Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences (ISSN 1997-8553)
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Effects of Urbanization, Industrialization, Economic Growth, Energy Consumption, Financial Development on Carbon Emissions: An Extended STIRPAT Model for Heterogeneous Income Groups
Get PDFThis study examines the effects of urbanization and industrialization on carbon emissions for a panel of 156 countries and various income groups over the period 1990-2014 employing the first and second-generation tests. To address the issues of heterogeneity, endogeneity, and cross-sectional dependence, dynamic generalization method of moments (GMM), common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) and dynamic CCEMG estimation procedures are applied. Carbon emissions, urbanization,industrialization, economic growth, financial development, and energy consumption are integrated of order one. The results show that urbanization and industrialization have statistically positive and significant effects on carbon emissions across all panel groups. Whereas economic growth exerts heterogeneous effects on environmental pollution, validating the implications of “environmental Kuznets curve”. Similarly, financial development raises pollution in all income groups except high-income countries. The findings did not confirm “theory of ecological urbanization” while the evidence on “ecological modernization theory” is inconclusive. Overall findings imply that the global challenge of environmental pollution is mainly aggravated by rapid urbanization and industrialization whereas economic growth, financial development, and energy consumption have heterogeneous effects depending upon the development stage of countries. This study recommends that sustainable urbanization and industrialization need to be promoted using green finance and clean energy sources.
Drivers of Decoupling Economic Growth from Carbon Emission: Empirical Analysis of ASEAN Countries Using Decoupling and Decomposition Model
Get PDFThe exponential rise in energy-related carbon emissions poses a severe risk to both human and other species on the earth. The existence of a two-way relationship between economic growth and energy-specific carbon emissions needs to be delinked to achieve a low carbon economy. The current study analyzes the decoupling relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries as a region and at the national level. Moreover, Tapio decoupling indicator accompanied with decomposition techniques are employed to analyze the decoupling status and the drivers of carbon emissions. The findings state that the overall ASEAN region experienced expensive negative decoupling (END) status, followed by weak decoupling (WD) status, however at a national level, Singapore experienced the most significant strong decoupling (SD) status, while other countries mostly experienced END and WD status. The Log Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition results suggest that population, affluence, and energy structure significantly contributed to the carbon emissions at both regional and national levels. Besides, energy intensity and carbon intensity help to reduce carbon emissions in most of the ASEAN countries. Moreover, the extended decomposition model results state that population, affluence, and energy structure are the major forces that restrict the decoupling process, while energy intensity and carbon intensity help to strengthen the decoupling outcome, thereby driving the ASEAN countries towards the emission-free region. The current study contributes in highlighting key drivers of carbon emissions and gives extensive insights for emission mitigation. In turn, it also helps to foster sustainable economic growth.
Breaking Down the Success Barrier: The Mediating Role of Absorptive Capacity in Linking Entrepreneurial Orientation to IT Project Success
Get PDFA pragmatic approach to business innovation is to bridge transformational entrepreneurship with the management of innovation-based projects. However, scholars have given limited attention to the underlying factors that explain linkages between entrepreneurial orientation and project success. Moreover, the lack of absorptive capacity touch points, limits the organizational potential to cope with innovation-based project challenges. Hence, the study purpose is to investigate the impact of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on IT project success, under mediating conditions of absorptive capacity (ACAP). The study employed a deductive approach to empirically test the conceptualized model using partial least squares technique for structural equation modeling, involving surveyed data of IT professionals. The results confirm the significantly positive effect of EO on IT project success. The findings further verify that ACAP partially mediates the EO relationship with IT project success. From managerial perspective, the study highlights the importance of aligning project management practices with organization\u27s entrepreneurial orientation that empowers organizational members to maximize on successful project outcomes with the timely consumption and application of new knowledge
Factors Affecting the Choice of Islamic Banking by SMEs in Pakistan: Implications for Islamic Banks Corporate Governance
Get PDFBusiness is an important factor for the development of the economy of any country. Over the last ten years the Government of Pakistan has been playing an important role in promoting the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and improving their governance standards. It is also true that finance is one of the major elements for businesses and banks are playing an important role to finance the business sector of Pakistan. Therefore, this study has focused on the business community to analyze the factors which influence the adoption of Islamic banking among SMEs in Pakistan. In this regard, 400 business units have been selected as sample size. This research is based on the primary data collected from different areas of the Central Punjab. Several inferential statistics techniques have been used to get results. The study has found significant impact of corporate governance image of the bank, government support, relative advantage, perceived behavior control and subjective norms on the use of Islamic banking among SMEs in Pakistan. The results of this study show a positive impact of Islamic banking to promote the SMEs in Pakistan
Societal E-Readiness for E-Governance Adaptability in Pakistan
Get PDFThe idea of e-governance is being appreciated and worked upon at various levels, however, this research focuses on the need of various workings before e-governance mechanisms can actually be made operational. The literature suggests that any policy or reform that does not cater the local context and fulfill all pre-requisites is likely to face serious hurdles and therefore might not reap desired results. The prime focus of this research is to test the societal e-readiness in connection with the idea of e-governance adaptability in the context of Pakistan. Recently, in Pakistan, several initiatives have been taken by government in order to shift towards this IT based governance structure from the traditional mode of governance. Based on the data collected from 312 university students and professionals, the developed model was tested using covariance based structural equation modeling (SEM) and the findings reveal that basic operational knowledge, networked society and availability of infrastructure respectively, are important facilitators that strengthen E-Governance adaptability. Apart from this inferential analysis, descriptive statistics were also used to identify various hurdles that people perceive regarding e-governance adaptability and it was found that resistance to change and lack of awareness are the biggest hurdles that people in Pakistan believe in the context of egovernance adaptability. Not just at the operational or practical level, the study also adds to the literature on new public governance theories
