RADS Journal of Business Management

AI & Management Sciences: A thought starter

Sheraz Alam Malik — Fri, 28 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The third wave of AI esp. deep learning is taking the modern world by storm. The initial two waves in 70’s and 80’s did not live up to the hype. This third wave of AI has some level of success in image processing, language translation, playing certain games and chatbot based learning. Partial success in these areas have build expectations which may or may not be accomplished. So, the big question for management-based scholars is how it will affect their domain of knowledge. There are certain dimensions which are worthy of attention here.

Key dimensions for the management science directly affecting AI are business leadership, AI based tools to gain efficiency/competitive advantage and re-defining the previous business models.

Business leadership needs to quickly adopt to the changing landscape as new tools/methods are emerging which requires long term strategic thinking and adopting to more inclusive leadership. This will also create a new breed of tech entrepreneurs who are more grounded in reality. They can balance the needs of the leadership with organizational demands more realistically. This alignment of technology with business leadership will be more common practice in future. Ethics will have a big role in this leadership as most of the AI tools are commercialized and core aim of them seems to be profit making. This can potentially conflict with the great needs of society and associated customers. Therefore, a technology leadership which is more aligned with ethics, reality of AI usage and its potential conflicts with the society will be better suited to take this challenge.

Plethora of AI tools are flooding the market with sometimes undue promises of the operational efficiency, resource optimization and process automation. This requires another breed of operations/project management scholars who will validate the promises of these tools and see their real impact on the business processes. As this is an emerging field so keeping pace with these tools will be a quite a challenge. Self-criticism will be the key in this debate of using AI on improving the sustainability of the business. If AI is able to self-criticize it by highlighting the biases in training data, flaws in design, hallucination issues and limitations of its operability then these AI tools will gain more traction in management science domain. At this stage it is more like a black box where input and outputs are usually known but what goes inside is not clear. This secrecy and developing nature of this technology raises many questions around its usage, potential claims of improvement and future outlook.

Old ways of doing business and their tested models will quickly become redundant. As resources, customers demand, and process management will change with new tools and application previous assumptions about business models will no longer apply. New AI challenges to business will create new opportunities, new customers and new ways of doing things not envisioned earlier. This means future predictions about business will change resulting in re-design and recalibrating the expectations. A successful business model will be the one who adopts and flourish in this era of change. New inputs needs to designed and new outputs in forms of product and services will be launched to ever changing business climate.

These broader three changes in future business environment requires management scholars who are adept at understanding the complexities of this technology, its impact on the bigger business issues and creating new theoretical & empirical frameworks. These new frameworks and new ways of thinking should be robust and flexible at the same time. Robust to proper answer any management/business related questions and flexible enough to change when its needed. This looks like not an overly challenging task but looking closely requires multitude of skills from them. This includes the ability to see the impact of this AI change on management of business both local and global, highlighting the flaws of design, application and its associated factors of accountability & transparency to remove the hype from reality.

In short, technology and management goes hand in hand in improving efficiency, inclusivity, sustainability and information visibility. How new explosion of AI will impact the breed of management scholars where they are honest, critical and forthcoming about it is a question which will be answered in coming decade. This decade will be where the evolving nature of consumer demands, complex architecture of technology and new body of knowledge will create new avenues of opportunities and threats for both business and public.

Impact of Credit Risk on the Relationship between the Liquidity Risk and the Financial Performance in Islamic and Conventional Banks

Saba Iqbal — Fri, 28 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Background: Bank failures are caused by credit risk and liquidity risk. Banks need to paly crucial role in addressing these risks which cause fragility. This study looks into how liquidity risk affects banks' financial performance. It also finds the moderating impact of credit risk on the relationship between liquidity and financial performance.

Methodology: This study selects banks of Asia Pacific region from year 2017-2022 and the data is analyzed through two step system GMM analysis.

Results: The results indicate that liquidity risk is significantly and negatively moderates the financial performance of Islamic and conventional and the situation is even worse in the presence of credit risk.

Conclusion: The study's value lies in the fact that it tackles the most important categories of risks i.e., liquidity
and credit risk that banks of Asia Pacific region in comparison of Islamic and conventional banks. Effective
risk management techniques enable the banks to cater the liquidity and credit risk.

Impact of Participative Leadership on Job Commitment in Diverse Organizational Cultures: Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction

Muhammad Hasnain Abbas Naqvi, Mishal Naqvi — Fri, 28 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Purpose: The focus of this research is to examine the effects of organisational culture and leadership behaviour on employee job satisfaction and organisational commitment in a firm. The first research question is to examine the correlation between the organizational culture and leadership style and the findings show that these aspects have a strong impact on the employees and lead to the deterioration of their commitment level and the feeling of dissatisfaction.

Methodology: The study adopts a non-contrived setting with a cross-sectional time horizon. A total of 370 respondents, comprising 210 men and 160 women employed by Season Food in the study. Convenience sampling technique was used with minimal interference from the researcher.

Findings: Findings indicated that cultivating an innovative and supportive culture fosters higher productivity and commitment among employees, while a participative leadership style empowers employees, enhancing satisfaction and commitment to their work, job, and the organization.

Conclusion: The factors discussed will positively impact the employees and it will help the organization increasing its productivity. Employees are more productive and committed when innovative and supportive culture is adopted, furthermore, participative leadership will empowers them in increasing job satisfaction and commitment.

