Finance

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    Examining the adoption of technology-enhanced learning in universities and its effects on student performance, satisfaction, and motivation
    (2024) Yan, Liang; Chen, Shujie; Abeysekera, Ruwan; O’Sullivan, Helen; Bray, Jeff; Keevill-Savage, Izzy
    The integration of technology in Higher Education has witnessed substantial growth in recent years. While extensive research has explored the collective educational implications of Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) at universities, there remains an incomplete understanding of its effects on individual students when viewed through the lens of Person-Environment misfit theory and technostress. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining the impact of student and university misfit when adopting TEL and technostress on students' performance, satisfaction, and motivation. Utilizing a quantitative survey, we gathered data from a sample of 332 Higher Education students in the UK. The results reveal the significant influence of student and university misfit in adopting TEL on academic performance, satisfaction, and motivation. Moreover, the findings highlight the mediating role of technostress in these intricate relationships. Our research indicates that technostress stems not from the use of technology itself but from the misfit between students and the university learning environment. To address this, universities should enhance students' sense of belonging by offering additional pastoral and academic support. Moreover, providing training to boost students' digital confidence and skills is crucial. Creating a psychologically healthy technology-enhanced learning environment will ensure a more pleasant learning experience, alleviating student technostress.
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    The Effectiveness of Microfinance Services on Poverty Alleviation: Comparative Analysis of Anuradhapura District and Colombo District in Sri Lanka
    (Department of Finance, University of Kelaniya, 2023) Kannangara, N.; Liyanage, C.
    Purpose: The purpose of the study is to determine the effectiveness of microfinance services on household income to alleviate poverty in both rural and urban areas of Sri Lanka, and which area has successfully used microfinance services to alleviate poverty. Design/Methodology/Approach: The researcher chose Anuradhapura as the rural area and Colombo as the urban area to conduct the study. In this regard, data was collected from 280 microfinance beneficiaries in the Anuradhapura and Colombo districts using a survey questionnaire. Microfinance services such as micro-credit and micro-entrepreneurship training were employed as the independent variables in this study, with poverty alleviation as the dependent variable. Simple random sampling was used to collect the data then were analyzed using SPSS software. Findings: According to the study's findings, both entrepreneurship training and micro-credit have a statistically significant positive relationship with poverty alleviation in both districts. According to the regression results, entrepreneurship training is more effective in reducing poverty in the Colombo district, but microcredit is more beneficial in the Anuradhapura area. Conclusion: The findings highlighted that microfinance services are more effective in alleviating poverty in urban and rural areas of Sri Lanka. Further, micro-credit services were more effective in urban (Colombo) areas than in rural (Anuradhapura) areas in Sri Lanka. However, the micro-entrepreneurship trainings were more effective in rural areas than in urban areas in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the researcher suggests that microfinance services should be promoted to alleviate poverty in Sri Lanka while more micro-credit services to urban areas and more micro-entrepreneurship training to rural areas.
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    Assessing the Applicability of Uncovered Interest Parity in the South Asian Frontier Financial Markets
    (Department of Finance, University of Kelaniya, 2023) De Silva, W.A.M.; Weerasinghe, W.D.J.D.
    Purpose: The purpose of this research is to establish whether, the Uncovered Interest Parity (UIP) condition exists in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, categorized as the South Asian frontier financial markets. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research uses the deductive approach. The data was collected from International Monetary Fund Statistics. The data set used consists of monthly data from March 2010 to April 2020. Interest rate differential was employed as the independent variable in this study, with the foreign currency exchange rate differential as the dependent variable. The researcher used the Cointegration model and the Vector Error Correction Model to analyze the data to measure the long-term and short-term impact respectively. Findings: It was found that, interest rate differential had a statistically insignificant negative relationship with the exchange rate differential in all three countries both in the short and long run. The overall test results show that the rejection of UIP hypothesis within the given time frame in South Asian frontier financial markets confirming the previous findings relating to practical situation of UIP condition. Originality: This article reviews the rejection of UIP condition in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, categorized as the South Asian frontier financial markets. In a single paper it provides both short-term and long-term rejection of UIP. The rejection of the UIP condition implies that there is a possibility for an arbitrage opportunity. Future Direction: The future research can assess the applicability of UIP for a larger sample and different data analysis techniques such as Generalized Method of Moment.
