Browsing by Author "Dissanayake, D.M.R."

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An Analysis of Switching Behavior of Pre-paid Mobile Users in Sri Lanka
(2010) Dissanayake, D.M.R.; Wanninayake, W.M.C.B.
Sri Lanka is one the fast growing markets for the mobile communication service, and it is nearly 1.2 millions of subscribers are found in Sri Lankan market by 2008 ( TRC statistics: Sri Lanka 2008). Currently there are five industry competitors operate in this market, and it has found an aggressive competition over each other in terms of service factors and value proposition. As a result of that the switching behavior of customers has been frequently happening alone with strong customer bargaining power. This study was focused on the switching behavior of prepaid customers, and 150 respondents were selected under stratified probability sampling method. Data were collected through structured questionnaire alone with Likert scale. Two sets of independent variables were identified as per the literature reviews namely service failure factors and value proposition factors. An inferential statistical analysis was used to analyze the collected data. The ?Logit Regression Model? was used to test three hypotheses developed to test the switching behavior impacted by service failure and value proposition factors. Data analysis revealed that the value proposition factors had more impact on brand switching behavior than service failure factors. However, both value proposition and service failure factors were not found a significant impact on switching behavior among pre paid customers.
An Analysis of the Usage of Telephone Directories and its Importance on Customer Life Style: A case study of Sri Lanka Telecom Ltd (SLT) Directory usage
(University of Kelaniya, 2008) Dissanayake, D.M.R.; Wanninayake, W.M.C.B.
The Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (TRC) of Sri Lanka has imposed a rule to provide a detail directory for each fixed line telephone customer, as the controlling body of Sri Lankan telecommunication industry. However, due to the sophisticated communication methods currently being used across the country, people have shifted to different alternative quick access of numbers and details that they want to contact in daily life. Anyhow, still customers are received a directory as per the legal requirement though it is not used very frequently. This case study discusses how far the directory is useful and its importance to the customers lifestyle in the context of finding domestic and business telephone numbers and relevant information.Reserchers selected 1000 customers including both business and domestic customers in Colombo,Kalutara,Galle,Kandy and Kurunegala. Field investigators interviewed those customers through telephones provided by SLT Ltd, and researchers conducted few in-depth interviews to get an insight of the customers behavior.Discriptive statistical tools were used to analyze the data. It was found that nearly 89% of customers do not use the Directory to find contacts, and mobile phone memory has been the most frequent method of finding those numbers.Futher, the majority of domestic customers does not know the alternative sophisticated methods provided by fixed line and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators to find domestic and institutional numbers. It is nearly 80% of customers who are willing to have new methods rather than having bulky Directories to find required contact numbers. The related importance of Telephone Directory compared to other alternative methods has been significantly low in customers' life style, and it has been a hardly using method. Thus, this study highlights the importance of introducing an easy method of obtaining contact numbers in a cost effective manner.
Application of Social Media for Personal Branding: A Conceptual Review
(The International Journal Of Business & Management, 2020) Nanayakkara, N.W.O.K.D.S.P.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.
The present context of digitalized era promotes the need of branding in an online context. The use of social media for personal branding has been a fast-growing trend and such tools are being competitive in the contemporary business environment. Empirical studies are found clarifying how personal branding carried out through social media whilst claiming further investigations in line with the challenges and issues attributed in different markets, generations and countries. Social media platforms are promptly growing resulting empirical studies to investigate effectiveness of different social media tools and strategies. Alongside, this study attempts to investigate how social media has been utilized for personal branding applications. Paper followed an extensive literature review to build a discussion on theoretical and empirical contents related to social media use in personal branding whilst a rationale is made on the relevance of the theory of social capital. Paper attempts to appreciate the application of social capital theory to explain the theoretical foundation in the use of social media for personal branding whilst trust is highlighted as an additional notion within. The literature review was executed addressing to key sub contents related to personal branding and social media. It reviewed journal articles as the main source of information to organize the contents with empirical justifications. Finally, paper discusses the concepts of brand image, brand identity and brand positioning in personal branding and how active involvement of social media results online personal branding.
