Multisensory branding refers to the strategic integration of sensory stimuli: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, to shape consumer perceptions and foster emotional connections with brands. In service settings such as coffee shops, where customer experience is a key determinant of value creation, multisensory branding plays a pivotal role in persuading satisfaction, attachment, and loyalty formation. Despite the global advancement of sensory marketing scholarly work, empirical evidence from developing economies, particularly Sri Lanka’s emerging coffee shop sector, remains limited. Study examined the impact of multisensory branding on customer loyalty in coffee shops within the Colombo District, with positive word of mouth (WOM) as a mediating variable. A quantitative research design was adopted, based on survey data collected from 384 coffee shop customers. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through SmartPLS 4, with emphasis on measurement reliability, validity, and the assessment of direct and indirect relationships among constructs. Findings confirm that although multisensory branding has a significant positive effect on customer loyalty, WOM shows a weak negative mediation. Therefore, sensory experiences enhance loyalty both directly and indirectly through customer advocacy behaviors. Findings underscore the importance of designing well-integrated multisensory environments in coffee shops to enhance customer experience and strengthen loyalty. Findings offer practical insights for coffee shop operators seeking to build a sustainable competitive advantage through sensory branding strategies.
Understanding how international news media shapes a country’s tourism sector is challenging because of the wide variety of media sources, perspectives and understanding. Sentiment analysis plays a crucial role, especially in tourism, where understanding the public’s view-point is key for effective marketing strategies and destination management. This study presents a novel approach to evaluating how Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is portrayed in international news in the United Kingdom. By applying sentiment analysis models and ensuring accuracy through careful data collection, cleaning, and preparation, the research identifies clear patterns linking positive media sentiment with increased tourist arrivals to the island. Additionally, examining media coverage over time helps reveal shifts in sentiment, offering deeper insight into how Sri Lanka’s image as a travel destination has developed globally, particularly in the English-speaking countries. Overall, this comprehensive analysis provides valuable guidance for stakeholders to enhance and manage the country’s tourism reputation through focused promotional efforts.
This study examines the influence of customer experience (CX) on word of mouth (WOM) and brand switching (BS), with the impact of brand image (BI) taken into account. Moreover, it examines the role of gender in this relationship, how the brand image of Pakistani clothing brands (CB) influences customer behaviour, and the urge to reduce brand switching or spread word of mouth. Data was collected from targeted customers of different clothing brands through a questionnaire survey of a sample size of 230. Studying the moderating variable at low and high levels to get insights by using moderated mediation. The findings revealed that CX does not significantly influence word of mouth, and BI does not mediate between the CX and WOM relationship, but gender as a moderator partially signifies the relationship. CX influences BS along with significant moderated mediation relationships between them. The research findings have great suggestions for managers of clothing brands and marketing researchers who could help consumers by giving them better services than those of competitors.
This study challenges the conception that competencies acquired through sustainability learning (SL) automatically lead to pro-sustainable behaviour (PSB) and empirically tests how sustainability competencies translate into behaviour through mediation by individual and group attributes. Drawing on the Key Competency Framework and integrating behavioural perspectives from the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), Norm Activation Model (NAM), and Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) theory, this study develops and tests a mediated competency–behaviour model. Specifically, this research examines the five key sustainability competencies identified by Wiek et al. (2011), systems thinking, anticipatory thinking, normative thinking, strategic thinking, and interpersonal thinking, and pathways to PSB through attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, personal norms, and biospheric values. An empirical study was conducted among accounting professionals in Sri Lanka (n = 198) using a structured online questionnaire, and data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The results revealed a statistically significant effect of normative thinking, strategic thinking and interpersonal thinking on PSB through behavioural mediators, with no significant effect of systems thinking and anticipatory thinking. These findings highlight that sustainability competencies do not uniformly translate into behaviour and indicate the importance of behavioural activation mechanisms in converting learning outcomes into practice.
