Priority-The International Business Review

IMPACT OF SOFTWARE CHARACTERISTICS, USER CHARACTERISTICS AND ORGANIZATIONAL & PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS ON USER PERCEIVED PERFORMANCE IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT SECTOR

Romel John — 2023-12-31

The main purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between organizational and project characteristics, project governance, software characteristics, user characteristics and user- perceived performance in the software development sector of Pakistan. Secondly it also examines how project management methodologies (PMM) influence the success of the IT projects in Pakistan. Purposive sampling method was used to choose the sample of the study. Sample of study consists of 151 IT professionals who are directly involved with the project management tools and techniques in the software development companies in Pakistan. Self-administered Google survey questionnaire was used for data collection and PLS – SEM software was used for data analysis. Results showed that there is a positive relationship between the organizational and project characteristics, Project governance and user perceived performance, software characteristics and project governance. However, there is no relationship between user characteristics and project governance. Additionally, project governance moderates the relationship between organizational and project characteristics, and user-perceived performance. Project governance also moderates the relationship between software characteristics and user-perceived performance. Finally, results revealed that project governance does not moderate the relationship between the user characteristics and user-perceived performance. The results from this research will contribute to improving project governance practices and achieving successful software development projects in Pakistan. The study claims that adopting agile methodologies in Pakistan will improve the effectiveness of software and the quality of software products.

EVOLUTION STUDY OF ISLAMIC MUTUAL FUNDS IN PAKISTAN

Muhammad Asim — 2023-12-31

The Investors' perceptions and the perceived characteristics and behavioral intentions towards investment through Islamic Mutual Funds in Pakistan are assessed. The impacts of critical working conditions and traditional demographic structure in Pakistan are not mainly covered in previous research. This paper examines the significance of cultural and demographic aspects in view of the Mutual Funds operating in Pakistan to fill the gap. It is concluded that the drives that lead to choosing Islamic Mutual Funds as preferential institutions by the investors, respondent degree of awareness about the Islamic financial system, and knowledge about Islamic Mutual Funds stands out as being the primary reason, among other numerous reasons, based on individual faiths or investors beliefs. Whereas the evidence produced in this paper regarding impact factors of critical environmental and traditional demographic structure did not find a significant weightage in extending the use of services being provided by Islamic Mutual Funds, the level of information of investors assumes a significant part in choosing Islamic Mutual Funds as preferred organizations over Conventional Mutual Funds. There is a significant level of consciousness concerning investments regarding the benefit of good administrative services and the structure of Islamic Shari’ah Compliant Mutual Funds in the growth of social and nonbanking-financial services in Pakistan.

IMPACT OF CORPORATE BOARD GENDER DIVERSITY ON FIRM FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE AND RISK: NEW INSIGHT FROM PAKISTAN STOCK EXCHANGE

Rashid Ali — 2023-12-31

This study has intended to investigate the relationship between women on corporate boards and the financial performance of Pakistan's firms. Also, the study will examine the relationship between women in corporate boards and firm risk in Pakistan. The study will be quantitative in nature, and a positivist research philosophy will be used. This research study will be based on all 37 sectors of Pakistan's Stock Exchange, having 546 firms that constitute the population of the study. The collected data will be analyzed using EViews software for panel data analysis including descriptive analysis of all variables, and unit root tests for stationary of the data. The result showed that gender diversity, female directors, blau index and board independence has a negatively significant effect on firm risk. The finding showed that CEO duality has a positively significant effect on firm risk. The results also showed that firm leverage has a positively significant effect on solid risk, while firm size has a negative significant effect on solid risk. The research also illustrates the complex impacts of gender diversity on many risk factors. The study has recommended that government must immediately implement clear reporting standards requiring companies to reveal the gender breakdown of their board of directors.

INFLUENCE OF MARKET POWER AND MARKET COMPETITION ON EARNINGS MANAGEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM ACCRUAL BASED ACTIVITIES IN FOOD INDUSTRY

Dilshad Hassan Qazi — 2023-12-31

This study aims to provide guidance to the investors and managers for making prudent and informed investment decisions by developing an understanding about the influence of market power and market competition on the earnings management particularly in the food industry of Pakistan. It provides insights on the likelihood of discretionary accruals applied by the firm’s management in order to accomplish the annual objectives and make the firm’s image better from investors’ point of view. The study employs panel regression analysis along with two models of fixed and random effects to evaluate the impact of market power and market competition on the earnings management on the dataset of 17 publicly traded Food companies of Pakistan over the period from 2009 to 2018. The findings suggest that there is a substantial positive impact of market power on the discretionary accruals whereas a substantial negative relationship found between the market competition and discretionary accruals for food industry of Pakistan. This is to the best of our knowledge, first of its kind endeavor—particularly for the food industry and provides a good piece of firsthand informative material for managers and investors to perceive the nexus of market power, competition versus earnings management in case of Pakistan.

