This study intended to examine the effect of information technology (IT) investment and corporate governance mechanism on the performance of the Saudi telecommunication sector with mediating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR). A survey method was used to collect data from the targeted Saudi telecom firm. Results show that corporate governance practices, i.e., internal audit, internal audit committee, and internal board size, have a significant and positive relationship with firm performance. Furthermore, IT investment positively affects the performance of Saudi telecommunication (...) firms. Moreover, CSR mediates the relationship among internal audit, internal audit committee, internal board size, IT investment, and firm performance. This study contributes to the body of knowledge regarding IT investment, corporate governance mechanism, corporate social responsibilities, and firm performance of telecommunication firms in emerging markets. Furthermore, this study will help the top management of the telecom firms to improve corporate governance and IT investment, which will be beneficial to enhance firm performance. (shrink)

This research article offers a study on a new relation of rough sets and soft sets with an algebraic structure quantale module by using soft reflexive and soft compatible relations. The lower approximation and upper approximation of subsets of quantale module are utilized by aftersets and foresets. As a sequel of this relation, different characterizations of rough soft substructures of quantale modules are obtained. To ensure the results, soft reflective and soft compatible relations are focused and these are interpreted by (...) aftersets and foresets. Furthermore, the algebraic relations between upper approximation of substructures of quantale module and the upper approximations of their homomorphic images with the help of quantale module homomorphism are examined. In comparison with the different type of approximations in different type of algebraic structures, it is concluded that this new study is much better. (shrink)

This research study was aimed to examine the cross-national coverage and framing patterns about Jamal Khashoggi’s murder in international media through focusing on newspapers. Khashoggi; an internationally acclaimed US based Saudi journalist was brutally assassinated at Kingdom’s consulate in Turkey which created the global outcry. As this issue made headlines worldwide for several months, the media from USA, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Turkey; the most substantially and politically involved countries presumably used certain framing patterns in their coverage. To find (...) out the difference in coverage intensity and media frames, a content analysis based comparative study of US, Saudi and Turkish newspapers was conducted which is guided by the framing theory of Mass Communication. The results showed that the media from three selected countries dealt the same issue with significant differences in coverage and framing patterns. We concluded based on our findings that such differences in cross-national coverage patterns were influenced by the respective state’s ideology, interests, governance system, public narrative, or media settings. This study also explored some facts regarding freedom of expression and about journalists who have been targeted in reprisal of their professional work all over the world. The findings of the study elaborate that most of the newspapers used anti-Saudi frames in their coverage. So far as overall coverage is concerned Turkish and US papers provided a significant coverage to the issue while newspapers from Saudi Arabia provided least coverage to the issue as their media are highly state bound. (shrink)

Workplace incivility is under investigation for the last three decades, and it holds a central position in organizational behavior literature. However, despite the extensive investigations in the past, there exists a missing link between workplace incivility and knowledge hiding in academia. This study aims to tap this missing link for which data were collected from the universities staff. Data were collected in two waves to reduce the common method biases. In the first wave, questions were asked from the respondents regarding (...) their demographic characteristics and exposure to workplace incivility. At this stage, 400 questionnaires were floated and 355 completely filled responses were received back, while in the second wave, those respondents were approached for data collection who have completely filled questionnaires in the first wave. The time interval between the two waves was 1 month. In the second wave, questions related to distrust and knowledge hiding behavior were asked from the respondents. At this stage, 323 questionnaires were received back out of which 290 were filled and these were considered for final data analysis. Collected data were analyzed by applying structural equation modeling through SmartPLS. Results indicated that employees tend to hide knowledge when they experience incivility at workplace. Moreover, they develop a sense of distrust in response to workplace incivility which further triggers them to hide knowledge. Limitations and future directions are also discussed. (shrink)

