Search

PurposeThis research aims to understand how competencies for supply chain professionals are developed and how they can affect the manager's performance, especially the manager's resilience in times of significant supply chain disruptions.Design/methodology/approachA research model was developed based on a comprehensive literature survey in the area of individual competencies grounded in the knowledge-based view of the firm. We tested our research model using a quantitative, survey-based study with a sample of 175 Pakistani supply chain managers. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling (SEM).FindingsThe analysis identified corporate training and knowledge sharing as the main antecedents of supply chain professional's competencies. It also showed that these competencies result in higher performance in the form manager's resilience and job performance.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides a valuable framework for organisations to focus on skill-developing training and promoting a knowledge-sharing culture among employees to achieve desired performance levels.Originality/valueThis study is unique as no prior research studied such a comprehensive model of antecedents and consequences of supply chain professionals' competencies.

Background Trauma exposure is associated with a more severe, persistent course of affective and anxiety symptoms. Markers of reward neural circuitry function, specifically activation to reward prediction error (RPE), are impacted by trauma and predict the future course of affective symptoms. This study’s purpose was to determine how lifetime trauma exposure influences relationships between reward neural circuitry function and the course of future affective and anxiety symptoms in a naturalistic, transdiagnostic observational context. Methods A total of 59 young adults aged 18–25 (48 female and 11 male participants, mean ± SD = 21.5 ± 2.0 years) experiencing psychological distress completed the study. Participants were evaluated at baseline, 6, and 12 months. At baseline, the participants reported lifetime trauma events and completed a monetary reward functional magnetic resonance imaging task. Affective and anxiety symptoms were reported at each visit, and trajectories were calculated using MPlus. Neural activation during RPE and other phases of reward processing were determined using SPM8. Trauma and reward neural activation were entered as predictors of symptom trajectories. Results Trauma exposure moderated prospective relationships between left ventral striatum (β = −1.29, p = .02) and right amygdala (β = 0.58, p = .04) activation to RPE and future hypo/mania severity trajectory: the interaction between greater trauma and greater left ventral striatum activation to RPE was associated with a shallower increase in hypo/mania severity, whereas the interaction between greater trauma and greater right amygdala activation to RPE was associated with increasing hypo/mania severity. Conclusions Trauma exposure affects prospective relationships between markers of reward circuitry function and affective symptom trajectories. Evaluating trauma exposure is thus crucial in naturalistic and treatment studies aiming to identify neural predictors of future affective symptom course.

PurposeDrawing on the “substitute for leadership” theory, this study investigates the mediating role of employee attitude between supervisory support and employee’s organisational citizenship behaviour for the environment. It also explicates the role of environmental management practices, as substitute for supervisory support in this relationship.Design/methodology/approachTime-lagged data (n = 235) were collected from middle- and upper-level management employees working in manufacturing and service sector organisations in Pakistan. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling and regression analysis.FindingsThe findings reveal that supervisory support enhances employee attitudes towards pro-environmental behaviour, which in turn increases employees’ tendency to involve in organisational citizenship behaviour for the environment. However, the formal environmental management practices of the organisation serve as a substitute for the supervisory support because, if such formal practices are followed, the role of supervisory support becomes less significant.Originality/valueThis study is the maiden attempt to apply the “substitute for leadership” theory to the study of organisation citizenship behaviour for the environment. Moreover, it adds to the largely overlooked dimension of the research area concerning the inter-relationships between employees’, supervisory and organisational level antecedents of organisational citizenship behaviour for the environment.

