Commerce and Financial Management

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/215

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 101

Effective Website to Provide Total Customer Satisfaction: An Empirical Study on the public Quoted Companies in Sri Lanka
(2005) Wickramasinghe, C.N.; Thanthiriwatta, D.N.
The rapid development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) along with the globalisation forced the firms to become online business seekers. Late 1990s Online businesses were opening up in each and every corner around the world. All the business activities, logistics, processing, selling and even payments were completed online. The study has identified that the recent trend in the online business in today’s business world is to search online and purchase offline. Hence website is the one that locks in the customer. An effective website should provide information what the customer is looking for, to give total customer satisfaction. This paper was conducted to fill the void in the research area on the online presence of public quoted companies in Sri Lanka. It was revealed that as Fortune 500s’ websites, majority of Sri Lankan company websites also are informational but the quality of way in which the content provided by them is questionable.
Women in management: Public and private sectors as sites of advancement in Sri Lanka
(Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, 2006) Jayathilaka, L.
Understanding venture idea newness, relatedness and change among nascent and young entrepreneurs
(Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, 2008) Semasinghe, D.M.; Davidsson, P.
The entrepreneurial process involves all the functions, activities, and actions associated with the perception of opportunities and the creation of the organizations to pursue these opportunities (cf. Key, Foo and Lim, 2002). Shane and Venkataraman (2000) introduced entrepreneurship as a nexus between the opportunity and entrepreneurial individuals. Thus, opportunities are an important part and central to the entrepreneurial process. Following Davidsson (2003) we here use the concept ”venture idea” rather than ”opportunities”. Venture ideas are ideas for new products or services or bundles; introducing new price/value relations; imitative entry and entering new markets (Davidsson, 2003). This implies that venture ideas are the core ideas of an entrepreneur about what to sell, how to sell, whom to sell and how an entrepreneur acquire or produce the product or service which he/she sells. Timmons (1994) states that the finding a good idea is the first step in the task of converting an entrepreneur’s creativity in to an opportunity. Explaining the development of venture ideas or - as they are often called - ’opportunities’ is regarded as a key research goal in entrepreneurship (Davidsson, Hunter and Klofsten, 2006). For example, since the ideas have differentiating effects on the discovery and exploitation processes as well as on profitability and potential market impact the identifying and selecting the right venture ideas for new businesses are among the most important abilities of a successful entrepreneur (Ardichvili, Cardozo and Ray, 2003) Even though the opportunity, its recognition and exploitation have been extensively discussed and researched among researchers around the world (Bhave, 1994; Casson, 1982; Davidsson, 2003; Kirzner, 1973; Sarsvathy, Dew, Ramakrishna & Venkataraman, 2003; Shane, 2000; Shane & Venkataraman, 2000; Venkataraman,1997) there is a scarcity of research carried out on the characteristics of those opportunities and how such charac- teristics affect, e.g., firm performance , growth or survival. The importance of investigating such questions is exemplified by Samuelsson (2004), who found that the gestation process and its determinants were vastly different for innovative vs. imitative ventures. In this research we investigate how three aspects of venture ideas affect the pace at which progress is made in the venture creation process. Bhave (1994) argues that the venture creation process is more complex or difficult for novel business ideas. For this reason we assess and estimate the effects of four aspects of newness: the procuct/service itself; the method for promotion and selling; the methods for producing or sourcing, and newness in terms what markets or customers are served or targeted. Shane (2000) demonstrated that prior knowledge of the founders is an important factor in venture development. Similarly, Sarasvathy’s (2001) Effectuation Theory proposes a high degree of relatedness with founders’ knowledge and means. Hence, we assess and estimate the effects of the degree of alignment of the venture ideas with the prior knowledge and skills of the founders as well as with the financial, physical and other resources they had access to. Further, since entrepreneurs operate in an environment of heterogeneous and uncertain, they have to change their original business ideas time to time (Davidsson, Hunter, Klofsten, 2006). Presumably, changes of the venture idea could either facilitate or complicate the gestation process. In order to explore this we also assess and estimate the effect of the extent of change of the business idea that have been made. We investigate this for the same four aspects as for which we assess newness.
