Examining Impact of Islamic Work Ethic on Task Performance: Mediating Effect of Psychological Capital and a Moderating Role of Ethical Leadership

The twenty-first century has seen an increase in ethical misconduct at the workplace, highlighting the need to stimulate discussion on the role of work ethics. The objective of the current study is to extend the literature on work ethics by examining the role of Islamic work ethic in enhancing the task performance of employees. The current study proposes that psychological capital mediates the relationship between Islamic work ethic and task performance. It is also proposed that ethical leadership might act as a boundary condition that boosts the positive relationship between Islamic work ethic and psychological capital. Data were collected in three-time lags from employees working in the service sector of Pakistan (N?=?218) through the questionnaire. The results supported the mediation and moderation hypothesis, confirming that psychological capital mediates the relationship between Islamic work ethic and task performance. Ethical leadership moderates the relationship between Islamic work ethic and psychological capital. The results offer implications for theory and practice. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

     

Customer satisfaction and service domains: a further development of PROSERV

Quality & Quantity - This paper aims to represent that levels of customer satisfaction of tourist accommodation are an important prerequisite when the goal is building a loyal relationship with...     

Using CRM to Model Firm Performance in a Business-to-Business Market

Customer relationship management (CRM) is the widely accepted approach for gathering, examining, understanding and translating information related to customers into managerial action. CRM is investigated in the context of new product performance (NPP). CRM enhances NPP as well as firm performance. This study investigates the impact of CRM on NPP through the moderation of top management support and an innovative culture, as well as the impact of CRM on firm performance through the mediation of NPP. A questionnaire survey is used for data collection from marketing managers of 159 firms in Pakistan in the B-to-B market. Hypotheses were tested using SEM in SMART PLS. This research shows that CRM directly affects firm performance, while NPP partially mediates the relationship of CRM and firm performance. These findings have significant implications for the practitioner. This study delivers insights to managers and academicians about the role of CRM in enhancing NPP and improving firm performance. In general, the study provides new insights into CRM by integrating top management support and an innovative culture. The research extends our understanding that top management support and innovative culture do not moderate the relationship of CRM with new product performance in a B-to-B context.     

Moving freight on public transit: Best practices,challenges, and opportunities

Freight on Transit (FOT) refers to an operational strategy where public transit vehicles and/or infrastructure are used to move freight. Examples include moving goods alongside passengers on buses, attaching cargo trailers to transit vehicles, and operating freight vehicles between trains on subway lines. This paper describes the methods and results of a three-round Delphi study engaging 34 transportation experts to explore challenges and opportunities of FOT and to conceptualize and evaluate potential FOT operations in Toronto. Traditional Delphi methods were used for the exploration of FOT challenges and opportunities, and a modified approach was formulated to integrate experts' opinions and develop new FOT concepts for Toronto. The results support previous claims that technical challenges of FOT may be easier to overcome than institutional barriers. Evaluation of potential FOT operating strategies in Toronto suggests that while the current public transit network does not have capacity to support additional movements, there may be realistic opportunities to include freight service in future projects as a means of offsetting operating costs and reducing the impacts of goods movements.     

How Significant Is Sub‐Saharan Africa's Demographic Dividend for Its Future Growth and Poverty Reduction?

Sub‐Saharan Africa will be undergoing substantial demographic changes over the next 15 years with the rising working‐age share of its population. The opportunity of African countries to convert these changes into demographic dividends for growth and poverty reduction will depend on several factors. The outlook will likely be good if African countries can continue the gains already made under better institutions and policies, particularly those affecting the productivity of labor, such as educational outcomes. If African countries can continue to build on the hard‐won development gains, the demographic dividend could account for 11–15% of gross domestic product (GDP) volume growth by 2030, while accounting for 40–60 million fewer poor in 2030. The gains can become more substantial with better educational outcomes that allow African countries to catch up to other developing countries. If the skill share of Africa's labor supply doubles because of improvements in educational attainment, from 25 to about 50% between 2011 and 2030, then the demographic dividends can expand the regional economy additionally by 22% by 2030 relative to the base case and reduce poverty by an additional 51 million people.     

The legal framework and initiatives for promoting safety in the United Arab Emirates

Injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE is a rapidly developing country with fast economic growth, demographical and environmental changes that are associated with new hazards emerging at a similar pace. The UAE as a federal entity has federal and local systems responsible for safety policy, regulations and enforcement. To set priorities for safety promotion and injury prevention, it is necessary to have data on the most frequent external causes of injury and the main individual, equipment and environmental risk factors that contribute to injury. However good quality data for injury prevention are scarce. The aim of this paper is to describe the scale of injury as a public health problem in the UAE, and the development of safety policies, regulations and promotion efforts with special emphasis on traffic, occupational and child safety.     

SUSTAINABILITY AND WELLBEING: A SCIENTOMETRIC AND BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Interdisciplinary research on measuring the progress towards sustainability and well-being (SaW) from different perspectives and in various contexts has developed dramatically over recent decades. This growth in the literature has not only added an enormous number of dimensions to the SaW debate, but the sheer scale of the expansion has challenged researchers to be able to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the available SaW indicators. In this work, we have proposed a hybrid method comprised of sophisticated scientometric analysis to summarise scientific developments in the massive text corpus of the SaW literature in conjunction with a more traditional literature review to categorise the ‘fuzzy’ details that remain. Scientometric analysis highlights that the developed OECD countries play a vital role in the development and applications of SaW indicators and we describe key developments in this regard via a range of graphical approaches. Using an extensive collection of existing SaW indicators, the analysis is then summarised in a matrix of ranked indicators which serve as a powerful tool to compare, contrast, filter and select indicators for SaW assessment with minimum redundancies between indicators. The approach undertaken in this study is intended to be flexible and can be extended and applied to other fields of research.     

Imputation methods of missing data for estimating the population mean using simple random sampling with known correlation coefficient

This paper considers three ratio estimators of the population mean using known correlation coefficient between the study and auxiliary variables in simple random sample when some sample observations are missing. The suggested estimators are compared with the estimators of Singh and Horn (Metrika 51:267–276, 2000), Singh and Deo (Stat Pap 44:555–579, 2003) and Kadilar and Cingi (Commun Stat Theory Methods 37:2226–2236, 2008). They are compared with other imputation estimators based on the mean or a ratio. It is found that the suggested estimators are approximately unbiased for the population mean. Also, it turns out that the suggested estimators perform well when compared with the other estimators considered in this study.