Volume 6 Issue 2

Supply Chain Management practices: Competitive Advantage and Organizational Performance in Sri Lankan

Construction Industry

T.S.L.W. Gunawardana

Senior Lecturer, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka 

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D.H. Wedage

M & E Engineer, International Construction Consortium (Pvt) Ltd. Sri Lanka.

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ABSTRACT 

In the construction industry supply chain management (SCM) is a vital tool in controlling business processes in a defined and a systematic way to improve quality, time management and increase profit. Effective supply chain management has become a potentially valuable method of securing and improving competitive advantage and organizational performance since competition no longer between organizations, but between global organizations and among supply chains. This paper aims to investigate the impact of supply chain management practices on competitive advantage and organizational performance in the construction industry, Sri Lanka, due to the lack of application of supply chain management practices to determine the organizational performance in the competitive environment. Further, this study focuses five SCM practices:  strategic supplier partnership, customer relationship, level of information sharing, quality of information sharing, and postponement to investigate what supply chain management is, how it works in increase competitive advantage and what are its dynamics. Six hypotheses were developed based on the constructed conceptual framework derived from the supply chain management literature. The data were collected over the survey technique by randomly administering structured questionnaires from 198 respondents of construction management teams and different sub-contractors. First Multiple regression analysis was performed to explore the impact of five supply chain management practices on competitive advantage and organizational performance in the construction industry and the analysis was carried out the factor analysis to explore the significance of supply chain management dimensions.  The results of the regression analysis indicated that all SCM variables have a positive impact on competitive advantages and organizational performance of the construction industry in Sri Lanka. Moreover, it suggested that the strategic supplier partnership was the most significant SCM variable which determines the competitive advantage and level of information sharing variable was the less significant variable towards competitive advantage. The results of this study provide new insights to the construction companies to better understand the significant role that SCM variables play in respect to the competitive advantages and organizational performance in Sri Lanka.  The study has outlined to examine the five SCM variables in construction industry. Hence future study can be outlined to further examine the impact of SCM on competitive advantages in other industries. Moreover, the future study can be outlined to further examine the impact of SCM variables in different dimensions especially including customer perspective in respect to human variables. Besides, this study was based on the limited large-scale construction companies operated in Sri Lanka and ignore the small and medium scale supermarkets.

Keywords: Competitive Advantage, Organizational Performance, Supply Chain Management Practices

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Networking within Divisional Secretaries and its Impact on Organizational Performance

(Special reference to Divisional Secretaries in Sri Lanka)

Perera, H.S.C

Associate Professor, University of Ruhuna, Matara, Sri Lanka

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Gunawardana, T.S.L.W

Senior Lecturer, University of Ruhuna, Matara, Sri Lanka

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Gunarathna, K.A.W.L.W.

Department of Motor Traffic, Sri Lanka

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ABSTRACT 

The networking among organizations and within the organization is very important to achieve vision, mission and the performance of any organization. Although there are studies about networking in a global context, it is hard to find networking related studies in the local context. Therefore, this study of networking within divisional secretaries and its impact on their performance is important. The main objective of this study is to analysis the networking within the divisional secretaries and its impact on the performance of those divisional secretaries. The studies depend upon the answers based on the questionnaire survey. Although the networks fall into two principal categories such as inter-firm networks and inter-personal networks, this study is limited to studying interpersonal network. The network is a vague concept and it consists of a set of actors (“nodes”) and the relations (“ties” or “edges”) between these actors. Relevant literature discussed to build the analytical framework and different theories of networking such as theories of self-interest, social exchange and dependency theory, mutual interest and collective action, a family of cognitive theories and theory of homophily. It reviewed the relevant literature on job performance and networking related performance. It also discussed the divisional administration and divisional secretaries. In this study impact of networking on the performance of divisional secretaries was measured with five independent variables such as instrumental network, expressive network, friendship network, advice network and knowledge network. Primary and secondary data were used to analyze the networking related performance. The survey was done throughout the all divisional secretaries in Sri Lanka via a questionnaire and collected data were analyzed by using Structural equation modelling (SEM). According to the study, the most important and affected networking activity which was highly affected by the performance is the knowledge network. Friendship network and instrumental network are the second and third networks effects on.

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CSR Practices in the Maldives: A Post-Baseline Study 

Mohamed Abdulla

National Institute of Education -Maldives

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ABSTRACT 

A baseline study on CSR was conducted in the Maldives in 2010 to understand the level of CSR engagement among the business community and non-corporate stakeholders of CSR promotion in the Maldives and develop recommendations for a CSR policy framework for the Maldives. The study revealed that CSR was understood in the Maldives in its surface-level only. Philanthropic activities were the main CSR consideration and were not widely practiced. Only large public limited companies and the resorts maintain some mainstream CSR practices. This report highlights the progress made in CSR in the decade that followed the baseline study. The report was written based on the analysis of a three recent sustainability reports of the Maldivian resorts. A remarkable progress on ethical dimension and minimal progress on the philanthropic dimension were evident.   

