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Over 200,000 young people in the UK embark on a smoking career annually, thus continued effort is required to understand the types of interventions that are most effective in changing perceptions about smoking amongst teenagers. Several authors have proposed the use of social norms programmes, where correcting misconceptions of what is considered normal behaviour lead to improved behaviours. There are a limited number of studies showing the effectiveness of such programmes for changing teenagers’ perception of smoking habits, and hence this paper reports on the results from one of the largest social norms programmes that used a variety of interventions aimed at improving teenagers’ perceptions of smoking. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

A range of interventions were adopted for 57 programmes in year nine students, ranging from passive interventions such as posters and banners to active interventions such as student apps and enterprise days. Each programme consisted of a baseline survey followed by interventions and a repeat survey to calculate the change in perception. A clustering algorithm was also used to reveal the impact of combinations of interventions.

The study reveals three main findings: the use of social norms is an effective means of changing perceptions, the level of interventions and change in perceptions are positively correlated, and that the most effective combinations of interventions include the use of interactive feedback assemblies, enterprise days, parent and student apps and newsletters to parents.

The paper presents results from one of the largest social norm programmes aimed at improving young people’s perceptions and the first to use clustering methods to reveal the impact of combinations of intervention.

Teacher Education has been transforming throughout the world to cater to the emerging needs of quality education. Significant developments have taken place nationally and internationally in political, economic, and cultural fields, influencing education in general and teacher education in particular. The quality of education depends to a great extent on the quality of teachers. And, the quality of teachers depends on the way they are educated and trained. Pakistan has a vast education sector and a huge teaching force but teacher education in the country has not been keeping pace with modernization and development globally. Teacher education curricula, dissemination, evaluation and implementation revolved around traditional models for decades. However, there has been a growing realization to reform the teacher education system lately. The education policy (2009) of Pakistan indicates such realization on the part of the stakeholders. This chapter reports on an important teacher education reform program, which is based on collaboration between the government of Pakistan and the USAID. The Teacher Education Project (TEP), assisted by USAID, is a reform initiative that aimed at restructuring and modernizing teacher education in Pakistan. This chapter aims to provide insights into the objectives, importance and achievements of the project in terms of shaping the future direction of teacher education in Pakistan. It reports on the substantial structural and policy changes that took place in teacher education under the project. This chapter also highlights the possible challenges in the way of useful implementation and sustainability of this and similar education reform initiatives in Pakistan.

The purpose of this paper is to observe whether measurement of social capital is an effective tool or can be used as a standard tool for community‐based initiatives (CBI) evaluation. It also points at the significance of social capital in the health related grass root initiatives.

CBI is an integrated socio‐economic development approach implemented by the organized communities, supported by inter‐sectoral actions for improvement of quality of life and health of the people. Support by WHO's office of Eastern Mediterranean Region, Islamic Republic of Iran implement programmes like basic development needs, healthy cities, healthy villages and women in health and development, that are evaluated during 2005‐2006. Social capital, that includes the networking, sharing norms and cooperation amongst communities, is measured as one of the indicators during the evaluation, by surveying 240 households in three CBI and three control villages, using the World Bank's, Social Development Department's Social Capital Assessment Tool for data collection.

The evaluation results reveal that the social capital indicators like affiliation percentage; trust reciprocity; and collective action are better in CBI areas than their controls. CBI areas have a better access to public services, are more peaceful, people are more willing to help others and there is less segregation due to income and social status.

The evaluation findings support the use of social capital indicators for investigating the impact and affectivity of CBI for health and development, and underlines the need for their consideration during implementation processes and further investigation.

This study aims to assess the socio-cognitive transformation and subject knowledge development of international students studying in China's universities with diverse learning environment.

The data was collected through on-line survey and quantitative approach was adopted on a Likert scale to assess students' cognitive and social development as a responsible mind-set, ethical awareness, understanding cultural diversity and subject knowledge development. The assessment scale consisted of 25 statements to cover the foundational indicators that represent socio-cognitive transformation. The questionnaire was pilot tested for internal consistency by calculating Cronbach’s alpha. Furthermore, exploratory factor analysis was applied to ensure the traits of the construct intended to measure. A total of 316 participants responded to the survey. With descriptive statistics, X² of association and Friedman’s two-way analysis of variance by rank was applied to test the hypothesis.

This study argues that diverse learning environment has positive impact on learners’ socio-cognitive transformation. It enhances students' capability to understand cultural values to accept diversity and awareness about global community issues and also subject knowledge skill development.