Venture idea newness, relatedness and performance in nascent ventures
(Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, 2009) Semasinghe, D.M.; Davidsson, P.
The study of venture idea characteristics and their contextual fit are key research goals in entrepreneurship (Davidsson, 2004). In line with this, the present study investigated the importance of newness and relatedness in the venture idea on the venture creation process among nascent entrepreneurs. Progress in the venturing process is examined in terms of the pace of progress measured by the completion of gestation activities. Study hypothesized that venture idea newness slows down the venturing process and relatedness facilitates the venturing process. Results of 727 nascent entrepreneurs in Australia indicated that there is no support for the hypothesis that relatedness assists the gestation progress. Newness in terms of product/service is significant but, on the contrary to the expectation, has a positive impact on the venture creation progress.
Revolution of digital communication and Asian competitive creativity chasm
(2009) Wickramasinghe, C.N.; Ahmad, N.
This study aims to identify changes that have taken place in the Asian technological creativity after the post-communication revolution of digital technologies. After examining the utility patent applications forwarded to the US Patent Office by 24 Asian countries between 1965 to 2007, the study partially supports the claim that the “digital communication revolution have influenced the competitive creativity development in Asia.” However, the development growth model is shaped like a snail shell, and digital technologies have not been the silver bullet that promoted the leapfrogging of creativity in stagnating countries. Information and communication technologies (ICT) should be considered as a means of technological learning rather than the end of creativity development. The challenge of strengthening stagnating Asian countries to become competitive and innovative nations will continue until the next decade. Unless necessary steps are taken to improve technological learning and local innovations in stagnating countries, their technological dependency will increase and thus deepen the marginalization in the coming eras.
Attractiveness of Venture Idea amongst Expert Entrepreneurs: A Conjoint Analysis (Interactive Paper)
(2010) Semasinghe, D.M.
Venture ideas are at the heart of entrepreneurship (Davidsson, 2004). However, we are yet to learn what factors drive entrepreneurs’ perceptions of the attractiveness of venture ideas, and what the relative importance of these factors are for their decision to pursue an idea. The expected financial gain is one factor that will obviously influence the perceived attractiveness of a venture idea (Shepherd & DeTienne, 2005). In addition, the degree of novelty of venture ideas along one or more dimensions such as new products/services, new method of production, enter into new markets/customer and new method of promotion may affect their attractiveness (Schumpeter, 1934). Further, according to the notion of an individual-opportunity nexus venture ideas are closely associated with certain individual characteristics (relatedness). Shane (2000) empirically identified that individual’s prior knowledge is closely associated with the recognition of venture ideas. Sarasvathy’s (2001; 2008) Effectuation theory proposes a high degree of relatedness between venture ideas and the resource position of the individual. This study examines how entrepreneurs weigh considerations of different forms of novelty and relatedness as well as potential financial gain in assessing the attractiveness of venture ideas.
Attractiveness of venture ideas: a conjoint study
(Swinburne University of Technology, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, 2010) Semasinghe, D.M.; Davidsson, P.; Steffens, P.R.
Every venture starts with a venture idea; product/service, method of production, customer, market, or method of promotion etc. This study focused its attention on what factors drive entrepreneurs’ perceptions of the relative attractiveness of specific venture ideas, and how important different venture idea characteristics are for making such assessments. Based on several idea characteristics – four dimensions of newness, two dimensions of relatedness and potential financial gains – the study investigated how 32 expert entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka trade off among different levels and attributes associated with different idea characteristics. The study utilized a Conjoint Analysis to understand how entrepreneurs make preferences for different profiles of venture idea characteristics. Results suggest that entrepreneurs are highly attractive of introducing substantial improved products. They prefer to use a higher knowledge in implementing venture idea. Further, results show that entrepreneurs give higher importance for process newness in perceiving venture idea.
Attractiveness of venture idea amongst expert entrepreneurs: a conjoint analysis
(Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, 2010) Semasinghe, D.M.
