25th Anniversary Special Edition 2021

Innovation and its Impact on Consumer Brand Equity: With Evidence from Modern Trade Industry in Colombo, Sri Lanka

Oshan N.N. Liyanage

Doctoral Student of Business Administration, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

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W.M.C.B. Wanninayake

Professor, Department. of Marketing Management, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT 

Innovations enable organizations to introduce novel products and services to its customers. However, within the Modern Trade Industry in Sri Lanka, firms deploy innovations, yet if that is influencing firms establish greater relationships with its customer’s, remains unclear. Similarly, firms focus greatly upon consumer-based brand equity within the modern trade industry but there are no sufficient empirical studies to confirm the contribution of innovation for enhancing consumer based brand equity in modern trade environment. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the innovation on consumer based brand equity in modern trade sector in Sri Lanka. Literature suggests that concept of innovation is formed using innovative outcomes and innovative planning. Hence authors used these two dimensions that form innovation as independent variables to determine the consumer-based brand equity. The research was designed as quantitative research based on positivist paradigm and data were collected through a survey. Accordingly, 280 self-administered questionnaires, were obtained from respondents who are modern trade consumers in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The collected data were analyzed by using both descriptive and inferential statistics tools. PLS-SEM was employed as the main measurement model for testing hypothesis by using Smart-PLS 3 as the main analytical software. The findings revealed that innovation as an outcome and innovative planning, both can significantly influence upon consumer-based brand equity. Hence, authors suggest management of modern trade retailers to develop innovative technology driven retail platform to provide pleasant shopping experience to the customers with the purpose of improving consumer-based brand equity. Authors suggests future researches to investigate the impact of leadership on the implementation of innovations within the modern trade retailers in Sri Lankan context.

Keywords: Consumer Brand Equity, Innovation, Innovative Outcomes, Innovative Planning, Modern Trade Industry, Sri Lanka

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Consumer Satisfaction towards Smart Ration Cards: A Study on Tirupur District, India

M. Sumathy

Professor, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, India

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ABSTRACT 

Public distribution system has been implementing various initiatives to ensure the proper supply of ration items to the consumers.  There have been complaints towards the lack of transparency in the supply of ration items.  The stocks are not properly showed and unauthenticated billing of goods is made by the employees and at the same time, consumers are also misusing the ration cards.  The paper ration cards already issued have their own challenges.  Introduction of smart ration cards has been the only solution for all these challenges.  The government has introduced the smart ration cards in the year 2017.  Since then, there have been a lot of changes made in the public distribution system.  The present study has analyzed the satisfaction of consumers in Tirupur District towards the smart ration cards.  The factors influencing satisfaction of consumers towards smart ration cards have been analyzed and the relationship between demographic variables and the factors influencing satisfaction has been discussed in this paper.  It was found that the consumers were satisfied with the selected factors influencing satisfaction except the confidentiality of financial transaction of the consumers.  Suggestions have been offered for the effective use of smart ration cards as a part of the initiatives of e-governance practices.

Keywords: Consumer Satisfaction, Public Distribution System, Smart Ration Cards

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Impact of Green Attributes on Revisiting Intentions of Tourists in Sri Lankan Hotels: The Mediating Effect of Overall Satisfaction

J.A.S.C. Jayasinghe

Senior Lecturer, Department of Marketing, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

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W.M.T.K. Weerasekara

Department of International Marketing, Adamjee Lukmanjee Exports (Pvt) Ltd

ABSTRACT 

In the Sri Lankan context, the publicly available research has not addressed precisely the relationship between green attributes and revisiting intentions so far. Therefore, this research mainly aimed to study the impact of Sri Lankan hotels’ green attributes on tourists’ revisiting intention. Besides how these said attributes affect overall satisfaction, and mediation role of tourists’ overall satisfaction on revisiting intention was also investigated. The present research is a positivistic study, and a survey was conducted based on a convenience sample selected from foreign and local tourists who had experience in hotels offered green attributes. The data were analyzed by two path models using AMOS 23. Findings show that some of the green attributes positively impact revisiting intentions, and some of the green attributes positively impact overall satisfaction. Furthermore, the overall satisfaction mediates the relationship between organic foods and revisiting, and also the relationship between water-saving attributes and revisiting intentions. These findings will help academics understand the theoretical relationships and for hoteliers to launch innovative and profitable green practices.