Attitudes, Awareness and Environmental Management Practices of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Sri Lanka
(2011) Zhengang, Z.; Weerasiri, R.A.S.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.
The main objective of this paper was to investigate whether there is an association between SMEs? attitudes, awareness on environmental issues and their environmental management practices. A questionnaire based survey was chosen to obtain the information on attitudes, awareness and environmental management practices of SMEs. The questionnaire was developed to find out SMEs? current environmental management practices as well as their attitudes and awareness on environmental issues. The associations between attitudes, awareness and environmental practices for waste, energy, and the environment were investigated by calculating correlation coefficient. These analyses revealed that there is no significant association between attitudes and awareness or attitudes and environmental management practices. Attitudes appear to be remaining positive even where awareness is limited. Managers/owners who expressed rather more positive attitudes appear no more likely introduce environmental management practices for their organizations than managers/owners with less or negative attitude.
Brand Building Strategies and Customer Buying Decisions: A Study on Growing up Milk Powder Market of Sri Lanka
(NSBM Business & Management Journal, 2015) Dissanayake, D.M.R.
Growing up Milk Powder Market of Sri Lanka seems to be an aggressively a competitive context since multinationals largely operate with extended brand building strategies. The promotional budget and operational investments undertaken by those brands should be rationalized in par with brand performance. Researcher has focused this context in building the research problem and accordingly conceptualized the study with three independent variables namely brand values, brand benefits and brand personality as brand strategies. The dependent variable was customer buying intention. It has followed a deductive approach as the overall research design. Three hypotheses were tested in this study by using correlation analysis and descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to reveal the customer responses towards branding strategies undertaken by practitioners. It has given the conclusion along with key recommendations as contribution to practice at the end of the paper.
Brand Differentiation in Industrial Sector Context: Empirical Review and Case Evidences in Sri Lanka
(International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 2017) Munasinghe, A.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.
This paper reviews theories, models and empirical insights on brand differentiations alongside briefing to industry practices in Sri Lanka. Prior researches have provided a ground reviewing brand differentiation strategies, but this paper attempts to highlight the practice notions in Sri Lankan market in line with the empirical evidences. Literature review was the main strategy followed in building empirical explanations whilst industry-related cases were brought to the paper. Authors conducted some interview with industrial sector corporate managers and professionals to reveal the industry-related practices executed on brand differentiation in Sri Lanka. Besides the empirical evidences, it referred some research reports carried out by companies to provide industry-related research insights to rationalize some arguments. Managers in industrial and consumer durable sector organizations could associate the insights of this paper in patterning respective competitive strategies and brand building strategies to earn effective brand-related behaviors. Authors suggest future research propositions referring industry-related cases in the scope of brand differentiation.
Building Brand Equity through Integrated Business Model: A Case of Cable Brand in Sri Lanka
(IES Management College and Research Centre, Mumbai, India, 2015) Dissanayake, D.M.R.
There are mainly six local companies in Sri Lanka operate on cable manufacturing and trading business namely ACL Cables, Kelani Cables, Sierra Cables, Ruhunu Cables, Kamal Cables and Orange Cables. As ACL Cables and Kelani Cables are in the export market, they manufacture their cables complying with the British and Australian Standards.This study is based on “Kelani Brand” which is currently exporting to Maldives, Bangladesh and India in the region. Branding a cable product is a critical challenge where it has to cater for both consumer market and industrial segments. Researcher specially focused on how the said Cable brand has effectively acclimated to branding strategies rather operating as a generic product. Special reference was made to study how the organizations strategized the functional and emotional brand appeals to develop brand equity for the end-user market. Study has been conceptualized brand building variables as independent factors and purchasing decision as the dependent factor. Researcher has analysed the result of the implementation of brad building model of Kelani Cables via descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Conclusion of the study has provided hindsight as contribution to practice at the end of the report.
A comparative study of service quality and customer service in public sector and private sector commercial banks
(2007) Wanninayake, W.M.C.B.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.
