Volume 5 Number 1 2015

Abstract

Service quality is a core element of measuring, analyzing and achieving customer satisfaction. This has led to the emergence of different models. These models have helped in ensuring quality and effectiveness of strategies developed to attain, sustain and retain customers. The purpose of this research was to explore the impact of service quality, brand reputation and security for customer satisfaction. This study was conducted in leading Islamic banks, where 300 e- banking customers were selected. The data were collected through a questionnaire and has been subjective to quantitative and qualitative analysis. After applying descriptive statistics, T-test was applied. A significant relationship was found among variables. The results indicated that among said variables service quality had a major impact on customer satisfaction than brand reputation and security.

Aim behind initiating this article is to rightly comprehend the conceptutilization of leadership assessment in an organization. Concept and leadership assessment models of 360 degree feedback proposed by many famous scholars were studies and discussed thoroughly to present the literary wisdom in best possible manner. Through this instrument we can collect the assessment about an individual (assesse) from all possible concerned personnel (assessors) instead of just one boss. A number of Multi- National Corporations (MNCs) are now among the beneficiaries of this tool therefore its use has become contemporary requirement. Concluding, adoptability of 360 degree feedback tool is considered the most rationalized for the assessment of leadership of a manager/leader.

This paper studies the impact of trade liberalization on foreign direct investment (FDI) in D-8 member countries, that are, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey over the time period of twenty two years (1991-2012). Using panel data random effect model, it has been revealed that trade liberalization is significantly and positively effecting FDI inflows to D-8 members. This study also show that the traditional location pull factors of FDI such as market size, economic growth, infrastructure and exchange rate are also desirable besides with trade liberalization for inward FDI in D-8 member nations.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between dependent variables– capital & Labor L- and independent variable- production turnover- in order to optimize the profits of the JS bank in Pakistan. Data was collected from the financial statements of the JS bank for period of five years. Using regression technique through SPSS parameters A, α and β were estimated. Cobb Douglas Production function was estimated through Econometric Views (Eviews) package. The model constructed through Eviews is 73.419K0.669L0.885 , here value of A, which is called as total factor productivity, is 73.419, value of α, which is the parameter of Capital(K) and measures the responsiveness of output to change in capital, is 0.669 and value of β = 0.885. Beta (β) is the parameter of Labor (L) and measures the responsiveness of output to change in labor. The results show that the value of β (0.885) is more than the value of α(0.669), hence the responsiveness of labor is more in production than responsiveness of the capital. This proves that investment on labor (L) is more profitable than investment on capital (K). This research has implications for the managers as well as for the owners of the organizations.

The current study empirically investigates the extent to which the private universities in Pakistan prepare work-ready students at Masters of Business Administration level. Mixed method approach was applied to collection of data. Stratified sampling technique was employed for selecting 30 human resource managers from the tertiary sector. In all, questionnaires were administered to collect quantitative data from 30 human resource managers and sixty five employees. For qualitative measure interviews of 5 manager operation were conducted. Significant result (p <0.031) for the measure of “relevant degree” revealed that employers considered degree to be an important factor for recruitment; employability skills were considered necessary by the employers and employees for sustaining a job. Employees regarded employability skills to be crucial for sustaining a job. Qualitative results also indicated that personal attributes were considered more important by the employers. The study recommends the provision of a database monitored by universities and organizations to facilitate the process of preparing future employees in accordance with the need of the industry.

The paper deliberates on the governance and management system and practices in public sector

higher education institutions of Pakistan using Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) as a case in point. LCWU was granted autonomy in 2002 as a result of HEC governance and administrative reforms that resulted in change of its structure and internal management practices. Since autonomy of public institutions is one of the major objectives of administrative reform, the paper analyses the pattern of autonomy and control in LCWU to understand the governance and management of higher education institutions in Pakistan and its linkage with performance of the institution. The Transformational and the Evolutionary approaches have been utilized to explain the changing pattern of governance and management practices through an in-depth analysis of policy, finance, academics and HR practices over time. The findings of the study reveal that Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan has a strict control for performance evaluation of the institution. Being the main funding agency, it monitors performance on quarterly as well as annual basis. The real concept of autonomy as ‘freedom’ could not be achieved yet as HEC is the main funding agency to the university. The study provides meaningful recommendations for autonomy of higher education institutions in real sense through financial independence, merit based selection and minimal interference in operational affairs of the university. It also discusses ways to achieve autonomy and minimize control in this direction.

