Browsing by Author "Munasinghe, A."

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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.
Cross-sectional study to assess risk factorsfor leishmaniasis in an endemic region in Sri Lanka
(American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2013) Ranasinghe, S.; Wickremasinghe, R*.; Munasinghe, A.; Hulangamuwa, S.; Sivanantharajah, S.; Seneviratne, K.; Bandara, S.; Athauda, I.; Navaratne, C.; Silva, O.; Wackwella, H.; Matlashewski, G.; Wickremasinghe, R.
Sri Lanka reports significantly more cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) cases than visceral leishmaniasis (VL) cases, both of which are caused by Leishmania donovani MON-37. A cross-sectional study conducted in an area with a high prevalence of CL prevalent included 954 participants of an estimated population of 61,674 to estimate the number of CL cases, ascertain whether there is a pool of asymptomatic VL cases, and identify risk factors for transmission. A total of 31 cases of CL were identified, of whom 21 were previously diagnosed and 10 were new cases. Using rK39 rapid diagnostic test to detect antibodies against Leishmania spp., we found that only one person was seropositive but did not have clinical symptoms of CL or VL, which indicated low transmission of VL in this area. χ(2) test, independent sample t-test, and multivariate analysis of socio demographic and spatial distribution of environmental risk factors showed that living near paddy fields is associated with increased risk for transmission of CL (P ≤ 0.01).
Diagnosing human cutaneous leishmaniasis using fluorescence in situ hybridization
(Taylor & Francis Publishing, 2021) Kaluarachchi, T.J.; Wickremasinghe, R.; Weerasekera, M.; Yasawardene, S.; McBain, A.J.; Yapa, B.; de Silva, H.; Menike, C.; Jayathilake, S.; Munasinghe, A.; Wickremasinghe, R.; Ranasinghe, S.
ABSTRACT: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic in Sri Lanka. Giemsa-stained slit-skin-smears (SSS-Giemsa) and histology are routinely used in diagnosis with a sensitivity of 40-70%. PCR currently has limited accessibility. Therefore, we assessed the sensitivity and specificity of a previously described fluorescence in situ hybridization assay, on skin smears and biopsy samples to overcome the limitations encountered with routine diagnostic methods.Samples from a total of 123 suspected CL patients were collected and subjected to SSS-Giemsa, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) on slit skin smears (SSS-FISH), formalin-fixed-paraffin-embedded-tissues stained with Hematoxylin & Eosin staining (FFPE-H&E) and FISH on formalin-fixed-paraffin-embedded-tissues (FFPE-FISH). Negative controls of 61 patient samples were collected from a CL non-endemic area and subjected to the same procedures. The gold standard PCR was used as a comparator. For FISH, two previously described cyanine 3 tagged Leihsmania genus-specific probes were used.Compared to PCR, SSS-Giemsa, SSS-FISH, FFPE-H&E, and FFPE-FISH had sensitivities of 76.5%, 79.1%, 50.4% and 80.9%, respectively. Routine diagnostic tests (SSS-Giemsa and FFPE-H&E) had a specificity of 100%. SSS-FISH and FFPE-FISH had specificities of 96.7% and 93.4%, respectively. FFPE-FISH had a statistically significant higher diagnostic performance than FFPE-H&E (p < 0.001). The relative performance of SSS-Giemsa, SSS-FISH and FFPE-FISH was similar (p > 0.05 for all comparisons).We conclude that FFPE-FISH is a more accurate diagnostic tool than FFPE-H&E. SSS-FISH did not have an additional advantage over SSS-Giemsa in diagnosis. However, SSS-FISH could be recommended as a minimally invasive method in studies assessing wound healing where immunological probes are used. KEYWORDS: Cutaneous leishmaniasis; Sri Lanka; fluorescence in situ hybridization.
Impact of Brand Trust on Brand Evangelism Behaviour: A Study on Cable Brands in Sri Lanka
(Sri Lanka Journal of Marketing, 2018) Munasinghe, A.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.
Industrial sector organizations require some specific focus when developing brands to their institutional and domestic customer segments. Brand trust plays a significant role when it comes to establishing strong brand relationships with consumers. This paper mainly focuses to empirical gaps and practice issues found within the cable brands in Sri Lanka to identify the major research questions and the purposes. Alongside, impact of brand trust on brand evangelism was examined addressing to the empirical justifications and practice gaps found in Sri Lankan cable market. Stratified cluster sampling method was employed and 225 questionnaires were distributed amongst end-users of B2C market. Accordingly, quantitative method was occupied with a questionnaire to execute the survey investigating how brand trust influences three sub divisions of brand evangelism. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested via Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) supported by a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) produced with AMOS-23 software version. Results proved brand trust results purchase intention and positive referrals on cable brands whilst the impact of brand trust on spreading negative referrals on competitive brands was not proved. Paper highlights the managerial implications based on the key findings and future research directions were proposed accordingly.
Impact of Brand Trust on Brand Evangelism Behaviour: A Study on Cable Brands in Sri Lanka
(Department of Marketing Management, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2018) Munasinghe, A.; Dissanayake, D. M. R.