Counterfeiting has become a prevalent business worldwide, resulting in high losses for many businesses. Considerable attention has been paid to research an individual attitude toward purchasing luxury counterfeit products in the offline context. However, there is currently lesser-known literature on the given phenomenon in the context of social commerce. Moreover, researchers observed that counterfeiting consumption is associated with consumer ethical values or beliefs. Practitioners and researchers are keen to find those factors that affect consumers’ ethical consumption behavior to reduce pirated (...) products’ demand. However, the role of religion in shaping ethical behavior is less documented in the counterfeiting context. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of religiosity on the counterfeiting of luxury products in Pakistan. A five-dimensional Islamic religiosity model was adopted to understand the consumption phenomena. For quantitative research, cross-sectional data were collected from the generation M of Pakistan through self-administrative questionnaires. A total of 394 valid responses from active online users were collected to empirically examine the conceptual model by employing the partial least square structural equation model. The results reveal that all five dimensions of religiosity negatively affect the attitude of generation M. Moreover, it is found that knowledge has the highest negative effect on attitude, followed by orthopraxis, experience, central duties, and basic duties. The study also explains the theoretical and practical implications of the research. Finally, limitations and future research were also discussed. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2019 has created an acute fear of economic crisis, and people have experienced the state of perceived job insecurity. Several measures were taken to control this deadly pandemic, but it still affected the majority of global operational activities. This study addresses the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal number 8 that relates to decent work and economic growth. This quantitative study examines the impact of fear associated with economic crisis and perceived job insecurity on mental (...) health with the moderating effect of surface and deep acting. Surface acting is displaying fake emotions, and deep acting is modifying inner feelings according to the required emotions. This study used sample data from private-sector employees and applied SmartPLS for structural model assessment. As many organizations took more challenging decisions to sustain their business operations, the study therefore analyzes the impact of the pandemic on private sector employees. The two main findings of the study are: surface acting moderates the relationships of fear of economic crisis and perceived job insecurity with mental health and declines the impact of both on mental health, while deep acting negatively moderates the relationships of fear of economic crisis and perceived job insecurity with mental health and improved mental health even in the presence of both. The study highlighted the importance of deep acting at workplaces to sustain employees’ mental and psychological stability. Organizations could introduce emotional labor strategies and strengthen the mental health of their employees against the underlying fear of economic crisis and perceived job insecurity. (shrink)

BackgroundCOVID-19 break out has created panic and fear in society. A strict kind of lockdown was imposed in Wuhan, Hubei province of China. During home confinement due to lockdown, people face multidimensional issues. The present study explored the psychological impacts of COVID-19 home confinement during the lockdown period and Wuhan’s residents’ attitude toward physical activity.MethodsA cross-sectional online survey was conducted to collect the primary data according to the study objectives. The population was Wuhan residents who were in home confinement. A (...) total of 2280 participant’s reply to the online questionnaire survey and collected data after quantifying the data, about 2200 ; about female, about male, others about, and about were not disclosed their gender participants responses were used for analysis. The collected data were analyzed through appropriate statistical techniques.ResultsAccording to results, H1 is supported with β = −40.793, t = 57.835, p = 0.000, which claimed a negative association between COVID-19 lockdown policy and behavior and attitude. Results for H2 reveals that the COVID-19 lockdown policy have negative influence on emotional control with β = −0.769, t = 46.766, p = 0.000 and it is supported. H3 documented a significant positive relationship between COVID-19 lockdown policy and lockdown period psychological impact, which means lockdown policy, is the main reason to increase the lockdown psychological impact. Further, COVID-19 lockdown policy have negative influence on physical activity and self-belief with β = −0.657, t = 32.766, p = 0.000 and β = −0.620, t = −6.766, p = 0.000 respectively. H6 stated that there is a positive impact of behavior and attitude toward physical activity. The results for H6, behavior, and attitude affecting the physical activity with β = 0.401, t = 10, p = 0.000, which is supported.ConclusionCOVID-19 home confinement created various psychological impacts, negatively affecting the emotional state due to depression and anxiety. Physical activity is the best strategy to manage human nature’s psychological issues, and people’s attitudes were positive toward physical activity during home confinement. However, the lockdown policy also affects physical activity participation negatively, and a sedentary lifestyle prevailed during home confinement. (shrink)

The impact of Online Social Networks on human lives is foreseen to be very large with unprecedented amount of data and users. OSN users share their ideas, photos, daily life events, feelings and news. Since OSNs’ security and privacy challenges are more potential than ever before, it is necessary to enhance the protection and filtering approaches of OSNs contents. This paper explores OSNs’ threats and challenges, and categorize them into: account-based, URL-based and content-based threats. In addition, we analyze the existing (...) protection methods and highlight their limitations and weaknesses. Based on that, we propose a comprehensive, user-level, proactive and real-time OSNs’ protection system, called Hybrid Real-time Social Networks Protector. HRSP has three components; a user-level security protocol and two classification models. The protocol defines a structure for OSN’s cryptographic services, including encryption, access control and users’ authentication. The classification models employ machine learning, black lists, white lists and users’ feedback, in order to classify URLs into: Benign, Risk and Inappropriate classes, and contents into: Benign, Hate speech and Inappropriate classes. We constructed two data sets of 150,000 URLs and 22,000 tweets to build and test the two classification models. Results show an overall accuracy of 93.2% for the URL model and 84.4% for the content model, while the protocol implementation produces compatible size and time overhead. The components of HRSP are integrated and have compatible design with OSN platforms. (shrink)

