Impact of Entrepreneurial Orientation, Entrepreneurial Management and Environmental Dynamism on Firm’s Financial Performance

Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) involves business mindset and behavior. The firm and industry context of entrepreneurship has always fascinated researchers for inquiry. The main aim of this study is to establish an association of factors such as EO characteristics (innovativeness and risk-taking), Entrepreneurial Management (EM), and Environmental Dynamism (ED) with firm’s financial performance. The objective also includes examining the moderating impact of EM and ED respectively on the link between EO characteristics and firm performance. This investigation covered small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan from the cities of Islamabad and Lahore, and constituted a diverse sample of entrepreneurs from various sectors. Results reveal direct positive, individual relationships of innovativeness, risk-taking, and EM with firm’s financial performance. As far as moderating influence is concerned, EM and ED could not establish any significant interaction between EO characteristics and firm performance. Interestingly, from the contextual landscape of this study, risk-taking and EM have proved to be stronger, more consistent and stable predictors of performance compared with innovativeness. The EO dimension of innovativeness exhibits dual results of either strong or very weak predictor to performance, hence implying vulnerability. In fact, running full regression, the impact of innovativeness on performance gets diminished in the presence of risk-taking and EM. The investigation also reveals that when controlling for ED the analytical framework shows a slightly better degree of association between predictor and criterion variables. Under the context of this study it, therefore, concludes that SME managers should rely more on risk-taking dimension of EO compared with innovativeness especially in executing entrepreneurial management (EM) approaches

A room of her own : romance, resistance, and feminist thought in modern Urdu poetry

This dissertation examines the ways in which the female figure has emerged, and the ways in which women’s issues have been addressed in Urdu poetry in various ways during the twentieth century. In order to track these changes and shifts in the Urdu poetic landscape I examine five poets: Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), Akhtar Shirani (1905-1948), Kaifi Azmi (1919-2002), Parveen Shakir (1952-1994), and Ishrat Afreen (b. 1956). I argue that each of these poets represents a distinct trend in the way women are discussed in Urdu poetry. While looking at these five poets I will consider the social context in which they were writing and how their poetry engages the canonical aesthetics of the past, along with the socio-political agendas of the present. By analyzing their poetry we can trace how through romance and resistance feminist thought developed in increments throughout the twentieth century. This poetry is a reflection of the social and cultural milieus in which it was written; it can help us understand how these poets understood their roles within their culture, as well as how they tried to push the boundaries of accepted cultural norms. Through these poets we can observe how the subject of Woman, women’s issues, and gender ideology evolved in twentieth century Urdu poetry. Furthermore, studying these poets shows us how the space created by earlier poets eventually led to women using the Urdu poetry landscape for overt feminist poetry, lending authentic women’s voices to women’s issues and movements in South Asia.Asian Studie

The Effect of Perceived Abusive Supervision on Employee Performance: Mediating Role of Employee State Paranoia

The aim of this study is to provide the management of private schools an insight into the complexity of psychological processes induced by abusive supervision hindering the performance of private school teachers. Teachers play an important role in the development of a child in particular and the society in general. With performance dependent on multiple internal and external factors, the internal psychological factors are critical as they serve as the building block of performance. However, in the employment relation scenario, these psychological factors are directly affected by the immediate supervisor’s behavior, therefore, implying the necessity to inform management strategies on monitor of supervisory behavior. Accordingly, the sample was selected from private sector schools in Rawalpindi and Islamabad Pakistan. Based on a total of 253 respondents, the results indicated that abusive supervision and employee task and contextual performances were affected by psychological process of paranoia. However, the relationship is more salient at the contextual performance level than at the task performance level. The study also provides implications and possible future directions for further empirical research in relation to contextualization

Relation of Urobilinogen Presence Resence in the Selection of Food (Salty or Sweet)?