The commercial banking sector in Sri Lanka has been rapidly growing in the last two decades. The entire banking sector consists of both private and public sector banks, and private sector banks have been diversifying tremendously compared to the public sector. The public sector banks are implementing restructuring strategies to face these competitive forces aroused by the private sector commercial bankers. However, the service quality improvements, differentiation of service marketing and continuous customer service enhancements are the critical successive factors in this industry. This study was based on both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected from a sample survey that was conducted in six districts namely Colombo, Gampaha, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Kandy and Galle. Then, 300 respondents who are customers of banks having experiences in both public and private sector banks, were asked to answer the prepared questionnaires. The service quality and customer service were the major two variables of the above-mentioned research study. Finally, the study revealed that customers of public sector banks experienced a higher service gap compared to the private sector banks. However, the perceived satisfaction towards the public sector banks of rural area customers is higher compared to those of urban customers. The study identifies that the process efficiency and interactive service marketing are comparatively poor in public sector banks and yet customers feel a higher level of confidence on public sector banks than on the private sector. Researchers have presented some recommendations for public sector banks to develop service quality and customer service competitively.
Consumer Evaluation of Brand Extension -with Special Case Reference to the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Sector in Sri Lanka
(University of Kelaniya, 2007) Wanninayake, W.M.C.B.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.
Today most of the organizations in FMCG sector have interest on fallowing the brand extension strategy to increase the sales of product lines the FMCG sector in Sri Lanka, both local and multinational FMCG sector companies operate, follow the market penetration and with brand extension strategy in a broader perspective .Brand extension strategy is widely used because of the fact that strongly positioned brand could build and communicate the brand values sucesfuly.Then the customers are motivated to do trial purchasing and averse the risk of new product. However there is no empirical evidence to understand consumer evaluation of brand extension. The purpose of the study was to investigate the perceived quality, perceived fit and the perceived difficulty of the consumers associated with how they behave with a brand. The study was based on both primary and secondary data. Primary data were collected through a survey conducted in Colombo and suburbs. The sample size was 150 customers who were profiled with the environment of Colombo and suburbs. Data were collected using a self administrated questionnaire with multi item scales to measure those constructs. The study revealed that both perceived quality and perceived fit have direct positive effect on consumer evaluation of brand extention.Futher it found that when the extension is fit with the original brand, it has a grater chance to trial the product resulted in brand extension strategy. And also, the study identified that there is a significant effect of the brand experience towards the degree of involvement of the customers for the new product lines. Finally it further revealed the effect of the repetition A TL adv~rtising and consumer sales promotion play a outstanding promotional role to inspire the consumers for brand extension strategy.
Consumer Perception and Behavioral Patterns onNutritional Food Consumption of Urban and Suburban Segments of Sri Lanka: A Decisional Analysis to Case –Related Implications
(International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 2017) Liyanage, P.W.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.
There are structural dynamics taking place within the population structure of Sri Lanka with noted trends in demographic dynamics. Further, healthy life style has been largely referred in many national level policies and empirical studies as a key determinant for holistic development of the nation. The behavioral trends towards the nutritional food consumption is one of the critical contexts which is being investigated in the national level priorities. This paper also attempts to investigate the empirical insights of the urban and suburban consumers towards the wholesome food consumption practices addressing to empirical knowledge gaps found within. Accordingly, survey method was employed with a structured questionnaire as the research tool to figure out perceptions and behavioral responses of 280 respondents towards the wholesome food consumption practices. Study follows a random sampling method and descriptive statistical tools were used to analyze the primary data. Findings were discussed by highlighting the needful insights for policy development and managerial implications for the industry players. It has presented the behavioral insights of the protein consumption trends of Sri Lanka addressing to both policy level and industry-related priorities. Finally, paper concludes the future research directions referring to the propositions of consumer behavioral responses pertaining to nutrition industry of Sri Lanka.
