University-industry collaboration plays a vital role in nation’s innovation system. This study presents an empirical analysis of R & D collaboration between university and industry. The literature focused on the all those factors including firm size, firm’s innovation activity and openness of the firm affecting university-industry collaboration. Primary data is used and sample contains 15 industrial sectors of Pakistan according to market capitalization at the time of data collection. The empirical results of the study suggest that firm’s size, number of employees and openness of the firm have positive impact on uni-industry collaboration for R & D projects. Whilst annual budget of the firms is found to have negative relationship with R & D collaborations and larger firms are found to be less efficient in taking advantages of R & D collaboration with universities because larger firms have more spending on their fixed costs as they have participated in so many R & D activities.

The novel funding sources turn out to be important for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector all over the world especially after 2007-2008 world financial crisis. Thus, to develop a new business idea and start-ups, SMEs need a sufficient amount of capital. However, after the financial crisis in 2008, SME sector faced the challenges of attracting new capital. Therefore, an innovative method of fundraising for SME was introduced as crowdfunding. Crowdfunding indicates financing a project or an idea via the internet owing the help from the many investors or donors of a society. Since there are limited works about the influence of Crowdfunding on Entrepreneur Self-efficacy (ESE), hence, to minimize the research gap and to achieve the objective of the study, we conduct a quantitative research among 190 entrepreneurs in Bangladesh using crowdfunding based on Social Cognitive theory. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in IBM-SPSS-Amos 25.0 and the stated hypotheses were tested. The study found a direct and positive effect of Crowdfunding on Entrepreneur’s Self-efficacy (β=0.924, P=.001). Overall, the result has landed support for crowdfunding, which indicates that it can influence on self-efficacy of entrepreneur. In order to determine the need of crowdfunding, we have explained and statistically demonstrated how crowdfunding can provide a supplementary channel where firms can gain finance and to create self-efficacy of entrepreneurs through exploiting the potential of internet.

Although several prior research projects have focused on the factors that impact on the adoption of information technology, there are limited empirical research works that simultaneously capture technology factors (UTAUT2) and customer specific factors (perceived technology security and intention to recommend) helping users adopt internet banking. Thus, the current study aims to develop an integrated technology adoption model with extended UTAUT model and perceived technology security to predict and explain user’s intention to adopt internet banking and intention to recommend internet banking in social networks. A quantitative approach based survey was conducted to collect the data from 398 internet banking users. For statistical analysis, structural equation model (SEM) approach was used. Convergence and divergence with earlier findings were found, confirming that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, hedonic motivation and perceived technology security had significant influence on user’s intention to adopt internet banking. Additionally, IPMA analysis show that among all constructs hedonic motivation and perceived technology security had the highest impact on user’s intention to adopt internet banking. For researcher, this study provides a basis for further refinement of technology adoption model while for practitioner improving security factor (perceived technology security) may turn users towards adoption of internet banking.

This study delved into the repercussions of economic instability on household food security while aiming to construct a robust framework for enhancing the resilience of the food supply chain. It thoroughly analyzed diverse factors, including government policies, economic conditions, environmental variables, and social dynamics, to gauge their reciprocal impact on food security. The research employed a meticulously chosen probability-based sample to ensure the representativeness of findings within the population, specifically focusing on residents in the Tanjung Kupang region of Johor. The study holds paramount significance as it provides novel insights for researchers, academic practitioners, and policymakers, shedding light on the far-reaching consequences of economic uncertainty on household purchasing power and its pivotal role in upholding food security. Moreover, it aspires to devise a tailored and sustainable food supply chain framework for Malaysia's unique context. By employing a quantitative approach enriched with robust statistical analysis and insights gathered through a meticulously designed questionnaire, this study sought to illuminate the intricate dynamics at play. The findings underscore the profound impact of economic instability on diminishing the income of B40 households, thereby curtailing their purchasing power. These findings align with comprehensive literature reviews from authoritative sources, underscoring factors such as inflation, soaring prices of essential commodities, and stagnant incomes contributing to the decline in income among B40 households. The implications of this research extend to policymakers, offering invaluable insights and promoting public awareness of potential challenges, along with plausible solutions.

Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) includes measurement and structural model for hypothesis testing. The results yielded from structural model is unlikely to be valid if a poor loading of an indicator is selected. The impact of these erroneous result on standardized loading is disregard. Thus, knowing how poor loading can affect the validity of measurement model is a crucial issue. This paper attempts to compare the standardized loadings result between two prominent SEM methods (CBSEM and PLS-SEM) using three varied of simulation models (TRA, Loyalty and UTAUT model) to investigate their effects on reliability and validity of measurement model. The data for each model were generated using R software by setting the value of standardized loading and the construct correlations (N=50, 100, 200 and 500). The value of standardized loadings was set to 0.60 for each construct in the model while the construct correlations were set in the range between 0.45 to 0.65. Then, the AMOS 21.0 and ADANCO 2.0 were used to perform the statistical analysis. It shows that good standardized loading can increase the reliability and validity of construct representation. CBSEM is particularly yielded valid and unbiased estimation under confirmatory condition (established theory) compared with PLS-SEM. The results are illustrated with empirical examples. This paper provides updated evidence about CBSEM and PLS-SEM when assessing the measurement model.

