Mediating Role of Intellectual Capital Efficiency in Capital Structure and Financial Performance of Quoted Banks of Pakistan

Purpose: The main purpose of this research paper is to investigate the relationship between intellectual capital, capital Structure and corporate financial performance in banks listed at KSE (Karachi stock exchange) and also to find the impact of capital structure and intellectual capital efficiency on financial performance of quoted banks in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach: Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is applied to find the association between latent constructs and to find their impact of financial performance of the banks in Pakistan. For this study required data is obtained from 2006-2010 audited annual reports of the corporations. Findings: This study empirically shows that the capital structure through intellectual capital efficiency has a significant relationship with financial performance measures of the corporations as a whole in case of the listed banks at KSE, Pakistan. Practical implications: This empirical study gives a new insight in intellectual capital and capital structure for companies to enhance their financial performance. Originality/value: This study is the first of its own nature that measures the relationship between capital structures, intellectual capital and corporate financial in the world of research generally and in case of banks listed on KSE Pakistan specifically. Keywords: Capital Structure, corporate financial performance, Pakistan. Paper Type: Research paper

Perceived Performance Appraisal Purposefulness Failure and In-Role Performance and Retaliation: Testing Injustice as Mediator in Public Sector of Pakistan

This research investigates the relationship between perceived performance appraisal purposefulness failure, overall injustice perception, in-role performance and retaliation in public sector of Pakistan, using the overall injustice as mediator.  The results were obtained from 380 civil servants across twelve occupational groups appointed in the major cities of Pakistan.  The study uses a time lag design to collect data attwo different times (Time1, and Time2). The data on in-role performance and retaliation was peer reported. Drawing from the organizational justice theory, the study found that PA purposes failure are associated with overall injustice perception of employee and that the level of perceived overall injustice is associated with the level of in-role performance and retaliation. The results also reveal that perceived injustice perception partially mediates the relationship between performance appraisal purposes failure and in-role performance, but there is found no mediation with retaliation. The findings of study have research and practical implications for civil servants and public organizations in a new geographic context. This study is one of the rare attempts to test the influence of all facets of performance appraisal and overall injustice on in-role performance and retaliation. Keywords: Performance appraisal purposefulness failure, Injustice Perception, In-role performance, Retaliation and Perceived organizational support.

Exploring the Influences of Social Media Advertising of Purchase Intention on Purchase Intention: A Test of Electronic Word of Mouth as a Mediator in Pakistan

The research aimed at analysis of the impacts of Social media advertising in creating the positive E-WOM of fast food purchase intentions for consumers in Pakistan. The objectives of the research are to evaluate the relationships of social media advertising with electronic word of mouth and purchase intention of fast food in Pakistan. The sample size of this particular research is around 384 consumers which are decided as per the guidance of Krejcie and Morgan (1970), but only 340 received survey questionnaire are included in the research. Moreover, the regression and correlation analysis are applied to analyze the collected data. The findings of the research validated the stated assumptions that SMA has a significant and positive relationship with both electronic word of mouth and purchases intention. Future research implications of the study increase the ability to manage electronic word of mouth of the fast food brands successfully with right content and generating positive attitudes to affect the purchase intentions of the consumers of fast food in Pakistan. So that, electronic word of mouth content can create information on social media that can influence purchase intentions of fast food consumers

Credit Risk Management Practices Used by Banks in Agricultural Finance: A Case Study of Pakistan