Venture ideas are at the heart of entrepreneurship (Davidsson, 2004). However, we are yet to learn what factors drive entrepreneurs’ perceptions of the attractiveness of venture ideas, and what the relative importance of these factors are for their decision to pursue an idea. The expected financial gain is one factor that will obviously influence the perceived attractiveness of a venture idea (Shepherd & DeTienne, 2005). In addition, the degree of novelty of venture ideas along one or more dimensions such as new products/services, new method of production, enter into new markets/customer and new method of promotion may affect their attractiveness (Schumpeter, 1934). Further, according to the notion of an individual-opportunity nexus venture ideas are closely associated with certain individual characteristics (relatedness). Shane (2000) empirically identified that individual’s prior knowledge is closely associated with the recognition of venture ideas. Sarasvathy’s (2001; 2008) Effectuation theory proposes a high degree of relatedness between venture ideas and the resource position of the individual. This study examines how entrepreneurs weigh considerations of different forms of novelty and relatedness as well as potential financial gain in assessing the attractiveness of venture ideas.
The impact of working capital management on cash holding: a quantitative study of listed manufacturing companies in Colombo stock exchange market in Sri Lanka
(Eastern University, Sri Lanka, 2010) Prahalathan, B.
Impact of Subjective Well-Being on Success of Technological Knowledge Creation among Independent Inventors in Developing Countries: A First Look at Sri Lanka
(2011) Wickramasinghe, C.N.; Ahmad, N.; Rashid, S.; Emby, Z.
Technological innovations have become one of the key determinants of the success of knowledge economy. So far, technological development in knowledge economies has been mainly measured based on organizational and explicit objective outcome of knowledge creation capacity of a nation or a region. In the Western knowledge economies, role of the independent inventors has been ignored, discouraged, and organizational innovations have been recognized as driving force in new knowledge creation. However, the continuous involvement of independent inventors in technological inventions in unfavorable conditions is a phenomenon that cannot be explained by existing objective measures. Recently, subjective well-being has emerged as a key aspect of human capital that positively influences the developing nations. However, there were hardly any published studies that examined the possible relationship between subjective well-being and the success of inventors in the developing countries. This paper presents the first look at this relationship among the independent inventors in Sri Lanka: a lower middle-income country in South Asia. The study found that independent inventors in Sri Lanka are not objectively successful, but they are subjectively successful. They feel happy about what they have achieved as inventors, satisfy with what they are planning to do and supposing to achieve in the future. Independent inventors’ subjective success depends on their satisfying assessment of existing objective outcomes, optimism on what they are going do, and what they are hoping to gain in the future. Findings suggest that subjective success or well-being of independent inventors might lead them to be continuously engaged in inventive activities under the unfavorable environments for independent inventing.
Sociological evaluation of the success of inventive community of Sri Lanka
(2011) Wickramasinghe, C.N.; Abeysinghe, S.; Ahmad, N.
The role of idea novelty and relatedness in nascent ventures
(Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, 2011) Semasinghe, D.M.
Nascent venture performance : linking novelty of venture ideas and commitment of firm founders as predictors
(Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, 2011) Semasinghe, D.M.; Davidsson, P.; Steffens, P.R.
The individual-opportunity nexus emphasizes that both the characteristics of individuals and venture ideas have roles in the entrepreneurial process (Shane & Venkataraman, 2000). Following upon this assertion the present study examined whether the venture idea novelty and investment of resources can make an important part in the venture creation process. Data analysed for a sample of nascent entrepreneurs in Australia suggests that the novelty of venture ideas restricts the performance of nascent ventures. However, the more investment of time and money do not show a significant impact to the venture performance.
Women Empowerment and Entrepreneurship Development through Micro Credit under Post-war Development: A Special Reference to Jaffna
(Jaffna University, 2012) Rathiranee, Y.; Semasinghe, D.M.