Impulsivity (rash action with deleterious outcomes) is common to many psychiatric disorders. While some studies indicate altered amygdala and prefrontal cortical (PFC) activity associated with impulsivity, it remains unclear whether these patterns of neural activity are specific to impulsivity or common to a range of affective and anxiety symptoms. To elucidate neural markers specific to impulsivity, we aimed to differentiate patterns of amygdala–PFC activity and functional connectivity associated with impulsivity from those associated with affective and anxiety symptoms, and identify measures of this circuitry predicting future worsening of impulsivity. Using a face emotion processing task that reliably activates amygdala–PFC circuitry, neural activity and connectivity were assessed in a transdiagnostically-recruited sample of young adults, including healthy (N = 47) and treatment-seeking individuals (N = 67). Relationships were examined between neural measures and impulsivity, anhedonia, and affective and anxiety symptoms at baseline (N = 114), and at 6 months post scan (N = 30). Impulsivity, particularly negative urgency and lack of perseverance, was related to greater amygdala activity (beta = 0.82, p = 0.003; beta = 0.68, p = 0.004; respectively) and lower amygdala–medial PFC functional connectivity (voxels = 60, tpeak = 4.45, pFWE = 0.017; voxels = 335, tpeak = 5.26, pFWE = 0.001; respectively) to facial fear. Left vlPFC, but not amygdala, activity to facial anger was inversely associated with mania/hypomania (beta = −2.08, p = 0.018). Impulsivity 6 months later was predicted by amygdala activity to facial sadness (beta = 0.50, p = 0.017). There were no other significant relationships between neural activity and 6-month anhedonia, affective, and anxiety symptoms. Our findings are the first to associate amygdala–PFC activity and functional connectivity with impulsivity in a large, transdiagnostic sample, providing neural targets for future interventions to reduce predisposition to impulsivity and related future mental health problems in young adults.

Bipolar disorder (BD) is common and debilitating and confounding effects of depression history on neural activity in BD are unknown. We aimed to dissociate neural activity reflecting past depression-load vs. present symptom severity using the Course and Outcome of Bipolar Youth (COBY), a prospective longitudinal cohort study of pediatric-onset BD. In n = 54 COBY (18–32 years), we modeled depression scores over time (up to 17.5 years) using a standardized autoregressive moving average (ARMA) model, followed by k-means cluster analysis. N = 36 healthy participants (HC, 20–36 years) were included. Using two factorial analyses, we parsed the impact of ARMA-defined past depression-load on neural activity from the impact of current symptoms on neural activity (p k > 30) and examined relationships with past and present symptoms (ps FDR-corrected). ARMA identified three COBY groups based on past depression-load. ARMA-defined COBY participants with the greatest past depression-load vs. other groups showed greater activity in right temporoparietal junction, thalamus, insula, premotor cortex, left fusiform gyrus, bilateral precuneus and cerebellum. In contrast, BD-COBY participants vs. HC showed greater activity in left hippocampus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and right somatosensory cortex, plus the above thalamus, premotor cortex and cerebellum; activity positively correlated with present symptom severity in most regions. Past depression-load was related to social cognition and salience perception network activity, potentially reflecting heightened attention to socially relevant distracters, while present symptoms were associated with emotion processing and reappraisal network activity, potentially reflecting abnormal emotional experience and regulation. Differentiating aberrant neural activity related to long-term depression vs. present affective symptoms can help target interventions to networks associated with pathophysiological processes, rather than long-term illness effects.

Background Little is known about how early alterations in white matter relate to clinically relevant behaviors such as emotional dysregulation. Thus, our goal was to examine how the white matter structural integrity of key limbic (i.e., uncinate fasciculus and cingulum) and commissural (i.e., forceps minor) bundles in 3-month-old infants prospectively predicts emotional regulation behaviors at 9 months. Methods Three-month-old infants underwent multishell diffusion-weighted imaging. Following image processing, tractography was performed for each tract within each infant's native space (n=20). Measures of white matter integrity, including microstructure and morphology, were extracted from each tract. At 9 months, negative emotionality (NE) and positive emotionality (PE) were elicited using Laboratory Assessment of Temperament tasks. Elastic net regressions were performed for variable selection, which included white matter integrity variables from each of the 3 tracts, along with several covariates, including age, sex, use of public assistance, and the mother's depressive symptoms. Outcome variables were NE and PE composite scores evaluated in two separate models. Results Notably, following hierarchical regression using elastic net-selected variables, uncinate structural integrity was the most robust predictor of NE (s=-0.631, p=0.005). Limitations The sample size of our study is a limitation, however, as a preliminary study, our goal was to describe our findings to inform future, larger studies. Conclusions Greater uncinate structural integrity predicted lower NE, suggesting that greater uncinate structural integrity at 3 months allows greater emotional regulation capacity at 9 months. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate prospective brain-to-emotional behavior relationships in infants.

