AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND BEHAVIORAL RESPONSES IN PAKISTANI BANKING SECTOR

Customer satisfaction is most important to the concept of marketing with solid evidence of strategic links between overall services quality and customer satisfaction (Truch, 2006), and having a significant theoretical and practical issue for the marketers. The spirit of innumerable researches in diverse cultures endorse that the service provider organizations pay greater attention to satisfy their customer. But lacuna exists in literature for such a key topic in different cultures of developing countries like Pakistan. Accordingly, this current study looks for the impact of customer satisfaction on their behavioral responses in banking sector of Pakistan. Therefore, recognition of significant determinants of customer satisfaction could facilitate the higher management in adoption and implementation their customers’ focus strategies more efficiently and effectively. Practical implication, future research and limitation are also discussed.banking sector, behavioral response, customer satisfaction, Pakistan, services quality.

Risk management in banks: determination of practices and relationship with performance

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyThe issue of risk management in banks has become the centre of debate after the recent financial crises. Several efforts have been made to improve the risk management and performance of banks including introducing the Basel Accords as well as risk management guidelines by central banks. Consequently, the State Bank of Pakistan has issued risk management guidelines to strengthen the risk management system and to improve the performance of the local banks. However, the available literature in Pakistani context fails to explain the impact of these efforts on the performance of banks. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the effectiveness of risk management processes and their relationship with the performance of banks. This study reviews the relevant literature on banking risk management from diverse methodological strands and synthesises its conclusions to make an addition to the available knowledge; particularly to address certain research gaps regarding risk management and performance of banks in developing countries, specifically in Pakistan. Owing to its empirical nature, the current research adopts a deductive reasoning approach in terms of theory testing. This study applies a mixed method research strategy by taking the quantitative method as the major component, while the qualitative method plays a supplementary role. The sample is composed of twenty banks in Pakistan and the stratification is performed according to the bank category (public, private and foreign) in respect of different strata. The study collects and analyses primary as well as secondary data. This research is carried out in three phases. In the first phase a qualitative system dynamics model (Causal Loop Diagram) is developed based upon interview data analysis to understand and document the behaviour of risk management systems of Pakistani banks. In the second phase, this research conducts questionnaire data analysis by using ordinary least-squares regression to assess the different aspects risk management practices of banks in Pakistan. Finally, two-stage data envelopment analysis technique has been adopted to examine the relationship between the risk management and performance of the selected banks. This study results reflect that it is very important for Pakistani banks to formulate an active risk management process to identify, measure, monitor and control different risks. These results further reveal that formation of a comprehensive risk management system is not only a useful practice to meet the regulatory requirements but an effective exercise to improve the performance of Pakistani banks also. By employing a pragmatic, embedded, mixed method research strategy, this study has created a new insight into risk management in local banks and extends the existing theoretical literature in the field of banking in various ways

Financial Sector, Democracy and Economic Growth: A Panel Data Analysis

Economic growth depends on many factors like the traditional factors of capital, labour and technological advancement and the somewhat novel factors of financial development and the nature of political regime. The relationship between the nature of political structure and economic growth is quite complicated. There may be direct and indirect impacts of the nature of political set up on economic growth. However, these channels remain un-explored to larger extent. The present study is conducted to analyse economic growth under democracy and dictatorship for a considerably larger set of countries from 1974 to 2013. The indirect impact of democracy on economic growth is analysed through an unexplored channel of financial sector performance, which is expected to be sensitive to regime type. The direct impact of democracy is found to be positively significant on economic growth. Likewise, direct impact of financial sector performance on economic growth is also found to be positive and significant. However, democracy had negative indirect impact on economic growth through financial sector but the magnitude of this indirect negative impact is minute enough to be ignored as compared to large individual direct effects of democracy and financial sector. JEL Classification: O40, O43, O16 Keywords: Economic Growth, Democracy, Dictatorship, Financial Sector Performanc

The use of Flashcards in teaching EFL vocabulary in online learning

The outbreak of COVID-19 has altered the way of language instruction. Vocabulary learning is an essential aspect of the language learning and teaching process that needs careful attention and consideration. Teaching vocabulary becomes more critical when learners cannot attend physical classes. The present study explores the impact of flashcards in learning vocabulary in an online context. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design to gather the data. The study was carried on two performed intact groups of intermediate-level learners. A vocabulary test was used to collect the data as pre and posttests. The intervention of the flashcards was continued for seven weeks. All the learners were informed about the process of the research. The result implies that the incorporation of flashcards impacted learners' vocabulary learning during online instruction. The data analysis asserts that flashcards have helped the experimental group to develop their vocabulary. The results indicate that flashcards are beneficial in the virtual learning environment. Keywords: Flashcards, EFL, Online learning, Vocabular