Employee deviance is prevalent and could have significant consequences to organizations and/or its members. Drawing upon deterrence theory, this study examined the mediating role of self-regulatory efficacy on the relationship between punishment certainty, punishment severity and organizational deviance. The participants were 197 employed postgraduate students who enrolled in the Master of Business Administration programme at two universities located in the north-west geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The model tested suggests that both punishment certainty and punishment severity predict organizational deviance through the influence of self-regulatory efficacy. Results suggest that self-regulatory efficacy partially mediates the relationship between punishment certainty and organizational deviance. Similarly, results suggest that the relationship between punishment severity and organizational deviance was partially mediated by self-regulatory efficacy.

Recent organizational trends give more importance to the social and responsible behavior of organizations to their sustainability. Numerous factors are responsible for prioritizing social responsiveness and pro-environmental or employee-green behavior for organizational sustainability. Nevertheless, no studies have yet considered how voluntary green behavior (VGB) and socially responsible human resource management (SRHRM) influence this perception. Hence, this study determines the explanatory link of VGB along with the impacts of SRHRM on organizational sustainability (environmental [EnS], social [SS], and economic [ES] sustainability). Data was collected from a developing nation context. An explanatory research strategy was used for the present study. To acquire data from 100 Bangladeshi pharmaceutical manufacturing organizations, structured questionnaires were used. For testing the proposed hypotheses of the study, we used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The outcomes of the analysis reveal that SRHRM has a considerable impact, both positively and significantly, on organizational sustainability (EnS, SS, and ES). Once again, SRHRM has a substantial positive effect on VGB. Furthermore, VGB plays an influential role as a mediator in the relationship between SRHRM and organizational sustainability. The findings have significant implications for pharmaceutical manufacturing organization management in Bangladesh and other Southeast Asian contexts. Based on the findings, pharmaceutical company managers will have a stronger rationale to invest in SRHRM while simultaneously establishing strong ties with employees and CSR-oriented green behavior to accomplish their organizational sustainability objectives. This study contributes to the existing body of research on the sustainability of organizations and the triple bottom line, along with SRHRM and VGB, by providing evidence from a country that is rapidly industrializing and developing. In this work, SRHRM was measured as a whole, even though it has three dimensions. Since the sample consists of Bangladeshi pharmaceutical manufacturing organizations, it is also uncertain whether the results can be generalized.

In this paper, a backward approach is proposed for maximizing net present value (NPV) in multi-mode resource constrained project scheduling problem while assuming discounted positive cash flows (MRCPSP-DCF). The progress payment method is used and all re-sources are considered as pre-emptible. The proposed approach maximizes NPV using unscheduled resources through resource calendar in backward mode. For this purpose, a Genetic Algorithm is applied to solve experimental cases with 50 variables and the results are compared with forward serial programming method. The remarkable results reveal that the backward approach is an effective way to maximize NPV in MRCPSP-DC while activity splitting is allowed. The algorithm is flexible enough to be used in real project.

In service oriented industry, it is very difficult to set a standard rule to satisfy customers. As customer awareness increases on the service offered by banks, expectation from services quality increases too. Quality of a service in banking industry plays an essential role in measuring the performance of banks. Thus, the present study examines the PAKSERV model to measure customer satisfaction and customer loyalty of Islamic Banks in Palestine. A survey method was adopted where data was collected from 482 respondents through structured questionnaire. Structural equation model (SEM) was applied to check the hypothesis relationship between proposed constructs. Statistical finding revealed that PAKSERV model had significant impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in Islamic banks of Palestine. Results also revealed that in cultural context PAKSERV model was the most appropriate scale and had predictive power of service quality in banking industry of Palestine. The findings of this study will be helpful for managers and policy makers to improve the service quality in Islamic banks of Palestine.

The objective of this paper is to determine the effect of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as a new accounting reporting among Nigerian listed firms. This study uses book value, earnings and dividends to fill in the gap using a sample of 126 Nigerian listed firms in the stock market from 2009 to 2013 (pre and Post-IFRS adoption). Data was collected from Thompson Reuters, Bank scope DataStreams and annual reports. The study adopted Ohlson (1995) [Ohlson, J. (1995). Earnings, book-value, and dividends in equity valuation. Contemporary Accounting Research, 11(2), 661–687.] price model that has been frequently used in determining the quality of accounting information studies. The study finds that combined book value, earnings and dividends do not provide statistical significance effects on IFRS after adoption on the quality of accounting information. This could be possible, as dividends do not provide a significant effect in the presence of earnings. Furthermore, the audit big 4 quality provided an effect on the quality of accounting information because of IFRS adoption. Therefore, findings of this study provide additional literature on the decreasing quality of accounting information in an emerging market setting like Nigeria. The study implication is to the policy makers, regulators, and government that accounting information do not provide value relevance among Nigerian listed firms after IFRS adoption.