The use of Digital Financial Technologies (DFTs) as a form of making transactions and purchasing goods and services is becoming increasingly common among young people in developing countries. Extending the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this paper investigates the adoption of online payment by undergraduates in Sri Lanka, extending TAM by introducing Trust and Security (TS) and Awareness (AWA). The factors used in the research model are Perceived Usefulness (PER), Perceived Ease of Use (EAS), Trust and Security (TS), Awareness (AWA), Attitude toward Use (ATT) and Actual Usage (ACT). This research model is used to analyze the factors that influence the students directly and indirectly. Data were collected from 367 university undergraduates of University of Jaffna in Sri Lanka. This study was used a structured online self-reported questionnaire, and were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4.0 modeling tool. The results show that all four independent variables (PER, EAS, AWA, and TS) had a meaningful and positive effect on ATT. However, PER and EAS were not directly related to ACT, except through the ATT path. This indicates that besides ATT, users' awareness, trust and security perceptions were important in influencing undergraduates' behavior regarding their online payment adoption. Thus, online payment initiatives aimed at undergraduates should include education among the trust of its use, ease of use, and security to convince users to adopt the technology. An extended TAM model may have wider implications for understanding how students in developing countries adopt online payment technology, assist banks and fintech in implementing strategies to encourage cashless payment adoption in emerging markets.
In many healthcare systems, allopathic services provide both preventive and curative care. With the growing adoption of Health Information Management Systems (HIMS) in the curative sector, the need for robust data governance is increasingly evident. However, comprehensive frameworks remain limited, and existing literature lacks depth. This study explores key domains and strategies for implementing effective data governance in curative sector HIMS, particularly in resource-constrained settings. A mixed-method approach was used in three phases. Phase 1 involved a literature review to identify existing data governance domains and strategies. Phase 2 employed qualitative interviews with 15 purposively selected stakeholders (medical administrators, clinicians, informaticians, nurses, and healthcare assistants) in the Western Province to uncover current data governance challenges. Phase 3 used the Nominal Group Technique with six experts to validate and refine the framework based on earlier findings. The literature review revealed eight domains and 50 strategies. Thematic analysis of interviews identified seven critical data governance issues in clinical systems. Expert validation confirmed 49 strategies as essential, leading to the development of a comprehensive framework for data governance in Sri Lanka’s clinical HIMS. The proposed framework addresses all key components of data governance and is adaptable for use in other low- and middle-income countries. The study highlights a significant knowledge gap among stakeholders and the presence of information silos, suggesting a need for targeted training and further investigation. Future studies should incorporate patient perspectives to enrich the framework.
In the digital era, social media has become the primary socializing platform for consumers, encouraging brands to establish strategic touchpoints through social media content. Social touchpoint content plays a vital role in shaping consumer perceptions and achieving marketing objectives. This study examines the impact of social touchpoint content on brand loyalty among millennials in Sri Lanka’s e-tailer industry. Millennials represent a tech-savvy generation with high purchasing power and relatively low loyalty levels; therefore, understanding their behavior is essential for sustainable revenue generation. The study is grounded in attachment theory, which conceptualizes brand loyalty as an emotional bond similar to that between a child and a caregiver. Trust is identified as a critical mediating factor, and brand trust is incorporated into the research model based on prior literature. Data were collected from 384 Sri Lankan millennials using purposive sampling based on their preferred e-tailer brand. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLSSEM) with SmartPLS software was applied due to non-normal data distribution. The findings reveal a relationship between social touchpoint content and brand loyalty, with brand trust partially mediating this relationship.