Antecedents of Environmental Performance of Front-Line Managers in Hospitality Industry of Pakistan
Get PDFThis study is an attempt to find out the effect of line managers’ environmental attitude on their organizational citizenship behavior for environment (OCBE) and environmental performance (EP). In addition to above examination, the study has also made an investigation regarding the mediating role of OCBE in the relationship of management environmental awareness (MEA) and managers’ environmental performance (MEP). Moderating effect of top management awareness for environment has also been tested on the link between MEA and OCBE. Data for this study was collected from 546 front line managers from 154 hotels and tourism units operating in Pakistan. Data analysis was carried out through correlation, linear regression as well structural equation modeling (SEM). Results of the study reported a direct effect of MEA on OCBE and MEP. Moreover, the findings validate that OCBE mediates between MEA and MEP. Furthermore, the findings confirmed that top management environmental awareness (TMEA) supports the link between MEA and OCBE. This study provides novel insights for environmental performance of hospitality industry of Pakistan by emphasizing the environmental attitude, OCBE and MEA. Thus it advocates new mechanisms that would be supportive in initiating protection of natural environment. Study provides significant insight to literature by contributing new knowledge regarding the positive associations of manager’s environmental attitude and OCBE in the context of hospitality industry of Pakistan
Linking Environmental Management Practices to Environmental Performance: The Interactive Role of Environmental Audit
Get PDFDrawing on institutional theory using data of S&P 500 listed firms over the period 2007 to 2018, this study examines the role of external environmental audit between environmental management practices (EMP) and environmental performance. In particular, we explore whether the integration of environmental audit with environmental management practices contribute to desire environmental performance. This study adopts generalized least squares (GLS), linear regression with random effects to examine the relationship among variables. Empirical findings suggest that firms adopting the external environmental audit instrument with the internal mechanism of EMP are found more effective to exhibit better environmental performance. Furthermore, the findings also confirm that the internal instrument of environmental management practices have valuable capability to produce better environmental performance. Finally, the results show that the operational implications of environmental audit need to be more focused by researchers
Malaysian SMEs Performance and the Use of E-Commerce: A Multi-Group Analysis of Click-And-Mortar and Pure-Play E-Retailers
Get PDFThis research focuses on SMEs’ adoption of e-commerce and its impact to their performance in click-and-mortar and pure-play e-retailers in Malaysia. This research framework had been developed based on Resource-Based View (RBV) and Unified Theory of Acceptance & Use of Technology (UTAUT). At the same time, the combined framework contributes the new approach of studying the performance of the post adoption and factors adopting a technology. The quantitative research data were collected from 225 Malaysian SMEs operators who had adopted e-commerce. This research uses census sampling technique to collect the data from the respondents. Then, the data were used to investigate its measurement model and structural model via the analysis from SPSS 20 and SmartPLS 3.0. Both categories of adopters had the different opinion about the effort expectancy in encouraging the use of e-commerce that produces performance. Before conducting the further analysis in the group comparison via multi-group analysis (MGA), a three-step procedure, the measurement invariance of composite models (MICOM) was conducted. The result showed that among these two categories of businesses had a very different view about the effort expectancy in adopting the e-commerce. Thus, the result may provide the insight to previous researchers who had not segregated the adopters into click-and-mortar and pure-play e-commerce adopters. The research is particularly useful for practitioners by segregating the different marketing strategy for the respective groups of the e-commerce adopters.
Succession Planning, Strategic Flexibility as Predictors of Business Sustainability in Family-Owned SMEs: Moderating Role of Organization Improvisation
Get PDFThe objective of the current study is to test the impact of succession planning (cognitive, structural, and relational ties), strategic flexibility, and organizational improvisation towards the business sustainability considering the triple bottom line as underpinning theory. The survey method was adopted for the data collection and structural modeling technique is used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the current study show that cognitive, structural, and relational ties indicate a positive and significant relationship with business sustainability. Furthermore, findings also indicate the positive and significant association between succession planning, strategic flexibility, organizational improvisation, and business sustainability. The result has shown that organizational improvisation moderates the relationship between succession planning, strategic flexibility, and sustainable business. However, the direction of the relationship between succession planning and sustainable business is positive while, in case of strategic flexibility and sustainable business are negative. Family-owned businesses need to consider succession planning particularly cognitive, structural, relational ties, and strategic flexibility to gain their business sustainability
Analysis of Critical Causes of Transaction Cost Escalation in Public Sector Construction Projects
Get PDFAlthough transaction costs (TCs) that affect the total project costs are a common phenomenon in the Pakistani construction industry, the causes that escalate the TCs are ambiguous, and public sector organizations are unable to manage these causes efficiently. To investigate the causes of escalation of TCs in public sector construction projects, a total of 30 causes were first identified through a review of the literature and factor analysis was employed for further analysis. The semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 professionals from the construction industry in Pakistan. The primary data used to prioritize the causes of escalation of TCs were collected from survey questionnaires in which causes such as inadequate investigation, an unclear work scope, project complexity and incomplete design and specification ranked the highest. Finally, factor analysis was used and identified 5 major underlying dimensions of the causes, namely, the procurement and contracting management, the contractor relationship management, the project external environment, managing project finance and the project transaction environment. The contribution of this research lies in the identification and examination of the underlying causes of TC escalation, as discerned by the industry professionals. All factors are important, but in the local context, soft aspects (contract relationship) and hard aspects (financial management) are additional factors perceived by the experienced professional in overcoming TC escalation issues. This could be a point of reference in the public sector construction industries of developing countries, which are characterized by their unique economic and social systems.