This study aimed to identify the influence of workplace cyber ostracism on employee online work engagement and employee mental well-being with the mediating roles of remote work challenges such as loneliness, procrastination, work-home interference, and ineffective communication. As amidst lockdown due to COVID-19, the data was collected from 303 respondents through an online questionnaire that was distributed in virtual groups among friends, relatives, and other fellows who were working in the private sector organizations of Pakistan. The hypotheses were tested using the partial least square structural equation modeling PLS-SEM technique. The findings of this study showed that workplace cyber ostracism has a positive and significant impact on employee online work engagement and employee mental well-being. Moreover, results also demonstrated that loneliness, ineffective communication, procrastination, and work-home interference positively and significantly mediate the relationship between workplace cyber ostracism, employee online work engagement, and employee mental well-being. Furthermore, discussion, implications, and limitations were also discussed in this research article.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify barriers to financial product innovation in the Islamic banks (IBs) of Pakistan. This paper also aims to establish the relationship among the barriers and present them in a hierarchical model after classification. Design/methodology/approach: This study is exploratory and qualitative in nature. A total of ten experts from the IBs and from academia have been interviewed to collect data. Literature has also been reviewed to identify the barriers. Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) analysis has been used to establish relationship among the barriers, to rank and to come up with a hierarchical model of barriers. Findings: This research paper makes out, ranks and classifies the nine most important barriers to product innovation in the IBs in Pakistan, including high innovation cost; lack of customer awareness; difference of school of thoughts between members of Shari’ah board; non-compatibility between product design department and members of Shari’ah board; lack of research and development; non-acceptability of concept of Islamic banking; lack of training regarding a new product; imitation of a new product by competitors; and the limited use of new product development tools. Originality/value: This study offers originality in its nature of being qualitative and the use of ISM technique. It is also the first research project regarding identification of barriers in the IBs in Pakistan.