Industrial sector organizations require some specific focus when developing brands to their institutional and domestic customer segments. Brand trust plays a significant role when it comes to establishing strong brand relationships with consumers. This paper mainly focuses to empirical gaps and practice issues found within the cable brands in Sri Lanka to identify the major research questions and the purposes. Alongside, impact of brand trust on brand evangelism was examined addressing to the empirical justifications and practice gaps found in Sri Lankan cable market. Stratified cluster sampling method was employed and 225 questionnaires were distributed amongst end-users of B2C market. Accordingly, quantitative method was occupied with a questionnaire to execute the survey investigating how brand trust influences three sub divisions of brand evangelism. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested via Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) supported by a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) produced with AMOS-23 software version. Results proved brand trust results purchase intention and positive referrals on cable brands whilst the impact of brand trust on spreading negative referrals on competitive brands was not proved. Paper highlights the managerial implications based on the key findings and future research directions were proposed accordingly.
Relationship between Perceived Brand Equity and Purchase Intention of Life Insurance Brands in Sri Lanka: A Concept Paper
(2016) Gunawardane, N.; Munasinghe, A.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.
Sri Lanka is referred as a service driven economy as it denotes in the structural dynamics noticed in the economy. Accorodgly, insurance business has also been evolving with different structural and market dynamics that influence wider impact to the economy. Moreover, a subset of insurance market, life insurance business in Sri Lanka, exhibits more competitive moves as per the marketing and consumer behavioral perspectives. Industry practices of the life insurance sector highlight many brand building initiatives aiming at stimulating favorable responses of consumers to sign competitive edges. Meanwhile, the notion of brand equity and purchase intention have been referred in many empirical studies to examine the relationship between brand related marketing stimulus and behavioral responses of consumers towards them. Alongside, this study intends to review those concepts and suggest research propositions with reference to the context of life insurance business of Sri Lanka. We followed a deductive approach, and comprehensive literature review on empirical studies was carried out as the main research tool to build arguments supporting to suggested propositions. Paper concluded by denoting directions for the future studies in line with the notions of brand equity and brand related behaviors addressing to empirical research gaps in Sri Lanka.
Strategic Synergy of Post-Acquisition: A Case Story on ACL Cables PLC vs Kelani Cables PLC & Key Insights of Brand Positioning of “Kelani Brand”
(Department of Marketing Management, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Dissanayake, D. M. R.; Munasinghe, A.
Strategic acquisition and merges are quite challenging and risky decision in the business world. The strategic decision made by ACL Cables PLC (hereafter refers as ACL), the then market leader of cable manufacturing and marketing industry of Sri Lanka, acquired Kelani Cables PLC (hereafter refers as KCL or Kelani as required in the explanations) in the year 1999. However, both companies catered to the same market segments adopting different marketing strategies whilst strategic decisions were carefully managed by its senior management to find synergy between the value chain operations of two companies. However, by the time this case study is being written in 2017, KCL was able to mark its strategic position in the market with high-flying performances as a brand compared to the position of ACL had been. Presently, both brands are positioned in B2B and B2C scopes delivering customer expectations with differentiated value propositions. Authors followed case story style to organize and present this case study by focusing to strategic management as the main foundations of case explanations. Authors did comprehensive discussions with the present ownership and senior management of both companies whilst related publications of ACL and KCL were used to verify the information. Some of the empirical publications done on cable market of Sri Lanka were also associated to support the contents. Accordingly, this case study narrates the case story of the acquisition decision of ACL Cables PLC including the main highlights of the incident. Alongside, this case study presents the history of KCL, main incidents and millstones of both companies, implementation of acquisition decision and the post- acquisition scenarios of both companies. Then, the core of the case study is to explain the strategic model and decisions implemented by the senior management of ACL and KCL to strategize the synergy effects of value chain operations of both companies. The operational insights of such strategic model need to be investigated to learn the managerial insights for practitioners. Thus, the case study unveils key operational aspects brought into implementation phase with related information sources. Finally, authors concluded the main learning directions of the content whilst key insights of the case study were also summarized within the scope of strategic synergies.
Sustainability certification as marketisation: Rainforest Alliance in the Sri Lankan tea production industry
(Accounting Forum, 2021) Munasinghe, A.; Cuckston, T.; Rowbottom, N.
Unsustainable production is a root cause of numerous social and ecological problems. Whilst sustainability certifications face criticism for exacerbating greenwashing, comparative studies have identified improvements in social and ecological outcomes on certified farms. In this paper, we investigate the process by which a sustainability certification can enable a production industry to move beyond mere greenwashing. We conceptualise sustainability certification as a process of marketisation, organising economic activities within a production industry in ways that can enable new forms of thought and action. To examine this marketisation process, we study the case of Rainforest Alliance certification in the Sri Lankan tea production industry. We draw on an extensive six-month period of fieldwork, involving 74 semi-structured interviews with people working across the industry. We find that accounting devices deployed in this marketisation process create new visibilities within the industry to distinguish sustainability-certified tea as a marketable economic good, to equip producers to become economic agents capable of participating in markets for sustainability-certified tea, and to construct an economic exchange connecting supplies from certified tea estates with demands from ethically minded consumers. Our findings contribute to research on accounting for sustainable development, shedding light on the process by which, despite ongoing concerns regarding greenwashing, sustainability certifications can bring about positive impacts on social and ecological outcomes.