Considering the worldwide evolutionary stage of Industry 4.0, this study wants to fill in a lack of information and decision-making, trying to answer a question about the level of preparation of Romanian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) regarding the implementation of the new technology. The main purpose of this article is to identify the opinions and perceptions of SME managers in Romania on the drivers and barriers of implementing Industry 4.0 technology for business development. The research method used in the study was analyzed by sampling using the questionnaire as a data collection tool. It includes closed questions, measured with a nominal and orderly scale. 176 managers provided complete and useful answers to this research. The collected data were analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) package using frequency tables, contingency tables, and main component analysis. Major contributions from research have highlighted the fact that Romania is in a full transition process from industry 2.0 to industry 4.0. There was also a high level of knowledge of the new Industry 4.0 technology, and a desire to implement it in the Romanian SMEs, as well as the low level of resources needed to implement it.

In the era of industrial revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0), sustainability has been a serious challenge of contemporary small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Using Natural Resource-Based-View (NRBV), the current paper examines the moderated mediation model of the role of information access in the sustainability of SMEs, through the mediating role of access to resource and innovation capability in the relationship between information access and sustainability, and the moderating role of management commitment in the relationship between innovation capability and SME sustainability. This paper gathered data from 222 SMEs in Pakistan. The study used a purposive sampling technique to distribute the survey questionnaire. Smart-PLS software was used to analyze the data. The study finding indicates that access to information affects both sustainability and innovation capability. Moreover, access to resources affects innovation capability, though it did not affect SME sustainability. Furthermore, innovation capability mediates the relationship between access to resources, access to information, and SME sustainability. Additionally, management commitment moderates the relationship between access to information and innovation capability; however, it does not moderate the relationship between access to resources and innovation capability. Practical, theoretical, and methodological implications are discussed in the study.

Project delays are a large and prevalent problem in the Gilgit-Baltistan construction industry, and delays can distinctly affect project duration, budget, and also community needs. The purpose of this study is to highlight and rank delaying factors in the Annual Development Programme public sector building infrastructure projects and examine them through a relative importance index. A total of 52 delaying factors were identified through a detailed literature review and categorized into eight major groups, and a pilot study with 16 experienced construction experts was conducted. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect the importance of each factor from public construction experts. In total, 102 respondents participated in the survey. The study determined that difficulties in financing projects by contractors, delays in progress payments, dispute on land usage, improper project feasibility studies, award project to the lowest bid price, extreme weather conditions, inadequate contractor experience, and insufficient data collection and survey before design were among the top eight critical delaying factors. In addition, Spearman’s rank correlation tests revealed that there was no difference in perception between owners and contractors. A comparison of the top five delay factors was done with eight preferred construction industries in Asia to validate the results of this study. The findings are likely to be a solid contribution to the Gilgit-Baltistan construction industry in mitigating future construction delays.

The present paper is an attempt to explore professional development practices for teachers in secondary schools of Pakistan. Research has attempted to discover the better ways for professional development of teachers in secondary schools in addition to many other factors like continue training, in service education, workshops etc. counseling and incentives are also very important factors to discuss here because in Pakistan teachers face many problems while getting professional development so counseling, incentives are necessary for continuous professional development of teachers. Otherwise many lose heart due to a lot of problems faced by them during professional development trainings. The purpose of the study is to explore the term professional development, to make teachers able to manage the class more efficiently and also increase the level of learning throughout their career and also find the hindrances in professional development programs of teachers in secondary schools of Pakistan and to provide the better solution to overcome the hurdles by providing different training programs batter than that provided in the past. So for these purpose schools of Pakistan we took a sample for the collection of relevant data. Our study is also helpful to explore how we can make the professional development programs more effective and professional development is helpful for teachers and what are their purpose to design these programs moreover explore the challenges they are facing recently and what issues arises related to it and how could we minimize these. Researchers have applied qualitative technique in order to collect and interpret data. Semi structured interview were conducted from ten teachers of public and private schools. Moreover hundred questionnaires are also filled up from both of the schools, in which we use the liker scale. This study also explores practical implications and what adoptions can be utilized in order to improve the professional development program of public and private school teachers in Punjab. From research it has concluded that professional development programs are not so effective because programs are characterized with inflexible curriculum which ignored teacher’s needs. In other sense there is no connection between their professional development and every day class room needs. Secondly due to the time constraints mostly teachers are not interested in these programs, they just take in to get certificates. Thirdly teachers have no input while planned training topics there is lack of teacher’s involvement in planning and training process. At the end there is no proper plan for follow up and transferred activities to class room practices. Professional development of teachers must be planned, funded and supported. Teachers must be encouraged to participate in training programs. There should be proper co-ordination in professional development programs, so that logical sequence of experience should be followed. Key words:Professional Development, Enhancement, Issues, Secondary education, Appraisal, Learning

This study uses agency theory to examine how board size, compensation committee, and CEO duality align the pay-performance relationship with long-term sustainability performance. We examined companies from nine Asian emerging economies with a sustainability score greater than 0.50 between 2010 and 2019. The findings support the pay-performance relationship proposed by agency theory in the presence of a robust governance structure. The relationship is more significant in firms with high ESG scores. Our study claimed that the compensation committee has a significant role in aligning sustainability objectives with CEO compensation, which improves the firm's market and financial performance. However, board size has no discernible impact on the CEO pay-performance relationship. CEO duality negatively affects this alignment since the CEO misuses their power to influence the compensation committee's role in tying sustainability agendas with the CEO's pay performance framework. Furthermore, CEO compensation is significantly impacted by firm size, which is justified by the complexity and increased responsibilities associated with managing larger firms. Conclusively, this investigation suggests that the inconclusive evidence on CEO compensation around the world should be studied with governance mechanisms. This study advances knowledge of agency theory and the connection between sustainability performance and compensation. The findings of the study highlight the role of governance structure in aligning executive compensation with sustainability to improve long-term performance. These findings suggest policymakers promote strong governance mechanisms that reduce the CEO's power to influence the board and enhance the independence of the compensation committee to independently design the executive compensation package essential for aligning executive pay with sustainability performance.

Purpose: Using norms of reciprocity, this study explores how employees' exposure to workplace ostracism (WO) affects their task performance through the mediating role of knowledge hiding (KH). Moreover, drawing on social identity theory, this research outstretches the boundary conditions of KH, i.e. under which KH is less likely to occur.Design/methodology/approach: Time-lagged, multisource data collected from 297 employees in service sector organizations in Pakistan were analyzed using SMARTPLS (v 3.3.3).Findings: The findings reveal that perception of WO provokes KH behavior in employees, which, in turn, deteriorates their task performance. Results also disclose that moral identification (MI) and organizational identification (OI) buffer against the positive association between WO and KH, such that the ostracism-KH link is weaker at higher levels of MI and OI, and vice versa.Practical implications: The study envisages that a KH loop occurs between the knowledge hider and the knowledge seeker, which fosters spirals of conflict that might prevail in organizations over an extended period of time. Therefore, the occurrence context of KH should be mitigated through appropriate managerial interventions. In addition, nurturing self-identities will be beneficial for both employees and organizations.Originality/value: This is the first study that investigates the relationship between WO and task performance while also considering the mediating role of KH and the moderating roles of MI and OI.