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In the past two decades, the problem of gender disparities in the use of internet has attracted a remarkable interest of researchers. Several studies revealed that female internet users were the disadvantaged group than males, because they had not the same access, experience and use frequency regarding the internet use. Moreover, the negative attitude of the society towards the females’ internet use also made them disadvantaged group. Prompted by these observations, this paper aims to examine gender differences in the use of internet among graduate students of a developing society – in public sector universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Quantitative research design using a questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed through SPSS version 20.0 by using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The findings of this study, similar to previous studies, revealed differences among men and women. Majority of men possessed PCs and were more experienced than women. In addition, they were more skilled and faced problems of computer anxiety and distance with less intensity than women. In addition, women used internet mainly for social interaction, communication, entertainment and were more satisfied with some of the educational resources than men. However, men were more satisfied than women regarding the use of most educational internet resources and spent more time on these than women.

This is the first study in Pakistan that deals with gender differences in the use of internet among graduate students of a developing society – in public sector universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible result of librarians’ professional commitment on the delivery of quality library services. Thus, the aim is to investigate the relationship between professional commitment and library customers’ perceived service quality of the respective libraries.

This is a quantitative study which based on questionnaire survey. A cross-sectional design was adopted for this study in which data were collected from two different populations (i.e. professional librarians and their library customers) having a common facet that is library.

Overall, librarians were found committed on the professional commitment scale (PCS). The studied professional librarians showed higher commitment on the affective commitment dimension than that of continuance commitment of PCS. A positively significant relationship was appeared between professional commitment and library service quality.

No such cross-sectional study can be found that addressed the relationship between professional commitment and library service quality, particularly, in Pakistani library and information science research.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the self-perceptions of university information professionals about the current state of their soft skills and to highlight the barriers faced in the development of such skills.

A sequential mixed method research design using a questionnaire followed by in-depth interviews as data collection tools were used to achieve the objectives of the study. Self-completion questionnaires were used to collect the data from 560 respondents spread over 33 universities of Pakistan. Then, 21 interviews were conducted with purposely selected library and information professionals at the qualitative phase.

The findings of the survey revealed that the majority of the information professionals perceived themselves “moderately competent” in soft skills. Only 14.8% information professionals considered themselves “competent”. The qualitative findings revealed that university library and information professionals generally faced several barriers in the development of their soft skills that included “lack of administrative support”, “lack of personal commitment”, “lack of financial support by the parent organizations”, and so many others, which might have affected their current levels of soft skills.

The possible limitation of this study may be the bias of the respondents, toward their self-judgment. During interviews, most of the assistant librarians were not comfortable and expressive. This might be due to lack of soft skills knowledge, interview anxiety and poor communication skills.

This research is the first study in Pakistan that dealt with the state of soft skills and barriers in its development among university library and information professionals having a large number (N = 372) of respondents.

The purpose of this paper is to study the self-perceptions of university information professionals about continuous professional development (CPD) opportunities regarding their soft skills.

A qualitative design using in-depth interviews was used. The population was all the information professionals working in the public sector universities of Pakistan, but the geographic range of the population, to reduce travelling expenses and to complete the study in time, the interviews were restricted to the universities of the capital city Islamabad and provincial capital Peshawar. A total of 21 interviews were conducted using a snowball sampling technique to select information professionals.

The findings revealed that only three information professionals attended CPD opportunities in soft skills. More than half of the information professionals stated that CPD programmes have an overall “good” impact on the development of their soft skills. Similarly, more than half of the participants stated that CPD training opportunities on soft skills are very limited. The majority of the participants held professional associations responsible for the development of information professionals’ soft skills. It was also found that communication and persuasion skills, self-management skills and interpersonal skills were the top three soft skill categories for which they urged CPD programmes.

During interviews, most of the Assistant Librarians were not expressive and comfortable. This might be because of a lack of their soft skills knowledge, poor communication skills and interview anxiety.

According to the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind in Pakistan that dealt with the CPD opportunities regarding soft skills of university information professionals using a qualitative research design.

In today's global economy, developing supply chain agility (SCA) and lean practices (LP) as resource-based view and dynamic capabilities are essential for firms to sustain their competitive advantage (CA) and enhance their operational performance (OP). The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a framework to investigate how CA is achieved through SCA and LP and how these, in turn, can enhance a firm's OP.