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    The impact of access to finance on firm performance: evidence from microenterprises of sri lanka
    (Faculty of Management Studies & Commerce, University of Jaffna, 2023) Liyanage, M.L.D.C.J.; Morais, S.N.,; Abeysinghe, S.; Wickramasinghe, C.N.
    Lack of access to finance constantly emerges as one of the most imperative and robust underlying factors restricting firm growth and performance. Even though there were many literatures found on global scale there is very limited research conduct in Sri Lankan context, especially on the microenterprise’s perspective. Therefore, the main purpose of this study to fulfill this gap and investigate the role of access to finance on the performance of microenterprises in Sri Lanka. The study followed positivism philosophy and a deductive approach. As survey strategy was chosen, a structured questionnaire was used as the data collection tool from a sample of 385 Sri Lankan microentrepreneurs. The author has developed hypothesis and test them using the SPSS software. The findings indicate that increased access to finance has positive effects on the growth of profit, sales, and asset base of the micro enterprises. However, its impact of access to finance on employment generation was weak. Further, the study confirms the assumption that employment generation within microenterprise sector is persistently low. This study contributed to the local body of literature by analyzing the different employment groups of microenterprises and their relationship to access to finance in Sri Lankan context.
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    Financial literacy and its determinants: a case of professionals in colombo district sri lanka
    (Faculty of Management Studies & Commerce, University of Jaffna, 2023) Madhushani, P. W. G.; Rajapakse, R. P. C. R.
    This observation intends to examine the financial literacy level of professionals working in the professions of Medicine (Doctors), Engineering (Engineers), Management (Managers), Law (Lawyers) inclusive Aviation and Navigation (Captains and Pilots), and its determinants. The methodology was a quantitative survey approach involving a sample of 300 respondents from the Colombo district. The analysis revealed that Basic and Advanced financial literacy among professionals is at a medium level. However, the level of financial literacy was not at a satisfactory level among non-management professionals, particularly doctors and lawyers. The results of the Regression analysis revealed that Economic and financial education, self-analytical skills, the field of employment, and monthly income level as influential determinants of financial literacy. The professions with less exposure to economic and financial education have low financial literacy. Findings demonstrate the growing importance of implementing a national strategy to improve financial and economic educational programmes, particularly for individuals who are not working in the professions related to management.
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    The Impact of Product Diversification and Insurance Activity to Insurance Industry Performance: Moderating Effect of Insurance Penetration: Evidence from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka
    (Department of Finance, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2024) Rathnasiri, S.M.H.G.; Buddhika, H.J.R.
    Purpose: The research focused on the insurance industry performance of India, Pakistan & Sri Lanka were supposed to find the impact of product diversification and Insurance activity towards industry performance measured by ROE. Further insurance penetration is considered a moderating variable and objectives same as mentioned above. Product diversification and Insurance activity are key indicators of the insurance industry and insurance penetration is a key indicator of country performance measurement. Methodology: This quantitative study considered countries of Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan in the South Asian Region and considered the period data from 2012 -2022. The highest developed first three countries were considered for evaluation purposes and diversified (companies operating in both Life & General) insurance companies from each country. Findings: Both product diversification and insurance activity exhibit negative correlations with insurance industry performance, indicating that increasing either factor may result in lower financial performance for insurers in these countries. Furthermore, insurance penetration significantly moderates the relationship between product diversification and insurance industry performance. The three hypotheses formulated and stated that impact is negative for product diversification and insurance activity. Further stated that insurance penetration moderated the insurance industry's performance. Conclusion: The findings underscore the importance of prudent strategic planning and management for diversified insurance companies in India, Pakistan & Sri Lanka. Diversified insurance firms are advised to carefully weigh the trade-offs between diversification and profitability. While diversification can mitigate risk, it may also lead to diminishing the returns in long run.
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    The impact of digital financial inclusion on banking sector stability: evidence from developing countries
    (Department of Banking & Finance Wayamba University of Sri Lanka, 2024) Fernando, J.M.R.; Disanayaka, K.
    The research explores the transformative impact of Digital Financial Inclusion on banking sector stability in developing countries, where advanced technologies reshape financial services. With a focus on FinTech, E-wallets, and digital transactions, the study addresses a critical gap in the existing literature by examining the impact of digital Financial Inclusion indicators, such as ATMs and mobile money accounts, on developing countries banking stability. This study contributes valuable knowledge to policymakers and financial professionals in a rapidly evolving digital era. Employing data from 36 developing nations and covering the period of 2011 to 2017, the research establishes a link between digital Financial Inclusion and enhanced banking stability. Z-score is used to measure financial stability, and ATMs and mobile money accounts are used to measure digital financial inclusion, covering the outreach and usage metrics. Macroeconomic variables like gross domestic product and inflation are included to capture broader economic influences on banking stability. A panel regression was used to analyse the data. The study found that digital Financial Inclusion proxies significantly impact the banking sector's stability. The attention for enhancing digital financial services in improving and maintaining the banking sector stability is reconfirmed from this study based on a larger data set of developing countries.
