ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION: SOURCE OF GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY AND WELLBEING

Access to higher education has been the subject of considerable debate among policy makers and academicians. But the concept lacks empirical evidence regarding its impact upon students and societal outcomes. This study provides empirical answer to the research question: how do access to higher education and teachers’ support relate to graduates’ self-perceived employability and psychological wellbeing? The data were collected from 520 students of bachelors and master’s programs in rural campuses of an oldest University of Pakistan and analyzed through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using AMOS and SPSS software. Results reveal that access to higher education and teachers support are positively related with selfperceived employability of graduating student with little or no difference among gender. Whereas, teachers support also contributes to psychological wellbeing of the students. The impact of access to higher education on psychological wellbeing was insignificant. This study provides implications for universities, policy makers, and human resource management professionals regarding enhancement of graduate employability. Keywords: access to higher education, psychological well-being, self-perceivedemployability, teachers’ suppor

MEASURING ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION: DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF SCALE

The present study is an endeavor to develop and validateAccess to Higher Education Scale (AHES) by administering it in astratified sample of 51 predominantly third years’ bachelors programstudents enrolled in newly established distant campuses in rural areasof Sindh, Pakistan. Exploratory factor analysis was carried out toanalyze the data. This revealed good reliability and validity of scaleand identified a two factor model. The data were further used toundertake confirmatory factor analysis. Results confirmed thereliability and validity of the scale. This study also used three otherscales i.e. Teachers Support, Self-perceived Employability andPsychological Wellbeing for the validity of AHES. Shorter versions ofthese scales were confirmed through their adequate reliability andvalidity. Scholars in education and human resource management fieldcan further use these scales to measure students’ outcome of graduateemployability and psychological wellbeing

Application of Financial Decisions, their Determinants, and Financial Performance: A Tabular Summary of Systematic Literature Review

Financial decisions (capital budgeting, capital structure and dividend policy) are the most important components of corporate finance and now a days have received the attention of researchers and practitioners. Financial decisions influence the financial performance of a firm. Uncertainty, corporate social responsibility, and stakeholders interest are the most important determinants of the financial decisions. The purpose of this study is twofold: firstly, this study provides a systematic review of literature summarizing the theoretical and empirical literature of the financial decisions, their determinants and financial performance. Secondly, it provides the empirical evidence based on survey and data was collected from Chief Financial Officers of Telecommunication, Banking, and Insurance companies listed in Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) of Pakistan. This study used SPSS and AMOS for data analysis. This study finds that the financial decisions and their determinants are critical factors for the financial performance of firms

Factors influencing intention to create new venture among young graduates

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that are influencing the young graduates for intention to create new venture. The study further highlights how the attraction, networking support, entrepreneurial capabilities, self-independence and self-reliance influence the young students to initiate their new businesses. The sample size of this study was 255 final semester students of various disciplines in different universities from Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The survey based questionnaire was used for data collection. Based on findings this study concludes that all variables, included in the study, play a vital role in new venture creation. Therefore, on the basis of findings this study concludes that young students are more motivated towards new venture creation and start their own businesses.Influencing factors, new venture creation, different disciplines, young graduates, motivation

Impact of Brand Loyalty on Brand Extension

The key objective of this study is to explore the effects of different dimensions of brand loyalty towards the original brand on the evaluation of brand extensions. This was a primary research and questionnaire was distributed among 200 respondents and 183 were processed for analysis. The target respondents were the students of different universities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The scale was taken from the existing research (Hem and Iversen, 2003). SPSS was used to analyze the data. The result finds that there is positive and significant relationship between brand loyalty and brand extension. So on the bases of these results that all the hypotheses (H1, H2, H3, H4 and H5) are proved positively and significantly and affect the evaluation of brand extension. Keywords: Brand Loyalty, Brand Extension, original bran

Relationship between decision making styles and consumer behavior

The objective of this study is to identify the different factors that impact on consumer behavior on the bases of decision making style. The sample size of this study was two hundred and fifty. Data was collected through five point Likert scale questionnaire. SPSS was used to analyze the data. Correlation and multiple regression was performed to measure the relationship between independent and dependent variables and independent sample t-test was applied to test difference between male and female decision making style. This study concludes that there is significant relationship between male and female decision making style and female respondents are more agreed that decision making styles influence the consumer behavior. All the independent variables have significant and positive relationship with consumer behavior

Factors Affecting job satisfaction of employees in Pakistani banking sector

The job satisfaction has got tremendous attention in organizational research. The focus of this study is to determine the impact of various human resource management practices like job autonomy, team work environment and leadership behavior on job satisfaction. It also investigates the major determinants of job satisfaction in Pakistani banking sector. This study further evaluates the level of difference in job satisfaction among male and female employees. The sample of the study consisted of 450 employees working in different banks of Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Lahore through the questionnaire, of which 295 were returned and processed. SPSS was used to analyze the data, using Independent Sample T Test, Correlation and regression analysis. There is a positive and significant link between job satisfaction and human recourse management practices like team work environment, job autonomy and behavior of leadership. From the findings of the study, it is also inferred that male and female workers have significantly different level of job satisfaction.Human resource management practices, job satisfaction, employees, banking sector

Effective Advertising and its Influence on Consumer Buying Behavior

Advertising is a way of communication to convince an audience for taking purchase decision about a product or service and delivering information to viewers. This paper examines the relationship between environmental response and emotional response which are independent variables with dependent variable i.e. consumer buying behavior. This research investigates the relationship between the variables involved, by taking the 200 responses in twins’ cities of Pakistan. Findings of this study show the moderate relationship between independent variables and dependent variable. It shows that consumer purchase those brands from which they are emotionally attached. This study reports new results in the field of buying behavior of consumers’ response

PLANNED BEHAVIOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INTENTION TO CREATE A NEW VENTURE AMONG YOUNG GRADUATES

This paper attempts to investigate whether young graduates possess the leadership style that is pre-requisite to become entrepreneur. The paper further examines the role of higher education towards the desire of new venture creation among young graduates in developing economies specially. This study analyzed the response of 225 final-semester students at different universities in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore. A questionnaire based survey instrument was used. Result of the present study shows that education and new venture creation are positively and significantly correlated. The results further indicate that all variables used in this study are significantly correlated with intention to create a new venture. The limitation of this study is that it includes business and economics discipline students only. Further studies may investigate and examine the possibilities of similar outcomes among students of other disciplines including science, engineering, medicine, agriculture and law etc. The present study will, however, provide insight to future policy makers and planners to consider strategies for optimally utilizing the expertise and potentials of the young graduates. The academicians, educators, and university authorities have rethink what to teach? How to teach? In order to effectively prepare-young generation for the forthcoming challenges.entrepreneurship, leadership style, new venture creation, planned behavior, young graduates.

Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: An Empirical Analysis of Banking Sector in Pakistan

The basic aim of this study is to explore most common constructs for quality of banking services, which influence customer satisfaction and examine the impact of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty in the context of banking relationships. The questionnaire was used to collect the data from 192 valid respondents by convenience sampling method. SPSS was used to analyze the data and AMOS was used to test the model. The results of the study show that there is a positive and significant link between customer satisfaction and constructs of service quality like tangibility, reliability, competence conflict handling and further study inferred that customer satisfaction is positively significant related to customer loyalty