In this study, we examined the impact of principals' leadership style on the performance of teachers at the college level. For this purpose, we collect data from 300 college teachers via a random sampling approach. A self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect data. For detecting relationships and differences among the opinions of the study's participants, correlation and the t-test were used. This study has revealed that the majority of college principals practice a democratic style of leadership at a higher level, (...) Laissez-faire at a moderate level, and autocratic at a low level in their colleges. Moreover, it has been also revealed that when principals increase the use of a democratic leadership style, teacher performance may progress as well. The findings revealed that principals' leadership style had a positive impact on the performance of teachers. The study exposed a strong statistically positive relationship between college principals' leadership style and teacher performance. Thus, the results of this study suggest that college principals' should adopt the leadership style according to the level of teachers. The leadership style should be changed with specific situations in the colleges. (shrink)

The Community of Shared Future for Mankind (CSFM) concept is a comprehensive Chinese proposal for a better future of mankind. In this article, we provide a comprehensive analysis of this concept by focusing on its origin, evolution and philosophical foundation. This article deals with the origin and evolution of the CSFM concept. We show that the concept originated during the presidency of Hu Jintao, who initially used it for the domestic affairs of China. However, the usage of the concept was (...) later extended from domestic to international affairs. Though Hu Jintao conceived the CSFM concept, it is president Xi Jinping who became its greatest advocate. We explore the CSFM concept’s development and evolution into one of the most influential, diverse and dominant concepts of international relations under president Xi. Furthermore, the article explores the philosophical foundation of the CSFM concept. We argue that although CSFM concept is seen as a 21st century Chinese idea, the roots of the concept can be traced back to much earlier time in history. The concept is based on three major philosophical thoughts: Marxism, Confucianism and the philosophy of Mencius. We show that the CSFM concept is greatly influenced by Marx’s ideas such as the transformation of the world, the free association of producers, historical materialism and dialectics. We also point to a number of Confucian principles that are adopted by the CSFM concept. The CSFM concept not only adopts Confucian principles but also extends their scope from the individual level to international relations. Similarly, we also highlight that the CSFM concept is influenced by Mencius’ concepts such as universal brotherhood, responsibility towards the betterment of the world, humane governance, free trade, equal sharing of wealth and the conservation of natural resources. (shrink)

The university is situated within white colonial projects that underpin the nation in the UK, US and Canada. While the institutional whiteness of universities reflects these structural conditions of whiteness in society, it is also more flexible and dynamic in the present, reflecting both national and transnational racial politics. The Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020 and student movements calling on universities to be accountable for their ties to slavery and colonialism have made this connection visible. In (...) this context, this paper examines how racial politics affects postracial whiteness in the university, using two cases from a British and Canadian university, respectively, and drawing on Sara Ahmed’s (2007;, 2019) work on whiteness and the university and David Theo Goldberg’s (2015) theorization of the postracial. (shrink)

This paper aims to investigate how workplace ostracism acts as a motive behind customer service sabotage. We examine the role of stress as a meditating variable along with the moderation of perceived organizational support (POS) on the said association by using conservation of resources and equity theory. 217 nurses from hospitals of southern Punjab region in Pakistan participated in the study. Data was collected through survey and structured questionnaires. SPSS and AMOS were used to analyze data with latest techniques of (...) bootstrapping and process macros. The results showed that stress mediated between the association of workplace ostracism and service sabotage behavior. Perceived organizational support was confirmed as a moderator between this relationship. POS buffered the harmful effects of ostracism and stress on customer service, as POS demonstrates to personnel that they are cherished and respected by the organization which lessens the strength of perceived stress due to workplace ostracism. Organizational leadership should take advantage from stress-alleviating effect of POS, which is important in producing adequate levels of work-performance. (shrink)

With theoretical underpinnings in the theory of planned behavior, this research aims at investigating how women's entrepreneurial intentions might develop in Pakistan. The survey of 216 female students revealed that psychological capital plays an important role in shaping women's entrepreneurial commitment which in turn results in increased intentions to opt for entrepreneurship as a career. Additionally, it was observed that social support moderates the indirect relation in such a way that in the presence of high social support, the association between (...) psychological capital and intentions via commitment is further strengthened. Because women face comparatively more barriers in paid career, therefore it was necessary to study the mechanism and driver that can improve their entrepreneurial intentions, since they represent an untapped resource that might be utilized to improve the economic prospects of a country. The study bridges a significant knowledge gap in utilizing psychological capital to enhance female's entrepreneurial intentions, who are under constant pressure of juggling multiple roles at work and home. (shrink)

The demarcation between science and non-science seems to play an important role in the process of scientific change, as theories regularly transition from being considered scientific to being considered unscientific and vice versa. However, theoretical scientonomy is yet to shed light on this process. The goal of this paper is to tackle the problem of demarcation from the scientonomic perspective. Specifically, we introduce scientificity as a distinct epistemic stance that an agent can take towards a theory. We contend that changes (...) in this stance are to be traced and explained by scientonomy. Thus, we formulate a new law of theory demarcation to account for changes in scientificity within the scientonomic framework. (shrink)

This research focuses on (a) introducing and exploring ethically effective leadership, (b) introducing and testing theory on triad of typical–maximal–ideal ethically effective leadership performances, (b) theorizing and empirically testing that each of typical–maximal–ideal ethically effective leadership performance is different from each others, in other words exploring mean differences between each pair of typical–maximal–ideal effective leadership performances, (c) introducing, theorizing, and testing mechanism to quantify respondents’ intrinsic desire and inherent potential to enhance their ethically effective leadership performances, (d) exploring precedents of (...) each of typical–maximal–ideal ethically effective leadership performances, and finally (e) exploring bases and feasibility of virtual, robotic, and mixed reality ethically effective leadership that may or may not be same as conventional ethically effective leadership. This paper explores global leadership aspect of ethically effective leadership performance at three data collection levels (via typical, maximal, and ideal effective leadership performances) adding precision to assessment of ethically effective leadership and resolving an important challenge (precise assessment) to ethical leadership development. It explores respondents’ typical ethically effective leadership performance E_T, their maximal ethically effective leadership performance E_M, and their ideal ethically effective leadership performance E_I. It presents non-western perspectives on ethically effective leadership disregarding homogenization of leadership behavior. It advances our insight into ethical leadership development by empirically identifying presence, direction and magnitude of respondents’ (a) intrinsic desire and (b) existing intrinsic potential for alteration of their ethically effective leadership. Means of typical ethically effective leadership performance E_T, maximal ethically effective leadership performance E_M, and ideal ethically effective leadership performance E_I are distinct. Typical ethically effective leadership performance E_T is positively associated with maximal ethically effective leadership performance E_M and ideal ethically effective leadership performance E_I. This article concludes that the selected leaders report their ideal ethically effective leadership performance E_I to be higher than their typical ethically effective leadership performance E_T and maximal ethically effective leadership performance E_M depicting significant intrinsic desire for 14 % enhancing their ethically effective leadership performance. Respondents have significant existing intrinsic potential for 10 % enhancing their ethically effective leadership performance. Regression constants for regression models for typical ethically effective leadership performance E_T, maximal ethically effective leadership performance E_M and ideal ethically effective leadership performance E_I are significant depicting that the researchers have to look for other variables to fully explain variance in typical ethically effective leadership performance E_T, maximal ethically effective leadership performance E_M and ideal ethically effective leadership performance E_I. Regression coefficient of typical ethically effective leadership performance E_T is significant in model for ideal ethically effective leadership performance E_I as well as maximal ethically effective leadership performance E_M and vice versa. So, the paper suggests that training strategies may be feasible to alter typical ethically effective leadership performance E_T and maximal ethically effective leadership performance E_M in such a way as to bring it closer to ideal ethically effective leadership performance E_I but for this, researchers have to look for other variables too. (shrink)

Design plays an integral role in the functions of modern society. Yet the abstract process by which designers carry out their work is not obvious. The study of design thinking has grown in recent years into a major area of academic research, yet it presently lacks a clear theoretical basis; and as a discipline, its methodologies are disparate. Here, we outline and clarify the framework of the scholarly study of design thinking, introducing the major ideas and concepts upon which the (...) field is based. We then discuss in detail the various methodological issues of the field, and argue that, in its current state, the field of design thinking cannot sustain itself as an independent area of academic research. We suggest that design thinking may best be studied from a sociological or science, technology, and society (STS) studies perspective. (shrink)

Existing work in the field of business ethics has explored how concepts in philosophy and other disciplines can be applied to blame at work, and considers blame’s potential impact on organisations and their employees. However, there is little empirical evidence of organisational blaming practices and their effects. This article presents an analysis of interviews with twenty-seven employees from a range of occupations, exploring their experience of blame, its rationale and impact. A diversity of blaming practices and perspectives is revealed, and (...) in making sense of these the authors draw on recent theoretical developments—Skarlicki, Kay, Aquino, and Fushtey’s concept of ‘swift-blame,’ and Fricker’s notion of ‘communicative blame.’ The study also reveals a tension between a desire to avoid ‘blaming’ on the one hand, and a need for ‘accountability,’ on the other, and the authors explore the implications of the findings for organisations in seeking to ‘manage’ blame. (shrink)

This article focuses on the doing and undoing of race in daily life practices in Denmark. It takes the form of a dialogue between two women, a heterosexual Muslim woman of colour and a lesbian white woman, who discuss and analyze how their daily life, e.g. interactions with their children’s schools and daycare institutions, shape their racial and gendered experiences. Drawing upon black feminist theory, postcolonial theory, critical race and whiteness studies, the two women illustrate inclusions and exclusions in their (...) society based on gender, race, class and sexuality – and especially pinpoint to how these categories intersect in processes of inclusion and exclusion. The article argues that the lack of a Nordic vocabulary for the term ‘race’ – as ‘race’ is associated with biological racism which dominated in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, and hence is viewed as a historical phenomenon left behind – prevents contemporary people from addressing existing patterns of racial discrimination, inclusion and exclusion in their daily lives, as well as from connecting their contemporary struggles to historical struggles and inequalities. Furthermore, they illustrate how food, class and race intersect with an analysis of the so-called New Nordic Kitchen, exemplified by the world famous Copenhagen restaurant NOMA. The article interprets the New Nordic Kitchen, which has become very popular in the Nordic countries in recent years, as a culinary project performing whiteness, and connects the New Nordic Kitchen’s obsession with ‘the authentic Nordic’ with historical race science in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. (shrink)

This book presents the promises of Precision Medicine (PM) and the challenges of its implementation in daily clinical routine, while addressing the anticipated ethical and social implications. It is the first book that critically analyzes the potential and the dilemmas relevant to genomics and precision medicine from healthcare, public health and global perspectives. The nine chapters presented in this book elaborate on pharmacogenomics' crucial role in maximizing the potential benefits and minimizing medication's potential risks in groups of people, especially in (...) cancer treatment and other health conditions. Infectious and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are also discussed in this book by identifying challenges and ways to overcome them. Essential concepts are addressed, such as health-related benefits and harm to individuals and the broader community, including threats to individual privacy and autonomy, which warrant just distribution of scarce resources. The book also identifies and addresses the lack of competency in the healthcare workforce in the era of PM and discusses the path to laying the ethical foundation for the implementation of PM in healthcare organizations. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, Volume 31, Issue 2, Page 419-437, April 2022.

The purpose of this study is to offer a brief biography of Mr. M.H. Panhwar and Dr. Nabi Bux Khan Baloch, as well as their work in Sindhological studies along with a brief description of their literary differences on the origin of Sindhi language and history. A systematic literature review methodology was used to explore the contribution and contradiction of both the scholars. The study found that both the scholars were renowned researchers who worked in the fields of history, archaeology, (...) sociology, literature, and language. Both were up-to-dated academics, but their scholarly interests in history, archaeology, language, and literature were diametrically opposed. The study revealed that M.H. Panhwar was a rigorous researcher who conducted studies using scientific techniques and with the assistance of archaeological and geographical evidence. The study further explored that Dr. N. A. Baloch was a folklorist, educationist and extensive writer whose ideological hypotheses were primarily based on mythology and preserved folk literature. (shrink)

The standard of proof in criminal trials should require that the evidence presented by the prosecution is robust. This requirement of robustness says that it must be unlikely that additional information would change the probability that the defendant is guilty. Robustness is difficult for a judge to estimate, as it requires the judge to assess the possible effect of information that the he or she does not have. This article is concerned with expert witnesses and proposes a method for reviewing (...) the robustness of expert testimony. According to the proposed method, the robustness of expert testimony is estimated with regard to competence, motivation, external strength, internal strength and relevance. The danger of trusting non-robust expert testimony is illustrated with an analysis of the Thomas Quick Case, a Swedish legal scandal where a patient at a mental institution was wrongfully convicted for eight murders. (shrink)

The empirical basis for self-control in Dohsa-hou as it relates to effects on cognitive processes has been explored in a few studies of the Japanese psychotherapy, but not under standardized conditions with a strong predictive theory of control. This study reports on a series of experiments with the Dual Mechanisms of Control framework to clarify the possible regulatory mechanism of Dohsa-hou by focusing on shoulder movement, a key body movement task used by practitioners across applied settings. Cognitive control was operationalized (...) with the AX version of Continuous Performance Test paradigm for proactive control and a modified Stroop task paradigm for reactive control in a 3-arm parallel group trial study design. Healthy Japanese university students were assigned to a Dohsa-hou group that performed a shoulder movement task for few minutes, an active control group that performed a similar task, or a passive control group comprised of a resting condition. A total of 55 participants performed the AX-CPT and 57 participants performed the modified Stroop task before and after the group manipulation. In the AX-CPT, an increase in the error rate of AY trial from pre- to post-test was observed in the passive control group only, and found to be marginally higher in the passive control group relative to Dohsa-hou group at post-test. This indicated that Dohsa-hou moderated the activation of proactive control by repeated AX-CPT performance. The error rate of the Proactive Behavioral Index did not differ from zero at post-test only in the Dohsa-hou group, indicating flexible cognitive control. In the modified Stroop task, there was no difference between congruent and incongruent trials at post-test for the Dohsa-hou group only, indicating the facilitation of reactive control. The evidence for a balancing effect for the Dohsa-hou-based shoulder movement task indicates that clients experience a form of continuous self-monitoring, which might reduce mind-wandering from their focus on movement execution combined with iterative verbal feedback from the therapist. Overall, the results of the present study suggest that the self-regulatory mechanism promoted in clinical Dohsa-hou emphasizes guided shifts in attention to the reactive mode toward a balance of cognitive control. (shrink)

Purpose of the StudyThe significance of creativity and performance in the workplace has been illustrated on various occasions. This study aims to find out if there is a link between transformative leadership, organizational innovation, psychological issues such as hindrance and challenge stressors, and employee creativity and employee performance. There is still a lack of awareness of the factors that influence employee performance in small and medium businesses in Pakistan. Pakistan’s SMEs have struggled to survive in their early years, with an (...) initial failure rate of 90 percent to 95 percent.MethodologyThe relationship between hindrance and challenge stressors, organizational innovation, transformational leadership, employee creativity, and their effect on overall employee performance is established through employing Structural Equation Modeling. In this study, constructs were developed from existing theories, hypotheses were generated, data were collected from 424 SME employees, and SEM analysis was conducted to prove the suggested hypothesis. The employees of SMEs are the research study’s unit of analysis.FindingsThe findings of this study demonstrated that challenge stressors, transformational leadership, and employee creativity all had positive and significant effects on employee performance.Originality/ValueThis is one of the first studies to study and extends existing understanding of psychological research in this manner and following correlations in a developing country, Pakistan: the links between transformational leadership and employees’ perception of creativity and performance along with organizational innovation and work stressors. Based on theoretical considerations, a model is proposed, and hypotheses are established and explored. The findings of this study can help businesses increase employee performance by informing employee performance improvement methods. Business executives might learn more about how to engage and motivate employees to improve their performance. (shrink)

An argument that makes use of a generalization activates the prototype for the category used in the generalization. We conducted two experiments that investigated how the activation of the prototype affects the persuasiveness of the argument. The results of the experiments suggest that the features of the prototype overshadow and partly overwrite the actual facts of the case. The case is, to some extent, judged as if it had the features of the prototype instead of the features it actually has. (...) This prototype effect increases the persuasiveness of the argument in situations where the audience finds the judgment more warranted for the prototype than for the actual case, but decreases persuasiveness in situations where the audience finds the judgment less warranted for the prototype than for the actual case. (shrink)

We investigate argumentation where an expression is substituted with a less precise expression. We propose that the effect that this deprecization has on the audience be called deprecization effect. When the audience agrees more with the less precise version of the argument, there is a positive deprecization effect. We conducted an experiment where the participants were presented with a court room scenario. The results of the experiment confirm the following hypothesis: If the participants find it hard to agree with the (...) precise version of the argument and accept the use of the imprecise term, they will agree more with the imprecise version of the argument. Furthermore, we show that a person who reacts in this way to deprecization commits the fallacy of equivocation. (shrink)

UK legislation is to follow the moral views of society, has begun to incorporate CSR into legislation, forcing companies to conform the voluntary inclusion of CSR into the business framework beyond the legislated minima. Although the incorporation of CSR is a relatively new concept, the relevant legislation does not address certain key points; this allows some companies to find loopholes within the law and perform actions that are damaging the environment, but are technically still within the constraints of the legislation. (...) The absence of a structured assessment of legislations in the UK, against CSR guidelines has left legal escapes which some companies may exploit to avoid their social responsibility. To study the reality of this, thematic analysis was used to identify areas of CSR that are currently present within the UK legislation. Further, thematic analysis was also conducted on Carroll's sustainability pyramid to establish the main areas of CSR that are absent from the selected UK legislation. Accordingly, this study outlines a structured assessment of the current UK legislation in relation to CSR activities. Furthermore, we have provided a set of recommendations that can be espoused by the UK legislators. (shrink)

The aim of this research is to determine people's motives when purchasing organic food and how these motives are moderated by price sensitivity and ethical concerns in a cross‐cultural setting. A highly structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from 673 Italian and 594 Pakistani consumers, using the convenience sampling technique. Based on the etic research approach, the measurement invariance tests were performed, and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that environmental concerns and health‐consciousness are (...) significant predictors of subjective norms and purchase attitudes among Italian consumers. Food safety concern proved the strongest predictor of purchase attitude and perceived behavioral control among Pakistani consumers. The results also confirm the moderating role of ethical concerns and price sensitivity in buying organic food in both cultures. In terms of originality, this study fills significant gaps in the literature, particularly regarding the roles of attitude, behavioral control, and subjective norms in consumer buying motives and purchasing intentions in cross‐cultural studies but more importantly, the results validate that consumer concerns across the globe are related to the Sustainability Development Goals and the U.N. 2030 agenda, which aptly provides a blue print for the development and developmental goals and concerns across nations. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to explore the difference of depression between working and non-working women of Pakistan. The sample comprised of 250 women. The target group’s age range was between 28 to 45 years. The women were selected from different organizations and areas of Karachi, Pakistan through purposive sampling technique. After taking the permission from authorities and informed consent from the participant demographic forms were filled then in order to measure the depression, Lovibond and Lovibond DASS Scale was (...) administered, individually. Descriptive statistics and t-test for independent mean were used to analyze the data through Statistical Package Social Science Version 12. It was hypothesized that ’’the working-women will score lower on the variable of Depression ascompared to non-working women. The findings show that non-working women scored higher on the scale of depression than working-women in Pakistan. The Mean score of the age was and the standard deviation was. The Mean score of Depression of Non-working women was 14.28 and the Mean score of Depression of working women was10.26. The scores depict the lower level of depression in working women compared to non-working women. (shrink)

Unfounded—conspiracy and health—beliefs about COVID-19 have accompanied the pandemic worldwide. Here, we examined cross-nationally the structure and correlates of these beliefs with an 8-item scale, using a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. We obtained a two-factor model of unfounded (conspiracy and health) beliefs with good internal structure (average CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.05, SRMR = 0.04), but a high correlation between the two factors (average latent factor correlation = 0.57). This model was replicable across 50 countries (total N = 13,579), (...) as evidenced by metric invariance between countries (CFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.06, SRMS = 0.07) as well as scalar invariance across genders (CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.04, SRMS = 0.03) and educational levels (CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.04, SRMS = 0.03). Also, lower levels of education, more fear of COVID-19, and more cynicism were weakly associated with stronger conspiracy and health beliefs. The study contributes to knowledge about the structure of unfounded beliefs, and reveals the potential relevance of affective (i.e., fear of COVID-19) and cognitive (i.e., cynicism) factors along with demographics, in endorsing such beliefs. In summary, we obtained cross-cultural evidence for the distinctiveness of unfounded conspiracy and health beliefs about COVID-19 in terms of their structure and correlates. (shrink)

Tuberculosis is caused by bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In this study, a mathematical model of tuberculosis is analyzed. The numerical behaviour of the considered model is analyzed including basic reproduction number and stability. We applied three numerical techniques to this model, i.e., nonstandard finite difference scheme, Runge–Kutta method of order 4, and forward Euler scheme. NSFD scheme preserves all the essential properties of the model. Acquired results corroborate that NSFD scheme converges for each step size. While the other two schemes failed (...) to preserve some properties of the model such as positivity and convergence. A graphical comparison presented in this study confirms the numerical stability of the NSFD technique shown here is maintained over a large area. (shrink)

Background. Imposter syndrome, associated with self-doubt and fear despite clear accomplishments and competencies, is frequently detected in medical students and has a negative impact on their well-being. This study aimed to predict the students’ IS using the machine learning ensemble approach. Methods. This study was a cross-sectional design among medical students in Bangladesh. Data were collected from February to July 2020 through snowball sampling technique across medical colleges in Bangladesh. In this study, we employed three different machine learning techniques such (...) as neural network, random forest, and ensemble learning to compare the accuracy of prediction of the IS. Results. In total, 500 students completed the questionnaire. We used the YIS scale to determine the presence of IS among medical students. The ensemble model has the highest accuracy of this predictive model, with 96.4%, while the individual accuracy of random forest and neural network is 93.5% and 96.3%, respectively. We used different performance matrices to compare the results of the models. Finally, we compared feature importance scores between neural network and random forest model. The top feature of the neural network model is Y7, and the top feature of the random forest model is Y2, which is second among the top features of the neural network model. Conclusions. Imposter syndrome is an emerging mental illness in Bangladesh and requires the immediate attention of researchers. For instance, in order to reduce the impact of IS, identifying key factors responsible for IS is an important step. Machine learning methods can be employed to identify the potential sources responsible for IS. Similarly, determining how each factor contributes to the IS condition among medical students could be a potential future direction. (shrink)

Smart parsimonious and economical ways of irrigation have build up to fulfill the sweet water requirements for the habitants of this world. In other words, water consumption should be frugal enough to save restricted sweet water resources. The major portion of water was wasted due to incompetent ways of irrigation. We utilized a smart approach professionally capable of using ontology to make 50% of the decision, and the other 50% of the decision relies on the sensor data values. The decision (...) from the ontology and the sensor values collectively become the source of the final decision which is the result of a machine learning algorithm. Moreover, an edge server is introduced between the main IoT server and the GSM module. This method will not only avoid the overburden of the IoT server for data processing but also reduce the latency rate. This approach connects Internet of Things with a network of sensors to resourcefully trace all the data, analyze the data at the edge server, transfer only some particular data to the main IoT server to predict the watering requirements for a field of crops, and display the result by using an android application edge. (shrink)

