Muhammad Zubair Tariq, a lecturer in marketing at Malak Malik Firoz Khan Noon Business School at University of Sargodha (UoS) has won the 2025 Outstanding Academic Research Paper Award from the School of International Education, Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU), Chengdu, China. He received the honor as the sole awardee in the Business and Management category, recognized for producing the highest-impact paper among international scholars. Following the announcement, the Pakistan Institute of China Studies (PICS), UOS, congratulated Mr. Tariq on the achievement.
Tariq’s award-winning paper, published in the Service Industries Journal (SSCI, Q1; impact factor 9.4; CiteScore 16.1), is titled “Transforming retail with humanoid service robots: exploring the impact of customer mindsets on value co-creation via perceived robot anthropomorphism and the moderating roles of robotic service proactivity and customer emotional intelligence.”
The study explores how customer psychology shapes interactions with humanoid service robots as their presence grows in retail. Grounded in implicit mindset theory and service-dominant logic, the research positions customer mindsets as key resources that shape perceptions and engagement within AI-enabled service ecosystems.
PICS officials said the recognition highlights Pakistan’s rising visibility in global research networks and reflects the strengthening academic collaboration between the University of Sargodha and Chinese institutions. Tariq’s paper is currently showcased at SWJTU among high-impact publications by international scholars.