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    Dynamics of carbon risk, cost of debt and leverage adjustments
    (Elsevier Ltd., 2024) Cumming, Douglas; Duppati, Geeta; Fernando, Ruwani; Singh, Shivendu Pratap; Tiwari, Aviral Kumar
    We evaluate the effects of carbon risk on the speed at which corporations adjust their leverage for the period 2006–2020. Primarily we address the question: Does national carbon risk impact firmlevel speed of adjustment (SOA)? To address the main question, our study further classifies the companies in the sample based on borrowing costs and carbon risk. By doing so, we report on how borrowing costs may influence the company’s conduct. Our research focuses on the energy sector, which is an important sector for emitting carbon. Our study uses physical climate risk changes as a proxy for carbon risk, and the second proxy for carbon risk is obtained by scaling the country’s carbon emissions to the company level. We find that the carbon risk is positively related to the speed of adjustment; specifically, the firms with low cost of borrowing show a faster speed of adjustment toward the target than those whose cost of borrowing is higher. However, businesses with high (low) expenses and high carbon risk do not see a reason to change their leverage. In addition, we also examine the interaction effects of earnings yield, transaction contract cost, enforcement cost on carbon risk, and the speed of leverage adjustment. Our results confirm that the effects of transaction contract costs and enforcement costs are significant. The post-Paris Agreement period reveals a strong positive relationship between carbon risk and leverage SOA.
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    The Nexus between Co-production and Willingness: Business Counselling in the Microfinance Sector
    (2020) Abeysekera, Ruwan
    Microfinance plays a vital role to alleviate poverty through the development of micro enterprises. Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) provide services such as micro credit, savings, insurance, and business development services (BDS) to its clients. BDS are non-financial services such as business training, market linkages, and information services which are provided by Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) to its clients. BDS help owner managers improve sales and profits and enable MFIs to achieve higher loan repayment rates and higher potential for client retention. The counsellors of MFIs provide BDS to owner managers of micro enterprises. This study focuses on the co-production of BDS where a counsellor of MFI and the owner manager of a microenterprise engage in the co-production of services. For a successful co-production, the client (i.e. owner manager in this study) has to a play an active role by exercising three client factors, namely ability, clarity of the role, and motivation. Thus, the objective of this study is to explore how the client/owner manager motivation (i.e. willingness) affects the co-production of BDS in counselling within a microfinance setting. A multiple case study method was used to conduct the present study by choosing six Sri Lankan MFIs as cases, where the selection of cases and respondents was based on a purposive sampling method. A counsellor and an owner manager representing each MFI were interviewed for data collection and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings show that economic factors, sanctions, and contextual factors influence the willingness of owner managers to co-produce BDS with counsellors of microfinance institutions (MFIs). The findings contribute to knowledge and practice domains related to microfinance.
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    Trainer expertise in business training: evidence from the sri lankan microfinance institutions
    (2020) Abeysekera, Ruwan
    Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) provide business training to its clients in order to improve their knowledge and skills so that they can manage their businesses effectively and efficiently. MFIs can also experience better loan repayment rates due to the provision of business training. Thus, business training is important to both MFIs and clients. To deliver business training successfully, the expertise of the trainers matters significantly. Hence, the objectives of this study are to define the expertise, to identify how expertise could help clients in their business ventures, and to identify strategies used by trainers to transfer their expertise. The case study method was used to carry out this study and six Sri Lankan MFIs were used as cases. One manager, one trainer, and one owner manager/client from each MFI were selected for interviews and hence, 18 in depth interviews were conducted to gather data. The findings reveal that the trainers’ expertise consists of business knowledge and experiential knowledge. Trainers use business knowledge to provide subject knowledge such as financial literacy and business plan preparation. Experiential knowledge is used to create networking opportunities and to provide subject knowledge as well. Further, the trainers use strategies such as interactive training and communication to transfer the expertise. The findings of this study would be useful to microfinance practitioners, policy makers, and it further contributes to the knowledge domain of microfinance.