The total amount of 100 subjects were contributed in this review and all were the students who are studying in Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan. The bilirubin is metabolized in the gut which produced a colorless pigment known as urobilinogen. It is by-product of bilirubin which is used to break down the red blood cells in hemolysis. Salty food contains usually more minerals and vitamins while sweet food is enriched with carbohydrates, water and many other fats soluble substances. Every person has a unique taste according to their taste buds. A questionnaire based was made to relate the urobilinogen with the food (salty or sweet). Urinalysis is a method which is used to measure the urobilinogen in urine. It was concluded that there is a scientific relation between the presence of urobilinogen in urine with eating of salty or sugary food. Table no. 1 represents that urobilinogen play important role in the choice of eating either salty food more or sweet

Identifying Key Areas of Worklife and Their Interactive Effect in Explaining Pakistani Nurses’ Burnout

We examined the effect of incongruence in the areas of worklife (AWL) on burnout of nurses. Specifically, we were interested in identifying the most important AWL and interactions among AWL and psychological resilience in explaining nurses’ burnout. Incongruence in the worklife escalates burnout and resilience is a coping trait. The phenomenon needs to be studied in developing countries where entirely different health dilemmas exist. A cross sectional survey was conducted from 147 nurses. SEM through AMOS 21 and Process Macro of SPSS was used for data analysis. Two AWL namely control and reward, emerged out to be the most important factors in explaining burnout; community further mitigated reward-burnout relationship. Also, psychological resilience has a powerful independent explanatory role. Healthcare work environment must be equipped to minimize incongruence of the AWL. This congruence would need job redesigning to increase control of nurses over their jobs and reinforcement with all kinds of reward coupled with a supportive co-worker’s community

A Functional Approach to Understand Consumer Behavior while Selecting Coffee Parlor

This research studies the relationship between utilitarian, ego defensive, value expressive and knowledge functions on consumer attitude and consequently on the selection of coffee parlor by consumers. Primary data has been collected by using a structured questionnaire designed on the Fishbein model. Regression model was used to test the effect of the four functions on the consumers’ choice of coffee parlor. The subjects included in the sample consisted of males in various age groups. The hypotheses assumed that all four functions being stated carry a significant effect on attitude. The statistical test showed that significant valueF (9, 91) (p value)= 0.000, at p < 0.05 so the result is acceptable and there is a relationship between dependent variable i.e. selection of coffee parlor and independent variables i.e. the utilitarian, value expressive, ego defensive and knowledge functions

Attenuation of hypotension using phenylephrine during induction of anaesthesia with propofol

Objective: To observe if phenylephrine mixed with propofol can attenuate hypotensive effects of propofol during induction of anaesthesia. Methods: A total number of 135 adult ASA-I and ASA-II patients were divided into three groups. (Group A, B and C). All patients were induced with propofol 2.5 mg per kg. In Group A (control group) patients received propofol mixed with 2cc of 0.9% normal saline. Group B (study group) patients received propofol mixed with 2cc of a solution containing phenylephrine 25µg/cc (total 50µg); Group C (study group) patients received propofol mixed with 2cc of a solution containing phenylephrine 50µg/cc (total 100µg). Haemodynamic variables like systolic, diastolic, mean arterial blood pressure and heart rate were noted. Hypotension was defined as 20% decrease in baseline systolic blood pressure recorded before induction of anaesthesia. Results: Phenylephrine in a dose of 100 micrograms attenuated the drop in systolic blood pressure. However phenylephrine in a dose 50 micrograms did not effectively prevent anticipated drop in SBP. Conclusion: Phenylephrine in doses of 100 micrograms effectively attenuates anticipated hypotension upon induction of general anaesthesia with propofo

HRM formality differences in Pakistani SMEs: a three-sector comparative study

Purpose Guided by institutional theory, this empirical paper examines variations in the adoption of HRM practices among SMEs in three different business sectors (services, manufacturing and trade). Design/methodology/approach Data from 300 owners/managers representing three business sectors were collected through a survey method. Findings The results suggest that service SMEs use more formal HRM practices than manufacturing and trade SMEs. Manufacturing SMEs are more formal than trade firms. Results are not affected by firm age. Research limitations/implications Social desirability bias may have influenced respondents into portraying a positive image of the organization by inflating HRM sophistication. A further limitation is that the performance of the firms was not measured. As such, it is not possible to judge whether greater HRM formality correlated with improved organizational performance. Practical implications This study shows how the business sector shapes HRM practices in Pakistani SMEs. Findings help to inform Pakistan's Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) in dealings with manufacturing and trade firms in terms of improving HRM practices. Originality/value Given the important role of SMEs in economic development, comparative research on HRM in SME contexts is scarce. Since SMEs are vital for Pakistan's economy, an improved understanding of the sector's approach to human resource development is important. The findings extend the boundaries of prior comparative HRM literature in SMEs by addressing sector influences while controlling for contextual factors