Social Entrepreneurship in Pakistan: Challenges and Prospects

Social Entrepreneurship (SE) benefits the society by helping to achieve social and economic goals. SE is receiving scholarly attention around the globe but its development is still moderate in Pakistan. Despite the growing trend, the dominant focus of scholars remains the ideological debate about the meaning and definition of SE. Such an approach inhibits the exploration of its other facets. Casting the gap in literature, this paper aims to find out the challenges and prospects that social entrepreneurs face in their journey, specifically in Pakistan. Keeping in view the emerging importance of this sector, this study discusses the findings of 14 in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with leading social entrepreneurs, practitioners and academicians related to the field to understand the phenomenon at hand. Drawing upon the findings of the study, useful insights have been put forth as its theoretical contribution. Moreover, local and national government can benefit from the findings to enhance consciousness regarding the fourth sector of the economy, eventually augmenting the available social capital

Entrepreneurial Finance: Exploring the Drivers and Challenges Faced by Young Pakistani Entrepreneurs

Within the last decade, the popularity of entrepreneurship rose exponentially all over the world; however, research in this field within the context of developing countries is still lacking. Generally speaking, accessibility and availability of financial support is one of the most significant factors affecting an entrepreneur’s venture when it is in its initial stages. This is especially true in the case of developing countries such as Pakistan. For this reason, this study explored the drivers and challenges faced by Pakistani entrepreneurs regarding the access to and availability of financial support. Data was collected through 65 semi-structured interviews of budding Pakistani entrepreneurs until the saturation point was reached. Afterwards, the interviews were transcribed and imported to NVivo 12 plus, which was used to conduct a thematic analysis of the interviews. The major findings of the research revealed that entrepreneurs face many challenges with regards to the access and availability of financial support in Pakistan. Additionally, according to the respondents, the entrepreneurial journey in Pakistan is laden with challenges and has minimum drivers (opportunities available to the entrepreneurs). The respondents also expressed a lack of awareness and downright distrust of the government-sponsored financial support schemes.&nbsp

Degradation study of different brands of amlodipine using UV spectrophotometer

Abstract There are several different brands available for Amlodipine as it is the most prescribed oral antihypertensive agents that is used for primary and secondary hypertension. The objective of this study develops the degradation studies of different brands of Amlodipine besylate 5 mg. This drug was subjected to different stress conditions as per International Conference on Harmonization guidelines (ICH). An ultraviolet UV spectroscopic method was developed for analysis of the drug in the presence of the degradation products. Distilled water was used as a solvents. The amount of degraded drugs was calculated by taking the absorbance at 238 nm. According to the assay limit of USP specified that the content should not be less than 95% and not more than 105% of labelled amount. Brand 1, 2 and 5 are degraded by UV light exposure and Brand 1 and 2 degraded after the heat exposure. On basic pH brand 1, 2 ,4 and 5 showed degradation after the addition of 1N NaOH while brand 3 do not degrade as the base has no impact on Amlodipine concentration. On addition of 1N HCL brands 1, 2, 4 and 5 showed heavy degradation and brand 3 is remain nondegradable in acidic pH. The method was found to be simple and less time consuming and cost effective

WORKPLACE BULLYING: CASE STUDY OF PUBLIC SECTOR UNIVERSITY

Workplace bullying is an amalgamation of negative behaviors of varying intensity that can severely damage one‟s ability to work effectively or efficiently. The study aims to examine the prevalence, forms and perceived perpetrator(s) of workplace bullying in a public sector university, ultimately highlighting the existing policies and procedures aiming to discourage the practice of workplace bullying at an organizational level. The study adopts a mixed method strategy. A two-step sampling approach is adopted for gathering quantitative data, where stratified sampling was followed by simple random sampling technique. For qualitative data, purposive sampling is used. The study identifies that workplace bullying prevails among university‟s faculty members where more than half of the respondents were exposed to it. The perceived perpetrators were mostly male employees targeting male employees on the same  hierarchical level. Also, faculty members belonging from the middle age and those who are at the middle of their career experienced highest exposure to bullying at work

ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE AND WORKPLACE DEVIANCE: EVIDENCE FROM BANKING SECTOR OF LAHORE, PAKISTAN

Organizational justice is considered to be a pivotal factor for the success of an organization. Its impact on citizenship behavior, job satisfaction and employee productivity has been studied wide in literature. This study emphases on exploring the impact of organizational justice and its types on workplace deviance in a novel context of Pakistani banking sector which augments the originality of this research. The respondents of the study were individual employees, of banks located in Lahore, selected through convenience sampling; a non-probability sampling technique. Further, the data was collected from 280 respondents through self-administered questionnaires and analyzed by using linear regression analysis. The findings of study emphasize a significant yet, inverse correlation between organizational justice and workplace deviant behavior. The organizations practicing distributive, procedural and interactional justice face fewer odds of workplace deviant behaviors among their employees. On the contrary, unfair means, bias anddisrespect at workplace may deviate the employees by allowing aggressiveness and politically influenced negative attitudes

Dual band Chiral Metasurface for Linear to Linear Asymmetric Transmission Applications

No abstract available

Impact of Storage on Chemical Composition of Wheat and Efficiency of Its Utilization in Broilers

This present study was designed to evaluate the effect of storage duration (1.5 years and 2.5 years storage) on wheat quality and the impact of the inclusion of stored wheat in the diet of broilers on performance, nutrient digestibility, and carcass parameters. A total of 560 one-day-old male broilers were randomly assigned to the 56 pens, and each pen had 10 birds. A corn-soybean-based diet was considered as the control diet and the other six dietary treatments were prepared by replacing corn of the corn-soybean diet with 50% and 100% replacement of fresh, 1.5-year stored, and 2.5-year stored wheat. The data of proximate composition of wheat represents that dry matter was improved (p p p p < 0.05). Based on the findings of this current study, it is concluded that the storage of wheat improves the performance of birds

Impact of Exogenous Xylanase and Phytase, Individually or in Combination, on Performance, Digesta Viscosity and Carcass Characteristics in Broiler Birds Fed Wheat-Based Diets

The current study was conducted to evaluate the effects of stored wheat-based diet (1.5 and 2.5 years stored wheat) with and without the supplementation of xylanase and phytase enzymes in combination or individually on performance parameters, digestibility, digesta viscosity and carcass characteristics of broilers. For this purpose, a total of 640-day-old male broilers were randomly distributed to the 64 pens, and each pen had 10 birds. Two basal isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets contained 1.5 and 2.5 years stored wheat were formulated in this experiment. In the current study, experimental feeds were prepared by supplementing exogenous enzymes in both basal diets with xylanase (500 XU), phytase (500 FTU) alone or in a combination of phytase and xylanase. Performance parameters data represents that both in starter phase and finisher phase, inclusion of exogenous enzymes xylanase and phytase in both basal diets alone or in combination enhance the feed intake, and body weight gain (p p p < 0.05). Based on the results of this experiment, it is concluded that supplementation of exogenous xylanase and phytase enzymes alone or in combination in wheat-based diets (stored wheat 1.5 and 2.5 years) enhance and improves the performance of birds