Young adults are at high risk for suicide, yet there is limited ability to predict suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Machine learning approaches are better able to examine a large number of variables simultaneously to identify combinations of factors associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The current study used LASSO regression to investigate extent to which a number of demographic, psychiatric, behavioral, and functional neuroimaging variables are associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors during young adulthood. 78 treatment seeking young adults (ages 18-25) completed demographic, psychiatric, behavioral, and suicidality measures. Participants also completed an implicit emotion regulation functional neuroimaging paradigm. Report of recent suicidal thoughts and behaviors served as the dependent variable. Five variables were identified by the LASSO regression: Two were demographic variables (age and level of education), two were psychiatric variables (depression and general psychiatric distress), and one was a neuroimaging variable (left amygdala activity during sad faces). Amygdala function was significantly associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors above and beyond the other factors. Findings inform the study of suicidal thoughts and behaviors among treatment seeking young adults, and also highlight the importance of investigating neurobiological markers.

Medications to treat major depressive disorder (MDD) are not equally effective across patients. Given that neural response to rewards is altered in MDD and given that reward-related circuitry is modulated by dopamine and serotonin, we examined, for the first time, whether reward-related neural activity moderated response to sertraline, an antidepressant medication that targets these neurotransmitters. 222 unmedicated adults with MDD randomized to receive sertraline (n=110) or placebo (n=112) in the EMBARC (Establishing Moderators and Biosignatures of Antidepressant Response in Clinical Care) study completed demographic and clinical assessments, and pre-treatment functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a reward task. We tested whether an index of reward system function in the ventral striatum (VS), a key reward circuitry region, moderated differential response to sertraline versus placebo, assessed with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression over 8 weeks. We observed a significant moderation effect of the reward index, reflecting the temporal dynamics of VS activity, on Week-8 depression levels (Fs≥9.67,ps≤0.002). Specifically, VS responses that were abnormal with respect to predictions from reinforcement learning theory were associated with lower Week-8 depression symptoms in the sertraline versus placebo arms. Thus, a more abnormal pattern of pre-treatment VS dynamic response to reward expectancy (expected outcome value) and prediction error (difference between expected and actual outcome), likely reflecting serotonergic and dopaminergic deficits, was associated with better response to sertraline than placebo. Pre-treatment measures of reward-related VS activity may serve as objective neural markers to advance efforts to personalize interventions by guiding individual-level choice of antidepressant treatment. Trial Registration: NCT01407094; http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01407094

Depression and anxiety have been linked to poor quality of life (QoL) - one's subjective perception of relationships, physical health, daily functioning, general sense of well-being and life satisfaction. Elucidating abnormal white matter microstructure associated with mood and other symptoms and QoL is important to facilitate treatment. Ninety-six young adults (18-25 years old) seeking help for psychological distress, irrespective of presence or absence of psychiatric diagnosis completed diffusion weighted and anatomical scans, clinical and behavioral measures, and QoL assessment. We examined relationships between diffusion imaging properties in major white matter tracts involved in emotion processing and regulation, symptoms, and QoL. Depression and general distress levels fully mediated the relationship between fractional anisotropy (FA), an indirect index of fiber collinearity, and radial diffusivity (RD), an index sensitive to axonal/myelin damage, in right uncinate fasciculus and QoL. The relationship between reduced FA (and increased RD) in right uncinate fasciculus and poor QoL was explained by greater severity of depression and general distress. These findings underscore the role of white matter microstructure in right uncinate fasciculus in relation to depressive and general distress symptoms and, in turn, QoL. Importantly, they suggest that measures of white matter microstructure in this tract can be used as putative objective markers of emotion dysregulation, to inform and monitor the impact of interventions to reduce affective symptoms and improve QoL in young adults.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to propose performance measures for supply chain knowledge management (SCKM) performance.Design/methodology/approach– This is a conceptual study. State of performance measurement has been analyzed on the basis of a comprehensive review of literature in field of SCKM. Based on principles of double and triple loop learning, performance measures have been identified for measuring the success of KM practices in SCs.Findings– Principles of double and triple loop learning have been utilized to suggest KPI’s for SCKM performance, i.e. supply chain identity and knowledge supply chain stratum. The relevance and justification of these KPI’s is also discussed.Research limitations/implications– This study is limited to conceptualized measures for SCKM only. Further research is required to test the benefits of these performance measures based on industry applications.Practical implications– These proposed KPI’s will facilitate the development of the new processes through re-engineering, i.e. problem identification and then rectification. Further, these KPI’s will provide some essential insights as to how supply chains can develop their performance evaluation systems to become more effective and learning oriented.Originality/value– This study aims to not only identify the gaps present in the SCKM performance measurement literature but also aims to fill the knowledge gap by suggesting suitable performance metrics.

