The impact of corporate social responsibility activities on stakeholders' value co‐creation behaviour

AbstractThis paper analyses the relationships between corporate social responsible employees, corporate social responsible suppliers and customer value co‐creation behaviour in banking industry. More in detail it aims to investigate the mediating effect of relationship marketing orientation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and customer value co‐creation behaviour. Data collected from 383 banking customers are analysed through smart partial least square (PLS). The results highlight that corporate social responsible employees and suppliers have a positive impact on customer value co‐creation behaviour. Moreover, relationship marketing orientation has a mediating role between CSR activities and customer value co‐creation behaviour

The influence of corporate social responsibility activities on customer value co-creation: the mediating role of relationship marketing orientation

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the impact of external stakeholders-related corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities (local community and suppliers) on customer value co-creation behavior. This study also aims to examine the mediating role of relationship marketing orientation (RMO) on the relationship of CSR activities and customer value co-creation behavior. Design/methodology/approach – The main problem of dichotomy between customers and the management was existing in banking sector so that’s why through purposive sampling, banking customers were selected for data collection through a self-administered questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings – The present study found that both local community-related and supplier-related CSR activities have a positive impact on customer value co-creation behavior. Relationship marketing orientation mediates between the link of CSR activities and customer value co-creation behavior. The strength of RMO in CSR supplier and customer value co-creation behavior is found to be more dominant. Research limitations/implications – This study is restricted to one country under-investigation; therefore, it can be replicated with a larger and more geographically diverse sample

QUENCHING AND PARTITIONING OF AISI 4340 STEEL

Quenching and Partitioning (Q & P), an innovative heat treatment process was developed by J. G. Speer in 2003 to produce third generation high strength steels with improved toughness for making chassis of high speed cars. The Q & P process was applied to the low alloy AISI-4340 steel for different partitioning time periods. The characterization process encompassed microscopic study through optical microscope and hardness testing by micro Vickers hardness tester. Also, corrosion behaviour of different samples, partitioned at various time periods was studied by Gamry Potentiostat. Light optical microscopy revealed that microstructure consists of lath martensite and inter lath blocky retained austenite. The volume fraction of the retained austenite showed an initial progressive increase in proportion with the partitioning time but later pursued   a decrease at partitioning time of 60 and 120 sec, steadily. The hardness values were increased from 236 HV for a non-heat treated sample to 477 HV for 15 sec partitioned sample thereafter decreased with increase in partitioning time. The electrochemical test results showed a continued mitigation in the corrosion rate from 3.581 mpy for non-heat treated sample to 0.08 mpy for the 30 sec partitioned steel sample

Impact of Sewage on Health, Economic and Social Life of Rural People in Al-Hair - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

This paper aimed to evaluate the health, social and economic effects of sewage on rural people's life in Al-Hair, Saudi Arabia. A total of 90 rural people, representing about 1% of the population of the study area, were interviewed using a questionnaire. Percentages, arithmetic means, and standard deviations were calculated.  The study revealed that 26.7% of the respondents had expressed a high degree of health impact from sewage and high social and economic effect with the percentages of 85.6% and 84.4% respectively. The interrelation between the perception of the diverse effects of sewage and people's personal characteristics indicate that age, gender, household size and education level, are key determinants of rural people’ perception on health, social and economic-related risks due to sewage. Therefore, there is need to sensitize rural people about risk-reduction measures of sewage. Additional research is required to suggest intervention framework for dealing with sewage in the study area with collaboration from different stakeholders. This will provide additional information to decision-makers for policy formulation in sewage treatment by considering the adverse effects on people's life and different potential roles from all partners.DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.81000

The Impact of CSR Dimensions on Customer Participation Behaviour in Banking Industry of Pakistan

This papers examines the impact of Customer dimension of CSR, local community dimension of CSR, employee dimension of CSR, supplier dimension of CSR on customer participation behaviour. Data was collected from 453 banking customers of Pakistan. Smart PlS was used to test the measurement model and structural equation modelling technique was run to test the hypotheses. The study found that all corporate social responsibility initiatives have positive impact on customer participation behaviour. The customer dimension of CSR have more influence to for active participation of customers followed by the local community dimension of CSR, employee dimension of CSR and supplier dimension of CSR. This study covered all primary stakeholders under the head of stakeholders’ theory and highlighted the importance of supplier-oriented corporate social responsibility for customer participation behaviour due to end-users. This study also sheds the light that customers have been changing their role from passive participation to active participation