For data collection, the authors adopted the survey method using self-administered questionnaires. Two-source survey data were collected in two rounds (separated by a two-month lag time) from supply chain managers, operational managers and general managers. The purpose of collecting data in two rounds was to reduce common-method bias. Likert scale (1–5) was used in the questionnaire. Smart PLS 3 and SPSS 23 were used for the data analysis purpose.

SCA was found to directly and positively affect OP. LP also positively affected OP. In addition, CA fully mediated the relationship between SCA, LP and OP.

This study encourages the managers of manufacturing firms to adapt LP and their supply chains (SCs) to become agile and leverage the advantages of their implementation to improve their OP and succeed in the market.

This study is one of the first to investigate the effect of SCA and LP on OP. Furthermore, the first study examines CA's mediating impact on the relationship between SCA, LP and OP.

This study aims to explore green practices within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their implications for determining environmental performance. Targeting SMEs in Pakistan, the study examines the influence of green intellectual capital (GIC), innovation and creativity on environmental performance.

A comprehensive survey addressed top, middle, and lower-level managerial perspectives. A sample of 243 respondents was statistically selected, and the survey questionnaire was used to measure the key constructs of the study. Using a 5-point Likert scale, the study captured the respondents' insights regarding green practices. Data analysis was executed using SPSS for descriptive tests and Smart-PLS 4 for advanced structural equation modeling (SEM).

GIC significantly enhances green innovation within SMEs, leading to improved environmental performance. Green creativity is a crucial moderator, indicating that SMEs have higher creative approaches to counter environmental challenges. These findings accentuate the importance of fostering an environment that stimulates green creativity to uplift GIC in achieving environmental performance.

The study offers a profound understanding of how SMEs in Pakistan leverage GIC to elevate their environmental performance, thereby providing strategic insights for businesses aiming for sustainable growth.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the university information professionals (UIPs) preferred modes of soft skills learning and differences in their opinions based on gender, designations and experience.

Quantitative research design using a questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed through SPSSS version 20.0, using descriptive and inferential statistics. The population of the study included all the UIPs working in the central libraries of the general public sector 33 universities in Pakistan, with nearly a population of 560.

The major findings showed that “mentoring sessions by experts” was the most preferred mode of soft skills learning followed by “learning from colleagues”. It showed that UIPs preferred to learn soft skills from experts and colleagues. Independent-samples t-test results found that “mentoring session by experts” was more preferred by females than males. A one-way ANOVA results found significant differences of opinion regarding the “mentoring session by experts” method between librarians and assistant librarians (p = 0.044). Results were statistically significant also between more experienced and less experienced regarding “real project/assignment-based method” and “mentoring session by experts”. In addition, for “formal online courses” and “self-training through reading books”, results were statistically significant between experienced groups of 1-5 years and 11-15 years. Overall results indicated that from UIPs’ perspective, soft skills should be taught to them using face-to-face methods.

This is the first study in Pakistan that dealt with the preferred modes of soft skills learning of UIPs by using a large group (N = 372) of respondents.

The basic intention of this research is to investigate the role of information transparency of financial institutions and psychological attitude of the individuals toward their attention to saving and borrowing. This study also tries to know how an individual's psychological factor affects a person's attitude to motivate them to save or borrow and contribute to well-being by giving them confidence that they can face financial challenges. So, the main concern of this study is to explore different factors that ultimately contribute to the financial well-being (FWB) of individual.

A survey was conducted by using a well-structured questionnaire to collect data and test the developed hypotheses by using SmartPLS. Data were collected from 120 customers of seven different commercial banks in Pakistan.

The findings of this study show that perceived information transparency positively affects FWB. It is also because transparent shared information creates positive change in individuals' perceived self-efficacy and leads to FWB. Furthermore, an individual's psychological attitude toward borrowing and saving did not contribute to the FWB of people who belong to Pakistan.

The research area is limited to one city of Pakistan and analysis is done with small numbers of sample, it can be increased and more areas can be explored.

