This study aims to build a framework for measuring the productivity in the public transport sector through a data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique. This paper extends the Malmquist productivity index (MP1) and Luenberger productivity indicator (I.P1) evaluation with the concept of an input-oriented new slack model (NSM). NSM model measures the efficiency with the effect of slacks and satisfies unit invariance, radial and translation invariance properties. In particular, the purpose of the proposed extension is to obtain the overall productivity change in terms of technical change (Frontier Shift) and technical efficiency change (Catch-up Effect) for Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC) bus depots from 2008 to 2019. For this purpose, the number of buses, number of employers, fuel consumption and route distance arc are considered input variables, while passenger-kilometres occupied and vehicle utilisation are output variables. Finally, the result demonstrates that the average total factor productivity (TFP) growth of 46 depots using MPI and LPI over the study period is 1.956% and 1.409%, respectively. This study enables policy-maker and managers to evaluate the input to reach consistent output up to an optimum level and understand the process of improving the productivity level for the bus depots.

There are many leadership styles, which have different impacts on employees' performance. In higher education, faculty performance depends on many factors including Leadership style & Organizational culture. This study aims to examine the effect of leadership styles on faculty performance (FP) and more specifically to examine the moderating effect of Organizational Culture in the association between leadership styles and faculty performance in higher education institutions (MUET, Jamshoro). This study used quantitative methodology to identify the leadership styles which exist in MUET, Jamshoro, and their impact on faculty performance with organizational culture as moderator. It used both the sampling techniques probability and non-probability, and the sample size was 384 and the data was analyzed in SmartPLS 3. For leadership style, Full Range Leadership Model was adopted and for organizational culture, Competing Value Framework (CVF) was used. This study found that Transformational (TF) leadership has a positive significant relation with faculty performance at MUET, Jamshoro. And Organizational Culture (OC) as moderator negatively moderates the relation between Laissez-faire (LF) leadership and faculty performance (FP). According to faculty, transformational leadership is best suited to promote their performance on account of giving them challenging work, autonomy, mutual trust, through supporting subordinates' creativity, improving their confidence, and maintaining collaborations. Laissez-faire leadership also exists in an academic institution and has a positive impact on faculty performance. However, Transactional leadership has a negative impact on faculty performance. The future study could be conducted in other universities, or a comparison of leadership styles can be made between public and private universities with different models of leadership style and with different organizational culture models.

Based on the expectancy disconfirmation theory, the study presents a conceptual model exploring consumer perception (perceived service quality, product quality, price, and corporate social responsibility) effect on satisfaction and word of mouth in smallholder horticulture stores. A quantitative analysis using Partial Least Squares-based Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was carried. This method was used to identify elements influencing satisfaction and to explore the hypothesised relationships between consumer perceptions, satisfaction, and the spreading of positive word of mouth. The findings identify the perceived service quality and product quality as factors that enhance satisfaction. However, the perceived quality of the product is the only factor that aids word of mouth. Correspondingly, perceived product quality shows a favorable relationship with perceived price. On the other hand, perceived price and corporate social responsibility do not strengthen customer satisfaction, with corporate social responsibility not aiding word of mouth. Furthermore, the study tested the strength of cus-tomer satisfaction as a mediating variable between consumer perception and word of mouth, and none of the results proved significant. Similarly, perceived price does not mediate the path between perceived product quality and customer satisfaction. The study is of benefit to scholars, smallholders, and agricultural policymakers, particularly in emerging economies.

This research seeks to contribute to the retention Duhok kidney & diseases transplantation center (DKDTC), and health organizations their talent in COVID-19 era. To achieve this objective, we use (IBM SPSS Amoss V.22) to analyze the mediating role of career planning (CP) in the relationship of financial compensation (FC) with talent retention (TR) in DKDTC. The data collected was analyzed through 63 questionnaires, which was distributed to the talents working in DKDTC from May 2020 to March 2021. The researchers reached several conclusions, the most important of which are that CP has a partial mediating role in the relationship between FC and TR. Therefore, this research recommends enhancing the ability of DKDTC and health organizations to TR in a COVID-19 era and they must be relying on FC, and a program that includes clear steps in CP.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant changes in many aspects especially towards small medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) as many of SMEs need to shut down their business due to movement control order (MCO) conducted by Malaysia government as SMEs cannot reach their customers. Previous studies show that having an effective digital marketing strategy in place might leave businesses vulnerable to severe setbacks towards SMEs. This research proposal aims to carry out and prove the possible potential effects and factors that influence digital marketing implementation towards online consumers in Selangor during COVID-19 pandemic. The methodology of this paper uses a descriptive qualitative approach by analyzing various previous literature on digital marketing scope of study. The sample size of the study is 235 respondents who were selected based on convenience sampling. The finding has discovered that there is a significant relationship between customer loyalty with implementation of digital marketing towards online consumers in Selangor during COVID-19 pandemic and there is a significance relationship between brand awareness and the implementation of digital marketing towards online consumer in Selangor during COVID-19 pandemic.

