Commerce and Management
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Item A Narrative Exploration of Quality in Higher Education(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies University of Kelaniya., 2024-11-01) Chathurangani, D. S.; Wickramasinghe, C.N.The pursuit of quality in higher education is a complex challenge driven by diverse stakeholder perspectives, such as staff, students, and employers. This study investigates quality in higher education through a narrative review of recent literature. The review explores the perceptions and implementations of quality initiatives across various contexts. The methodology includes a narrative review of journal articles published between 2014 and 2024, retrieved from databases. Key findings reveal a significant disconnect between stakeholders' definitions of quality, challenges balancing accountability with genuine improvement, and cultural and contextual barriers in applying Western quality models globally. The study underscores the necessity for a strategic approach that integrates quality processes to foster a culture of continuous improvement and academic excellence. It also reveals the emerging concept of quality work, which focuses on academic staff's practical, everyday efforts in enhancing educational quality and improving student achievement. The study contributes to the ongoing discourse on quality in higher education by identifying gaps in quality-related practices and proposing future research directions, including the role of cultural contexts and integrating quality enhancement processes for holistic institutional improvement and academic success.Item 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.Item Effect of Open Innovation on Firm Performance in Sri Lankan Manufacturing Sector: With Innovative Capability and Environmental Turbulence(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Dilrukshi, M.G.M.; Wickramasinghe, C.N.; Edirisinghe, S.D.Open innovation is about knowledge flows. It helps to achieve sustainable competitive advantages through enhancing firm performance. However, organizations in the Sri Lankan manufacturing sector tend to allocate resources on research and development, firm performance does not improve compared to the investment. Hence this study suggests that firm performance can be increased through open innovation initiatives. But external knowledge cannot be enhanced firm performance automatically. Thus, this study proposes that innovative capability may improve the relationship between open innovation and firm performance. Open innovation approaches are most suitable for dynamic environments. Hence this study suggests that environmental turbulence may strengthen the relationship between open innovation and innovative capability to uplift the firm performance. Accordingly, this study aims to develop an integrated model of open innovation and firm performance with the mediating effect of innovative capability and the moderating effect of environmental turbulence. As a research approach, subjectivism as the ontological position, positivist as the epistemological position, quantitative approach as the methodology and survey as the method will be used. The population will be the senior managers in the research and development department in the manufacturing industries in Sri Lanka. The study will utilize a sample of 200 senior managers based on simple random sampling. The sample frame will be the senior managers in the top performing 50 manufacturing organizations as per the rankings of the Export Development Board in Sri Lanka. For analyzing the impacts predicted in the model, Structural Equation Model will be used.Item Social Identity of Leadership as an Antecedent of Innovation Readiness(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Shanmuganathan, A.; Devadas, U.M.; Wickramasinghe, C.N.Innovation is constantly a hot topic in the business world and is essential for any business to prosper. The innovation index in Sri Lanka is significantly low compared to other Asian countries. The lack of innovation readiness in firms is one of the main reasons for the lower innovation. Hence it is essential to check the innovation readiness of a firm to predict the industry's future. The social identity perspective is mainly ignored and overshadowed by popular leadership theories such as leadership styles, leadership traits and characteristics, leadership demographics, and innovative work behavior. This study aims to fill the research gap identified by studying and investigating the impact of leadership's social identity on innovation readiness. Few studies have looked at the influence of leadership's social identity viewpoint on the firm's innovation readiness in the past. The researcher took a quantitative approach by taking the entire population of the listed companies of Sri Lanka using a self-administrated questionnaire. Descriptive analysis, Structural Equation Modelling and Importance-Performance Mapping were the primary data analytic methods; SPSS and SmartPLS3 were used in the study. The researcher identified that categorization has the highest impact followed by the positive attitude while the sense of belonging has a minor influence on innovation readiness. The study's findings demonstrated that leaders should be more effective in the long-term organizational behavior, specifically in task-oriented and employee-oriented leadership; they also provide group-oriented leadership about a shared social identity. The study suggests a framework for organizations and supports managers in the companies to uplift the innovation readiness of the firm.Item 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.Item How Important Communication Skills on Project Success? Exploration of Project Managers Perspectives(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2021) Oshadie, N.L.B.; Wickramasinghe, C.N.The research study focuses on identifying the significant factors on communication skills in project management, based on reviews and perspectives obtained from project managers in the different project areas in Sri Lanka. It investigated the important factors those are affecting project manager’s communication skills when their engage in projects. The findings of qualitative research has validated by using a sample of a quantitative survey. The qualitative method allowed the understanding and evaluation of project managers' responses to stakeholder management and relationships. Hence the study has highlighted the project managers' attitudes and perceptions about project communication. Accordingly, the research revealed that the project's success depends on the project management knowledge and experiences are essential to building up effective communications with project stakeholders. The qualitative data collection for this study is done through the key informant interview method, which offers an opportunity to build a strong relationship with ten expert project managers. Seven themes emerged from the thematic analysis of transcribed interviews: Project manager’s knowledge, experience, leadership, public relations, project nature, project requirements, and new methods. These are supportive for project managers