – promotive and moral identity – prohibitive voice relationships, such that these relations are stronger when the individuals are high on proactive personality. Research limitations/implications: Robust evidence of a genuine cause-and-effect relationship may not be yielded owing to cross-sectional and self-reported data at the follower level of analysis. Future researchers can use dyadic, longitudinal and experimental designs to overcome these limitations. Organizations targeting to increase voice behavior can benefit from maintaining ethical leaders and proactive followers at the workplace. Originality/value: The study significantly contributes to the ethical leadership and voice behavior literature. Ethical leadership enhances followers' promotive/prohibitive voice behaviors through their moral identity enhancement. The paper also confirmed that a proactive personality is a critical boundary condition in these relationships. Empirical evidence from the Eastern context has been added, and research directions have also been provided.

Purpose: This paper explores critical job resources (CRJRs) as predictors of job crafting and sustainable employability. Using job demands-resources (JD-R) theory as a theoretical lens, the authors examine how job crafting mediates CRJR and sustainable employability and whether work uncertainty as a boundary condition further strengthened these associations using moderated mediation approach.Design/methodology/approach: The authors used a cross-sectional time-lagged research design by collecting data from 483 knowledge workers in Pakistan's healthcare and universities, both public and private. The authors used structural equation modeling using AMOS 25.0 software to examine the proposed relationships’ mediation, moderation and moderated-mediation processes, such as Hayes (2018) process models 1,7,14 and 58. In addition, the authors tested a structural model with self-developed estimands instead of using process macros available in SPSS by computing variables.Findings: The results of this study confirmed that CRJR predicts job crafting and employees' sustainable employability. Furthermore, comprehensive testing suggested that mediation of job crafting between CRJR and sustainable employability further strengthened in the presence of a boundary condition of work uncertainty.Originality/value: The study uncovers CRJR (job, organizational, social and relational) as a predictor of job crafting. The authors suggest that job design integrating CRJR helps organizations and managers promote job crafting and make employees responsible for their sustainable employability. The proposed CRJR has not been used as a predictor of job crafting, and no such study tested CRJR as a predictor of sustainable employability. The authors made comprehensive testing to examine the boundary condition of work uncertainty while examining the CRJR and sustainable employability relations via job crafting.

Recently, debt structure research has started focusing on the strategic perspective of financing choices, particularly to understand the reasons for debt specialization (DS). This paper examines trends of specialization over time and industry by using a comprehensive dataset on types of debt employed by the public limited companies during 2009–2018. The objective of the current study is to analyze the effect of debt market conditions by identifying significant predictors of DS. Time-series and cross-sectional results confirm the existence of DS, which is further validated by the findings of the cluster analysis. The empirical results indicate that overall, 61% of the companies solely rely on a single type of debt, mostly on short-term obligations accompanied by long-term secured and other debts. Moreover, small, mature, rated, group-affiliated, and low-leverage companies incline more towards this strategy. Credit rating, debt maturity, financial and interest coverage ratios serve as the primary determinants of the debt market that are significantly associated with the measures of DS. The results contribute to the capital structure literature by specifying that financing choice has an important implication in deciding the debt structure composition of the organizations.