The philosopher's stone : the epitome of my knowledge -- Preface -- Introduction -- Collectania -- The need for a tool -- A dream to organize chaos -- Substance abuse and a headache -- A habit from paradise -- A sealed story -- Stealing a seal -- Loosing a tool -- Believe it or not -- A blessing in curse-dressing -- Growing pains -- Lost paradises -- Diaries, my beloved diaries -- A taste like honey -- Physics of the heart (...) -- Gems of a child -- A story of a lawyer -- Optical memories -- The talisman -- Prayer...prayer -- Meditation, concentration, contemplation and other buzz words -- The neurotic need for completion -- The microsoft way -- Anatomy of a need -- A side that shuns mattresses -- I want a tool -- The treatment device for the mujahid salah mustafa -- Meditation tips -- Epilogue: the case for I don't know. (shrink)

Diabetes is one of the most common metabolic diseases that cause high blood sugar. Early diagnosis of such a condition is challenging due to its complex interdependence on various factors. There is a need to develop critical decision support systems to assist medical practitioners in the diagnosis process. This research proposes developing a predictive model that can achieve a high classification accuracy of type 2 diabetes. The study consisted of two fundamental parts. Firstly, the study investigated handling missing data adopting (...) data imputation, namely, median value imputation, K-nearest neighbor imputation, and iterative imputation. Consequently, the study validated the implications of these imputations using various classification algorithms, i.e., linear, tree-based, and ensemble algorithms, to see how each method affected classification accuracy. Secondly, Artificial Neural Network was employed to model the best performing imputed data, balanced with SMOTETomek ensuring each class is represented fairly. This approach provided the best accuracy of 98% on the test data, outperforming accuracies achieved in prior studies using the same dataset. The dataset used in this study is concerned with gender and population. As a prospect, the study recommends adopting a larger population sample without geographic boundaries. Additionally, as the developed Artificial Neural Network model did not undergo any specific hyperparameter tuning, it would be interesting to explore tuning on top of normalized data to optimize accuracy further. (shrink)

BackgroundIn recent years, technological advancements have increased the importance of innovation activities. Therefore, firms invest millions of dollars in innovation activities to ensure long-term business sustainability. Similarly, consumer concerns have increased dramatically over the past years. Thus, brand loyalty has become a top priority for firms and consumers. In this background, this research examines how firms’ innovation activities translate into consumer brand loyalty to assure business sustainability in Asian markets, particularly China, Pakistan, and Indonesia.ObjectivesThis study’s specific objectives are to comprehend (...) the concept of firms’ innovation activities and their effect on the brand prototype. Examine the effect of the brand prototype on global brand preference, recommendation, and loyalty among Asian consumers. Find out the impact of brand preference on brand recommendations and the influence of brand recommendations on brand loyalty among Asian consumers.Materials and methodsA total of 814 consumers from Asian countries participated in this study, and structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.ResultsThe findings indicate that firms’ innovation activities, such as processes, products, and store environment, positively influenced the brand prototype, thereby increasing consumer brand knowledge. Likewise, brand prototype contributes to developing brand preference, brand recommendation, and brand loyalty among Asian consumers. Lastly, consumer brand preference significantly influenced brand recommendation, which positively improves consumer brand loyalty in Asia.ConclusionThis study concluded that Asian consumers have favorable perceptions of firms’ innovation activities, which influences their ability to develop brand prototypes to increase consumer brand knowledge. Similarly, brand prototype fosters brand preference, recommendation, and loyalty. Likewise, favorable brand preference encourages consumers to recommend the brand to others, strengthening brand loyalty. Thus, firms should invest in innovation activities to strengthen consumer brand loyalty in Asian markets. Consequently, this study may assist multinational corporations in increasing their business volumes and market shares in Asia.Managerial recommendationsThis study provides important managerial recommendations. The findings revealed that global managers can develop and implement several branding strategies for sustaining their businesses in the Asian environment. (shrink)

This research aims to determine which dimensions of online convenience influence generation z consumers’ cognitive and affective attitudes and online impulsive buying behavior. The moderating effect of social media celebrity is also investigated to examine the attitude-behavior gap. A total of 348 responses from Chinese users who followed digital celebrities were received using purposive sampling. Data analysis and hypothesis testing were carried out using SmartPLS, version 3. The results indicated that relationship convenience, possession convenience, post possession conveniences, transaction convenience, and (...) evaluation convenience have a crucial impact on cognitive and affective attitudes. Similarly, cognitive and affective attitudes are significant and positive predictors of generation z consumers’ online impulsive buying behavior. Moreover, empirical results supported the moderating role of social media celebrities that aid marketers in selecting a product endorser. The implications for marketers and policymakers are discussed based on the above research findings. Moreover, future research directions are suggested. (shrink)

