ICBI 2021

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Employee Perceptions of Training and Perceived Firm Benefits in Small and Medium Scale Manufacturing Enterprises in Sri Lanka: A Conceptual Model
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Nandasinghe, G.; Welmilla, I.; Wijewantha, P.
Every firm must deal with training, and the objective is to increase employee competency so that the organization's human resources are as efficient and effective as possible. The major goals of training are to expand, improve, and enhance employees' abilities, skills, capabilities, and knowledge, resulting in higher productivity. There hasn't been any research done on the perception of training in the small and medium enterprises (SME) in Sri Lanka, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Further research found that no one has looked into the reasons for not arranging training and the relationship between training and company benefits in Sri Lankan SME businesses. Therefore, this study focused on the employee perceptions of training and perceived firm benefits in manufacturing sector of SME in Sri Lanka and the SME owner’s perspective on the importance and benefits of training initiatives. To bridge the gap in the literature, this study proposes a conceptual model based on an extensive review of the literature. Hence, a research framework has been propounded to determine the relationships between identified constructs in a future study. This conceptual model provides information regarding an association between employee perception of training and perceived firm benefits of training. Furthermore, the model can be identified the mediation effect of motivation to learn on the relationship between employee perception of training and perceived firm benefits of training. In addition, the conceptual model will serve as additional literature on the employee perception of training and perceived firm benefits of training in the SME sector in Sri Lanka that has not been explored.
Technology Orientation and its Impact on Consumer Brand Equity with Mediating Effect of Innovation and Moderating Effect of Technological Readiness: With Reference to Modern Trade Industry in Colombo, Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Liyanage, O.N.N.; Wanninayake, W.M.C.B.; Wickramasinghe, C.N.
Technology Orientation is a famous concept being practiced by firms to enhance organizational performance, globally. This concept is particularly famous within the modern trade industry. In developed countries like USA, virtually dominant Amazon is competing against physically dominant Walmart using technologies that generates advance data analytics to harness firm performance. However, in Sri Lanka, we are yet to see modern trade organizations using technology orientation, with focus on technologies like advance analytics. The purpose of this investigation will be to discover the reason for not using advance business analytics and associated technologies within the modern trade industry in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This research uses a deductive methodology and reviews literature from the past 25 years. Researcher finds that elements of Technology Orientation like Technological Capability, Managerial Capability, Commitment to Change and Commitment to Learn can potentially impact Consumer Brand Equity through literature review. In addition author believes that elements of innovation such as Innovative Outcomes, Innovative Processes and Innovative Mindsets can mediate the relationship between technology orientation and consumer brand equity while technological readiness can also moderate the possible relationship between Technology Orientation and its impact on Consumer Brand Equity. This proposed model is recommended to test within the modern trade industry within Colombo, Sri Lanka while collecting the data from outlet managers of modern trade organizations. Outcome of this research will help firms formulate there business strategies more meaningfully using advance technologies to harness the strength of Consumer Brand Equity.
Potentials of Promoting Motorhome Tourism among Domestic Tourists in Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Perera, L.A.P.C.; Bopage, Y.W.
Motorhome niche expand worldwide, with collaboration of the tourism industry. Motorhome is a blooming concept in Sri Lanka among eight motorhomes parks around the island, like Wilpattu, Dambulla, Passikudha, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya etc. A motorhome is a type of selfdriving recreational vehicle or rental vehicle (RV) which mainly offers an accommodation facility with home feeling even when traveling. This alternative reflects how to overcome the shortage of accommodation facilities at untouched virgin tourist destinations. In consonant with these scenarios, the study is aimed to identify the level of awareness on the Motorhome Tourism concept among domestic tourists in Sri Lanka and to delineate the potentials to promote Motorhome Tourism among domestic tourists’ in Sri Lanka. The study adopted qualitative research methodology align with snowball sampling method. Population is Domestic tourists in Sri Lanka and 20 domestic tourists from Downsouth and Upcountry Sri Lanka used as the sample. Data collection is done through personal interviews and analyzed using Thematic Analysis with 4 sub themes. The study conclude that, Sri Lanka has a true potential in promoting motorhome tourism at the initial stage by giving them a clear knowledge on what Motorhome tourism is. Majority of the motorhome lovers are couples. Moreover, promotion, motivation and development of infrastructural facilities will help for a better performance. To promote motorhome tourism in Sri Lanka, the relevant governmental bodies need to formulate standard and necessary guidelines for service providers.
