Branding activities provide space to create internal culture, processes and a kind of organizational system which allows employees to use their abilities to their maximum. Internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of an organization increase employee commitment, which ultimately enhances employee retention. There is a need to explore internal branding in relation to internal CSR for the sake of managing employee retention. Therefore, the study empirically examines the underlying associations among internal branding, employee retention and internal CSR. The data are collected from higher education institutions operating in the city of Lahore, Pakistan. The sample size was 377 faculties belonging to both private and public sector higher education institutions. The analysis is based on variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that the internal branding practices have a significant impact on employee’s intention to stay within the organization, and intrasample analysis suggests few comprehensible variations with respect to private and public academic institutions. The research article also provides insights to faculty, academic entrepreneurs and marketers, especially those belonging to developing countries and facing issues of branding and employee retention.

In today’s hyper-competitive manufacturing world, the rapidly changing landscape has put new demands on organizations, and they need to reinvent themselves by injecting new strategies in order to stay ahead of the competition. Therefore, to achieve world-class performance and competitiveness in the global environment and competition, there is immense pressure on manufacturing organizations with limited resources to invariably pursue main drivers to enable them to improve process innovation. In this backdrop, this questionnaire-based study investigates the impact of various enabling practices on process innovation of manufacturing organizations. The questionnaire package included scales of lean manufacturing (LM), organizational culture (OC), human resource management (HRM), total quality management (TQM), supply chain management (SCM) and process innovation (PI). The data were collected through convenient sampling technique from presidents, CEO’s, directors, managers and senior supervisors of different functional areas of large-scale organizations. The theoretical model was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) through AMOS®. The key findings revealed positive and significant relationships of LM, HRM and OC as drivers with TQM and SCM. The results also demonstrated affirmative and significant associations of TQM and SCM with PI. Similarly, the outcomes indicated that TQM and SCM, as carriers, partially mediate the relationships of LM, HRM and OC with PI. Overall, the findings elucidate the imperativeness for manufacturing organizations to reinforce their mediators (TQM and SCM practices) while effectively implementing LM, HRM and OC practices as drivers of PI. The study has important implications for the organizations seeking to determine the relative importance of various practices as an effective source of process innovation.

The rising environmental challenges are capturing the attention of stakeholders of corporations due to increasing competition. The sustainable performance of firms does not merely gauge their economic performance but also their sustainable development. Since the environmental supply chain management of firms has an important part in maneuvering their sustainable performance, the present study focuses on assessing the impact of green supply chain management practices on the sustainable performance of the textile, automobile, and tobacco industries. The data were collected from 384 organizations and analyzed through SPSS and AMOS. The results reveal that the impact of green manufacturing, green purchases, eco-design, and green information system are significant and positive on the sustainable performance of the organizations, whereas the impact of cooperation with customers is insignificant. Similarly, the moderation of institutional pressures between green manufacturing, green purchases, eco-design, and sustainability performance is insignificant, whereas it significantly moderates between cooperation with customers, green information systems, and sustainable performance. The study is significant and novel for considering five different factors of green supply chain management (GSCM): green manufacturing, green purchasing, cooperation with customers, eco-design, and green information systems. Furthermore, adding institutional pressures as a moderator between GSCM and sustainable performance adds to the novelty and uniqueness of the research. The managerial implications have also been discussed.

Although we use humor in our daily communication, there still needs to cognize its effects on the attitudes and behavior of the employees. Based on benign violation theory (BVT), the study proposes that leader's humor (LH) conveys social information about counter norms. The BVT has been amalgamated with social information processing theory (SIPT) to develop hypotheses assuming the consequences of LH on the attitude and behavior of the employees. This study hypothesizes that even though LH is linked positively with employee creativity via leader-member exchange and psychological empowerment in sequence (blessing path), it may also send information to the employees about the acceptability of norm violation. This perception ultimately leads to power perception and, causes unethical behavior in the series (curse path). Moreover, this study also postulates that leader's self-deprecating humor (LSDH) moderates these indirect effects by enhancing the blessing and reducing the curse, which emerged from LH. Quantitative data of 630 software engineers from software houses based in Pakistan provided support to test the hypotheses. The results demonstrate that LH is a double-edge sword that enhances blessing (creativity) as well as curse (employee unethical behavior), whereas LSDH augments the blessing and throttles back the curse. Theoretical and managerial implications have also been discussed.

A bedsore or pressure ulcer is an area of localized damage to the skin and underlying tissue caused by pressure, shear, friction, or a combination of these factors. In countries with a large geriatric population like Canada, this healthcare threat presents a significant risk to hospitalized patients, imposing huge cost on both treatment and care for patients. The role textiles play in the formation and prevention of pressure ulcers is understudied. The fact remains, textiles, such as clothing and bedding, have a considerable influence on factors, such as pressure, shear/friction, and skin hydration, which contribute to skin ulceration. Our work is a pilot study to investigate the role of textile products in the formation and prevention of bedsores. This study began with a survey study at a local long-term care facility, collecting information about incidences of bedsores and the physical conditions of residents. Information was also collected about the textile products that have been used by the residents. Correlations were established between these products and the incidence/severity of bedsores. Immobility of residents was determined to be a significant factor of causing skin lesions and pressure ulcers. Immobility of residents contributes to a prolonged interaction between skin and fabrics and might increase the chances of skin lesions or bedsores.