In the contemporary world, celebrities are often regarded as role models. This phenomenon significantly influences purchasing within the retail fashion sector. The current study aims to assess the influence of celebrity endorsements on customer purchasing intentions within Sri Lanka's fashion retail industry. The study employed an online, standardised questionnaire to gather data, which was then analysed using SPSS version 26. The analysis results reveal that celebrity endorsement has a positive influence on customer purchase intention, with customer trust acting as a significant mediating variable in this relationship, and Trustworthiness emerged as the most influential sub-dimension. Although existing literature has explored this relationship, findings have been contentious, and a noticeable gap remains regarding the mediating role of customer trust in the relationship between celebrity endorsement and purchase intention, especially in the Sri Lankan context. The current research can be extended to other industries and contexts by incorporating mediating and moderating factors such as word of mouth (WoM), customer perception, and corporate social responsibility (CSR).
While there have been many explorations on the determining factors of foreign exchange rates, hardly any literature has been carried out to explore the moderating role of political stability in these relationships. This study explores the most influential macroeconomic drivers of the foreign exchange rate in Sri Lanka explicitly examining the role of political stability in the macro fundamentals-exchange rate nexus. Employing monthly data of foreign reserves, workers' remittances, trade deficit and tourism earnings from 2013–2022 and applying Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), the study tests the exchange rate dynamics within a crisis economy context. The findings show that foreign reserves, workers' remittances, and trade deficit are good predictors of foreign exchange rate in the short run, whereas the tourism earnings has no statistically significant impact in the Sri Lankan context. Further, findings reveal that political stability directly affects the exchange rate, and more interestingly, moderating the effects of other macro variables on exchange rate, by reducing the pass-through from foreign reserves, strengthening the effect of remittances, and buffering the effect of trade deficit in the short term. These findings highlight the significance of structural imbalances and institutional fragility in determining exchange rates behaviour in emerging economies in ways that are less common in stable economies. In conclusion, conducive macro environment together with credible political governance helps strengthen the currency. From policy perspective, the efforts contributing to institutional credibility, external financing strategy, remittance channels, and minimizing temporary foreign reserves accumulation are suggestive.
This study measures the impact of supervisor emotional intelligence and supervisor personality on employee job anxiety with the mediating effect of job resources. Conservation of resource theory has been used to highlight the relationship between job resources and employee job anxiety. The study is based on machine operators of apparel companies in Sri Lanka and data has been collected from 218 sample of machine operators from the selected companies in apparel industry. The findings of the study have suggested that supervisor emotional intelligence and supervisor personality negatively impact on employee job anxiety by suggesting that supervisor is vital factor in determining employee job anxiety within organization. Further results highlight the negative mediating effect of job resources between the impact of supervisor emotional intelligence and employee job anxiety and supervisor personality and employee job anxiety. As mentioned in the conservation of resource theory the findings of the study suggest that job resources negatively impact on employee job anxiety.
This research aims to identify the factors preventing intra-family succession, investigate incumbent opinions and evaluate the lack of formal succession planning among family-owned SMEs in Bangladesh. This study employed a quantitative approach and 250 purposively selected incumbents of family-owned SMEs were given a semi-structured questionnaire in person. The survey data was analyzed using binary logistic regression. This study explored various issues associated with succession planning that affect the attitude of incumbents regarding the choice of a successor. These, among other reasons, hamper intra-family succession and have meant the absence of any formal succession strategies that pose a danger to the sustainability of family businesses of SMEs in Bangladesh. The study is narrowed down to a survey sample of 250 family-owned SMEs within the context of Bangladesh. It may not be able to cover the entire population of family-owned SMEs worldwide. The incumbent, who is the primary respondent of the research, may not provide an unbiased opinion. The study focuses on the incumbent-related factors preventing family business succession since formal succession planning is necessary to provide smooth transitions that would be sustained in the business. This study is an empirical assessment of the impediments to the effective family business succession in the developing country of Bangladesh. It can offer some insights into what thwarts family-owned SMEs.