The micro credit programmes serve as a vital role for women empowerment and entrepreneurship development in the developing countries as well as in Sri Lanka. As a result of 30 years of an internal armed conflict, women and children not only lost male relatives in struggle, but comprised of the displaced. Most of the households in Sri Lanka are now headed exclusively by women. This study focuses on women empowerment and entrepreneurship development through micro credit programme under post war development in Jaffna District selecting five rural areas which were Chankanai, Sandilipay, Vaddukoddai, Uduvil and Kondavil in Jaffna. The main objective of this study was to identify the linkage with micro credit and women empowerment and entrepreneurship development. Further it has an objective to identify the impact of micro credit on women empowerment and entrepreneurship development. The empowerment is explained through social, interpersonal and economic and the entrepreneurship development has been mentioned by the self employment opportunities for agriculture, small business, fishing and farming. The microcredit programme is illustrated by the factors such as amount of loan, interest rate, recovery of loan and flexibility. The information has been gathered by primary data which has been distributed through the close ended questionnaire to the rural women in the above selected areas and 66 responded out of 77 in which 15 numbers from each area. Relationship between the micro credit programmes and women empowerment and entrepreneurship development is examined using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). It is concluded that the empowerment regarding the social, interpersonal and economic and Entrepreneurship development has a significant relationship with the microcredit programme and its impact on women empowerment and entrepreneurship development is crucial. It is suggested that the microcredit facilities are essential in empowering women and develop the women entrepreneurs under post war development because most of the house heads are the women in rural areas and for keeping enhancement in an effective way it should be concentrated with providing other Micro Finance services such as education, health nutrition, training and skill development by using modern technology other than micro credit loan facilities.
Influence of Demographic and Technical Profile on Success of Independent Inventors in Sri Lanka
(2012) Wickramasinghe, C.N.; Ahmad, N.
The remarkable growth of patent applications in Asia has been the central focus of the recent studies on technological knowledge creation. However, all the Asian countries have not shown similar growth and hence, have not gained similar academic attention. Especially, the lower and middle-income countries in South Asia are stagnating in technological knowledge creation. Sri Lanka is one such country that has high proportion of independent inventors in their innovation system. Owing to small number of inventors, there is hardly any attention given to conduct empirical studies on inventors in these countries. Therefore, inherent characteristics of inventors and innovation systems in these countries are underexplored in published academic literature. This pioneering study attempted to explore the inherent characteristics of the independent inventors in Sri Lanka as the representatives of inventors in middle-income South Asian developing countries. The findings of the study suggest that most of the sociodemographic and technical characteristics of Sri Lankan inventors are similar to the independent inventors in industrial countries. It also indicates that demographic factors such as age, income, job mobility, marital status and technical factors such as engagement in inventions, prototype development and commercialization method have significant influence on the overall innovation success of independent inventors in Sri Lanka.
Political violence and volatility in international tourist arrivals: the case of Sri Lanka
(Tourism Analysis, 2013) Fernando, Sriyantha.; Bandara, J.S.; Liyanaarachchi, Susantha.; Jayathilaka, Ruwan.; Smith, C.
In recent years, a growing body of literature has emerged exploring the link between dramatic fluctuations in tourist arrivals to particular destinations and events such as political violence and financial shocks. Sri Lanka is one such destination that provides a fascinating case study of this link. That is, international tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka have experienced notable fluctuations during the nearly three decades of civil war, particularly between 1983 and 2009. For the first time, an attempt is made in this study to model the conditional mean and conditional variance of the logarithm of monthly tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka. The results reveal a significant seasonal effect in tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka. First, the study demonstrates the existence of a large volatility in monthly tourist arrivals into Sri Lanka from 1978, stemming from the negative publicity in the print and electronic media and the travel warnings issued by Western countries relating to in-country conflict. Furthermore, the results suggest that major war-related incidents are strong enough to reduce the tourist arrival numbers by 5.2% per month compared to a period when peace is restored in the country.
Women Empowerment through Micro-credit: A Special Reference to Jaffna District
(2013) Yogendrarajah, R.; Semasinghe, D.M.