FINANCIAL FACTORS INFLUENCING DIVIDEND POLICY: AN EVIDENCE OF GENERAL INDUSTRIAL SECTOR LISTED IN KSE

Mansoor Ahmed — 2023-12-31

The aspiration of this research paper is to get the measure of the Financial Factors Influencing on Dividend Policy with respect to General Industrial Sector and to grasp the association ship that impact on dividend payout. Method of sampling is being used in Simple Pooled Regression Model, Fixed Effective Model and Random Effective Model including Hausman Test taking samples of the 9 organizations listed (General Industrial Sector) on the Karachi stock exchange for the periods of 11 years (2014-2022). In Simple Regression Model (OLS) the results showed that financial factors such as (ROA, ROE and CR) has significant influence on dividend payout ratio but the association betwixt dividend payout with all explanatory variables such as (positive with return on assets, firm size and leverage while negative with return on equity, current ratio and earnings per share) and other model has applied such as Fixed Effective Model (FEM) the results showed that (Return on assets and Current ratio has significant influence on dividend payout ratio) along with association betwixt dividend payout with all explanatory variables such as (positive with return on assets and leverage while negative with return on equity, firm size, current ratio and earnings per share) however Random Effective Model (REM) has applied the results has showed that (ROA, ROE and CR) has significant impact on dividend payout ratio and others were insignificant on dividend payout but the association betwixt dividend payout with all explanatory variables such as (positive with return on assets, firm size and leverage while negative with return on equity, current ratio and earnings per share).Hausman Test has applied to evaluate the fitted model that Random Effective Model has fitted model because of P-value.5578 higher than .05 or 5%. This research paper will assist for evaluate of the dividend policy regarding General Industrial Sector which is listed in the Karachi Stock Exchange.

IMPACT OF INADEQUATE STAFFING ON WORK-LIFE BALANCE IN INSURANCE SECTOR OF PAKISTAN

Syed Waqarul Hasan — 2023-12-31

Since Pakistan has a struggling economy, low literacy rate, limited job opportunities and a feudal mindset of employers, it is a challenge for employees to acquire jobs with desired work culture. This lack of positive work culture often induces stress in employees that affects them mentally and physically. To create a balanced work-life environment, organizations need to assess their existing work culture and their approach towards inadequate staffing. This study extensively evaluates the impact of inadequate staffing in the fast paced financial sector of Pakistan caused by budget constraints, hiring freeze, downsizing, organizational culture and voluntary termination on existing employee’s work-life balance. Stress is known to cause mental and physical illnesses which are why organizations need to prioritize the wellbeing of employees by reviewing their policies. The purpose of the study was to give a thorough investigation of the potential causes of employees' unbalanced work and personal lives. The information was gathered through survey questionnaire from a fast paced insurance company that was working under tight deadlines. Using SPSS, the obtained data was examined to reveal that factors like organizational culture have a significant impact on employees' work-life balance, whilst others like voluntary termination have a less significant impact. However, budgetary constraints, hiring freezes, and downsizing do not directly affect employees' ability to balance work and life. Therefore, organizations must concentrate on their culture in order to foster a compassionate and supportive work environment for their employees.

PENNIES AND PROSPERITY: UNRAVELING PAKISTAN'S INVESTMENT PUZZLE AMIDST FINANCIAL FLUX

Yusra Shehzadi — 2023-12-31

Financial constraints and agency cost problems have been identified as the potential cause of increasing investment- cash flow sensitivity (ICFS) of firms limiting the use of an external source of financing for investment opportunities and leading the firms to under-invest. This paper attempts to test this phenomenon in the context of Pakistani markets. Using the workhorse model of Richardson for the construction of free cash flow and abnormal investment, we used pooled OLS, Fixed effect, and GMM estimator on the dataset of 16 cement firms in Pakistan for the time frame of 2010-2022. The results indicate that cash, size, and Tobin’s Q are substantial indicators of a firm’s investment expenditure. Further, the results show that investment to cash flow sensitivity for over-investing (OI) firms with positive free cash flow (FCF) results from agency cost problems, whereas investment to cash flow sensitivity for under-investing (UI) firms with negative free cash flow (FCF) do not result from financial constraints. The study’s finding provides evidence of investment to cash flow sensitivity along with the presence of financial constraints and agency cost problems in Pakistani cement firms.