In the current century, study abroad programs have increased the mobility of international students, and the role of higher education institutions has become immense, multifaceted and dynamic. Universities are taking a position to play a considerable role in creating learning opportunities for awareness of societal issues and transform social behavior. Studying abroad programs is a growing concept in response to learners' cogitative and socialized transformation. There is an absence of research conducted to explore the impact of a diverse cultural environment on the socio-cognitive transformation of international students. Therefore, the current study focused on exploring the cognitive and societal development of international students studying in China.

The study aims to examine the green finance customers' post-usage continuance behavior based on an extended social support theory (SST). Remarkably, this study explores five indirect predictors of green finance continuance behavior (GFCB) (i.e. environmental consciousness (EC), green bank marketing initiatives (GBMI), informational supports, emotional supports (EST) and psychological reactance) and a mediator (i.e. customer satisfaction).

In this study data were collected from 362 respondents from Bangladesh using a purposive sampling method with a structured self-administrative questionnaire and analyzed by partial least square structural equation and modeling using SMART PLS 3.0 software.

The results depict that the five predictors, i.e. information supports (ß = 0.367, t-statistics = 2.463, p < 0.001), EST (ß = 0.206, t-statistics = 2.315, p < 0.000), EC (ß = 0.324, t-statistics = 3.484, p < 0.000), GBMI (ß = 0.288, t-statistics = 2.028, p < 0.000), psychological reactance (ß = 0.126, t-statistics = 0.969, p < 0.052) influence GFCB while satisfaction is predicted by four predictors except psychological reactance (ß = 0.126, t-statistics = 0.969, p < 0.052). In addition, customer satisfaction (ß = 0.638, t-statistics = 6.317, p < 0.005) also has an impact on continuance behavior. Besides, the study understood that four predictors indirectly influence GFCB through satisfaction except psychological reactance ((ß = 0.080, t-statistics = 964, z = 0.958p < 0.338). Finally, the coefficient of determinations (R2) indicates that the five predictors explained 65.3% of changes in satisfaction, whereas 72.8% of changes are described by the five predictors and customer satisfactions.

Finally, this study highlights the social and managerial implications for the implementers of the green finance industry. It is recommended to emphasize green finance practice as it plays a crucial role in promoting environmental protection, ensuring social equity and driving economic growth. The green banking service providers, industry analysts, green consumers and respective government authorities can generalize green finance activities as an essential aspect of sustainable development to equalize the economic growth with a view to protecting environmental collapse and promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture and other environmentally friendly activities.

The study will enormously contribute to the existing literature validating the proposed holistic framework applying SST along with EC, GBMI and psychological reactance in green finance continuance behavior.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between corporate governance characteristics and the financial performance of both Islamic and conventional banks in the context of an emerging market, i.e. Malaysia.

This study includes 300 bank-year observations from Islamic and conventional banks over the period 2010–2021. The dynamic panel model (generalized method of moments [GMM]) was considered the primary estimation model that solves simultaneity, endogeneity and omitted variable problems as most governance variables are endogenous by nature. Hence, static models are considered biased after conducting the DWH test of endogeneity, and considering dynamic panel GMM is valid proven by Sargan and Hensen and first-order (ARI) and second-order (ARII) tests.

Based on the regression results, the authors discovered that board size, female participation in the board and director remuneration have a significant positive impact on bank performance, whereas board meetings have a significant negative impact. Furthermore, the board governance structure of commercial banks is found to be more passive than that of Islamic banks.

The study’s findings added a new dimension to governance research, which could be a valuable source of knowledge for policymakers, investors and regulators looking to improve existing governance mechanisms for better performance of conventional and Islamic banks.

The goal of this study is to add to the existing literature by focusing on the impact of female board participation and other board governance mechanisms in both conventional and Islamic banks on bank performance.

Pakistan has experienced financial liberalization with rapid ups and downs in economic growth due to domestic issues during the last 2 decades. Motivated by inconclusive and conflicting time-driven findings about the performance of the business groups, this study examines the performance of business groups in Pakistan for a relatively long period from 2003 to 2018.

The study uses 3,821 firm-year observations from non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). For the estimation, pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) with industry- and year fixed effects and two-step system generalized methods of moments (GMM) are used.

The study finds that group-affiliated firms outperform independent firms in accounting performance, while underperform in market performance. The outperformance is mainly driven by medium-sized business groups, while underperformance is driven by small and large business groups. Further, the study documents that the underperformance in terms of market performance of firms affiliated with small and large groups is greater before the economic downturn, while outperformance in terms of the accounting measure of firms affiliated with medium-sized groups is greater during the economic downturn. These findings support our time-driven concerns. Overall, the authors' findings are consistent with institutional and transaction cost theories.