Critical Success Factors for Performance Oriented M-Learning in Sri Lanka
(Journal of Educational and Social Research, 2020) Dissanayake, D.M.R.; Velananda, Y. L.
Students engaged with multi tasks commitments demand modern learning environments facilitated with virtual engagements and high-tech contact methods. Thus, they are looking for such technically equipped learning facilities avoiding physical presence where they can learn at anytime and anywhere. The mobile devices provide many facilities for education sector providing execution supports for M-learning. This has reshaped the education model of many countries and institutions. Sri Lanka is an emerging economy and one of the countries in Asia reports higher level of educational priorities. Many of public sector universities and higher educational institutions have adopted M-learning in line with the government educational policies and some international funding options. However, it has attributed with some challenges in terms of strategy, motivation and performances. Thus, critical success factors on M-learning was the main research question addressed by this paper. This paper examines the critical success factors for improving performance-oriented M-Learning concerning nine factors: Perceived Ease of Use, Personal Innovativeness, Perceived Usefulness, Performance Expectancy, Self-Management of Learning, Effort Expectancy, Social influence, Perceived Self Efficacy and Perceived Playfulness. The factors were constructed in relation to the Technology Acceptance Model, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology Model and several other factors from the literature. The main research strategy used was the literature review with some attention given to cases and practices based on Sri Lankan context. Paper discusses different scenarios and cases guiding future research directions. Authors conclude research avenues by highlighting future research directions for the extended studies.
Effect of perceived risk and context of consumer inferencing about missing information: with special reference to consumer durable sector in Sri Lanka
(University of Kelaniya, 2008) Weerasiri, R.A.S.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.
Effect of perceived risk and context on consumer inferencing about missing information
(University of Kelaniya, 2006) Weerasiri, R.A.S.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.
Consumers adopt different strategies for evaluation of a brand when information regarding an attribute is not available. One of those inferencing strategies is consumers’ inference or ‘Construct’ the values for missing attributes and evaluate the brand. Past studies have shown that inferencing has significant effect on likelihood of purchase of a brand. However, determination of the proportion of consumers who adopt inferencing strategy has received less attention. Simmons and Lynch (1991) attempted this and found that inferencing occurred only in 13-19 percent of the cases. They measured incidence of inferencing by asking respondents to describe their thought process during the evaluation and identifying those who had mentioned the word infer in their description of the process. Since inferencing is a cognitive process, such elicitation of the process is likely to result in under reporting. There has been no other study to corroborate the above findings. The present study attempted to measure inferencing using indirect methods. The study also examined influence of consumers perception of risk associated with a choice and the composition of the set of brands available to the consumer at the time of evaluation on inferencing. Respondents were classified into those who inferred and those who did not, by comparing their overall evaluations of brands with overall evaluations of the same brands by respondents in control conditions. The composition of the set of brands presented to the respondents was manipulated varying the number of brands with complete and incomplete information. Different purposes of buying were used proxy for different levels of perceived risk. Data from 200 respondents in Gampaha district were analyzed using ANOVA. The major findings of this study are: i. Inferencing occurred in about one third of the cases, far more than previously reported. ii. It was found that respondents were not risk averse while making and inference. This is in contrast to the normal tendency of people to be risk averse. iii. The composition of the set of brands available to the respondent at the time of evaluation had influence on inferred value and probability of making an inference. As inferencing is a spontaneous cognitive process and influences consumer’s evaluation of brands, it is absolutely vital for marketers to understand the phenomena. The findings of the study would provide marketers a better understanding about inferencing. It has the potential to help them in formulating their communication strategy and in designing advertisements in a comparative format.
Effect of promoting country of origin as an ethnocentric appeal in developing local brands: special Reference to telecommunication industry of Sri Lanka
(2010) Weerasiri, S.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.