Keywords: Green Attributes, Overall Satisfaction, Revisiting Intentions, Sri Lankan Hotels

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Unrealistic Optimism, Compulsive Purchasing and Debt-Stress among Credit Card Users in Sri Lanka

Rodrigo G. M. R

University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka

Galdolage B.S

Senior Lecturer, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka

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ABSTRACT 

Credit cards become increasingly popular in Sri Lanka while a total of 78,201 new issues were in 2019 first quarter (Central Bank report). Credit card usage affects the consumption patterns of people, sometimes leading to purchase excessively with impractical confidence (Omar, et al., 2013). According to the central bank report, around total of 118,905 cards are being defaulted where the payment is in arrears for 90days or more in 2019 showing an increment in credit card debts, which may result in stress among card users. In view of the timeliness and relevance of this issue, this study aims to investigate the impact of unrealistic optimism and compulsive purchasing on debt-stress among credit card users in Sri Lanka.

This study employs the quantitative approach in collecting data using self-administered questionnaires among 301 credit cardholders in Western Province, Sri Lanka who were chosen based on the non-probabilistic convenience sampling method. This study found a moderate positive impact of both the unrealistic optimism and compulsive purchasing on debt stress. Further, a moderate positive correlation was found between unrealistic optimism and compulsive purchasing too. This research contributes to fill the gap in the extant literature by broadening the understanding on concepts such as unrealistic optimism, compulsive purchasing, and debt stress which is prevalent among credit card users. Further, as managerial implications, this study provides a better understanding on cardholders in Sri Lanka which might be a good reference for banks, card service providers and investors in developing their policies. Further, it will support the business sector to develop the Sri Lankan non-cash payment market while policymakers and tax authorities can understand the causes of high credit card debts.

Keywords: Unrealistic Optimism, Compulsive Purchasing, Debt Stress, Credit Cardholders

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The Impact of Performance Assessment System on Employee Commitment: A Study among Executive Officers of State-Owned Commercial Banks in Sri Lanka

D. A. T. Kumari

Senior Lecturer, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka

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Ajith Medis

Senior Lecturer, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

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ABSTRACT

Performance management is a much broader and a complicated function of HR, as it encompasses activities such as joint goal setting, continuous progress review and frequent communication, feedback and coaching for improved performance, implementation of employee development programs and rewarding achievements. Performance management can be regarded as a systematic process by which the overall performance of an organization can be improved by improving the performance of individuals within a team framework. It is a means for promoting superior performance by communicating expectations, defining roles within a required competence framework, and establishing achievable benchmarks. As end results, the performance appraisal positively affects to the employee commitment and it will lead to achieving corporate objectives.  However, there is a public opinion about a poor performance management system in public sector organizations. Accordingly, some researchers argue that performance management of public sector commercial banks is poorer than private sector commercial banks in the Sri Lankan context.

Hence, this paper focuses on the assessment of the influence of the current performance management system adopted by major state-owned commercial banks on job commitment of their executive employees.  The sample for this study was drawn from executive grade employees who are working at Peoples Bank and Bank of Ceylon and data were collected by using self-administrated questionnaire. Altogether 350 questionnaires were distributed by email and 208 completed questionnaires were taken in for final analysis. The PLS based SEM was employed to measure the impact of the exogenous variable on the endogenous variable based on the Smart PLS-3. The results revealed that among the set of determinants, career development, is the most significant determinant of employee commitments among executive officers of state-owned commercial banks in Sri Lanka. Further, it was revealed that, alignment with organizational goals, is the least significant determinant of employee commitments among executive officers of state-owned commercial banks in Sri Lanka.

Keywords: Altruistic Values, Brand Trust, Consumer-Brand Relationship, Factor analysis, Hedonic Values

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Impact of Dynamic Capabilities on Global Mind-set: The Case of ICT Start-ups in Sri Lanka

C. H. Jayasuriya

Research Analyst, LSEG Business Services Private Limited, Sri Lanka

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G.A.T.R. Perera

Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Management and Finance, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT 

The purpose of this study is to explore how firm-level dynamic capabilities influence the level of firms’ global mindset in information and communication technology (ICT) startups in Sri Lanka. Based on the literature on dynamic capabilities and global mindset, the impact of dynamic capabilities on global mindset is tested empirically on a sample of 295 Sri Lankan ICT start-up firms using structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis technique to find whether if there is any difference of the impact from sensing dynamic capabilities, seizing capabilities and reconfiguration capabilities on the global mindset. The results show a positive significant impact of the sensing, seizing and reconfiguration capabilities on the global mindset in ICT startups in Sri Lanka. However, among three different but theoretically interrelated capabilities, seizing and reconfiguration dynamic capabilities have shown the strongest impact on the global mindset. This study contributes to the emerging literature of global mindset in the international business and to strategic management literature by understanding the global mindset through the lenses of dynamic capabilities as organizational level contingencies.

Keywords: Dynamic Reconfiguration Capabilities, Dynamic Seizing Capabilities, Dynamic Sensing Capabilities, Global Mindset, ICT Startups, Sri Lanka

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