BackgroundIndividuals with bipolar disorder (BD) show aberrant brain activation patterns during reward and loss anticipation. We examined for the first time longitudinal changes in brain activation during win and loss anticipation to identify trait markers of aberrant anticipatory processing in BD.MethodsThirty-four euthymic and depressed individuals with BD-I and 17 healthy controls (HC) were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging twice 6 months apart during a reward task.ResultsHC, but not individuals with BD, showed longitudinal reductions in the right lateral occipital cortex (RLOC) activation during processing of cues predicting possible money loss (p-corrected ConclusionsIncreased activation in occipital cortex during negative outcome anticipation may be related to elevated negative emotional arousal during anticipatory cue processing. One interpretation is that, unlike HC, individuals with BD were not able to learn at baseline that monetary losses were smaller than monetary gains and were not able to reduce emotional arousal for negative cues 6 months later. Future research in BD should examine how modulating occipital cortical activation affects learning from experience in individuals with BD.

A variety of evidence suggests that bipolar disorder is associated with disruptions of reward related processes, although the properties, and scope of these changes are not well understood. In the present study, we aimed to address this question by examining performance of patients with bipolar disorder (30 depressed bipolar; 35 euthymic bipolar) on a motivated choice reaction time task. We compared performance with a group of healthy control individuals (n = 44) and a group of patients with unipolar depression (n = 41), who were matched on several demographic variables. The task consists of an "odd-one-out" discrimination, in the presence of a cue signaling the probability of reward on a given trial (10, 50, or 90%) given a sufficiently fast response. All groups showed similar reaction time (RT) performance, and similar shortening of RT following the presentation of a reward predictive cue. However, compared to healthy individuals, the euthymic bipolar group showed a relative increase in commission errors during the high reward compared to low condition. Further correlational analysis revealed that in the healthy control and unipolar depression groups, participants tended either to shorten RTs for the high rather than low reward cue a relatively large amount with an increase in error rate, or to shorten RTs to a lesser extent but without increasing errors to the same degree. By contrast, reward-related speeding and reward-related increase in errors were less well coupled in the bipolar groups, significantly so in the BPD group. These findings suggest that although RT performance on the present task is relatively well matched, there may be a specific failure of individuals with bipolar disorder to calibrate RT speed and accuracy in a strategic way in the presence of reward-related stimuli.

his paper analyzes the issue of the nature of demand for house financing offered by Islamic banks in the Pakistan. The paper also identifies the factors that impact demand for house financing offered by Islamic banks. The study used survey data based on convenient face to face interview of 243 respondents. The study regressed conventional demand for Islamic house financing on six regressors: Shariah compliance, convenience, bank features, product features, social influence and knowledge. The study reveals that the nature of demand for Islamic house financing is conventional. The results of the study also indicate that religious factor negatively affect the demand for Islamic house financing whereas all other factors affect it positively. The study will help managers of Islamic banks to increase their market share in house financing by focusing on those factors which significantly affect the demand for their product.

The biggest challenge in nurturing an academic community is encouraging knowledge sharing among its members. Literature on communities, however, has paid less attention on the role of outcome expectations in encouraging the knowledge sharing behaviors. This study examines the effects of Personal Outcome Expectations (POE) and Community-related Outcome Expectations (COE) on the knowledge sharing behaviors of students and its consequent impact on their academic performance. In order to study these relationships a survey of university students was conducted. Based on structural equation modeling approach, it was found that COE have significant impact on knowledge sharing among the students.