Sri Lanka is emerging as service sector driven economy with the GDP penetration of 50%-60% from service sector. After imposing the open economy policy in 1977, local brands had to gear ahead with intensive competition came from international brands. Telecommunication industry of Sri Lanka has been dominated by international brands, but local brands are strategically promoting the concept of country of origin (CO) or being local as a motive for citizens to deliberately purchase locally originated brands. In this context researchers viewed this branding practice, and selected 200 respondents from four geographical areas under the stratified probability sampling method to investigate the effect of country of origin in terms of brand performance. Both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis executed by PCA (principal component analysis) factor analysis accompanied with testing two hypotheses revealed that Country of Origin (CO) or promoting as being local had impacted less significantly on brand awareness and recalled power development of telecommunication brands against the competitive foreign brands. However, it has a significant impact on brand recalling power.
Effectiveness of Relationship Marketing Tools on Building Brand Perception: With Reference to Surgery Transplant Products in Sri Lankan Pharmaceutical Industry
(University of Kelaniya, 2014) Geethanga, P.L.P.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the rapidly growing industries in global and even local contexts. Industry practices referring to marketing and business development are found as peculiar in terms of its norms and legal frameworks operate. The “transplant segment” of the medical sector in Sri Lanka too seems to be a competitive segment as per the intensity of investment and competition exist. Having focused to the behavioral significance of this product segment in Sri Lankan context, researchers investigated about how customer relationship practices impact to develop perception and market positioning of the product brands. Researchers used 40 sample units (medical professionals) from different areas where the transplant surgery methods being implemented actively, and empirical data were collected through structured questionnaires. The independent variables were recognized as four variables namely personnel sponsorship, institutional sponsorship, continuous medical educational programs and commitment rewards where brand perception was referred as dependent variable measured through 3 items namely price, quality and packaging were taken as dependent variables driven to perception . As per the four hypotheses tested, it was found that all the relationship marketing practices significantly impact on the brand perception. The contribution of personnel sponsorship and continuous medical educational (CME) programs were found as most effective relationship marketing tools indicating above 0.6 of correlation coefficient at 95% confidence level whereas commitment rewards was also figured as an effective relationship marketing tool at above averaged level.
Effectiveness of Service Delivery Systems of Local Government Authorities to Enhance the Business Growth Potentials of Regional Businesses
(Research Centre for Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2017) Dissanayake, D.M.R.; Norsanina, A.H.
The local government administrative mechanism of Sri Lanka has been set to decentralize the power to respond for the regional service demands of stakeholders including business entities. The growth potential of Sri Lanka could be noticed in both macro and micro scaled enterprises whereas regional business ventures are a critical factor in the national growth phenomenon. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has been recognized as a middle-ranged country in doing business in the global ranking which has referred the existence of set of institutions, policies and factor as the determinants of productivity (The Global Competitiveness Index 2014–2015). Therefore, the local government authorities which include divisional secretariat offices, municipal councils and even other institutions related to provincial councils are strategically important mechanisms to assist regional investors to enhance their business productivity and growth potentials. Accordingly, this concept paper reveals how the service quality-related improvements could enhance the productivity of local authorities as an alternative mechanism to motivate regional investors to broaden business growth opportunities. Accordingly, this paper has followed theoretical models and explanations to conceptualize the integrated content to explain how the level of service quality excellence in the service delivery systems of local government authorities could influence perceived service quality referred to respective business clients/investors. It has proposed the research propositions for the future studies by specially refereeing how the gaps exists amongst business clients or investors towards service quality mechanisms of local government authorities that could influence their perceived service satisfaction to penetrate business growth potentials. Further, it has reviewed the moderating mechanisms that influence the perceived service quality amongst business clients/investors whom served by local government authorities. Finally, paper postulates the strategic directions and policy-related inputs to enhance the strategic service delivery systems for the local government authorities in Sri Lanka aiming to assist regional business developments and growth potentials.
Effectiveness of Service Delivery Systems of Local Government Authorities to Enhance the Growth Potentials of Regional Businesses
(Research Centre for Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Dissanayake, D.M.R.; Norsanina, H.
