PurposeThis study is undertaken to examine the role of information and communication technology (ICT), e-service quality and e-information quality towards brand image of universities by concentrating on students’ e-learning, e-word of mouth and satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachThe target population was the students of public and private universities in Pakistan. Data collected using an e-questionnaire by 408 students were subjected to PLS-SEM for analysis.FindingsFindings revealed that ICT, e-service quality and e-information quality are positively contributed toward students' e-learning which ultimately leads to create positive e-word of mouth and students' satisfaction. Meanwhile, results also identified that e-word of mouth and students' satisfaction lead to generate a positive brand image of universities.Practical implicationsThis study has unique implications for universities to develop an e-learning platform to facilitate their students in this situation of COVID-19. It provides guidelines for educational institutions to implement the learning management system effectively with a view to facilitate the students with education.Originality/valueThis study has novel contribution in literature in the domain of digital learning. It is unique in a way to integrate the usage of technology with students' e-learning and satisfaction that ultimately create brand image of universities.

The objective of this study is to see the mediating effect of innovative culture and organizational learning between leadership styles and organizational performance in Malaysian SMEs. Design/methodology/approach: Questionnaires were used to collect data from owners/managers and 950 questionnaires distributed by using postal and email strategy. Out of 950, only 409 questionnaires returned back, 25 questionnaires have missing values and eliminated from a sample, and only 384 questionnaires were used for final analysis. Findings: Findings reveal that leadership styles have a significant influence on organizational learning, innovative culture, and organizational performance. Innovative culture and organizational learning have a significant influence on organizational performance. Moreover, innovative culture and organizational learning significantly mediate between leadership styles and organizational performance. Practical implications: In practical term, the current study contributes for managers/ owners in SMEs to focus leadership styles with innovative culture and organizational learning in their decision making if they want to enhance their organizational performance. Research originality: This study is one of the pioneer studies that test leadership styles at third-order with the combination of two mediating variables innovative culture and organizational learning with organizational performance.

This study examines the influence of job demands and job resources on cyberloafing behavior through the mediating role of job stress and work engagement and the contingent role of employee motivation at universities. The research model draws on border theory and the JD-R model. The partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique is followed for testing the hypotheses. Data from 534 questionnaires was used for final analysis. The main findings of the study are: 1) job demands significantly increase job stress and cyberloafing behavior; 2) job resources significantly enhance work engagement, while reducing cyberloafing behavior; 3) job stress increases cyberloafing behavior, but work engagement reduces it; 4) job stress and job resources significantly mediate the relationship between job demands and cyberloafing behavior; and 5) employee motivation significantly reduces cyberloafing behavior and significantly moderates the relation between job stress and cyberloafing behavior. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of financial, monitoring and experiential expertise of audit committee chair (ACC) and HR, monitoring and experiential expertise of nomination committee chair (NCC) on the financial performance (FP) of the firm. Design/methodology/approach Quantitative approach was used in this study to collect data from 50 non-financial firms of Pakistan and to analyze the data through e-views for testing hypotheses. Findings The findings revealed that financial and monitoring expertise of ACC and experiential expertise of NCC positively influence return on assets, return on equity and the net profit margin of the firm. However, no significant influence of experiential expertise of ACC and monitoring and HR expertise of NCC on FP was found. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study will help firms of Pakistan to understand what expertise of their ACC and NCC can contribute to the enhancement of their FP. However, the current study examined the non-financial firms of Pakistan only. Originality/value Past studies have never shown the particular focus on different types of expertise of “Chairs” of nomination and audit committees in a combined research to analyze their impact on FP of firms. The present study has abridged this gap in the field of expertise of chairs of board committees so, it will open new areas of discussion for future researchers in domains of “agency theory”, “human capital theory” and corporate governance.