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Supply Chain Management practices: Competitive Advantage and Organizational Performance in Sri Lankan Construction Industry
(Department of Marketing Management, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2020) Gunawardana, T. S. L. W.; Wedage, D. H.
In the construction industry supply chain management (SCM) is a vital tool in controlling business processes in a defined and a systematic way to improve quality, time management and increase profit. Effective supply chain management has become a potentially valuable method of securing and improving competitive advantage and organizational performance since competition no longer between organizations, but between global organizations and among supply chains. This paper aims to investigate the impact of supply chain management practices on competitive advantage and organizational performance in the construction industry, Sri Lanka, due to the lack of application of supply chain management practices to determine the organizational performance in the competitive environment. Further, this study focuses five SCM practices: strategic supplier partnership, customer relationship, level of information sharing, quality of information sharing, and postponement to investigate what supply chain management is, how it works in increase competitive advantage and what are its dynamics. Six hypotheses were developed based on the constructed conceptual framework derived from the supply chain management literature. The data were collected over the survey technique by randomly administering structured questionnaires from 198 respondents of construction management teams and different sub-contractors. First Multiple regression analysis was performed to explore the impact of five supply chain management practices on competitive advantage and organizational performance in the construction industry and the analysis was carried out the factor analysis to explore the significance of supply chain management dimensions. The results of the regression analysis indicated that all SCM variables have a positive impact on competitive advantages and organizational performance of the construction industry in Sri Lanka. Moreover, it suggested that the strategic supplier partnership was the most significant SCM variable which determines the competitive advantage and level of information sharing variable was the less significant variable towards competitive advantage. The results of this study provide new insights to the construction companies to better understand the significant role that SCM variables play in respect to the competitive advantages and organizational performance in Sri Lanka. The study has outlined to examine the five SCM variables in construction industry. Hence future study can be outlined to further examine the impact of SCM on competitive advantages in other industries. Moreover, the future study can be outlined to further examine the impact of SCM variables in different dimensions especially including customer perspective in respect to human variables. Besides, this study was based on the limited large-scale construction companies operated in Sri Lanka and ignore the small and medium scale supermarkets.
Study on Attitude towards Green Products and Willingness to Pay Premium: With Special Reference to Millenials in Sri Lanka
(Department of Marketing Management, Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2020) Niwarthana, W.; Gannoruwa, S.; Rathnayaka, R. M. U. R. K.
The concerns on green products and the green business practices has becoming one of the emerging areas in today’s context. In relation to that, number of research studies have been conducted by different scholars in different settings. The purpose of this study was to study the impact made by the attitude towards the green products on the willingness to pay premium among the Millennials in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, the study intended to achieve four research objectives namely, to identify the impact made by attitude toward green products on willingness to pay premium, to measure the impact made by environmental concern on attitude toward green products, to identify the impact made by collectivism on attitude toward green products and to evaluate the impact of interpersonal influence on attitude toward green products among the millennials in Sri Lanka. A sample of 200 young adults has been selected on convenience sampling technique under non probability sampling method. The Structural Equation Modelling was performed to analyses the data of the study and the regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses of the study. The study found that, the attitude towards the green products make a significant influence on the millennials in determining their willingness to pay premium and also it has found that, the environmental concern towards the attitude plays a major role in determining the willingness to pay premium on green products among millennials.
Evaluation of Solid Food Waste Management Strategies in Estate Schools in Sri Lanka and Its Environmental Impact
(Department of Marketing Management, Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2020) Kandegama, W. M. W. W.; Kumara, I. P. W. A. V.; Karunarathne, K. H. M. I.
Food wastes (FW) has become a crucial global issues. Food production should be increased substantially to meet the need of growing population, high tendency of spoilage and consumer preference are some of the main reasons for food waste. FW predominantly happen in public places such as hotels, hospitals and industrial parks. FW in Sri Lanka, several institutes can be highlighted including schools. 10194 government schools and 80 registered private school chains are functioning throughout the country. In which, total population including both students and teachers are over 4.5 million. Thus, handling large quantity of food in schools, leads to generate huge quantities of FW and it directly affect to the national economy. Therefore, this qualitative research was designed and implemented to determine reasons for FW and evaluate the efficiency of existing FW handling strategies in schools. The data were collected from 12 schools in each educational zone at Kegalle and Kurunegala, through a survey from teachers and students. Majority of students were provided homemade breakfast in both zones, further 20.92% of students in Kegalle and 37.21% of students in Kurunegala have wasted food with some percentage of breakfast daily. In addition, plate waste of free breakfast provided by school was identified as 20.31% of students and 24.62% of students in Kegalle and Kurunegala areas respectively. Free lunch was provided schools only in Kegalle educational zone and among those who was fed from school meal; 37.5% of students have wasted food in various percentages. Majority of students have brought lunch from home and 26.51% of students in Kegalle and 26.12% of students in Kurunegala thrown some amount of lunch daily. FW was comparatively high, when meals provided from school. Further, study revealed that most of school have not established an effective FW handling system within the premises. Therefore, a systematic programs should be implemented to control food wastes. In addition, awareness programs should be carried out to educate students to minimize FW. It is necessary to investigate the reasons for wasting large quantities from school meal. Finally, a national campaign on “Stop Food Waste” should be launched for school community to create a sustainable environmental development with appropriate mechanisms of school and family education.
Social Media Marketing: An Empirical Review on Contents and Applications
(Department of Marketing Management, Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2020) Siriwardana, A.; Ismail, N.
Today’s world being in the middle of a social media revolution, it is more evident, that social media are being widely utilized with the end goal of communication. A few of the most significant advantages of the utilization of social media networking are creating awareness, engagement, drive traffic, interaction, and communication with a gathering of advocates and fans and sharing of information and knowledge among various groups of individuals. These advantages likewise promote the expansion of communication skills among the individuals. Innovation of technology and online tools have enhanced communication in endless means, yet the very manner we communicate and even the ways in which we converse, exhibit the subsequent change in communication. This research aims to analyze the effect of social media marketing activities on awareness, engagement, drive traffic, interaction, communication with a gathering of advocates and fans and sharing of information. Paper followed a deductive approach and this paper attempts to review current scholarly on social media marketing literature and research, including its beginnings, current usage, benefits and downsides, and best practices. Further examinations to uncover the vital job of social media, inside a digitalized business period. As a result of the comprehensive analysis, it undoubtedly displays that social media is a significant power in the present marketing context.
Customer Self Oriented and Other Oriented Intrinsic Values, Brand Trust and Consumer-Brand Relationship: A Conceptual Review with Reference to Life Insurance Sector Research Proposition
(Department of Marketing Management, Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2020) Pushpakumara, B. M. A.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the intrinsic value and brand trust on Consumer-Brand Relationship. Particular attention is focused on concerning literature and using the result of literature review providing research proposition leading to theoretical and managerial implication. Building and continuously maintaining close brand relationship with customers has become regular necessary for current business. The consumer brand relationship is still very rarely applied in the life insurance context. The author highlighted Proposition of intrinsic self-oriented value (Hedonic Value), Proposition of intrinsic other oriented value (Altruistic value) and Proposition of Brand Trust on consumer brand relationship. New research proposition presented in this paper enhance the literature on recent development in consumer brand relationship. This study was made to build argument supporting to suggested proposition. Findings of this study can be used by brand marketer to identify their strength and weakness. Finally, researcher does propose to expand the future studies on different context.