The Study of Factors Affecting Textile and Apparel Exports in Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Wijekoon, H.M.S.D.; Pathirana, H.V.P.K.G.; Fernando, H.K.K.; Chandrasekara, N.V.
Sri Lankan textile and apparel industry is an important sector that significantly contributes to the country’s economy. As the largest exporter in Sri Lanka, the industry supplying highquality apparel products to global leading apparel brands for over three decades. This study aims to determine the factors which influence the export performance of the textile and apparel industry in Sri Lanka. Monthly time series data on the textile and apparel industry and exchange rate were gathered for the period of 2014 January to 2020 July from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). The analysis was done by employing a vector error correction model (VECM) and Granger-Causality test. The results of the analysis revealed that both textile imports and exchange rate have a positive significant impact on the textile and apparel exports in Sri Lanka in the short-run while apparel production index and clothing imports did not cause textile and apparel exports in the short-run. However, all explanatory variables including the apparel production index, textile imports, clothing imports, and the exchange rate have a long-run relationship with textile and apparel exports. The findings of this study will contribute to make positive policy changes in the textile and apparel industry and enhance the competitive position of Sri Lanka in the world export market for textile and apparel.
Systematic Literature Review on Social Capital, Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and Social Entrepreneurial Intention: A Bibliometric Analysis
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Sudasinghe, S.U.
In recent years, social entrepreneurship has received an increasing attention from the scholarly academics. Social entrepreneurship is an emerging topic related to diverse fields of economics, business management, sociology, psychology and are always debated with many descriptions, methods, and approaches. This study employs the Science mapping analysis which provides in-depth analyses. The analysis highlights intellectual structure and identifies hot topics. It has also examined co-citation networks of contributing countries, institutions, cited journals, and authors, by using Vosviewer software. Further, researcher used a mechanism established in the literature, the PRISMA method to limit the risk of bias during the article selection phase. Three databases were used by the researcher to find relevant articles: Scopus, Web of Science, and Business Source. The findings show that the publications of social capital and social entrepreneurial intention related topics have evolved exponentially. The major driving force of related topic research is from the USA, European Union and Asian regions. The landscape view identifies main clusters from an overall perspective, while a timeline view delineates the characteristics and evolution of focal clusters. The results include three clusters: Cluster one – “Social entrepreneurship and social efficacy”; Cluster two – “Social capital and Entrepreneurship” and Cluster three – “social capital, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and social entrepreneurial intention”. By studying the citation profile of documents on the social capital, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, this study has contributed to a better understanding of literature on social entrepreneurial intention. However, there were limited investigations done on practice and theatrical background to prove that there is a significant relationship between social capital, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and social entrepreneurial intention.
Effective Use of Retail Store Management System for Small Retail Store
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Gunawardana, W.J.D.Y.; Wedasinghe, N.
Small retail store owners make a huge commitment to the daily running of customer requirements. The retail sector categorized as retail store, moderate store, clean food store, specialty food and non-food store, and unorganized retail store. This research focuses specifically on effectively use of a small retail store management system. Small retailers face numerous key problems and the researchers highlighted that the main reason for the problems they face is lack of use systematic information system. Nevertheless, some retailers use an existing basic computer application and they are fundamental system. Therefore, focuses on effective management information systems to achieve their business objectives become a fashion. Research has conducted with the exploration in subjective and quantitative basis survey. This study, conducted with twelve structured interviews had with retail store owners covering the Sabaragamuwa Province of Sri Lanka. Research reveals that the basic need of the retail owner is to increase profits by maintaining the retail outlets in a systematic manner even at the rural level. Furthermore including system features with retrieval of transaction details, effective stock management reminders about stock for effective management, forecast using artificial intelligence on stock management would be the key features to implement an effective retail store management system.
Can Psychological Capital (PsyCAP) be used as a Moderator in Developing Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) of an Organization? Identification of the Gaps in Literature
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Bandaranayake, I.W.M.; Pushpakumari, M.D.B.
