Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore and highlight the issues and challenges teachers face while supervising thesis and projects in distance/online learning mode.Design/methodology/approach: This is a cross-sectional qualitative study. Grounded theory approach using Gioia methodology has been applied. Semi-structured interviews of 16 research supervisors have been conducted to explore the issues and challenges faced by the supervisors in guiding research students. Purposive sampling is used to select the subjects for data collection.Findings: Results of the study reveal that the time constraints, official restrictions, irregular contacts and technology are the main issues faced by supervisors. Whereas student–supervisor interaction, diversity, perceptions, virtual communities and academic collaboration are the biggest challenges for the supervisors in distance learning. Lastly, it is found that students' attitude and supervisors' mindset are the key success factors in distance research supervision.Practical implications: Findings of this paper will help institutions particularly in Asia, to strategically review their research programs to make these programs more effective. Effectiveness will encompass two things, timely completion and novel research. If these two things are addressed efficiently, comparison of distance learning with conventional learning will be more favorable for distance learning.Originality/value: This study will be helpful for the top management of distance/online learning institutes to better equip their teachers and students to complete their research endeavors accordingly. This is an empirical research based on primary data collected from the research supervisors currently supervising thesis/projects at Virtual University of Pakistan.

Buildings worldwide use a large amount of energy and, hence, contribute to increasing the level of greenhouse gases emission (GHG). It was realized that most electrical energy is used in buildings for heating, cooling, and ventilation purposes. To deal with environmental issues, the concepts of renewable energies and clean or green energy sources have been a part of academic discussions. A review of the literature unveils that most of the prior research in the GHG domain focused on the production side of producing renewable energy by opting for different cleaner energy sources (for example, solar energy). Although such studies have contributed significantly to advancing the field, it is also important to change the energy consumption behavior at the level of individuals for decarbonization. However, such a debate to promote the pro-environmental behavior (PEB) of employees from the perspective of energy consumption remains an understudied area. Against this backdrop, this research was carried out to promote PEB at the level of employees through corporate social responsibility (CSR) and green organizational practices in the healthcare sector of an emerging economy. The current research also focused on personal employee values, especially altruistic values, to spur their PEB. The data for the current work was collected from employees of different hospitals by employing a survey strategy (n = 441). To analyze the data, structural equation modeling was considered. The results showed that CSR directly and indirectly (via green organizational practices) influences employees’ PEB, whereas the altruistic values of employees produce a significant conditional indirect effect on the above relationship. The current research offers different implications for theory and practice, which are discussed in detail.

Purpose: The first objective of this study is to review the mechanism of conducting extra-curricular activities (ECAs) in the open and distance learning (ODL) setting. To achieve this objective, the procedure of ECAs at the Virtual University of Pakistan has been studied. The second objective of this study is to find the impact of ECAs on student engagement.Design/methodology/approach: This is a cross-sectional quantitative study. The questionnaire has been used to collect the data. The purposive sampling technique has been used, while this study's sample size is 970. An independent sample t-test has been used to find the difference between the groups.Findings: This study shows a significant difference between the engagement levels of students who have been part of any ECA at university compared to the students who never participated in any ECA.Research limitations/implications: The results have been derived from the data gathered from one university only that might hinder the generalizability of the findings. The same study can be conducted in other ODL institutions to authenticate the findings.Practical implications: This study will help in realizing the policymakers of ODL about the importance of ECCAs. This study has also discussed an existing system of conducting ECCAs in an ODL setting that can be generalized and implemented across all the ODL universities to enhance student engagement.Originality/value: This study has highlighted the importance of ECAs in ODL institutions that have been neglected since forever. This study is novel because it has highlighted the importance of social interaction of students in ODL and its relation with student engagement that has not been highlighted by any study so far.

The hospitality sector, especially the hotel business, is at a crossroads. Dynamic business environments, rivalries, and isomorphisms in service operations are significant challenges for hotel enterprises. Fostering employee creativity is undoubtedly something that can well position a hotel in the face of competition. Research shows that corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions of employees for an enterprise can motivate them to be engaged in creativity. At the same time, it has also been mentioned that corporate leaders could significantly influence the behavior of employees. Nevertheless, employee creativity in a CSR framework has not been well-explored in a hospitality context. Moreover, the role of leadership, especially inclusive leadership styles, has been less discussed to spur employee creativity from a CSR perspective. To bridge the above knowledge gaps, this study investigates the relationship between CSR and employee creativity with the mediating effect of inclusive leadership in the hotel industry of a developing economy. Moreover, the conditional indirect effect of employee polychronicity was also tested in the proposed mediated relationship. For data collection, an adapted questionnaire was taken into consideration by employing a paper–pencil method (n = 427). A hypothetical model was refined and validated through structural equation modeling (SEM). The results confirmed that CSR can drive employee creativity significantly, and inclusive leadership partially mediates this relationship. It was also realized that polychronicity has a significant conditional indirect effect on the above-mediated relationship. These outcomes contribute to improvements in the hotel management, as well-designed CSR activities both improve the hotel’s image as an ethical enterprise and increase creativity among employees.

In Pakistan, incidents of female sexual harassment are often reported, but there is a lack of reliable information on the context of the matter and its consequences. In this regard, this study focuses on female students studying at public universities in Lahore, Pakistan, who frequently use public transport and are subject to sexual harassment. They were asked about their experiences of harassment in public places. Using the qualitative method, data was gathered with the help of three focus group discussions, and conclusions were drawn using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Incidents of sexual harassment mainly occur on different public transport. We found that such incidents are also proven to be a big hurdle in the continuation of education for female students, apart from their deep effects on the social and psychological condition of young female students. The researchers found most of the respondents were afraid of reporting such incidents because of defamation of their character and less faith in the law enforcement agencies of the country. Awareness of existing laws in the country that protect women, particularly implementations of the laws, good governance, the positive role of law enforcement agencies, and a better conducive environment for female students specifically related to their mobility, can help reduce incidents of sexual harassment in the country.

Actor engagement is an emerging area of research in service-dominant logic yet equated with the traditional view of customer engagement. The narrow explanation of cognitive and emotional perspectives obstructs the theory building to further understand the resource-based perspective of actor engagement, thus warranting an inductive inquiry. The interrelated categorization is also a missing link in the literature, and this study fills this gap. This qualitative study explores antecedents of actor engagement with a resource-based perspective at pre, core, and post-service encounters. While adopting the qualitative Gioia methodology, twenty-five customers of microfinance institutions were interviewed to explore the phenomenon. Our study reveals that in the pre-resource integration phase, the value fit and actors' dexterity are the antecedents that bring actor engagement. The alignment of integrated resources and service interaction disposition ensures engagement at the resource-integration phase, whereas, in the post-integration phase, actor engagement is affected by the service outcome. Furthermore, the actors' association with networks influences the engagement, and information gateways interconnect all three phases. This study offers four unique propositions to explain interrelated resource-based actor engagement. Microfinance institutions moving towards digital banking can adopt the study findings to redesign engaging strategies at an actor-to-actor level to ensure brand loyalty and commitment. Researchers can quantitatively test the proposed propositions for further conceptual advancement.