Management scholars view workplace spirituality as the main factor behind building trust among employees and playing a pivotal role in enhancing the organization's positive outcomes, i.e., knowledge sharing behavior & work engagement. Underpinning social exchange theory, we explored the linkage between workplace spirituality, knowledge sharing behavior, and work engagement. We further studied to look at the mediating effect of trust between workplace spirituality and positive outcomes. Data was collected from six private companies, the total number of respondents was (n=196). The study's analysis showed that workplace spirituality substantially positively impacts knowledge sharing behavior and work engagement. Furthermore, the link between workplace spirituality, knowledge sharing behavior, and work engagement is positively and statistically significantly mediated by trust. Thus, this work contributes significantly to the research paradigm by presenting workplace spirituality as a solution for high-rise trust among employees, fostering employee engagement in their work, and improving the capacity of knowledge-sharing behavior. Additionally, at the end of this study, theoretical and managerial suggestions, future avenues, and limitations are stated.

The current research study aims to analyze the impact of cash holding on investment efficiency by moderating the role of corporate governance among financially distressed firms. The data for 14 years (2006-2019) is gathered from 400 companies of two Asian emerging economies (Pakistan and India). The results are obtained by applying a generalized method of moments (GMM), which postulates that corporate governance improves cash holding with investment efficiency in the Indian scenario and decreases in the Pakistani scenario. Concerning financially distressed firms, corporate governance strengthens the relationship of cash holding with investment efficiency in the Pakistani context but showing no moderating role in the Indian scenario. The results are helpful in cash management decisions to minimize the agency issue and to avail investment opportunities.

Gravitational models are currently a commonly used methodology to analyze the behavior of countries' trade flows. These studies typically seek to measure the impact of distance and the size of economies as factors that increase or decrease the propensity to trade between countries. Instead of using the traditional model, this paper introduces two distance variables which are built as modernity factors of culture and productive and institutional apparatus that give some evidence the importance of the economic and institutional stability of the countries to favor trade flows. The new model is tested using historical data of Colombia foreign trade between 1995 and 2015 (which is the most updated year publicly available).

In the world, the video game industry has really exploded until about 2000, and since then has achieved great strides, becoming one of the leading forms of the entertainment industry, at least in terms of revenue. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the consumer behavior in the case of video games with three objectives: identify the factors affecting customer satisfaction for video games; analyze these factors to understand how they affect consumer behavior and propose some recommendations to improve the customer satisfaction for video games. Data was collected from 205 Vietnamese gamers addressing the variables of individual, psychological, cultural, and social factors. Regression analysis found that all four factors positively affect consumer behavior, in terms of customer satisfaction, especially cultural factors. The findings of this research analyzed the theoretical foundations of the theory of behavior, based on which investigated the study of consumer behavior of video game services of players in Vietnam by market research, analyze data, thereby helping businesses understand the psychological response, consumer behavior of customers, and can devise appropriate strategies.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a motivation for full usage of autonomous driving. Many have predicted that autonomous technology would significantly disrupt the transportation industry. This research examines how autonomous driving might impact and disrupt the ridesharing industry and their drivers. The hypothesis is that autonomous vehicles (AV) will negatively impact the ridesharing industry. To examine the full effects of this disruption, we researched current literature on driverless technology cars and the ridesharing industry. Factors examined include: current economics of drivers and vehicles, public perception and acceptance, technological readiness, collaborations, regulations, and liability. Key findings from a host of resources were tabulated to build a case for the proposed hypothesis. The results provide a more comprehensive timeline estimate, predicted $0.75 cost estimate per mile by 2040, and documented the collaboration figure among the players that shows the significant investments across different industries. This research shows that the ridesharing industry’s current business model is due for a significant disruption by autonomous driving capabilities. Drivers in the ridesharing industry might likely suffer the most, however not for at least another decade or so. There are many independent factors, which must be further scrutinized to develop a more comprehensive understanding as to the velocity of this disruption. Findings from this study would be applicable while evaluating the future of autonomous vehicles.