The Psychological Capital (PsyCAP) has been derived from the Positive Psychological Movement of Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi. It is based on the idea that human strengths can be used effectively to benefit at individual level as well at organizational levels. Luthans, and Youssef reasoned those human resources are crucial for the organizational success and suggested it offer the best return on investment for Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) for an organization. The literature show that PsyCAP has widely been used as Mediator and Moderator in research on business Organizations. The mediation and moderation are important concepts and are widely used in Strategic Management research. A systematic literature survey was conducted using the Google Scholar. Two strings, "PsyCAP"+"Moderator” + “Sustainable competitive advantage" and “Psychological Capital as a Moderator” + “sustainable Competitive Advantage” used to collect articles to identify the moderation effect of the PsyCAP in the business research and to assess how it is useful in organizational performance. The literature show that PsyCAP can be used as a moderator in individual, team and organizational levels to improve individual wellbeing and organizational performance
Nexus of Social Capital and Social Psychological Capital on Success of Information Technology Startups: A Systematic Literature Review
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Bethmage, P.
This study aims to explore and analyze the literature, related to social capital and social psychological capital on the success of startups, published in google scholar, Emerald and Taylor & Francis, from 2000 to the present. The objective of this paper is to review reveals by, first, to describe how this field of research is organized in terms of publications, authors, and sources (i.e. documents), and, second, to identify the main references cited and ways in which they are grouped (i.e. clusters). In addition, this paper discusses how this literature presents what has already been studied and the limits of these studies, as well as the research opportunities for this area, can be understood. Total 161 articles were reviewed on a search of the keywords through different databases and followed explicit, rigorous, and transparent methodology, and 67 articles were selected by using the PRISMA method. Based on a database containing 67 publications in the English language, a bibliometric analysis was conducted. The findings show that the publications of social capital and social psychological capital increase exponentially and more focused on quantitative research. The major driving force of research relating to this field is from the USA, EU, and Australia. Keyword occurrence results also provide a framework for the literature on social psychological characteristics, social capital by highlighting the connection with these factors to the success of startup businesses. This study has contributed to a better understanding of the literature on social capital and psychological characteristics to success of startups.
Investment Portfolio and Performance: Evidence from Listed Finance Companies in Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Dulanjalee, B.A.M.; Abeywardhana, D.K.Y.
Portfolio management has become a critical driver of investment performance for an equity fund. This study investigates the relationship between investment portfolio and performance of finance companies in Sri Lanka. This study, therefore, sought to fill this research gap by answering one research problem: Whether there is a relationship between investment portfolio and performance of listed finance companies in Sri Lanka. This study used panel data from 2015 to 2019. The independent variable is investment portfolio and measure using the investment in stock, investment in real estate, investment in bank deposit, and investment in government security as a percentage of total assets. The dependent variable is performance and measure using Return on Assets (ROA). The debt to equity ratio is used as a control variable. Regression analysis is used for investigating the relationship between investment portfolio and performance of listed finance companies in Sri Lanka. Results revealed that investment in stock and investment in real estate has a significant negative relationship with the return on assets while investment in bank deposits and investment in government security has a significant positive relationship with the performance of the listed finance companies in Sri Lanka. It recommends to the management of finance companies to properly manage their stock and real estate investment. The finding of this research will help Sri Lankan listed finance companies to understand the relationship between investment portfolio and performance of the company. Future research can study the relationship between investment portfolio and performance of companies in other sectors.
Psychological Distance and Online Purchasing Intention of Sri Lankan Consumers’ Big Ticket Electronic Procurement: The Mediatory Role of Online Trust and Moderating Role of Perceived Risk
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Srirajakulendra, A.P.I.; Medis, L.A.P.
With the aggressive penetration of the internet, in the 90’s decade many believed that it will spur a super highway for an aggressive growth in e-commerce. However, two decades later ecommerce still struggles to capture more than 10% of the total global retail value. Consumer distrust towards unfamiliar retailers over the cyber channel have created an impediment in the aggressive growth of this sector. As per the construal level theory, this distrust could be partially explained by way of a concept referred to as ‘psychological distance’. This study depicts that pureplay e-tailers who lack a physical store or having a physically distant location altogether, contribute to psychological distance, impaired online trust and reluctance to procure big ticket electronics online in Sri Lanka. In turn, the study sets a strong platform for business managers of local e-tailers to devise economical but effective investment strategies, whereby through manipulating and interchanging the social and tangible dimensions (of psychological distance), it is possible to offset the unfavorable effect caused by physical distance and thus reduce the psychological distance as a whole in comparison to a retailer with prominent physical presence (and favorable psychological distance).
Virtual Reality (VR) for Experiential Marketing in Sri Lankan Hospitality Industry
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Muwandeniya, K.C.B.; Eranda, B.A.N.
