Trash Rush – Educational Mobile Game For Android Devices

As population grows faster, the rise of garbage collection follows.  Massive information dissemination of waste management has been done by local representatives to educate people but despite the effort exerted still mismanagement of waste exist that caused serious environmental consequences to nature and human beings.  This condition ignites the researchers to develop a technology-based means to help disseminate proper disposal of garbage through the use of mobile phones.  Trash Rush educational mobile game application utilized Lua Scripting Language for game features, system behavior and synchronizes the phone sensor to the system. The Lua tool is decoded to JSON codes and sent to PHP MySQL in the webserver for storage. For tilting motion and orientation of the phone, the researchers employ the accelerometer sensor as the main navigation controller.   For sound and background effects, the Reactable Application is utilized.  The Box2D game engine is used to analyze and interpret the images and graphic effects while the Box2D API is utilized for object movement and animation. The Motion Parallax effect is also used to give more realistic effects in movements of the objects and the graphical background of the game. All these components are extracted through the APK file of Corona SDK to build and publish the app.  Upon reaching to the deployment stage of iterative model, it was found out that the system became viral to grade levels in the campus because of its story and time attack mechanism.

Social Capital As a Determinant of Individuals Entrepreneurial Engagement: A Moderated Mediation Model

Entrepreneurial activity is essential to ensure the economic stability of any country. The rate of entrepreneurial activity is high in developed countries, yet remains lower in developing nations. This research was conducted to examine the factors affecting the entrepreneurial behaviors of individuals in the developing country of Pakistan. Chapter 1 is an introductory chapter that presents an overview of this study, discusses the background of the research problem, and develops the research questions. Moreover, it highlights the ways in which this study enriches the existing literature. This study aimed to evaluate the direct effects of social capital on entrepreneurial attitude (EA) and the mediating effects of self-efficacy and social norms in this relationship. Moreover, this study examined the moderating effect of gender on entrepreneurial intention (EI) via self-efficacy and social norms. Chapter 2 reviews the existing literature, while highlighting the gap in the research. This study is unique in the way it analyzes the multi-mediation effect on EI, which further leads to entrepreneurial behavior. The literature affirms that EI followed by EA further leads toward entrepreneurial behavior. However, this study evaluates the direct and indirect effects of social capital on building both EA and EI. Moreover, the literature asserts that social norms are more associated with women, while self-efficacy is more associated with men. This study observes the effect of these associations on EI with the mediating role of EA. Further, this study is conducted in Pakistan, which represents the South Asian context. The hypothetical model presented in this study is tested in this developing country, which differentiates the results of this study from those found in developed country contexts. Moreover, this study exhibits the research model based on the hypotheses presented in this study. The theoretical model of this study is based on the theory of planned behavior with incorporation of gender schema theory. Moreover, it caters the existing literature on the behavioral determinants. This study posits that social capital affects the EA of individuals on the basis of role modeling and motivation, which causes individuals to believe in themselves and increases their self-efficacy. Thus, this study examines the moderation and mediation effects together. Chapter 3 presents the research methodology followed in this study. As a descriptive study, the data were collected through a questionnaire with graduate and undergraduate students of management and business studies from different universities in Pakistan. In this longitudinal study, a positivism paradigm was applied. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for the model testing. We used the test of moderation by applying the process (Bolin, 2014) to test the moderation effect of gender. Chapter 4 presents the data analysis. To validate the measurement tool in the South Asian context, we used confirmatory factor analysis in AMOS. The results depicted that all the variables were reliable, and established convergent and discriminant validity. Following this, to test the theoretical model of the study, the direct and indirect effects were examined through SEM. The findings of the study revealed that social capital affects EA and EI via the mediation of self-efficacy and social norms. EI leads toward entrepreneurial behavior. In addition, the findings indicate that gender moderates the effects of social norms and selfefficacy on both EA and EI. Chapter 5 presents the conclusion and recommendations, which comprises the discussion, research implications, research limitations, and conclusion. The results demonstrate that social capital more significantly affects EA when it is linked with the social norms and selfefficacy of individuals. In addition, social norms are more associated with female individuals, while self-efficacy affects both genders equally. Moreover, EA moderates the effect of social capital on EI in such a way that it is higher among male individuals. These findings offer practical implications to policymakers.