This paper reveals how the service quality-related improvements could enhance the productivity of local authorities as an alternative mechanism to motivate regional investors to broaden business growth opportunities. Accordingly, this paper has followed theoretical models and explanations to conceptualize the integrated content to explain how the level of service quality excellence in the service delivery systems of local government authorities could influence perceived service quality referred to respective business clients/investors. It has proposed the research propositions for the future studies specially referring to the gaps exists amongst business clients or investors towards service quality mechanisms of local government authorities that could influence their perceived service satisfaction to penetrate business growth potentials. Further, it has revealed the moderating mechanisms that influence the perceived service quality amongst business clients/investors whom served by local government authorities. Finally, paper postulates the strategic directions and policy-related inputs to enhance the strategic service delivery systems for the local government authorities in Sri Lanka aiming to assist regional business developments and growth potentials.
Employer Branding Practices: Case Review on IT Sector Companies in India
(Scientific Research Journal (SCIRJ), 2015) Maitra, R.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.
This paper has been developed as an empirical piece of work referring to the practices of employer branding in India. It has focused on IT sector as the scope of the case reviews and researchers used literature based approach to connect theory into practice. Descriptive statistical tools were used to discuss the responses of employees towards the employer branding practices. It has selected three companies in the IT sector those who have applied employer branding practices as to gain strategic outcome through people value creation. . Both primary and secondary data were used for this case review study. Key findings have been presented in the paper as to contribute for the practice. Study revealed that learning opportunities, challenging working environment flowed by pay structures could facilitate to build string employer brand perception.
Entrepreneurial Celebrity Endorsement and Brand Personality Congruity: A Review on Concepts and Practical Perspectives
(Global Scientific Journals, 2020) Herath, H.M.B.I.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.; Nanayakkara, N.W.O.K.D.S.P.
Celebrity endorsement is a widely used marketing communication and brand building option found in different markets and product scopes. Most of empirical studies are found examining the effectiveness of celebrityendorsement with brand evaluations and brand relationship behaviours. The source credibility of the celebrity endorsement is one of the main bases discussed in this scope. The concept of entrepreneurial celebrityendorsementor celebrity entrepreneurship is a pivotal research priority in line with the practises found in today’s business world. Celebrities involve with business and try to build the brand and performance with own endorsements. But the effectiveness of such endorsements on brand related evaluations and behaviours should be investigated to unveil the rationality. Accordingly, this paperattempts to review the concept of celebrityendorsement whilst special attention is made on celebrity entrepreneurship as the niche of investigation. Authors evaluate the empirical insights whilst cases are appreciated to discuss how such endorsements connect with the brand personality congruity. The main research instrument was literature review and journal articles,while business publications and cases were used to build the discussions. Paper makes an attempt to disclose the hands-on cases to provide learningavenues to further investigate how entrepreneurial celebrities engage with endorsementstowards own businesses and social activities
Factors Determine the Customer-Celebrity Relationship towards Perceived Celebrity Endorsements: Propositions to Hypothesize Future Studies in Sri Lankan Services Sector
(Department of Marketing Management, Faculty of Commerce & Management Studies,University of Kelaniya, 2015) Dissanayake, D.M.R.
This paper has been developed as a conceptual paper by rationalizing the existing literature sources to build arguments on two main concepts namely Perceived Celebrity Endorsement and Customer-Celebrity Relationship. The niche of the study was to develop an argument to hypothesize variable relationships found in those two concepts referring to Sri Lankan services sector. It shows a higher degree of contribution in the practice of Celebrity Endorsements (CE) in the services branding context, but empirical knowledge is lack to investigate how CE works in services sector branding perspectives. Accordingly, research problem has been justified in par with knowledge and practice gap how it has been referred in different studies. Researcher has built the argument based on four research propositions as suggesting to hypothesize the conceptual framework for the future studies to investigate how Consumer-Celebrity Relationship (CCR) is determined by Celebrity Worship Motives that would impact to Perceived Celebrity Endorsement (PCE) subsequently. Further, it has suggested another proposition to test how far “Fantasy” could moderate the said relationship between CCR and PCE. It has concluded a navigation for the research methods to be used in par with suggested propositions given in the paper.