IMPACT OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (HRM) PRACTICES ON ACADEMIC STAFF RETENTION

Usman Ghani Chishti — 2023-12-31

The study strives to explore the effect of HRM practices on the retention of employees in the context of DHACSS. The research examines the effectiveness of the current training and development (T&D) programs, compensation, employee empowerment (EE), and organizational culture (OC) in employee retention (ER) from the academicians’ perception. By gathering the opinions of the academicians, it would reflect how they distinguish as satisfactory development which may improve their job promotion and further career planning. Quantitative data is gathered by employing the non-probability self-administered questionnaire comprising of questions with five points Likert scale. The questionnaire is distributed to the research respondents. In assessing and evaluating the gathered data, SPSS technique is used. The target population in this study is the academic staff of DHACSS regardless of the campuses. The total number of academic staff at DHACSS is 1500; incorporating all the campuses. Hence, according to the used calculator, the size of the sample in this study will be 306 respondents. The research study has demonstrated significant association between the HRM practices and the retention of academic staff at DHACSS. The element of organizational culture is proved to be extremely vital in relation to ER as founded from this research. To conclude, the entire research successfully recognizes that training and development, compensation, employee empowerment, and organizational culture are the vital consideration for the academic staff’s retention decision at DHACSS. It can be said that DHACSS has executed HRM practices successfully in the organization and is in the superior position to retain its highly talented and key academic staff in comparison to the other competitors functioning in the private educational sector of Pakistan.

AN IMPULSIVE BUYING BEHAVIOR OF CUSTOMER: A QUALITATIVE STUDY ON BANCASSURANCE SERVICES IN PAKISTAN

Muhammad Nawaz Iqbal — 2023-12-31

Intention of purchasing life insurance product is rarely seen in customers after sales pitch and product advertisement. This research will identify the factors of impulsive buying behavior of customers of Bancassurance (life insurance channel) products. The rationale of this research is to explore the factors influencing customer’s behavior for impulsive buying of Bancassurance product and drive implications for other channels of life insurance productivity. This research study employs a qualitative approach, utilizing thematic analysis as a research instrument. According to nature of research, purposive sampling technique has applied to obtain rich and updated data from Bancassurance field experts. The result obtained after data analysis in the form of themes are Bank environment influence customers’ intention for product purchase, Customers satisfaction from banking services with experience and service innovation, Perceived value of brand develops customer purchase intentions. A model has been developed called Banca-Customer behavior Model (BCB Model) based on factors. Customer behavior encompasses the decision-making processes that come before and after the acts that are directly related to acquiring product and services. Innovation and meeting customer expectations are made feasible by analyzing the factors that directly affect customer impulsive buying behavior towards Bancassurance products.

A REVIEW ON EFFECTIVE PLASTIC WASTE MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS FOR ZERO WASTE

Ambreen Ramzan — 2023-12-31

Plastic pollution is not ignorable because it is not only affecting environment but also living things e.g. human and animal on land and aquatic life in ocean due to micro-plastic. If aquatic life is affected then several other species will be affected including human because it is food-chain. It is surprising that plastic is still being burned in several countries. Management is lacking to tackle this issue. To recognize the magnitude of input of plastic materials to the environmental bodies and the global oceans, we should know several elements of the plastic production, circulation and waste management chain. Several methods have been implemented to tackle this issue including 5R. There should be new ways to solve this problem on large scale. This study reviewed several methods to tackle plastic pollution and highlighted their impact. This study also recommended sustainable solutions which need to be applied. One of the most important solutions is that waste has potential to recover energy with certain technologies such as biotechnology.

EFFECT OF CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT ON PURCHASE INTENTION

Rehan Muzamil Butt — 2023-12-31

The advancement of technology has made everything digitalized and accessible to consumers, which has allowed businesses to cleverly use celebrities and influencers to increase their profitability. This research topic has gained the attention of researchers as it provides a unique insight into the ways in which brands are capitalizing on the influence of celebrities. Pakistan has also seen a rise in influential celebrities and social media influencers, who have the ability to impact the buying decisions of their followers. Consumers are more likely to trust and feel a sense of reliability and credibility towards celebrities, which can lead to increased sales for brands. However, the impact of the celebrity's relationship and opinions on the product can also impact the consumer's perception, leaving a slight chance of repeated purchases and benefiting the brand being endorsed.