This study examines how events of different nature like political, terrorist and natural catastrophe

affect the stock returns of firms listed at Karachi stock exchange. To probe this issue, we adopted event study methodology as our research frame work. Our sample consists of those twenty three non-financial listed firms at Karachi stock exchange, for which the data is available for all the three events. Our results report that events of all the three natures affect the stock price returns. The results further reveal that the terrorist attacks negatively affects the stock market of a country, political elections positively affects the stock market, while the natural catastrophe has no significant impact on the overall stock market. The results of the study also highlight that the stock market is resilient to natural shocks.

Asset Management (AM) has its origin in the early 70's whereby it initially served for transportation

infrastructures. AM has, over the years, developed into a faculty that works on program and portfolio level. Literary research on AM is much but empirical evidence is still scarce. This paper is the result of a year- long research conducted on one of the specific areas pertaining to Asset Management. Employee competency was the Intangible Asset which was empirically assessed over the year as to its impact on one of the Tangible Assets of an engineering concern. The results were assessed after detailed analysis and Improvement Strategies were resultantly designed by presenting a framework. The same were implemented for a period of 4 months in the case organization and results have been re-assessed and any improvement or decline has been carefully analyzed and presented.

Present study underlines the importance of corporate entrepreneurship especially in banking sectors. The foremost objective of existing study is to discover the significant interactive association of proposed variables. For quantitative study, survey based 400 structured questionnaires were send to five leading banks of Pakistan. Convenient sampling was used for research accessibility. For reliability and validity of constructs, composite reliability and Cronbach Alpha used. Software of Smart PLS3 used for analysis of hypothesis through PLS-SEM (Partial Least Square-Structure Equation Modeling) technique. Study analysis present statistically optimistic and significant association among organizational citizenship behavior and job satisfaction with organizational commitment directly and indirectly through corporate entrepreneurship. Moreover, its shows that organizational commitment of banking employee enhance due to enhance of citizenship behavior, satisfaction and corporate entrepreneurship After seeing the importance of banking employees in Pakistan, organizational commitment is effective predictor of job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior and corporate entrepreneurship.

This study describes how conflict affects the organizational commitment. In the current study,

organizational commitment is taken as the dependent variable and conflict as independent. The organizational commitment is measured by individuals performance, participation in decision making, and individual’s productivity in an organization. The conflict is measured by workers strikes, gender biasness, educational level, empowerment, and tenure of employees. The positive and negative impacts on variables of organization commitment is measured and analyzed in Karachi, Pakistan. The most volatility in Karachi’s environment due law and order situation is found one of the major factors influencing the rational trends of business. Law and order is analyzed as mediating variable and is recommended for further researches to investigate the impact of this factor on other variable. The life safety and the job security have also effecting the organizational commitment in this area. These factors are studied as moderating variable and also recommended for future studies. Conflict and its two broad types i.e. task conflict and relationship conflict has also been discussed. Task conflict has positive impact on organizational commitment and the relationship conflict vice versa.

Quality assurance of academic programs has traditionally been through accreditation. Specialized accreditation is a means for specific academic fields to ensure quality. In the field of business education, National Business Education Accreditation Council (NBEAC) is sole accreditation agency in Pakistan. In 2014, 25 business education institutions in Pakistan were accredited by NBEAC and 41 were in the process of accreditation. As specialized accreditation is just a novel phenomenon in Pakistan, there is also scarcity of research in this area. As the process of accreditation is evolving and institutions are looking forwards towards program accreditation, this paper aims to identify the impact of accreditation on student orientation and satisfaction. In doing so this paper aims to identify does improvement in internal process due to accreditation assure students’ satisfaction and retention by focusing on student orientation? Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied to the sample of 574 students of NBEAC accredited institutions. The indirect effect was computed using bootstrap method. The results of the analysis show that improvement in internal process leads to student orientation and student’s orientation fully mediates the relationship between students satisfaction and student retention.