Business groups are important channels to reduce market inefficiencies. Business groups may enhance the affiliated firms' resources and resistance capacity through active utilization of the internal capital market, specifically when market conditions are not ideal for affiliates. However, effective utilization of internal capital markets depends on group size. Therefore, investors should deliberate on the size of business groups and diversification within business groups.

The authors extend the literature by providing fresh evidence related to the performance of business groups in the Pakistani context while accounting for the role of the size of business groups.

Strategic management/entrepreneurship.

Undergraduate and/or MBA level in either a strategic management and/or entrepreneurship courses.

The dilemma that Zayed, Al–Maha's founder and owner, is facing, is typical for an entrepreneur who has been successful for a number of years (ten, in his case), without a formal strategy. He is now at a cross–road: should he expand in his present location in the Madinat Zayed Shopping Center, in Abu Dhabi, UAE, or open another store in another location? if he grows within its current location, how would that be? Zayed, like many small–store owners in a developing economy, faces fierce competition especially in the mobile phone business. Technology is changing constantly, demand is increasing and he has to address all these issues, among others, before making a decision. Should he create an advisory council so he can be the recipient of feedback from trusted individuals who might serve on this council? Finally, he is seeking his close friend Refaat's opinion, as to what to do next and how.

Students should be able to: analyze the internal and external environments of a small–medium enterprise (SME); understand the importance of a vision/mission and smart objectives; make strategic decisions regarding the future direction of an SME; analyze the financial statements of an SME; draft a strategic plan based on the aforementioned; and understand the pros and cons of an SME in a developing economy such as the UAE.

Teaching notes.

Jinnah was, to some extent, a successful leader in obtaining his goals of becoming the only spokesperson for Muslims in India and gaining a piece of land for Pakistan but the main question is whether these achievements can be attributed to transactional or transformational strategies. Has he managed transactional or transformational change in terms of political culture? This point will be discussed in the paper. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A documentary analysis of behaviors, statements and incidents of Jinnah and other relevant personages.

The research shows that Jinnah was neither a transformational nor a charismatic leader. Therefore, his success cannot be attributed to his transformational ideology or charismatic personality. The political maneuvers that he adopted by frequently changing his espoused values and theories-in-use are the sources of his transactional success. Moreover, it is the international events and the vested political interests of the British are among the significant reasons that brought him success.

In this work, a detailed comparison has not been made between voluminous theories of leadership because it is beyond the scope of this research. Moreover, it is not the intention of the paper to compare his leadership with that of other leaders; however, the future research in this direction might be useful. Indeed, the relevant leadership examples have been selected from the All India Congress with the major point of reference being the All India Muslim League – the party that brought him real recognition and fame.

It is stressed in the research that overt success is not a sufficient criterion to categorize a leader in a specific category without analyzing espoused theory and theories-in-use. The study will help those researchers who are interested in understanding the current political culture of Pakistan. The research will be helpful in enhancing the debate within the theme of leadership, especially transformational, transactional and charismatic. Moreover, the paper will encourage other researchers to compare Jinnah's leadership with that of other political leaders of the world.

The research is original as Jinnah's leadership from the perspectives of transformational and transactional leadership styles and the espoused theory and theories-in-use has, so far, not been discussed. It presents significant new arguments and information, which will be in the interest of researchers.

Climate change poses effect on banking sector’s risks and profitability through adaptation of green technology. This study aims to incorporates green technology adaptation in three sectors: green banking, green entrepreneurial innovation (EI) and green human resource (HR), in a model of bank’s performance. And determines the impact of climate change on bank risk and profitability.

An assessment of profitability and risk profile of commercial banks is done for 27 European countries for 2013–2022, employing a two-step difference system-generalized method of moments estimation technique with a moderate effect of climate change by including interaction between climate change and green technology adaptation.

The results indicate that green banking increases profitability, reduces credit risk and increases liquidity risk. The results also show that green human resource increases profitability and becomes a source of credit and liquidity risks for the banks. Green EI increases credit risk and liquidity risk, while the effects of green EI on profitability vary with the use of two proxies: Green patents increase profitability and environment, social and corporate governance (ESG) scores decrease profitability.

Supportive government initiatives, including subsidies and tax rebates to green borrowers, may take the burden of green transition off the banking sector.

This paper observes the impact of green technology adaptation in three sectors: banks, EI and HR, moderated by climate change, adding substantially to the existing literature in conceptual framework and methodology.