Browsing by Author "Kumari, P.W.N.A."

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Adaptation of e-commerce by Sri Lankan companies
(Research Symposium 2010 - Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2010) Munasinghe, M.A.T.K.; Kumari, P.W.N.A.
Electronic Commerce or E-commerce is the newest trading mechanism activated by means of the internet or other computer networks. This particular trade method is functioned in three forms namely Public relations, Brochuring and Retail. The Retail form represents fully adoption level of e-commerce. E-commerce offers excellent opportunities for growth in developing nations. Hence it is needed to have a better understanding of current adoption levels pertaining to it. To understand the potential for E-commerce and the current state of adoption in Sri Lanka it was supposed to conduct a survey on this particular field. All companies listed in CSE were selected for survey. The study is based on review of websites of each listed companies in Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). CSE has 236 listed companies representing 2business sectors. CSE is one of the top performing markets in Asia with an average annual index growth rate of 27%. The research reveals that 41% of companies fall under the public relations, 27% of companies are brochuring and 17% of companies are retailing. Overall findings conclude that 85% of companies adopt E-commerce in Sri Lanka.
Empirical Investigation of Determinants of Trade Balance in Sri Lanka
(Research Symposium 2009 - Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2009) Pushpakumara, W.P.N.; Kumari, P.W.N.A.
The balance of trade is the difference between the monetary value of exports and imports of output in an economy over a certain period. It is the relationship between a nation’s imports and exports. There was a continuous increasing negative trade balance (TB) in Sri Lanka over the past few decades which adversely affect to the Sri Lankan Economy. Therefore it is high right time to investigate the Macro Economic Variables which are likely to affect the TB as suggested by the literature. Hence, the objective of this paper is to provide some insights on the links between trade balance and a broad set of economic variables proposed by the literature such as Exchange Rates, Gross Domestic Products (GDP), Interest Rate and Inflation Rate. This study was conducted using secondary data extracted from the Central Bank Annual Report, pronouncement of Securities and Exchange Commission in Sri Lanka for the period 1999 to 2008. This paper adopts quantitative approach on secondary date collected from the above sources. Correlation, regression, t test and ANOVA are the statistical techniques used to analyze the data. Stepwise regression was run to find out the best model which describes the variation of the TB. The results of this research shown that, GDP and the Exchange Rate are significant variables in determining the TB and has a negative relationship with trade deficit. Inflation Rate and Interest Rate have a marginal positive relationship with Trade Deficit and are not significant. There were two models which adequately explain the variation of TB, but the model 2 which comprise of GDP and Exchange Rate is the best model selected based on the adjusted R squared technique. This finding is compatible with literature finding in the other counties.
Macroeconomic determinants of stock market return with special reference to the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE)
(Research Symposium 2010 - Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2010) Karunarathne, W.V.A.D.; Ranjani, R.P.C.; Kumari, P.W.N.A.
The linkage between macroeconomic variables and the movement of stock prices for developing countries have been widely discussing topic in research arena. CSE is one of the top performing markets in Asia with an average annual index growth rate of 27% and currently it shows the continuous upward trend. There for this study explores the association between selected macroeconomic variables and sectorial indexes. Since it would be almost impossible to incorporate every potential aspect to explain the stock market behavior we limit our study to the selected monthly macro economic variables such as inflation rate (IR), three months treasury bill rate (TBR) and exchange rate US$ =LKR (ER) for the period of 5 years from 2005 to 200and we select five sectors in CSE as proxy for represent all twenty sectors. Those are Banks Finance and Insurance (BFI), Diversified Holdings (DH), Hotels and Travels (H&T), Telecommunications (Telecom), and Trading. Collected data were analyzed using the SPSS software and Stepwise regression analysis was applied to test for the linkage. Upon testing stepwise regression analysis we show that changes in CSE sectorial indexes do perform a significant relationship with, IR, TBR, and ER. Coefficient of determination (R2) for BFI, DH, H&T, Telecom, and Trading are 60%, 50%, 60%, 68%, and 42% respectively. All the three variables are significant at 1 % level for all the sectors except DH and Trading. Another important finding was ER doesn't make significant influence on the sectorial indexes in DH and Trading. An overall finding concludes that Colombo Stock Exchange is sensitive to changes in the macroeconomic variables. It is hoped that the finding of this study would provide some meaningful insights to the body of knowledge, policy makers as well as the practitioners.
Success of Matale Regional Economic Advancement Project (MREAP) as poverty alleviation project
(University of Kelaniya, 2013) Kumari, P.W.N.A.; Kumarasinghe, P.J.
Working capital management issues faced by SMEs in Sri Lanka
(University of Kelaniya, 2008) Kumari, P.W.N.A.; Karunarathne, W.V.A.D.
Even though having an expanded sector of Small and Medium Enterprises is a basic feature of a healthy economy, the attention paid to their issues especially in developing Countries such as Sri Lanka is inadequate. Instead, researchers have involved in studying issues related to large scale organizations. Enterprises are categorized using several measurements. Some of the quantitative factors used in measuring an enterprise are the value of the equity, tangible assets, healthiness of the balance sheet and number of employees. On the other hand, the most famous qualitative measure has been the ownership and the operating structure. In the world, more than 90% of organizations are SMEs. Central Bank defines the small industry as an establishment having employees less than 2 5 and an investment less than 1 million. Ministry oflndustry classifies it as one whose fixed assets are less than 5 million. National Development Bank (NDB) classifies small enterprises as the enterprises with investment less than RS.2 0 million, excluding land & Buildings. The objective of this study is to identify the Working Capital Management Issues of SMEs, the reason for those issues and how they have affected operations of SMEs. The study interviewed owners and accountants of 12 companies including garments, food manufacturing and furniture manufacturing industries and printing firms. Further, data were collected through administrating a questionnaire. The sample comprising of 12 SMEs was divided into two basic groups based on the number of employees and the value of investments. Out of the total sample 75% firms employed less than 2 0 employees and investment is less than Rs 500,000. Rest of the firms comprise of2 0 to 2 00 employees and investment Rs. 500,000 to Rs 5,000,000. Finally the sample included of 75% of small and 2 5% of medium scale firms. The study finds that the lack of knowledge on working capital is the main problem of SMEs in Sri Lanka. This shows the requirement of organizing awareness programmes on working capital management for SMEs. Thus, it seems that SMEs would be able to improve their financial efficiency if they get their working capital issues solved.