Factors Influencing Attitudes of Female Students towards Gardening: A Case Study

The study aimed at assessing attitudes of female undergraduate students toward participating in gardening activities and determining factors influencing participation using a descriptive-analytic research by a surveying approach. The statistical population consisted of 433 female students enrolled in various disciplines at the three branches of the College of Science and Humanities at the Shaqra University, Saudi Arabia during the academic year 2016/2017. Out of the total population, some 90 students were selected randomly. A well-designed and pre-tested questionnaire was administrated as a research tool. Results of the study revealed that 42.2% of the target females were with positive attitude towards gardening and were agreed to get involved in the gardening activities, 30% students remained neutral whereas some 27.8% students showed a negative attitude towards agricultural work. The findings showed that there was a significant difference between agreed and disagreed female students regarding their participation in the gardening activities in terms of owning or renting a flower gift store (t= 3.8, p>0.01). Correlation analysis showed the significant relationships between participation in gardening activities, and type of residence (r = 0.86), ownership of residence (r = 0.82), father's occupation (r = 0.71) and place of residence (r = 0.53). It was concluded that the female students living in the owned houses and villas in rural areas and their father’s job were related to agriculture had more favourable attitudes toward their participation in the gardening activities. Based on the results of the study, it is recommended that curriculums must include field tours to equip the female students with skills needed in their practical lives and that stimulate their interest towards different agricultural issues.Keywords:Attitudes, Female Students, University Education, Gardening Activities, Participation.

Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Activities on Customer Value Co-creation Behaviour in Pakistan’s Banking Industry

Banking industry of Pakistan has been facing the problem of disconnection between customers and management due to their differences in priorities. Without proper course of action, the banking industry will fail to retain the customers. Corporate social responsibility provides a platform on which corporations address the interest of stakeholders in more effective ways. This study investigates the impact of stakeholders-focused CSR activities (customer, local community, employees and suppliers) on customer value co-creation behaviour. The objective of this study to examine the effect of relationship marketing orientation (RMO) as a mediator between CSR activities and customer value co-creation behaviour in banking industry of Pakistan. For this purpose, a set of data was collected from 453 banking customers from Islamabad/Rawalpindi through questionnaires. PLS-SEM was employed to analyse the data while measurement model and structure equation modelling were evaluated for model fitness. The study demonstrates that CSR activities have positive impacts on customer value co-creation behaviour. Relationship marketing orientation (RMO) partially mediates between customer-focused, employee-focused CSR activities and customer value co-creation behaviour. While RMO does not mediate between local community-focused, supplier-focused CSR activities and customer value co-creation behaviour. This study offers insights for top executives in banking industry who can minimize the disconnection between customers and management through customize CSR activities

Potential Use of Hyperspectral Reflectance as a High-Throughput Nondestructive Phenotyping Tool for Assessing Salt Tolerance in Advanced Spring Wheat Lines under Field Conditions

The incorporation of stress tolerance indices (STIs) with the early estimation of grain yield (GY) in an expeditious and nondestructive manner can enable breeders for ensuring the success of genotype development for a wide range of environmental conditions. In this study, the relative performance of GY for sixty-four spring wheat germplasm under the control and 15.0 dS m−1 NaCl were compared through different STIs, and the ability of a hyperspectral reflectance tool for the early estimation of GY and STIs was assessed using twenty spectral reflectance indices (SRIs; 10 vegetation SRIs and 10 water SRIs). The results showed that salinity treatments, genotypes, and their interactions had significant effects on the GY and nearly all SRIs. Significant genotypic variations were also observed for all STIs. Based on the GY under the control (GYc) and salinity (GYs) conditions and all STIs, the tested genotypes were classified into three salinity tolerance groups (salt-tolerant, salt-sensitive, and moderately salt-tolerant groups). Most vegetation and water SRIs showed strong relationships with the GYc, stress tolerance index (STI), and geometric mean productivity (GMP); moderate relationships with GYs and sometimes with the tolerance index (TOL); and weak relationships with the yield stability index (YSI) and stress susceptibility index (SSI). Obvious differences in the spectral reflectance curves were found among the three salinity tolerance groups under the control and salinity conditions. Stepwise multiple linear regressions identified three SRIs from each vegetation and water SRI as the most influential indices that contributed the most variation in the GY. These SRIs were much more effective in estimating the GYc (R2 = 0.64 − 0.79) than GYs (R2 = 0.38 − 0.47). They also provided a much accurate estimation of the GYc and GYs for the moderately salt-tolerant genotype group; YSI, SSI, and TOL for the salt-sensitive genotypes group; and STI and GMP for all the three salinity tolerance groups. Overall, the results of this study highlight the potential of using a hyperspectral reflectance tool in breeding programs for phenotyping a sufficient number of genotypes under a wide range of environmental conditions in a cost-effective, noninvasive, and expeditious manner. This will aid in accelerating the development of genotypes for salinity conditions in breeding programs

BRAZILIAN ARCHIVES OF BIOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY A N I N T E R N A T I O N A L J O U R N A L Evaluation of Genetic Diversity amongthe Pakistani Wheat (Triticumaestivum L.) Lines through Random Molecular Markers

ABSTRACT The presence of geneticdiversity is of great importance in improving wheat traits and developing strategies for optimal conservation of germplasm. Genetic diversity was assessed among common wheat cultivars using RAPD (Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA