Impact of the internet on English language learning among university students: mediating role of academic self-efficacy.

The internet is a valuable resource in a technologically evolved society. The extant literature suggests that their scientific and educational usages are still limited. The current study asserts that the internet can provide new learning environments and opportunities for Chinese university students, hence increasing their motivation to learn. Particularly, the current study considers this to be the case for learning a foreign language (English), which leads to more efficient and effective language learning experiences, as well as more positive attitudes toward the efficiency of the internet for educational purposes. Purposive and convenience sampling techniques were employed to gather data from 15 public and private Chinese universities (406 students), those who are currently enrolled in English language courses. The analysis was performed using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on smart PLS 4 software. Results revealed that student's attitude toward the use of internet positively and significantly influence English language learning. Moreover, the mediating variable academic self-efficacy positively and significantly mediates the relationship between students' attitude toward use of internet and English language learning. The current study recommends that students' academic self-efficacy in learning a new language can be enhanced by giving them opportunities to learn internet skills. Further, students' confidence in their academic abilities can be boosted using student-centered teaching strategies.

Impact of knowledge management capabilities on new product development performance through mediating role of organizational agility and moderating role of business model innovation.

In several studies, knowledge is witnessed as one of the foundations of long-term competitive edge and is also a basic source of new product development (NDP) performance. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of knowledge management capabilities (KMC) in new product development performance with the mediating role of organizational agility. Additionally, this study also intends to examine the moderating role of business model innovation on the relationship of KMC with organizational agility. This study was conducted on the Chinese automobile sector, and the NPD project managers, supervisors, and engineers of the sector were respondents of this study. A survey questionnaire was used to collect the data from 201 respondents, and data were analyzed using the Smart PLS 3 software. The findings of this research, although limited to the automobile industries, indicate that knowledge sharing and knowledge application have significant and positive effects on the development of new products. Organizational agility significantly mediates the relationship of KMC with NPD. The results found that business model innovation has a significant moderating role in the relationship between KMC and organizational agility. Moreover, the results of this study will assist the managers in developing a modern competitive business environment by implicating KMC in the process of NPD. Lastly, organizations may improve the sustainability of their product and their overall performance by using organizational agility and modern ways of value delivery.

Virtual Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Bibliometric Review and Future Research Agenda.

Virtual learning has emerged as a powerful platform for students and academicians in the "new normal" owing to the availability of advanced technological tools and platforms. Recently, considerable literature has grown up around the role of digital and remote technologies in learning and teaching during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, the research evidence on this topic is still fragmented, requiring a synthesis of this rapidly growing literature. This study aims to assess the key research trends in virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic through a bibliometric analysis of 1595 studies from 589 journals during 2020-21. Our study highlights the influential aspects, such as the most contributing countries, journals, authors, and keywords in this research field. We identified the following four main research trends: 1) challenges in online learning and blended learning strategies; 2) student-centered, collaborative learning, and curriculum design; 3) home-based laboratory learning; and 4) teachers' professional competence and interdisciplinary learning. We conclude this research by discussing the implications for regulators and educational institutions, and directions for future research.

Assessing the Empirical Linkage Among Access to Finance, Firm Quality, and Firm Performance: New Insight From Bangladeshi SMEs'.

Access to finance plays a central pillar on the sustainable firm growth of developing and developed nations. This study depicts the linkage between access to external finance, firm quality, and firms' performance as measured by labor productivity for sustainable small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs') development by employing the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and propensity score matching (PSM) techniques to alleviate the selection bias and endogeneity issue on Word bank enterprise survey (WBES) cross-sectional firm-level data of 3,196 Bangladeshi SMEs for 2007-2013 period. Empirical evidence linking access to external finance and labor productivity has been positive and significant. However, our finding explores a negative but significant relationship between exports and SME labor productivity. A further look into the results also exhibits no statistical significance in the interaction effect between firm quality and access to finance on labor productivity. Moreover, the study anticipates novel empirical support that, the disintegration effect of export sales between direct and indirect exports with labor productivity for credit-accessed firms, is also found statistically insignificant. Then, several policies are drawn from the results to gain international competitiveness, and to ensure more external finance channels for enhancing SMEs' performance and sustainable firm growth.

The nexus between corporate environment, social, and governance performance and cost of capital: evidence from top global tech leaders.

The nexus between corporate environment, social, and governance (ESG) performance and the consequent financial performance have been extensively explored in the literature. However, little is known whether the investment in ESG endeavors has any implication for the cost of capital of an enterprise. The present study investigates the impact of ESG performance of top global technology leading firms on their cost of capital. Panel data fixed effects and random effects and generalized method of moment (GMM) regression estimation techniques have been applied to ascertain this relationship during a period of eight years (2010-2017). For a deeper insight, we segregate the cost of capital into the cost of equity and cost of debt. The empirical outcomes reveal that ESG performance is positively associated with both measures of the cost of capital i.e., cost of equity and cost of debt. It suggests that socially responsible top global technology leaders bear a higher cost of capital as investors perceive ESG as an additional financial burden and do not treat ESG costs as a value-added factor. Hence, corporate managers shall rationalize investment in ESG undertakings to curtail their cost of capital. Based on these findings, the policy prescriptions are discussed for the concerned stakeholders.

Work-Family Conflict, Emotional Intelligence, and General Self-Efficacy Among Medical Practitioners During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

PURPOSE: In Pakistan, medical professionals face multiple challenges comprising long, fixed working hours and workload overburdening, which leads to emotional fatigue. These conflicts in work-life scenarios, brought about by high work demands causing emotional exhaustion, can create a state of distress among the medical professionals. The present study investigates the association between work-family conflict (WFC), emotional intelligence (EI), and self-efficacy (SE) among medical practitioners during COVID-19 in Pakistan. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study sample included 140 medical professionals from Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Cross-section correlational research design was used, and information was gathered employing online surveys through a purposive sampling technique. The scales utilized were the WFC, EI, and SE Scale. RESULTS: The current study hypothesized a significant relationship between work-family conflict, general self-efficacy (GSE) and emotional intelligence among medical practitioners during COVID-19 in Pakistan. The results showed that those with more family-to-work conflict had less EI and GSE. Furthermore, findings uncovered that there is a significant positive relationship between EI and GSE. CONCLUSION: The findings propose that it is important for medical professionals to have a high level of EI and GSE to navigate through the WFC more healthily. In future, awareness seminars could be arranged related to EI and its significance to stimulate the psychological well-being of medical professionals. Future studies could also consider other healthcare workers, including nurses and internees doing house jobs and other medical staff, as they are also exposed to several stresses due to the workload and family demands.

Public Health Expenditures and Health Outcomes in Pakistan: Evidence from Quantile Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model.

OBJECTIVE: The provision of healthcare facilities remains high on the manifesto of various political parties in Pakistan and healthcare spending has witnessed a significant surge in the last two decades that is expected to positively influence health outcomes in the country. Therefore, this research aims to explore the effects of healthcare expenditures on the actual health status of the masses in Pakistan for the period 1995Q1 to 2017Q1. METHODS: We apply the Quantile Autoregressive Distributed Lag (QARDL) approach for estimation purposes. This is the most recent and emerging estimation technique in time series analysis. RESULTS: Our findings confirm that public healthcare spending significantly impacts health outcomes in Pakistan both in the short-run and long-run. Public healthcare spending improves life expectancy and reduces death rate and infant mortality. CONCLUSION: The study concludes that public healthcare is the main focus of the current regime. It is noticed that spending on healthcare significantly contributes to the health outcomes in Pakistan. These efforts by the government significantly promote life expectancy and drop down the mortality ratio in the country. Based on these notable facts, the government should allocate sufficient resources towards the latest healthcare technologies and equipment to optimize health outcomes in the country.

Does corporate environmental investment impede financial performance of Chinese enterprises? The moderating role of financial constraints.

China has emerged as the world's largest pollutant emitter due to rapid industrialization and a remarkable economic upsurge in recent decades. Rising carbon emissions have exerted more social and regulatory pressure on Chinese corporations to undertake environmental protection investments. However, the implications of such investments on the financial fundamentals of a firm remain unclear. Especially, little is known about how environmental protection investments affect the performance of financially constrained firms. This study explores the mediating role of financial constraints in the nexus between corporate environmental protection investment and the accounting and market performance of Chinese listed firms during 2009-2016. The empirical outcomes of the generalized method of moments (GMM)-based regressions reveal that environmental investments of non-constrained firms have a positive impact on the accounting and market performance of such firms as measured by ROA and Tobin's q, respectively. Interestingly, environmental protection investments have a significant negative association with both (i.e., the accounting and market) performance proxies of firms that are facing financial constraints. These findings imply that in pursuit of environment preservation and pollution abatement, regulators shall provide more financial flexibility and enabling environment to financially constrained firms to optimize their role in pollution abatement. Besides, financially non-constrained firms shall be assigned greater environmental responsibility to undertake a proportionately higher environmental investment than financially constrained firms.

Role of Gender-Based Emotional Intelligence in Corporate Financial Decision-Making.

PURPOSE: Business competition is getting more intense nowadays, and corporate survival is getting harder; consequently, corporate managers have to make financial decisions in complex and globalized scenarios. As a result, in order to compete in today's global economy, businesses are contemplating incorporating behavioural components of human psychology into their decision-making processes. Corporations are masters of quantitative analysis, but they rarely pay attention to behavioural elements of organizational success. Emotional intelligence is important in many parts of life; therefore, it is crucial to look at its dimensions when it comes to corporate financial decision-making. METHODS: A simple random sampling technique was used to collect data from 200 senior-level managers from the corporate sector located in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad of Pakistan. SPSS version 22 was used to test the hypotheses. RESULTS: Results of the study show the gender-based variation in corporate financial decision-making detailing the higher impact of EI of males on CFD than their counterparts in the corporate sector organizations. The elements of self-awareness, empathy, motivation and self-regulation affect the financial decision-making of both the genders with varying degrees of influence, whereas social skills do not affect CFD of both genders. CONCLUSION: The study findings explicate that the influence of self-awareness and empathy constructs of EI on corporate financial decisions is stronger in female managers than their male counterparts. However, male managers exhibit a significantly stronger influence of motivation, social skills, and self-regulation dimensions on their financial decisions compared to female managers in a corporate setting. Overall, the impact of EI on CFD is slightly higher in male managers. These empirical outcomes imply that organizations should assess the employees not only for technical skills but also based on their emotional intelligence during the recruitment process.

Does environment quality and public spending on environment promote life expectancy in China? Evidence from a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag approach.

Environmental quality has become a growing concern for Chinese society since the last 2 decades in China. The large contribution of different pollutants severely affected the environmental quality that untimely affects life expectancy in the country. In this backdrop, the present study investigates the impact of environmental quality and public spending on the environment for life expectancy in China using the period 1999Q1-2017Q4. We employ nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) approach for the empirical assessment. The outcomes of the study reveal the existence of a long-run relationship between environmental quality, public spending on the environment and life expectancy in China. The empirical finding reported that life expectancy reacts differently in response to positive and negative shocks of environmental quality both in the long- and short-run. Environmental quality and spending on the environment increase the life expectancy, furthermore, population has a positive and significant association with life expectancy only in short run while in long run it does not affect. Hence, the government needs to roll out policies to enhance environmental quality and ensure adequate funding for environmental preservation, to achieve both longevity of society and sustainability of the eco-system.

Unraveling the Dynamic Nexus Between Trade Liberalization, Energy Consumption, CO2 Emissions, and Health Expenditure in Southeast Asian Countries.

OBJECTIVE: Most of the Southeast Asian countries witnessed remarkable economic growth in the last few decades. Trade is a primary factor in achieving this exponential economic progress in these countries. Besides, the positive implications of trade, it has associated cost of escalated energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and resulting health complications which leads to higher public health expenditures. This study examines the nexus between trade liberalization, energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and health expenditures in Southeast Asian countries for the period of 1991 to 2018. METHODS: The empirical methods used in this study entail diagnostic testing, correlation analysis, and structure equation modeling (SEM) technique. SEM is an advanced multivariate analysis technique that can test complex multivariate causal associations among a set of variables. Therefore, it is the most suitable econometric approach to explore the dynamic association between trade openness, energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and health expenditures. RESULTS: The empirical results reveal a nexus between trade openness, energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and health expenditure in Southeast Asian countries. Nevertheless, pollutant emissions have a direct impact on health expenditures, whereas trade and energy consumption shows an indirect influence on the escalation in public health spending in sample Southeast Asian countries. Moreover, the mediating path of each indirect effect is energy consumption. CONCLUSION: These results imply that Southeast Asian countries heavily rely on fossil energy to fuel economic growth. Hence, to promote sustainable and eco-friendly economic development, the respective governments need to reform their energy sectors by tapping into renewable energy resources and deploy green technologies to reduce pollutant emissions for the development of a healthy society. In addition, governments should levy taxes on highly polluting industries so as to curtail carbon emissions and resulting health expenditures.

Determining the Influencing Factors of Biogas Technology Adoption Intention in Pakistan: The Moderating Role of Social Media.

Environmental degradation and rapid climate change have forced researchers and practitioners to find sustainable practices to save the world. Increasing energy demand is not only consuming scarce natural resources, but also damaging the climate and overall ecosystem. In this regard, biogas technology is beneficial in two ways-by meeting the energy demand and saving natural resources. Pakistan is an agricultural country and has a high potential for producing energy through biogas technology. Therefore, this study aims to find farmers' intentions of adopting biogas technology in Pakistan by employing the extended norm activation model. Furthermore, the moderating role of social media was explored. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from farmers and results were extracted by using Partial least square structural equation modelling software. The results suggest that awareness of consequences, ascription of responsibility, environmental concern and perceived consumer effectiveness positively and significantly influence personal norms of the farmers. Consequently, personal norms affect farmers' intentions of adopting biogas technology in Pakistan. The moderating role of social media was also confirmed by the results. This study considers the notable insights of biogas technology adoption in Pakistan. Finally, the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Exploring Brand Hate and the Association Between Similar Competitor Offer and Brand Equity: A Moderated-Mediation Model.

Using the assumptions of Sternberg (2003) Duplex Theory of Hate, the present study reveals the combined effects of similar competitor offer and narcissistic personality on brand equity through the underlying mechanism of brand hate. Specifically, we hypothesize that brand hate mediates the relationship between similar competitor offer and brand equity. Moreover, we propose that similar competitor offer and brand hate relationship are stronger for narcissistic individuals. By employing a multi-wave time-lagged research design, we collected data from a sample of (N = 338) dairy product consumers in Pakistan. The findings of moderated-mediation regression analyses indicate that (a) Brand hate mediates the relationship between similar competitor offer and brand equity; and (b) Narcissistic personality moderates a similar competitor offer and brand hate relationship such that a high similar competitor offer led to greater brand hate when narcissism was high. Furthermore, conditional indirect effects reveal that brand hate mediates the relationship between similar competitor offer and brand equity only with individuals exhibiting narcissistic personality traits. The current study offers great insights to managers that by managing similar competitor offer, they can manage the development of brand hate, which can subsequently effect brand equity. Moreover, by profiling customers on the basis of their personalities, marketing managers can effectively invest only in customers with positive tendencies. The current study is unique in that it highlights new avenues in existing research by extending the nascent domain of brand hate in consumer-brand relationships.

Understanding the Antecedents of Organic Food Consumption in Pakistan: Moderating Role of Food Neophobia.

Environmental and health problems have increased the interest of researchers and practitioners in investigating the factors that affect organic food consumption. However, little attention has been paid to the actual organic food buying behavior, particularly in developing countries like Pakistan. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to determine the actual buying patterns of consumers. For this purpose, a conceptual model based on green perceived value framework which predicts consumer's purchase intention and purchase behavior has been empirically tested. Likewise, moderating role of food neophobia has also been explored. Data is collected from millennials that are under rated but constitute the most important consumer segment in Pakistan. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is employed to analyze the data. Results from 221 university students reveal that functional value, social value, emotional value, and conditional value positively influence the consumer purchase intention. Moreover, purchase intention is positively linked to the consumer purchase behavior of organic food. Furthermore, the study findings also confirm the moderating role of food neophobia between purchase intention and consumption of organic food. This paper depicts some noteworthy insights of consumer behavior for organic food producers, marketers, and researchers. At the end, limitations and recommendations for future research are elaborated.