With the increasing growth of online shopping, businesses are intertwining to establish new shopping antecedents. Customer experience has steadily become the most important source of retailers’ long-term competitive advantage via difference. To preserve long-term and sustained consumer loyalty, retailers must continually improve the customer experiences. This study presents a framework for online retailing in a digital environment called the Online Customer Experience-Engagement Context model in the presence of value co-creation. Data was gathered from 189 people who purchased products online. For (...) additional analysis, testing the hypothesis, and model construction, SPSS 26 and Smart-PLS were used. The data was then evaluated further using descriptive statistics, path analysis, measurement, and structural model. The findings show that the online customer experience substantially influenced customer engagement, which improved customer loyalty. The VCC strengthened the link between online customer experience and customer engagement. It suggests that including consumers in co-creating a delightful online customer experience from time to time may be a valuable strategy for online retailers to increase customer engagement and loyalty. To create an overarching outcome, information integration theory, multi-attribute utility theory, and the attitude-behavior-context theory theories are converged to explain the proposed model in the study. (shrink)

Data center technology changes the mode of computing. Traditional DCs consist of a single layer and only have Ethernet connections among switches. Those old-fashioned DCs cannot fulfill the high resource demand compared with today’s DCs. The architectural design of the DCs is getting substantial importance and acting as the backbone of the network because of its essential feature of supporting and maintaining the rapidly increasing Internet-based applications which include search engines and social networking applications. Every application has its parameters, like (...) latency and blocking in the DC network. Every data center network has its specialized architecture. It has a specific arrangement of layers and switches, which increase or decrease the DC network’s efficiency. We develop a simulation tool that comprises two different DC architectures: basic tree architecture and c-Through architecture. Using this simulation, we analyze the traffic behavior and the performance of the simulated DCN. Our main purpose is to focus on mean waiting time, load, and blocking with respect to the traffic within the DCN. (shrink)

In jails, the prisoners are often maltreated by the jail authorities.They are abused, and, their fundamental rights as human beings are frequentlyviolated. Although laws upholding the rights of prisoners are plenty,unfortunately, these seem ineffective in preventing the abuse of prisonersin jails. This paper examines the problems of jailed prisoners in general andhighlights their violations of human rights. In particular, this paper discussessexual abuse of prisoners, their mental and physical tortures, and enforcement ofprison labour laws. The paper also focuses on overcrowding (...) in jails, inadequateeducational facilities for prisoners and poor health care facilities. This articleanalyses these issues from the perspectives of Islamic Law and attempts toprovide a conceptual frame work of solutions. An analytical approach isemployed in this study. (shrink)

During the COVID-19 epidemic, personal safety has received increasing attention, leading to behavioral changes. Mobile-wallet makes it easier for people to keep social distance, which helps stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Evolving Internet technology has brought about changes in consumer lifestyle. The current situation of COVID-19 has created a business environment to shift from traditional ways and adopt e-commerce solutions worldwide. Grounded in technology acceptance model theory, this study’s objective is two-fold: First, this study intends to examine perceived (...) susceptibility to COVID-19, perceived severity of COVID-19, insecurity and discomfort as the predictors of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Second, the current research intends to test the moderating effect of electronic words-of-mouth on the relationship between attitude and usage intention. Using survey methods, 226 usable responses were collected through a mall intercept survey in Pakistan. Data were analyzed using partial least square. The results revealed that PEOU and PU positively influence attitude toward M-wallet. This study has found that attitude positively influences the usage intention in adopting M-wallet. The results also support the moderating role of eWOM. These findings contribute to the marketing literature in several ways, particularly in Pakistan. This is the first study to use eWOM as a moderating variable in the TAM theory. In addition, this study adds to the current body of knowledge by considering eWOM as a multi-dimensional construct novel in m-wallet literature. (shrink)

Climate change has increasingly been recognised and associated with consumer behaviour: Practitioners are developing their strategies to reduce environmental degradation while increasing the management of sustainable consumption; it needs to better understand consumer attitudes and eco-friendly factors about the issue. Therefore, the current study focused to understand the effects of pro-environmental factors on individuals’ environmental attitudes through the lens of theory of planned behaviour in a cross-cultural setting. Moreover, present research focuses on the moderating role that religiosity plays in causal (...) pathways between certain determinants and intentions in this context. A multi-wave time-lagged research design was employed in this study, and university students from two developing countries were surveyed. The findings revealed pronounced similarities between the two examined countries. Overwhelmingly, pro-environmental factors examined were found to be positively related to attitude formation. Further results showed that attitude and subjective norms are significant predictors of the intention to purchase products with recycled packaging. Moreover, with the exception of perceived behavioural control, religiosity moderates the relationships between all the determinants of TPB and intention to purchase recycled packaged products. Present study offers insightful implications to management of these emerging and/or similar cultural markets regarding customer value for green products. Using TPB, present study broadened and deepen extant stream of literature on consumption of recycled packaged products in two highly emerging markets; Pakistan and Malaysia. (shrink)