Purpose: Agricultural sector is an important sector of Pakistan’s economy. Agriculture plays a significant role in the economic development of Pakistan.  Its contribution to GDP is about 23% and approximately 60% of Pakistan’s total population live in the rural areas and most of them earn their livelihood from agriculture.  Due to the green revolution, rapid changes have been occurring  in production technologies, and methods have been changed.  As more capital is required to adopt these methods and technologies, so the small farmers cannot afford these methods. They need finances for production and investment purpose.  The small farmer has very limited ability to agricultural finance for both production and investment needs and they are facing a shortfall of credit. Banks hesitate to grant agriculture credit because of higher credit risk.  The main purpose of this research paper is to find out the credit risk faced by the banks of Pakistan and risk management techniques used by these banks. Research methodology: This research is basically quantitative in nature, and a Standard questionnaire is used for the collection of data on credit risk and its management techniques from the banks.  A sample of 45 bank branches of 17 banks that grant agriculture credit has been taken and questionnaire were being filled by credit officers of the agricultural sections of these banks. The Frequency distribution technique was applied through SPSS 17 to analyze and finalize the results. Findings: The major findings of this research are: 82.2% of banks had faced the situation of credit risk in which farmers failed to pay back the credit to the bank.  53.3% respondents considered the production, price and policy risk together affect all the farmers in a particular geographical area. 35% considered ‘’willful rejection risk” as an important risk that arises due to an individual farmer. 60% respondents use the crop insurance for the management of production risk. 48.9% bank used no technique for the management of price risk. 75.6% respondents suggest that the improvement in laws and policies on land ownership will help in credit risk management.  60% respondent does not insure the life of a farmer.  77.8% use collateral management for the management of “willful rejection risk”.  According to 75.6% respondent’s fire/theft insurance of agricultural asset will help to manage this risk. Originality /Value: The value of this research paper is that it gives us an idea about the credit risk faced and its management techniques used by the banks of Pakistan.  It also gives us an idea about the credit risk management techniques which are being used in the world but not in the Pakistan. Research Implications: The research implications of this paper are to increase the understanding of factors which are the basis for credit risk in agricultural financing and its management techniques used by the banks of Pakistan. Paper Type: Research Paper Keywords: agricultural finance, credit risk, Risk management practices, crop insurance, highly correlated risk, localized risk, price smoothing

Impact of Overall injustice on Employee Performance: Moderating Effect of Supportive Leadership Style

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of overall injustice on the performance of employees working in the Private sectors and to investigate how supportive leadership style in supervisors can increase employee performance when they are under high stress due to injustice perceptions. Data was collected through questionnaires that were designed and distributed to the employees working in private sectors. Sample size of 250 was equally distributed in the two sectors. This measured the perceived level of injustice related stress and its possible effect on employee performance. Supportive leadership style has a significant effect on performance of employee and increases the performance but injustice may or may not affect employee performance. Injustice is sometimes not given much importance due to low magnitude or external causes of injustice, so it is not always negatively related to employee performance. The research expands our knowledge of supportive leadership and tended to focus that how supportive leadership style in supervisors can increase employee performance working in private sectors. Public sector organizations should also be studied and sample size should be increased to cover large number of organizations. By expanding the range of organizations in the study would add credibility to the findings. Supportive leadership style plays an important role in the overall performance of an employee. Organizations need to improve leadership skills in supervisors to achieve positive outcomes and increased productivity

Impact of Overall injustice on Employee Performance: Moderating Effect of Supportive Leadership Style

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of overall injustice on the performance of employees working in the Private sectors and to investigate how supportive leadership style in supervisors can increase employee performance when they are under high stress due to injustice perceptions. Data was collected through questionnaires that were designed and distributed to the employees working in private sectors. Sample size of 250 was equally distributed in the two sectors. This measured the perceived level of injustice related stress and its possible effect on employee performance. Supportive leadership style has a significant effect on performance of employee and increases the performance but injustice may or may not affect employee performance. Injustice is sometimes not given much importance due to low magnitude or external causes of injustice, so it is not always negatively related to employee performance. The research expands our knowledge of supportive leadership and tended to focus that how supportive leadership style in supervisors can increase employee performance working in private sectors. Public sector organizations should also be studied and sample size should be increased to cover large number of organizations. By expanding the range of organizations in the study would add credibility to the findings. Supportive leadership style plays an important role in the overall performance of an employee. Organizations need to improve leadership skills in supervisors to achieve positive outcomes and increased productivity