Online gambling companies claim that they are ethical providers. They seem committed to corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices that are aimed at preventing or minimising the harm associated with their activities. Our empirical research employed a sample of 209 university student online gamblers, who took part in an online survey. Our findings suggest that the extent of online problem gambling is substantial and that it adversely impacts on the gambler's mental and physical health, social relationships and academic performance. Online problem (...) gambling seems to be related to the time spent on the Internet and gambling online, parental/peer gambling and binge drinking. As our findings show that there are harmful repercussions associated with online gambling, we argue that companies in this controversial sector cannot reach the higher level of CSR achieved by other industries. Nevertheless, they can gain legitimacy on the basis of their CSR engagement at a transactional level, and so, by meeting their legal and ethical commitments and behaving with transparency and fairness, the integrity of the company can be ensured. We also argue that current failures in the implementation and control of CSR policies, the reliance on revenue from problem gamblers' losses, and controversial marketing activities appear to constitute the main obstacles in the prevention or minimisation of harm related to online gambling. As online gambling companies must be responsible for the harm related to their activities, we suggest that CSR policies should be fully implemented, monitored and clearly reported; all forms of advertising should be reduced substantially; and unfair or misleading promotional techniques should be banned. The industry should not rely on revenue from problem gamblers, nor should their behaviour be reinforced by marketing activities (i.e. rewards). We realise, however, that it is unrealistic to expect the online gambling industry to prioritise harm prevention over revenue maximisation. Policy makers and regulators, therefore, would need to become involved if the actions suggested above are to be undertaken. CSR is paramount to minimise harm and provide a healthier user experience in this business sector, but it also poses marketing dilemmas. We support a global collaborative approach for the online gambling industry, as harm related to gambling is a public health issue. (shrink)

The COVID-19 outbreak wreaked havoc on the hospitality business, resulting in significant layoffs, salary cuts, and unpaid leaves globally. This study uses the sensemaking theory to investigate how COVID-19 induced unfavorable human resource practices affect the link between perceived corporate social responsibility and employee identification and commitment. We tested this model using the data collected from 392 hospitality sector employees in Pakistan. The results reveal that “cut in salaries” and “work from home” positively moderate CSR’s impact on employees’ identification and (...) commitment. On the other hand, employee layoff and leave without pay do not impact the positive relationship between CSR and employees’ attitudes. Furthermore, the study finds that CSR during this pandemic has a significant positive impact on employees’ attitudes. However, this relationship becomes insignificant for employees who reported unfavorable HR practices in their organizations. The finding further reveals that CSR’s impact during COVID-19 on employees’ attitudes is moderated by the different levels of CSR importance in employees’ minds. This evidence is significant since HR practices implemented during this crisis need to be identified and framed to understand the effects of CSR on employee commitment and identification. CSR involvement in the pandemic can help managers keep their employees committed to organizations; only if this charity begins from their internal stakeholders first. (shrink)

Autism spectrum disorder is an inherited long-living and neurological disorder that starts in the early age of childhood with complicated causes. Autism spectrum disorder can lead to mental disorders such as anxiety, miscommunication, and limited repetitive interest. If the autism spectrum disorder is detected in the early childhood, it will be very beneficial for children to enhance their mental health level. In this study, different machine and deep learning algorithms were applied to classify the severity of autism spectrum disorder. Moreover, (...) different optimization techniques were employed to enhance the performance. The deep neural network performed better when compared with other approaches. (shrink)

In this seventh book of scilogs collected from my nest of ideas, one may find new and old questions and solutions, referring to different scientific topics – email messages to research colleagues, or replies, notes about authors, articles, or books, so on. -/- Exchanging ideas with Akeem Adesina A. Agboola, Muhammad Akram, Octavian Blaga, Said Broumi, Kajal Chatterjee, Vic Christianto, Octavian Cira, Mihaela Colhon, B. Davvaz, Luu Quoc Dat, R. Dhavaseelan, Jean Dezert, Hoda Esmail, Reza Farhadian, Ervin Goldfain, Muhammad Gulistan, (...) Yanhui Guo, Keli Hur, Saeid Jafari, W. B. Vasantha Kandasamy, J. Kim, J.G. Lee, Xinde Li, P. K. Lim, R. K. Mohanty, Mumtaz Ali, To Santanu Kumar Patro, Xu Peng, Dmitri Rabounski, Nouran Radwan, A.A. Salama, Musavarah Sarwar, Ganeshsree Selvachandran, Le Hoang Son, Selçuk Topal, Andrușa Vătuiu, Ștefan Vlăduțescu, Xiaohong Zhang.‬‬‬. (shrink)