The notion of experiential marketing has been accelerated in the recent past since customers are increasingly focusing on emotions and experience more than the functional features of products and services. This phenomenon is mainly evidenced in the hospitality industry and it has been driven by the technological developments. Virtual Reality (VR) is one such technology which can be used for enhancing the customer experience. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine how VR can be used for experiential marketing in hospitality industry in Sri Lanka. This study was conducted using the qualitative research methodology by adopting the phenomenology as the research approach to capture the respondents' experiences regarding VR. Data collection was undertaken using in-depth semi-structured interviews with eight respondents and analysis of data was completed using the generic strategy. As per the findings the experience of using VR is explained under two themes. First VR is seen as an innovative marketing medium and therefore it offers opportunities to attract prospective customers. Second VR provides an immersive user experience. So that, hotels can reach their customers with higher interactions. The motives for implementing VR are identified under four themes namely powerful digital experiential marketing strategy, ability to avoid seasonal factor, adapting to the dynamic business environment, and boost HR effectiveness. Therefore, the findings of this study is significant since this is the first attempt in explaining VR from the perspective of hoteliers and industry professionals which has multiple implications to enrich the hospitality industry in the future.
Factors Affecting to Become Internationally oriented Technopreneurs: A Study on Internationalized Tech-based Fruit and Vegetable SMEs in Puttalam District of Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Fernando, W.M.S.N.; Dasanayaka, S.W.S.B.; Mudalige, D.
In Sri Lanka’s context, tech-value addition for export agricultural produce is bit buzz but highly trending avenue to research on. As a nation, it is quite challenging but emerging trend in present domestic and global business circumstances where individuals keen on commencing internationally oriented agri-business activities with high technology sense. Typical and conventional business activities are improved by technopreneurs through enhancing perceived tech-value for the customers (Jeffery & McMullen, 2006) Therefore, this research study was conducted as to identify the factors effect mostly and their respective contributory values when becoming internationalized technopreneurs with special reference to internationalized techbased fruit and vegetable SMEs. Relevant theories and empirical reviews pertaining to the study was referred in order to grasp available knowledge. Out of 461 Internationalized TSMEs population, a sample of 240 were selected from Puttalam district. Mixed Approach was used to carry out the research where both quantitative and qualitative aspects of study scope was covered. Questionnaire was used as the main source of data collection plus analyzed using SPSS 24.0. A qualitative analysis, regression analysis, correlation analysis plus other PLS analysis were used comprehensively. The research identified that Access to International Markets, Attitudes of the Entrepreneurs, Government Assistance, Technopreneurial Knowledge as key factors affecting on becoming internationally oriented technopreneurs in Puttalam district’s Internationalized Tech-based Fruit and Vegetable Small and Medium Enterprises. In addition, it was identified the technopreneurial knowledge is the most contributing factor hence independent variables of Access to International Markets, Attitudes of Farmers, Government support, technopreneurial knowledge have strong positive relationships with the tendency of becoming an internationalized technopreneur. A wellcoordinated access methods to move towards emerging international markets, essentially the development of concurrent global technopreneurial knowledge and awareness, skills and competencies of technopreneurs will contribute positively to fill the present knowledge gap.
Impact of Social Media Influencers on Consumer Brand Relationship and Online Purchase Intention: A Conceptual Review
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Jayasinghe, D.T.; Wanninayake, W.M.C.B.
Influencer Marketing is relatively a new discipline in marketing that relies on brands to invest in identified influencers to promote branded content for their followers to induce brand awareness, purchase intentions and building long-term relationships. Marketing practitioners are investing a growing share of their advertising budgets on Social Media Influencers (SMIs) to promote their products and services and to increase retention. However, most often than not SMIs are chosen based on numerical indicators and those have been challenged due to their misconduct. Current practices of SMIs challenge the tents of the source-credibility model and limited empirical studies were carried out to signify the impact of SMIs on the consumer-brand relationship (CBR) and conversely on the impact on online purchase intent (OPI). Therefore, this concept paper undertook a deductive approach to critically evaluate the existing literature and propose a new conceptual framework to measure the effectiveness of SMIs. The proposed new conceptual model categorizes SMI attributes into 3 main propositions as source attributes, message attributes and brand attributes. Three variables- brand satisfaction, brand trust and brand personality introduced to gauge the effectiveness of CBR as a mediator between the relationship of SMIs and OPI. The proposed conceptual framework elicits future research opportunities in different industries, products and geographies to be tested empirically.
Romance the Past: Identifying the Impact of Nostalgic Experiences on Revisit Intention of Domestic Tourists (Special Reference to Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka)
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Perera, L.A.P.C.; Dilshani, J.L.S.