Keywords: CSR, Document Analysis, Maldives, Post-Baseline Study, Tourism Sector\

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The Millennials as Stayers versus Switchers: The Context of Mobile Phone Services in Sri Lanka

Karunaratna A.C.

Senior Lecturer, University of Ruhuna, Matara, Sri Lanka

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 ABSTRACT 

The study was conducted to evaluate the nature of the behavioral aspects of the Millennials in terms of loyal and switching behavior as reference to the mobile phone services subscription.  The study was conducted in two stages. At the initial stage, a customer survey was conducted with a sample of 521 respondents to identify the nature of retention and switching behaviour of the Millennials in the context of mobile phone services. The comprehensive analysis of customer responses extended the study to the second stage which involved in focus group discussions to probe the perceptions towards the decision of remaining loyal or switching and identify the nature and characteristics of each type of customer. Accordingly, the triangulation research approach involving both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods was adopted to achieve the desired objectives of the study. The study is significant as it evaluates the nature of the behaviour of the Millennials in the context of remaining versus switching and presents a semantic profile of customers with four types of loyalty namely fanatic, satisfied, brand loyal and captive and four types of switchers namely convenience seeker, discontented customer, variety seeker and price-conscious customer with respect to the mobile phone services industry.

Keywords: Loyal, Millennials, Retention, Switching

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Determinants of Financial Literacy: with Special Reference to Consumers in Financial Service Industry

Kumari D.A.T

Senior Lecturer, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka

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ABSTRACT 

The financial literacy is a key dimension which determines the demand of the financial services in the economy. However, most of the previous studies and financial decision makers believe financial literacy in different perspectives. Therefore, it is timely important to identify the main determinants of the financial literacy among potential customers in financial service industry. Accordingly, present study is mainly focused on identifying and verifying the key determinants of the financial literacy in the customer’s point of view in the financial service sector. The study adopted the positivism epistemology and quantitative approach. At the initial phase of the study, the extensive literature review was carried out with the purpose of identifying the determinants of financial literacy. In the second phase, a survey was conducted among 500 potential financial services customers representing nine provinces in Sri Lanka, with the assistance of a researcher administrated questionnaire. The sample was selected based on the multilevel mixed sampling method and the unit of analysis was the head of households in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, a partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) was employed as the principle data analysis approach, and Smart PLS 3 was employed as the main analytical software. Degree of financial literacy was tested based on 22 items identified by previous researchers and Principle Component Analysis was employed to determine the key factors of financial literacy. The reliability of scales was measured by Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients.

The findings revealed that in general, all financial literacy dimensions have significant impact to determine the level of financial literacy. However, when it considers under separate dimensions, financial knowledge is the most significant determinant among the other determinants to determine the level of financial literacy. Therefore, researcher concluded that financial knowledge can be considered as a main determinant of financial literacy among potential customers of financial services in Sri Lanka. And the financial awareness is identified as the least significant determinant. Finally, the researcher provides some suggestions for marketing practitioners of financial service industry and government policy decision makers to develop financial literacy level by promoting financial knowledge for absorbing more consumers towards formal financial system and products of financial services.

Keywords: Financial Awareness, Financial Attitude, Financial Behavior, Financial Knowledge, Financial Literacy, Financial Skills

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The Impact of Destination Attractiveness on Tourists’ Motivation to Consume Local Foods

Chathuri Danthanarayana

Lecturer, University College of Matara, Sri Lanka

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Ruwan Ranasinghe

Senior Lecturer, Uva Wellassa University, Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT 

Although the food is an important aspect in tourism industry, there are limited studies on motivation to consume local foods in tourist destinations. Thus, this study concerns the destination food brand image towards the local foods and motivation to consume local foods based on different destination attractions. Basically, this has main three objectives; to identify the relationship between destination attractiveness, destination food brand image and motivation to consume local foods; impact of destination attractiveness to motivate the tourists’ local food consumption; and how destination food brand images mediate the destination attractiveness and motivation to local food consumption. Five underlying factors were analyzed under destination attractiveness of local food consumption were labeled: cultural experience; authentic experience; food health; sensory appeal; and physical excitement. Primary data has collected from three hundred tourists from Ella and Nuwara Eliya tourist zones and convenience sampling technique has used to select tourists to collect data. Structured questionnaire has fielded among respondents to collect data and SPSS software has used to analyze the collected data. Descriptive statistics, Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation, multiple linear regression analysis and Baron and Kenny model of mediator analysis used to analyze the data. Empirical results revealed that destination attractiveness as well as destination food brand image can significantly enhance tourists’ motivation to consume local foods. It implies that destination food brand image partially mediates the relationship between destination attractiveness and motivation to consume local foods. Based on the outcomes, study makes a theoretical contribution and applications of the model are discussed both in terms of practical and managerial implications.    

Keywords: Destination Attractiveness, Destination Food Brand Image, Local Food Consumption, Motivation, Tourism

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