This research provides significant implications for people and economists by providing awareness about the antecedents of FWB. The policymakers or managers who work in financial institutions should provide more transparent information and create less risky opportunities to improve the individual's well-being. If person, manager and financial institution can properly utilize the information of this study, then they are able to improve their FWB. By providing more transparent services and favorable experience with your dealings, it could help to obtain and retain more loyal internal (employees) and external customers. The loyal customers and sincere employees can increase the productivity level of organization. The more productive organizations in countries means better society and progress in the economy.

This research contributes to the body of knowledge that how perceived information transparency and psychological attitude of borrowing create improvement and upward changes in the FWB of a person.

The purpose of this paper is to study the 100 percent pure cotton and 50:50 cotton and regenerated fibers (tencel, modal, bamboo, viscose) blends. The blends of regenerated fibers with cotton are studied so as to replace 100 percent cotton fabrics with the cotton blends as cotton cannot fulfill the demand of clothing due to the increasing population.

In order to conduct this study, cotton, as natural cellulose fiber, was used. Regenerated fibers include viscose, tencel, modal and bamboo. Five yarn samples of Ne 30/1 of 100 percent cotton and blends (50:50) of cotton with tencel, modal, bamboo and viscose fibers were produced. The blending was done in the Blow-room, and yarn samples were produced by employing the ring spinning technique. Plain woven fabrics samples with Ends (76) and Picks (68) per inch of 120 gsm were prepared. The fabric samples were tested for mechanical (warp and weft tensile and tear strengths) and comfort properties (air permeability, moisture management and thermal resistance).

Cotton:tencel fabric has the excellent mechanical (tensile and tear strength) as well as comfort properties (air permeability, moisture management and thermal resistance). It means that the most suitable blend that cotton can make with the regenerated fibers is the tencel. Therefore, to have more comfortable fabrics, the fabrics which are being made by 100 percent cotton can be replaced with the cotton:tencel.

To the authors’ information, no study has been reported in which all the regenerated fibers blended with cotton were studied. Hence, the aim of this work is to study the mechanical and comfort properties of the regenerated fibers (modal, tencel, viscose and bamboo) blended with cotton. The blends of cotton with regenerated fibers might replace 100 percent cotton in clothing applications as cotton cannot fulfill the increasing demanding of clothing.

The food industry is crucial in delivering healthy products for life saving of the society. The identification of key barriers of knowledge management (KM) is desired to enhance the sustainability of the industry. KM has been seen as a part of sustainable development by reducing the bullwhip effect in the entire supply chain. The core objective of the existing research is to prioritize the essential factors of KM adoption in sustainable supply chain (SSC) based on fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) method.

In order to fulfill objectives of this study, an extensive review of literature and a questionnaire-based field visits were conducted. A total of five major barriers categories and 22 sub-barriers categories were identified in food sector of Pakistan using experts' inputs. This study employed fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP).

Managerial barriers, innovation and technological barriers categories are found to be highly prioritized among others. Further, the sensitivity analysis is applied to check the incremental changes of ranked barriers. This prioritization of barriers and incremental changes in them is expected to serve food sector for long-term sustainability and competitive advantage for importers and exporters. Finally, the findings of this research are very helpful for industrial experts, practitioners, consultants and government officials in effectively developing policies regarding KM adoption in line with sustainable goals.

The present work is conducted in the Pakistani context; however, the benchmark model may be tested and applied to other developing countries to compare the outcomes. For further research, the identified barriers may also be evaluated to establish their inter-relationships, using ISM, DEMATEL, ANP, etc. Similarly, the results of this study can also be compared with that of other fuzzy multi-criteria techniques like fuzzy TOPSIS, fuzzy VIKOR, fuzzy ELECTRE, fuzzy PROMETHEE, or fuzzy VIKOR.

This research study can facilitate policymakers, government bodies, stakeholders and supply chain professionals to recognize the key barriers they may encounter in adopting KM practices in their SSC. Additionally, this work helps managers to evaluate the identified barriers by computing their relative importance in adopting KM practices at managerial levels like strategically, tactically and operationally activities in business. This study also facilitates industrial management in formulating policies and action plans in case of implementation, eliminating the barriers in adoption of KM, and SSC successfully.

Few research studies were conducted on KM adoption in industries of China, India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, but due to workforce diversity these industries have dissimilar views of experts about KM adoption. This study significantly contributed to fill the existing literature gap for prioritization of key barriers against KM implementation in Pakistani context.