Association Mapping Study of Various Desirable Traits of Rice

Background: This study was performed to evaluate the diversity of various morphological characters and their relationship with yield in rice.  The goal of this work was to find quantitative trait loci (QTL) for yield, yield components, and other agronomic variables in 100 different rice germplasm samples, as well as to assess the genetic structure and degree of linkage disequilibrium in the rice germplasm diversity panel.  To establish Linkage Disequilibrium (LD) between markers and causative mutations, marker density is essential. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns of various SNP markers on all chromosomes. If markers are sufficiently dense to have good coverage of LD, the LD decay with distance can be compared to the marker density.Methods: Different traits were measured and recorded under Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) experiment. DNA extraction and PCR analysis was done to measure the genotypic characteristics of rice. Genotypic and phenotypic variability was measured by using ANOVA and GWAS.Results: For pair-wise markers, linkage disequilibrium is calculated as R square and plotted versus the distance between the markers. In this study, the overall phenotypic variability among the examined traits was represented by R2 and ranged from 11.47% to 25.44%. The genetic architecture of these traits may be implied by the recently identified genomic regions (loci). An influential replacement for bi-parental gene maps, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) use data from genome-wide markers in large amounts of easily obtained germplasm.Conclusion: The linkage disequilibrium, which is the non-random link between an allele at two or more loci, is used in this mapping method to infer the innate relationships between phenotypic variations and marker polymorphisms. Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) of genotypes provides the information about for the selection of genotypes and determination of new marker trait association.Keywords: Oryza sativa L; Rice; DNA; Association mapping; Traits   

Isolation of Acidophilic Lactic Acid Bacteria Antagonistic to Microbial Contaminants

Abstract.-Four species of lactic acid bacteria viz. L. bulgaricus, L. casei, L. acidophilus and L. salivarius were isolated from a local yogurt sample. The bacterium L. salivarius showed maximum growth at 37°C with initial pH 6. L. bulgaricus and L. acidophilus also grew best at 37°C but with initial pH 4.The bacterium L. casei showed maximum growth at 25°C at pH 5. All the four bacteria formed smooth textured and white yogurt at 2% inoculum. L. acidophilus tolerated acid upto 1 pH . However, L. bulgaricus and L. salivarius showed more resistance to acid when cultured in yogurt as compared to their cultivations in the selective medium. These lactic acid bacteria demonstrated antimicrobial activity against different isolates of E. coli, Staphylococcus sp., Salmonella sp. and yeasts. The L. acidophilus was found to be the most potent antagonistic microbe against E. coli, while the isolate L. bulgaricus expressed vivid antifungal activity. Acid tolerance, yogurt fermentation and bacterial and fungal antagonistic characteristics of these bacterial isolates render them good candidates for their consideration as probiotics

Role of HRM Practices in Performance of Organization and Employee Retention

This paper analyses the role of Human Resource Management practices on Organizational Performance and Employee Retention. Human Resource Management Practices play an important role in retaining an organization’s employee and also in increasing organizational performance. In this study a conceptual mode is developed and this conceptual model is supported by several researchers. There is a lot of research on HR Practices now-a-days. Though there is little research in HR Practices regarding Pakistan but now it’s emerging also in Pakistan.   Key Words: HR Practices, Employee Retention, organizational performance, Pakista

Predictors of Early Seizures After First Acute Stroke

ABSTRACT Background and objective: There is a lack of local data regarding the frequency and predictors of early seizures after stroke. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of early seizures after stroke and identify the predictors which lead to them after first acute stroke. Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted in the Department of Neurology, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad from October 2021 to June 2022. A total of 310 consecutive eligible patients of acute stroke were recruited. Key inclusion criteria included any patient of \u3e20 years of age with confirmed diagnosis of stroke on imaging, non-traumatic, with no history of seizures in past. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 23.0. Results: The mean age of patients in the seizures group was 48.40 ± 20.9 years. Hypertension was the most common co-morbid present in 225 (76.5%) patients. Early seizures were found in 52 (16.8%) patients with 42 (80.76%) having seizures in first 24 hours of stroke (p value 0.001). On National Institute of Health Sciences Scale (NIHSS) score most patients 125 (40.3%) had moderate severity score i.e. score in between 7 to 25 (p value 0.05). Ischemic stroke was identified as the stroke variety with most of the early seizures i.e. 16 (30.76%) (p value 0.003). Conclusion: Early seizures were not infrequent after acute stroke (16.77%) in our study. Early seizures were associated with younger age, cortical region lesion, ischemic stroke, followed by cerebral venous thrombosis. Higher NIHSS score and greater disability was associated with increased incidence of early seizures