The prime objective of this study is to identify the association between micro-credit and women empowerment by giving opportunity for self-employment and the impact of micro-credit on women empowerment as well. This study focuses on women empowerment through micro-credit under post-war development in Jaffna District selecting five rural areas which are Chankanai, Sandilipay, Vaddukoddai, Uduvil, and Kondavil in Jaffna District. The information has been gathered by primary data from the rural women in the above selected areas and 66 responded out of 77. From the results, it is concluded that the micro-credit has significant relationship and positively correlated (0.752) with empowerment at 0.01 significant levels and its impact is crucial as well. It is suggested that the micro-credit facilities are essential in empowering women and developing the women entrepreneurs under post-war development.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND UNEMPLOYMENT: A LITERATURE REVIEW.
(International Conference on Business & Information, 2013) Semasinghe, D.M.; Musa, B.M.
A great deal of ambiguity exists in the literature over the relationship between entrepreneurship and unemployment. The simple theory of income choice, which has been the basis for numerous studies focusing on decision confronted by individuals to start-up venture and become entrepreneur i.e. the increase in unemployment will lead to an increase in start-up activity (push-effect) on the grounds that the opportunity cost of not starting a venture has decreased. This study aims to contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by exploring the relationship between the two conflicting concepts; entrepreneurship and unemployment. In this paper we reviewed the relationship between entrepreneurship rate and unemployment rate using exploratory research. Furthermore, using secondary data we attempt to address the ambiguity between the two concepts empirically. However, we assumed that increase in entrepreneurship activities reduced unemployment, at the same time, high rate of unemployment lead to slowdown or decrease in entrepreneurial activity in an economy. Using available literature, we tried to justify this notion and reconciled the two conflicting concepts, for policy-makers and researchers as well.
Challenges Facing by Women in Accessing Credit from Microfinance Institutions in Sri Lanka
(2013) Yogendrarajah, R.; Semasinghe, D.M.
Women are key instrument in the society and their role is very important in the world because they act dual role both in the family as well as society. The microfinance has an important role in empowering women in developing countries as well as in Sri Lanka by accessing credit facilities for their income generating activities to empower the rural women. With the conflict situation in Northern part of Sri Lanka, most of the men left from that area and they were unable to withstand by political condition. In this situation, many men were killed and women had to take the responsibility of the family as leaders. The Sri Lankan government has a responsibility to rehabilitate and revitalize the situation under post war development. MFIs provide their members with financial and social intermediation services to help improve their income generating activities. The aim of this study is to examine the challenges faced by women when accessing loans for income generating activities. This concept paper focuses on a review of academic literature on Challenges when accessing loans in empowering women through micro finance in Sri Lanka. For this purpose previous studies from developed and developing countries on this regards have been examined and then found out the solutions from the literatures. Finally, the conclusion of their studies has been analyzed and then provided a comprehensive literature by seeing the experiences and usefulness of the activities about the solutions for the challenges in accessing the loan facilities for income generating activities to empower poor women. Therefore it has been strongly feel that a look into empowering women and developing them with the support of the microfinance and the monitoring and creating awareness are important to eliminate the challenges facing by them in accessing credit from Microfinance Institutions.
How does internet usage influence on social capital, connectedness, success and well-being of grassroots level inventors in Sri Lanka?
(2013) Wickramasinghe, C.N.; Ahmad, N.
The Internet has changed the nature and transference of information and communication. Now called the world's largest knowledge depository and most efficient communication channel, the Internet can increase technology transfer to developing countries, leading to their success in technological and economical development (UNDP, 2001). Apart from the technological and economic influences of information and communication technologies (ICT), an argument is emerging regarding their influence on social and psychological aspects of life. ICTs, led by the Internet, will bring significant technical, economic, and social changes to different types of communities in different parts of the world (Thakur, 2009). Not all of these changes will be positive. According to the recent studies, Internet usage has influenced knowledge development, social thinking, and subjective well-being (Kraut et al 2002; Contarello & Sarrica, 2007; Weiser, 2004). The Internet has redefined the way social relationships are progressing (Kraut et al 2002). A recently concluded World Values Survey found a positive relationship between Internet usage and happiness (Kelly, 2010). The many influences of Internet usage, in other words, will go beyond objective definitions of success in life, and may also influence social and psychological aspects of individual and community life (Pigg & Crank, 2004).