Nostalgia is a past memory, a type of dream about the past or past experiences that have direct connection to the present travel decisions. Nostalgic Tourism is a particular type of authentic travel which focuses on a time sufficiently ongoing to be recollected by individuals who are as yet alive today. Tourists seek emotional comfort from a familiar past, so that they are more likely to prefer tourism products that are reminiscent of past moments. Thereby, individuals desire to purchase tourism products that can arouse their feelings of nostalgia, which will eventually lead them to a strong intention for repurchasing the same tourism product in the future. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between nostalgic experiences and revisit intention of domestic tourists with special reference to Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka. The study mainly depends on the primary data that has been collected by through self -administered questionnaires and the convenience sampling method was used as a sampling technique to collect data from the 100 domestic tourists. Quantitative data analytical method was employed in analyzing the data using multiple regression. Findings reflect that nostalgic attributes has the highest impact of revisit intention of tourists Sri Lanka while nostalgic values being the least. Moreover, nostalgic characteristics too play a considerable role in impacting the revisit intention of tourists through nostalgic experiences. Mediating role of nostalgic triggers can be measured in future researches.
Corporate Governance and Financial Statement Frauds: Evidence from Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Rajapaksha, R.A.S.; Wijerathna, A.G.H.S.K.; Muthunayake, H.; Weerawickrama, V.L.
With the increased number of frauds taking place in the corporate world regulators and policymakers around the world have been making attempts avoid or reduce the frauds. Implementation of corporate governance code can be identified as one of the major mechanisms implemented against frauds. However, regardless of the implementation of such mechanisms still the frauds continued to be taking place. Accordingly, an attempt should be made to identify the extent of influence of Corporate Governance Code in the prevention and detection of frauds in the companies. The study was conducted based on 40 listed companies in Colombo Stock Exchange. The occurrence of the financial statement frauds was measured by incorporating Beneish M Score model. Corporate governance has been measured in terms of audit committee, CEO duality and Board Composition. As per the results of this study the corporate governance, board composition and CEO duality does not have a significant impact on the financial statement frauds. However, the results suggest that existence of audit committee has significant impact on the financial statements frauds. The existence of audit committee ensures the effective operation of internal controls which can prevent and detect frauds to a large extent.
A Time Series Analysis to Forecast Monthly Producer Price Indices of Manufacturing Sector and Textile Manufacturing Subcategory of Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Weerakoon, H.L.A.; Jayawardhana, K.J.U.M.; Piyasena, K.N.T.; Hewaarachchi, A.P.
The producer price index (PPI) is a group of indices that represents the average movement in selling prices from domestic production over time. PPI covers major sectors of a country’s economy, and it is used as an objective tool for adjusting prices in long-term purchasing agreements. A selected number of bivariate analyses have been done with consumer price indices. The purpose of this study was to fit a suitable bivariate time series model to forecast the manufacturing PPI of Sri Lanka using the PPIs of the textile subcategory with the use of 81 observations from January 2014 to September 2020. The preliminary analysis identified a strong positive correlation of 0.9127 among the series. Further, ensuring stationarity with differencing (I(2)) and analyzing the cross-correlation plots of the prewhitened time series, a vector auto regression of order 8 model was fitted with lag selection based on minimum Akaike– information criterion (AIC). The model indicated significant coefficients with an Rsquared value of 0.6837, claiming that almost 68% of the manufacturing PPI can be forecasted with past values of textile manufacturing PPI adhering to assumptions of residual diagnostics except for the normality. The results of the Granger causality test revealed one-sided causality among the two original series but the VAR (8) model failed to indicate causality among the two I(2) series. Further, the presence of cointegration confirmed with the Johansen cointegration test revealed long-run equilibrium. Hence a vector error correction model (VECM) was fitted which adhered to assumptions of model residuals including serial correlation, heteroscedasticity, and normality.
Identification of the Factor Structure Affecting Work from Home during COVID-19 Outbreak in Sri Lankan Context
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Liyanage, P.M.T.S.K.; Ekanayake, E.A.
