The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of total quality management (TQM) between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and SME export performance in the manufacturing sector of Pakistan. This study was originated from the fact that only a few studies have examined on how the firm’s intangible resources and capabilities such as EO and TQM drive SMEs’ export performance. Some questionnaires in Likert scale were used to collect the data and 364 usable responses were received from the owner/managers of exporting SMEs. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for the data analysis. The findings reveal significant relationship between EO and TQM with SME export performance. Furthermore, this study found the complementary mediating role of TQM between EO and SME export performance of manufacturing sector of Pakistan. This study has implications for owner/managers of SMEs. The results offer a better understanding regarding EO and TQM implementation to SMEs owner / managers. Thus, owner/managers of SMEs can take better decisions for the implementation of TQM practices. Furthermore, to the best of researcher’s knowledge, this study is the first work, which examines Pakistan`s SMEs export performance in association with the TQM as the mediating factor between EO and SME export performance.

This paper has been retracted.

This paper investigates the influence of total quality management (TQM) on export performance of manufacturing sector of Pakistani’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The data was collected from manufacturing SMEs participating in exports and three hundred sixty-four (364) responses were received and further used for statistical analysis. The statistical SEM analysis was evaluated through Smart PLS-3. The results of the study show that TQM had an influential role in SMEs’ export performance. Firms with the higher-level implementation of TQM will be more successful in the international market and can achieve better export performance. Thus, the study reveals that TQM is a valuable and dynamic intangible resource which can increase the SME export perfor-mance. The study presented the relationship between TQM and SME export performance and pro-vided some insights for the practitioners and the researchers. In other words, practitioners and re-searchers will be able to make a better decision about the implementation of TQM. Furthermore, the current study contributed to the literature of TQM and SME export performance, empirically. The absence of TQM can affect the firm performance in the international market.

The main objective of the present study is to investigate the risk factors influencing on construction firm’s project success in Pakistan. The study uses the partial least square structural equation modelling technique to analyse the data collected from 61 construction firms. The study finds positive impacts of design risk, financial risk, technical risk and labour risk on the success of the project. Alternatively, the current study finds no relationship between external risk factors and the success of the project. Furthermore, the current study suggests government and construction firms to consider the risk factors during the decision making for project implementation.

E-commerce market of Pakistan is instable which causes low performance of e-logistic industry. Thus, logistic industry of Pakistan is lacking as compared to other developing countries such as China, India, and Malaysia. Low performance is majorly based on low staff service quality, inappropriate website design and goods traceability system. As remedies of these issues, the current study introduced firm’s IT capability and information communication technology (ICT). The primary objective of this study is to investigate the determinants of e-logistic firm’s performance in Pakistan. To achieve this objective, quantitative research approach along with cross-sectional research design was used. By using the survey method, 300 questionnaires were distributed among the managerial staff of e-logistic companies. Smart PLS 3 was used as a statistical tool. It is found that staff service quality, website design and e-traceability had significant and positive relationships with firm’s e-logistic performance. Moreover, firm’s IT capability as a moderator enhanced the positive effect of staff service quality, website design and e-traceability. Nevertheless, information communication technology (ICT) positively mediated the relationship between e-traceability and firm’s e-logistic performance. Hence, firm’s IT capability and information communication technology (ICT) are the key elements to decrease various issues of staff service quality, website design and e-traceability. The study is much significant for practitioners and e-logistic companies to enhance performance by focusing on firm’s IT capability and information communication technology (ICT).

In this era of industrialization, there is an increase rate of e-logistic services, which has raised the necessity to pay more attention on e-logistic customer satisfaction. E-logistic services spread so rapidly worldwide which overlook the significant segment of customer satisfaction. Therefore, the prime objective of the current research study is to develop a comprehensive framework for e-logistics customer satisfaction. Various studies highlighted the area of e- logistic customer satisfaction, however, in a rare case, literature formally documented the problem of e-logistic customer satisfaction. Hence, less attention has been paid to the aspect of customer satisfaction in e-logistic. To address this gap, four hypotheses are proposed concerning the relationship of low distribution charges (LDC), low transit time (LTT), effective payment method (EPM), information technology (IT) and e-logistic customer satisfaction. An e-mail survey was preferred, and questionnaires were distributed by using simple random sampling technique. The three hundred (300) questionnaires were distributed among the e-logistic users. The results of the current study found that low distribution charges, low transit time, effective payment method and information technology had a positive significant relationship with e-logistic customer satisfaction. Furthermore, information technology found main contributory element between effective payment method and e-logistic customer satisfaction. This study is contributing to the body of knowledge by developing a comprehensive framework to solve various e-logistic problems. Hence, the current study is helpful for e-logistic companies to mitigate e-logistic customer satisfaction problems.

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the various factors influencing on people to invest in mutual funds and examine the mediating role of investor’s perception. By using quantitative research approach and cross-sectional research design, 300 questionnaires are distributed among the individual investors and Smart PLS 3 is used to analyze the data. The results reveal that risk and return, liquidity of assets, demographic factors (gender, age, and material status), convenience, reduction in transection cost, tax benefits and transparency were the key factors and maintained significant relationships with investment in mutual funds. Moreover, investor’s perception maintains mediating role between all these factors and investment in mutual funds. The study contributes in literature by investigating the various factors, which influence on investors to invest in mutual funds. Moreover, it also contributes by investigating the mediating role of investor’s perception.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the determinants of small and medium manu-facturing enterprises’ export performance empirically in the context of Pakistan. The study adopted survey method to collect forty-five (45) responses from small and medium manufacturing firms through E-mail survey. The study produced four determinants of SME export performance, such as entrepreneurial orientation (EO), total quality management (TQM), business network (BN) and export market orientation (EMO). Thus, internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity were examined of the study instruments through panel expert’s opinion and the small sample size was investigated using statistical software SPSS-21 and smartPLS-3. The results of the study con-firmed that scale reliability and validity and moreover, current study found a positive relationship between TQM and SME export performance. On the other hand, the study also found insignificant relationship between EO, BN, EMO and SME export performance. Furthermore, the study recommended future study should validate the current study research framework on large sample size.