to construct effective project communication strategies. Furthermore, this research has revealed that project manager's knowledge, experience and leadership skills are highly important factors to project success.Item The Influence of Social Commerce on Consumer Decisions(The International Technology Management Review, 2018) Hettiarachchi, H.A.H.; Wickramasinghe, C.N.; Ranathunga, S.Today, comprehending consumer behavior is becoming dynamically challenging with the emergence of social commerce. Business organizations are now striving to convince consumers by exploiting the advantage of social support empowered by online social networks. Importantly, social ties in such online social networks facilitate trust as the most compelling benefit while alleviating the perceived risk, which happened to be the major concerns with electronic commerce over the years. This research study is aimed at understanding the impact of social commerce on the consumer behavior, particularly consumer decision-making stages. Hence, this research was conducted as a quantitative study involving a cross-sectional survey and gathered valid responses from Facebook users. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze data and test hypotheses. The findings exhibited significant positive effects from social commerce on all the consumer decision-making stages namely; need recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase decision and post-purchase decision. Therefore, this study highlights the importance of employing an appropriate social commerce strategy for business organizations.Item The Role of Social Commerce on Consumer Decisions: A Theoretical Foundation(Department of Commerce and Financial Management, University of Kelaniya, 2017) Hettiarachchi, H.A.H.; Wickramasinghe, C.N.; Ranathunga, S.The advent of social commerce phenomenon has largely started gaining attention in consumer behavior literature. Apparently, social commerce has shifted more power from the seller to the buyer and predominately fueled to strengthen e-commerce acceptance. Thus, understanding consumer behavior in the context of social commerce adoption has become inevitable for business organizations that aim at elevating their bottom-line, competitiveness and ensuring sustainability. Moreover, social ties facilitated in social commerce enable trust as the most promising benefit while alleviating the perceived risk, which was the major striking concerns with online commerce over the years. Though examining the influence of social commerce on consumer behavior and decision making is started getting scholarly attention recently, adequate explanatory model laid on the relevant theoretical foundation in this regard is still fragmented. Consequently, researchers constructed this theoretical foundation with the intention of enriching extant literature and to lay a formal groundwork for investigating this phenomenon. Hence, this paper aimed to comprehend: the nature of online social networks, emerging social commerce phenomenon, the role of social support in social commerce and influence of social commerce on consumer decisions respectively.Item Impact of Modern Project Management Methodologies and Software Development Life Cycle Models on Software Quality Assurance Success(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Akmeemana, A.P.; Wickramasinghe, C.N.Modern software companies in Information Technology (IT) Industry are giving high importance to Software Quality Assurance (SQA) since low quality software’s will put their reputation on the line. Therefore evaluation of software quality has always been prime importance in software industry. Most organizations don’t have a dominant Project Management (PM) method & Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) models to begin with and find it difficult to decide which PM methodology & which SDLC model would be best for their needs. PM, SDLC and SQA are research topics that have been discussed extensively in the literature over the years. But there were no enough literature to discover the relationship between PM and SDLC influence on SQA projects in IT Industry. Therefore this study will provide much needed literature & outcomes which become valuable literature. The SQA success measuring factors will be finalized after reviewing the literature. The data are being collected from software quality assurance professionals on their last completed project by using the survey instrument and will be analyzed using two way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to yield SQA success based on the PM methodologies and SDLC models that are been selected for this study. This study will analyze: which PM methodology and SDLC methodology will have more impact on delivering good quality software & eventually the combination of PM methodologies and SDLC models have more impact on delivering good quality software. Outcomes of this research will provide ideas for SQA projects to select appropriate PM methodology and SDLC model. Ultimately this research will help to reduce large amount of software project failures due to quality and eventually will helps to deliver good quality software to customers.Item Factors influencing on use of E-banking among Customers of Regional Development Bank in Sri Lanka(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Kariyapperuma, K.A.D.J.C.; Wickramasinghe, C.N.The facility of E-banking has been arrived to the current context as an innovation of technological and telecommunication enhancement for some state and commercial banks in Sri Lanka in different manner. As a state special mentioned bank, Regional Development bank which commence especially in rural areas is in the initial stage, of introducing that facility to its customers providing only ATMs and mobile banking in primary stage. In this research it is intended to find what are the reasonable factors influence the use of E-Banking among customers in Regional Development Bank where the customers has low literacy and technology adaptation. The research is based on determining the level of E-banking adaptation in RDB and identifying the difference of willingness to adopt E-Banking between RDB customers and other banking customers who are using E-Banking. Determining the factors effect on adaptation of E-banking is another objective of doing this research. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1989; Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989) is the primary model which is used to incorporate with the research. For this research the two samples of data will be gathered. With the sample of sixty from RDB customers and the sample of forty, the customers who are currently experience of using E-banking in other banks in the Gampaha District will be used to gather date by providing a questionnaire. The 2nd sample of 40 is used as a control group. There are three designs will be used to complete this research such as Descriptive, T- test and Regression. This research is used to find the gap between the adaptations to use of E-banking among customers in Regional Development Bank since it is in the initial stage of introducing E-banking facility to its customers who are low in literacy and technology.