Organizations have been paying more attention to offer their employees the option to work from home for years due to various reasons and working from home alternative has gained importance during COVID-19 pandemic as many countries apply physical distancing. Thus globally it become the only alternative for many organizations. With emergence of new waves of COVID-19, Sri Lankan government also issued several circulars on work from home for government employees. As productivity of the employees is one of the most crucial business factors for organizations, it is important to find out what are the factors affecting work from home in order to deliver the maximum outcome from the employees. This study aimed to identify the hidden factors affecting work from home in Sri Lankan context. Convenient sampling method was used to collect data during October 2020 to March 2021 using a questionnaire in a google form. Principal component analysis was used as the extraction method in factor analysis and Varimax was used as the rotation method. The results revealed that there are four main hidden factors affecting the work from home namely, social factors, organizational factors, technical factors and personal factors. As this is relatively a new concept especially for the government sector of Sri Lanka, the results of the study give insights and directions on the aspects like resource allocation and preparation of mindsets of employees for work from home. In general these results can be used to increase the overall productivity of work from home conditions.
Impact of Export Diversification on Economic Growth: Evidence from Developing Countries of Asian Region
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) De Silva, M.R.V.; Perera, L.A.S.; Hewage, J.K.
Export-led growth strategy has become a major concern of economic policymakers of developing countries to achieve their economic growth objectives. In this respect, the effect of export diversification has a major role to play in achieving higher and sustainable economic growth. The main focus of this study is to understand the impact of export diversification on the economic growth in developing countries of the Asian region and to identify the most suitable export strategy to achieve higher economic growth. The export herfindahl concentration index is the main variable used in this study as a proxy to measure the effect of export diversification and concentration on economic growth. The Study has employed the GMM panel estimation method to analyze the data of 33 developing countries in the Asian region from 1995 to 2019 at an annual frequency. The study has found a negative and significant relationship between the export herfindahl concentration index (H) and the GDPPC growth of the selected developing countries, which implies that there is a positive impact of export diversification on economic growth. In light of the findings it can conclude that export diversification may lead to higher and sustainable economic growth in developing countries of the Asian region.
Factors Influencing the Financial Performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in North Central Province in Sri Lanka During the COVID-19
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Wijekoon, W.N.M.D.P.; Kumari, J.S.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are critical to the development of the Sri Lankan economy. Problems arising from product and factor markets, as well as the regulatory system in which they operate, limit the growth and expansion of SMEs. Extant literature indicated that factors both internal and external have a significant impact on the success or failure of SMEs. As a result, during the COVID-19, this research study was carried out to investigate the factors influencing the firm performance of SMEs in North Central Province, Sri Lanka. This study has used access to finance, availability of experience and skills, access to infrastructure, availability of technology, and education to measure the factors and financial performance was measured using business sales, financial liquidity, business profitability, and revenue of the organization. In the year 2021, a sample of 100 SMEs was chosen, and primary data were collected using a structured questionnaire. To achieve research objectives, the researcher devised five hypotheses, which were tested using multiple regression analysis. According to the study's findings, access to finance, availability of experience and skills, access to infrastructure, availability of technology, and education all have a significant positive relationship with SMEs' financial performance. According to the findings of the study, all selected factors have a strong positive relationship with the financial performance of SMEs. The researcher suggests that the government of Sri Lanka improve strategies to overcome the constraints of SMEs to achieve economic development.
A Systematic Literature Review on Social Media Acceptance and Adoption by the SMEs in Tourism Industry
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Herath, H.M.B.I.; Razi, M.J.M.
The emergence of social media has led to a change in how entrepreneurs execute their routine operations. Studies on social media and entrepreneurship are extremely new and dispersed in their focus, however there is growing interest from academia and practitioners in this space for greater research and analysis. This paper does a thorough overview of studies in the field of social media and SMEs in Tourism. To discover important theories used in the domain, a total of 75 papers published between 2010 and 2020 were synthesized based on the setup inclusive and exclusive criteria and those have been screened through a scientific refinement procedure (PRISMA model) into 20 potential articles for this study. The scope of study, an integrated framework was constructed to investigate the antecedents of social media acceptance by tourism lodging sector SMEs in Sri Lanka. The majority of papers glanced into the factors that influence social media adoption by entrepreneurs had gone beyond the marketing drive. In the tourism industry, Social media, playing a considerable portion of the field of internet tourism , plays a significant role in search engine travel planning, social media incorporates a range of websites allowing customers, ranging from publishing stories, opinions, and photos and movie clips, to share their experiences. But in most of the studies, social media acceptance and adoption are common axioms that have been used by the researchers with some conspiracy in theory conceptualization. The literature analysis and framework contribute to a better understanding of social media acceptance behavior in tourism industry. This lays the groundwork for future study and imparting practice in the field of the Tourism lodging industry in Sri Lanka.