ECONOMICS OF INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS AND THE POLICY RESPONSE

Khuwaja Shafique Ahmed — 2023-12-31

Urbanization in Karachi is driven by numerous factors be it is search for a better life, quality education, access to healthcare services, employment, social security, and the natural growth of population. This has contributed to the rise of housing demand in Karachi, notwithstanding, increased the cost of housing in the city. The rising cost of housing has forced the middle and lower-middle-class to migrate to the suburbs of the city; this paved the way for the formation and expansion of informal settlements in Karachi. Slums in Karachi are formed exploiting the wide-spreading housing backlog, state and non-state actors collaborate and systematically grab land in perry-urban areas of Karachi and convert into an informal settlement, developing a sustainable source of income. This study was conducted in Karachi, Sindh and employed qualitative research methodology to assess the formation, expansion and flourishing of informal settlements and how Government of Sindh have responded in term of policy.

FOREST MANAGEMENT’S FUTURE STRATEGY FOR GREEN RESPONSE TO THE ENVIRONMENT

Manzoor Ahmed Sanjrani — 2023-12-31

Deforestation is the one of the accelerating factors of climate change in least developed countries. It is the cause of about 10% of global warming. Deforestation is a wrong act from different point of view. Trees absorb and store carbon dioxide, so loss of trees can cause climate problems around the globe. In Pakistan, it is because of illegal exploitation and poor implementation of forest legislation. Impact of deforestation is being faced every year such as floods, soil erosion, increasing risk of landslides, desertification, land degradation, heat-wave in urban areas, air pollution, several bacterial and viral diseases. Deforestation minimizes the food stuff for different animals and the production of fruits and vegetables for human in the country. It also affects the climate in terms of less rain in the areas where there are a smaller number of forests. In other words, there is a direct relationship among forests and rain. It means more forests; more expected rain in the specific area on the earth. This study deals with problems related to deforestation in Pakistan and highlights its impact on forest biodiversity. It also demonstrates environmental changes and health issues due to deforestation. Recommendations have been given to current forest management to provide green response to the environment.

EXPLORATION OF THE FACTORS INFLUENCING CUSTOMERS’ INTENTIONS TOWARDS LIFE INSURANCE PRODUCTS DURING INFLATION IN PAKISTAN: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Zeenat Kanwal — 2023-12-31

In Pakistan, inflation is a major issue that permeates all facets of the economy and has a significant impact on consumer behavior, especially when it comes to financial investments like life insurance. Insurance businesses must comprehend the aspects that affect consumer intentions towards life insurance products amid inflation in order to develop strategies that answer the changing demands and worries of the populace. This research attempts to investigate and grasp the wide range of factors influence customers’ intentions towards life insurance products in Pakistan during periods of inflation. The goal of the study is to delve into customer perceptions, attitudes, and preferences in order to deliver insightful information that may guide the creation of efficient marketing strategies and product offers in the insurance industry. Because of the unpredictable environment that inflation produces, people turn to insurance products for financial stability and risk reduction. A crucial financial tool, life insurance gives people and their family’s financial security and peace of mind. In order to modify their products to customers' changing requirements and expectations, insurance companies may help by analyzing the factors influence customer desire to purchase life insurance during inflation. To gather information from a wide sample of future and current life insurance clients in Pakistan, this study utilizes a qualitative methodology, including in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The qualitative data will be subjected to thematic analysis in order to extract patterns, themes, and insights.

EVALUATING FINANCIAL SOCIALIZATION MODEL THROUGH FINANCIAL CAPABILITY: EVIDENCE FROM URBAN CENTRE OF PAKISTAN

Ayesha Ali — 2023-12-31

Young adults have been considered an important asset in building the society. The ability of the young financial decision-makers in the contemporary financial environment has become a heated debate. The aim of the study is to investigate the influence of Parental financial modeling, Parental child financial discussion and experimental learning of finance on financial distress, financial satisfaction and financial independence through the mediation effect of financial management behaviour and financial self-efficacy and the moderation effect of financial capability. Previous studies have measured financial socialization in terms of financial capability but no such model has been used to investigate the model of family financial socialization in Pakistan. Using purposive sampling technique the data was collected from 392 young adults. The collected data was analysed using PLS Smart 3.3.2. Study findings suggest that financial self-efficacy plays a significant role in family financial socialization model financial wellbeing. However, the role of financial management is found insignificant implying that the financial behaviour of young adults in Pakistan depends on collective family decisions. Furthermore, this study does not find any moderating effect on financial capability suggesting that financial capability develops with age and experience.