This study is aimed at identifying the trend of the customers towards online shopping, the factors that promote this trend as well as the barriers in its promotion in the country. The research mainly focuses on Karachi market and is carried out on four areas of buying: airline tickets, gift shops, electronic appliances and book shops.The research work is of mix of descriptive and exploratory nature. Geographically, it was limited to the markets of Karachi city. Data was collected from three major areas of the metropolis; Clifton, Nazimabad and Gulshan-e-Iqbal. First stage of sampling was undertaken on quota bases i.e. 50 respondents from each area. In the second stage, non-probability technique was used to identify the individual respondents. Accordingly, original sample size was 150, however, 120 of them agreed to respond. All 120 respondents were sent the questionnaire online, and blissfully all of them returned the filled questionnaire within reasonable time.Findings of the study show bright prospects for e-shopping in Pakistan especially in its urban areas. Its trend is fast increasing among the educated and well off people. The factors identified by the study underlying the online shopping behavior were convenient, time saving, more product choices and low price whereas the factors identified as barrier to promotion of the online shopping in Pakistan were non-availability of credit card, fear of getting money lost, long delivery times, product delivered different from the showcased, and high shipping cost. The trend documented by this study is supported by the findings of the numerous earlier studies contained in the literature reviewed for this study.The study conducted in the metropolis of Karachi is generalized to other urban areas of the country. Finding of the study is likely to help understand the future prospect of e-business in Pakistan and its expectations from the present consumer market. The factors highlighted in the study as supporting and hindering the E-business in Pakistan are important finding for the policy makers.

The primary concern for both investors and firms remain to be the maximization of return, however in this regard, systematic risk has always been the primary concern of both the researchers and the firms. It is imperative to examine the determinants of the systematic risk as it provides information regarding risks associated with investment, and provide insights regarding the risk & return relationship. Furthermore from a firm’s perspective the required rate of return for an investor is basically the Cost of Capital, therefore determinants of systematic risk is having dual effects both over Cost of Capital and market value of stock indirectly. The aim of this paper is to find out key financial determinants of systematic risk in the banking sector of Pakistan. Utilizing panel data analysis techniques of Pooled OLS, Fixed Effects and Random Effect models, over selected banks listed on Karachi stock exchange for the period of 2006 to 2012. We took seven accounting variables and examined its effect over systematic risk. It was found that loan portfolio quality and profitability significantly positively affect the systematic risk for the Pakistani banks, while liquidity is significantly negatively affecting the systematic risk in the case of Pakistan. Furthermore dividend payout, leverage and size of the banks were found to be insignificant in the case of Pakistan. It is suggested for the Pakistani banks that by improving on these parameters like loan portfolio quality, the systematic risk can be potentially reduced.

This paper explores the factors that hinder Pashtun women entrepreneurs (PWE) in Peshawar, Pakistan. Adopting a qualitative approach, life history narratives, concerning life and business, from fifteen respondents were elicited using a purposive sample frame. The thematic analysis of interviews illustrates that they must navigate dynamically transforming religious and socio-cultural milieu to become entrepreneurs. PWEs are considered homemakers, in no need of autonomy and under no obligation to make monetary contribution at home. They generally face four types of impediments arising from socio- cultural milieu including their unacceptability as earners, lack of mobility, fulfillment of domestic responsibilities and dependence on male members. This study contributes to the literature on women entrepreneurs by providing insights into hitherto under researched geography.

The concept paper explores the phenomena of organizational culture and its impact on Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation assumed to enhance the firm performance in manufacturing sector of Pakistan (Awan, Bhatti, Bukhari, & Qureshi, 2008). This paper provides the substantive views in the field of inquiry in general and the context of Pakistani manufacturing sector in particular. The study revolves around the TQM philosophy impacting firms’ performance.The proposed approach is expected to be helpful in developing a tool helpful in assessing the level of organizational culture in successful TQM implementation in manufacturing sector.