Importance Anhedonia is a symptom of multiple psychiatric conditions in young adults that is associated with poorer mental health and psychosocial function and abnormal ventral striatum reward processing. Aberrant function of neural reward circuitry is well documented in anhedonia and other psychiatric disorders. Longitudinal studies to identify potential biomarkers associated with a reduction in anhedonia are necessary for the development of novel treatment targets. Objective To identify neural reward-processing factors associated with improved psychiatric symptoms and psychosocial function in a naturalistic, observational context. Design, Setting, and Participants A longitudinal cohort follow-up study was conducted from March 1, 2014, to June 5, 2018, at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center after baseline functional magnetic resonance imaging in 52 participants between the ages of 18 and 25 years who were experiencing psychological distress. Main Outcomes and Measures Participants were evaluated at baseline and 6 months. At baseline, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during a card-guessing monetary reward task. Participants completed measures of affective symptoms and psychosocial function at each visit. Neural activation during reward prediction error (RPE), a measure of reward learning, was determined using Statistical Parametric Mapping software. Neural reward regions with significant RPE activation were entered as regions associated with future symptoms in multiple linear regression models. Results A total of 52 young adults (42 women and 10 men; mean [SD] age, 21.4 [2.2] years) completed the study. Greater RPE activation in the left ventral striatum was associated with a decrease in anhedonia symptoms during a 6-month period (β = −6.152; 95% CI, –11.870 to –0.433;P = .04). The decrease in anhedonia between baseline and 6 months mediated the association between left ventral striatum activation to RPE and improvement in life satisfaction between baseline and 6 months (total [c path] association: β = 0.245;P = .01; direct [c′ path] association: β = 0.133;P = .16; and indirect [ab path] association: 95% CI, 0.026-0.262). Results were not associated with psychotropic medication use. Conclusions and Relevance Greater left ventral striatum responsiveness to RPE may serve as a biomarker or potential target for novel treatments to improve the severity of anhedonia, overall mental health, and psychosocial function.

Many researchers argue that career success of various individuals can be attributed to the effective use of social capital. Social capital theory proposes that the network of relationships support the people in performing social affairs and advancing in their careers. A considerable body of knowledge exists that examines the role social capital plays in the success of individuals and organizations. However, not many have focused on the social capital development process in the higher education institutions. This understanding is vital because higher educational institutions are the breeding grounds of the behaviors that help the students to excel in their professional lives. Current study empirically examines the relationship between social capital and knowledge sharing, and how knowledge sharing impacts academic performance. For this purpose multiple linear regression analysis has been performed. The results of the analysis highlight various aspects of the relationship between social capital, knowledge sharing and academic performance. Understanding how students learn to share knowledge in their respective social networks and the motivation behind this knowledge sharing, can help the university authorities in identifying the steps that can facilitate the process of knowledge sharing which in turn can lead to enhancement in the quality of the learning process.

Service quality, due to its enduring impact on organisational performance, has become a central concern of service-oriented organisations. Due to the nature of its services and continuous interaction with customers, banking sector of Pakistan has become more progressive towards establishing service of quality standards and its monitoring and evaluation process during the recent past. However, there are concerns that the standards set by top management of Pakistani banks do not translate into delivery of quality service by lower level managers. Therefore, it is important to explore how banking sector institutes understand service quality, and how this understanding contrasts with the existing body of knowledge. In this respect, the current study investigates the issue of service quality in the context of banking sector of Pakistan. The study explores the dimensions of service quality and the challenges faced by management to provide promised quality service in the banking sector of Pakistan. The study incorporates qualitative research design with focus group as methodology for data collection. Focus group methodology is useful when the research is exploratory in nature, researchers want to benefit from the knowledge and experience of the respondents and the cultural aspects related to the studied phenomenon are pertinent to be considered. Findings revealed that service quality is a contextual phenomenon in Pakistan and the interpretations of different stakeholders about its dimensions and delivery vary across parts of the country.