A Floristic Description of Flora and Ethnobotany of Samahni Valley (A.K.), Pakistan

The present study reveals a description of floristic features like life form, leaf size spectra and ethnobotany of valley Samahni. This study was carried out during the years 2006-2008, in Samahni valley district Bhimber A.K. (Pakistan), using methods consisting of semi-structured interviews employing a check list of questions, questionnaires, direct observations and biological inventories. It provides information about different local plants and their life form and leaf size spectra. 120 plant species recorded belonging to 46 families. Poaceae is the dominating with 14 members. Among these the most of the plants are used to cure common diseases like diarrhea, earache, fever, jaundice, flu, cough and other skin diseases. Snake bite, wound healing and burning of body part are also treated with local herbs. Many plants are used for multiple purposes like as medicines, food, fodder, fuel, furniture and shelter. Due to deforestation vegetation is eliminating rapidly. But the efforts and knowledge about plant wealth conservation is at initial stages. Megaphanerophytes are dominating followed by therophytes. Hemicryptophytes, Nanophanerophytes and Geophytes come after these respectively. All the types of vegetation depend upon presence of trees. In leaf size spectra Microphyllous are dominant followed by Megaphyllous. This work can be the base for advance research in different fields like phytochemistry, molecular biochemistry and antimicrobial plant secondary metabolites. For further research this ethnobotanical work is very important because it has come into existence with large experience of ancient history

CREATIVE MARKETING STRATEGY AND EFFECTIVE EXECUTION ON PERFORMANCE IN PAKISTAN

ABSTRACT The purpose of the current research is to determine the influence of creative marketing strategies and effective execution on business unit performance. Moreover, strategic orientation and environmental uncertainty are used as moderating variables. Data are collected from 368 key informants working in Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), banking, pharmaceutical, chemical, insurance, and engineering industries using a multi-stage random sampling technique. Factor analysis and multiple hierarchal regressions are used to test the study hypotheses. The results indicate that creative marketing strategy and effective execution are positively associated with business performance. Moreover, environmental uncertainty and strategic orientation play a moderating role in the above relationships

Enhanced Fractional Adaptive Processing Paradigm for Power Signal Estimation

Fractional calculus tools have been exploited to effectively model variety of engineering, physics and applied sciences problems. The concept of fractional derivative has been incorporated in the optimization process of least mean square (LMS) iterative adaptive method. This study exploits the recently introduced enhanced fractional derivative based LMS (EFDLMS) for parameter estimation of power signal formed by the combination of different sinusoids. The EFDLMS addresses the issue of fractional extreme points and provides faster convergence speed. The performance of EFDLMS is evaluated in detail by taking different levels of noise in the composite sinusoidal signal as well as considering various fractional orders in the EFDLMS. Simulation results reveal that the EDFLMS is faster in convergence speed than the conventional LMS (i.e., EFDLMS for unity fractional order)

Malignant eccrine adenoma with sarcomatous (Heterologous) components: Report of a rare skin adnexal neoplasm with literature review

Malignant eccrine spiradenoma (MES) is an exceedingly rare skin adnexal tumor that arises from pre-existing benign eccrine spiradenoma (BES). MES tumors show a wide spectrum of morphological features, posing a diagnostic challenge to the pathologist. Sarcomatous (heterologous) elements are seen in a few of these tumors, further complicating the morphological picture. We herein describe a case of a 66-year-old male who presented with a recently enlarging, ulcerated, nodular skin lesion over the right leg that had been present for the last 25 years. The patient underwent wide local excision of the tumor. Microscopic examination revealed a neoplastic lesion comprising benign and malignant components. The carcinomatous component showed features of infiltrating adenocarcinoma, not otherwise specified, whereas the sarcomatous component showed predominant osteosarcomatous and focal chondrosarcomatous differentiation. The benign component showed morphological and immunohistochemical features of BES. No adjuvant treatment was administered. The patient was alive and disease-free for 14 months, after which he was lost to follow-up. Careful identification and knowledge related to histological diversity are keys to the correct diagnosis of this rare tumor. MESs are potentially aggressive tumors, and therefore, close long-term follow-up should be maintained

Infuse Concept Of Peace In Curriculum Development

The major objectives of the study were to find out what the curricula, prescribed in the subjects of English and Pakistan Studies of the secondary classes, contained to promote awareness among the students about their responsibilities to the concerned society, and whether or not the curricula promoted reflective or critical thinking skill amongst the students. To attain the said objectives questionnaires were floated to school teachers; while four curriculum planners were interviewed. It was concluded that Peace, Love, and Harmony was essential for developing reflective or critical thinking skill of the learners but the curricula neither promoted reflective or critical thinking skill amongst the students nor it cultivated a sense of civic responsibilities amongst the students in letter and spirit