The Role of EMA and Innovation in achieving Competitive Advantage: A Bibliometric Analysis

Sundas Hanif, Rab Nawaz Lodhi — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 10:38:45 +0000

Objective: The alarming climate change situation demands immediate actions to control this situation and organizations must employ environmentally friendly business operations. Organizations are linking environmental concerns with their business objectives to acquire a strong position in the market.

Methodology: This study adopted bibliometric analysis to examine the role of Environmental Management Accounting in gaining a competitive advantage. For this purpose, 475 articles were extracted from the WoS database from 2010 to 2024. In the search bar of the WoS database, the selection of keywords in the first stage was “Environmental Management Accounting” OR “Radical Innovation” AND “competitive advantage” used. After refining the results, the file was extracted and the VOSviewer software was used to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the data.

Results: The findings of this study indicate the different regions that are contributing significantly to this field of knowledge around the globe. The findings also indicate the top authors, journals, and articles that worked in this area of study. The results of this study indicate future research directions and research scholars can consider these directions for their research projects in the future. The result also indicated research themes that are widely used by authors and how these are closely related.

Conclusion: This bibliometric analysis helps to identify the top-cited authors and their works. This study provides in-depth practical solutions to industry practitioners, policymakers, and research scholars.

From Insights to Action: Big Data Analytics Management Capability as a Moderator for Supply Chain Learning and Agility

Faizan Abdullah, Hafiz Muhammad Naeem, Haris Aslam — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 10:39:38 +0000

Objective: Underpinned by Organizational Information Processing Theory, this study aimed to explore the relationship between Supply Chain Learning, Agility, Adaptability, and Big Data Analytics Management Capability in the context of potential supply chain disruptions.

Methodology: The study population is manufacturing companies in Punjab, Pakistan; the samples are derived using stratified random sampling, with the industry serving as strata.

Results: Our findings confirm that supply chain learning significantly affects supply chain agility and adaptability, with adaptability mediating this relationship. However, while big data analytics management capability significantly moderates the direct relationship between supply chain learning and agility, it does not significantly impact the indirect effect of supply chain learning and agility through supply chain adaptability. This suggests that big data analytics management capability is more crucial in facilitating instant, agile responses than in supporting longer-term strategic adjustments.

Implications: The study enriches the supply chain management discourse by demonstrating the strategic role of big data analytics management capability in enhancing learning and adaptive capabilities within supply chains. Practical implications for managers include the importance of investing in big data analytics management capability to leverage supply chain learning effectively for improved agility while acknowledging that additional strategies may be required to enhance adaptability in response to the evolving landscape of supply chain operations.

The Monetarist Versus the Neo-Keynesian Views on Inflation: The Case of Pakistan

Muhammad Ashhar, Tahir Farooq, Muhammad Zohaib Sohail, Farrukh Mahmood — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 10:39:28 +0000

Purpose: This research investigated and contrasted the Monetarist and the neo-Keynesian case for inflation behavior in Pakistan’s economy from 1971 to 2019.

Methodology: Applying three dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models, with three indicator variables for inflation (GDP deflator, Consumer Price Index and Wholesale Price Index) used one by one as dependent variable, the analysis tests the fundamental arguments of the Monetarist and the neo-Keynesian positions concerning inflation, unemployment, and money supply.

Results: The findings dominantly support the Monetarist position, indicating a significant positive relationship between money supply growth and inflationary trends, while the impact of unemployment on inflation remains minimal. However, the neo-Keynesian view also holds validity in specific contexts where unemployment negatively influences inflation. This duality underscores the complexity of Pakistan’s inflation dynamics, and the contributions and relevance of both schools of thought in the country’s economy.

Originality: The utilization and testing of multiple inflation indicators against three dynamic models comprehensively captures different aspects of Pakistan’s economy, thereby contributing a more nuanced understanding of the subject matter to the literature.

Visitor’s Satisfaction: A Netnographic Exploration of Hotel Food Quality and Restaurant Services

Mohsin Raza, Prof. Dr. Aamir Ijaz, Muhammad Nadeem Sadiq — Sat, 21 Sep 2024 19:03:56 +0000

Background

This netnography study probes hotel food quality, restaurant service, and visitor satisfaction in the context of Pakistan, a country rich in traditional food and hospitality.

Methodology

This qualitative research used the netnography technique by using online Google reviews about the top three hotels in Pakistan, selected based on rating criteria. By ascribing the power of visitors’ online reviews and user-generated content, the study aims to explore hotel food quality, restaurant services, and customer satisfaction in Pakistan. Through the netnography method, to analyze Google reviews, apply the contents analysis by using NVivo software to get abductive meanings through word clouds, word map and word tree.

Findings

This study examined several factors in the hotel industry, focusing especially on the quality of food, restaurant services, and visitor satisfaction in Pakistan's five-star hotels. The findings indicated that many customers are happy with the quality of the food and restaurant services offered by these hotels.

Conclusion

Food quality is a crucial part of judging the restaurant, and presentation, flavor, and freshness also have a significant role. Visitor satisfaction is closely related to good-quality food and services, for customers to revisit.

Key Words Netnography, Content Analysis, User-generated Content, Quality Food, Restaurant Service, and Word Clouds