Though the poultry industry of Sri Lanka is essential for food security, economic growth, and employment, it faces challenges in maintaining high-quality standards amidst heightened global competition. Alpha, one of the largest poultry producers, currently experiences temperature inconsistencies in its scalding tanks, leading to over-scalding, compromised meat quality, and direct financial losses. This study employs a qualitative case study approach targeting quality assurance officers at Alpha’s plant. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with seven respondents, including QA officers, managers, and technical staff, providing rich but context-specific insights. The small purposive sample limits generalizability and is explicitly acknowledged as a limitation, suggesting that future studies could include multiple plants and mixed-methods approaches for a stronger evidence base. Analysis revealed that manual temperature monitoring, equipment issues, and operational factors were key contributors to inconsistencies. The study recommends adopting an IoT-based system for real-time temperature monitoring, automation, and error reduction, while considering potential barriers such as cost, technical skills, and infrastructure limitations. These findings illustrate innovation in quality management and provide practical guidance for the poultry industry in Sri Lanka and similar developing economies.
Employee engagement and retention are critical to organizational success, as engaged employees are more productive, innovative, and committed, fostering a positive culture and improved customer satisfaction, while retention ensures workforce stability by reducing turnover costs and preserving institutional knowledge. Together, these factors enhance performance, morale, and organizational resilience. Accordingly, this study examines the impact of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices on the retention of non-managerial employees in a selected private bank, with a particular focus on the mediating role of employee engagement. The study seeks to identify the HRM practices that most significantly influence employee engagement and retention and to provide practical insights into organizational decision-making. The research was conducted in a private banking network in the Colombo South branches of Sri Lanka among non-managerial employees. Data was collected through an online questionnaire distributed to a convenience sample of 140 employees, of which 116 responses were received. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 25.0, applying multiple regression analysis and the Hayes SPSS Process Macro to test mediation effects. The findings indicate that rewards and compensation are the most influential HRM practices affecting employee retention. In addition, HRM practices positively influence employee engagement, which mediates the relationship between rewards and compensation and employee retention.
Green innovation is critical for addressing the sustainability challenges faced by the garment industry. As Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) plays a crucial role in nurturing such innovation, this study investigates the influence of GHRM practices on green innovation, with a special emphasis on the moderating role of environmental values within the garment industry of Sri Lankan. GHRM, defined as activities aimed at fostering environmentally conscious employees, is crucial for the sustainability of industries like the garment sector, which significantly contributes to Sri Lanka’s GDP and employment. The study addressed a research gap by investigating the underexplored interactions between GHRM practices and environmental values, an area frequently overlooked in existing literature. Employing a positivist paradigm and hypothetical-deductive approach, data collected from 268 HR professionals in five leading Sri Lankan garment factories in the Western Province. The analysis, conducted using SPSS, to confirm the normality, validity, and reliability of the collected data. Accordingly, the study suggests implementing comprehensive GHRM practices and development of a strong environmental culture is essential for promoting green innovation. Further, future research could examine other moderating variables as well as the long-term influences of GHRM on performance of organization and sustainability of organization.
This study investigates the role of emotional appeals of love, humor, happiness, and excitement in shaping students’ decisions to enroll in non-state universities, offering critical insights for enhancing institutional marketing strategies within a competitive higher education landscape. In a context, where state universities are traditionally favored for higher education, such as in Sri Lanka, non-state universities may face the challenge of distinguishing themselves through innovative branding. The study involved a quantitative, cross-sectional survey of 350 prospective students in the commercial capital, with multiple regression analysis used to assess the impact of these emotional factors on students’ intentions to enroll. Findings reveal that out of emotional appeals, love, humor, and excitement significantly influence admission decisions, with love identified as the most impactful factor. Conversely, happiness showed no significant effect, underscoring the need for relational and dynamic emotional appeals in private university advertising. This study addresses a critical gap in higher education marketing by examining the underutilization of emotional advertising in student recruitment strategies. By focusing on Sri Lanka, a context where emotional appeals in education marketing remain largely unexplored, the research provides novel insights for private universities aiming to optimize institutional performance and competitiveness.
Small and medium-sized enterprises play an important role in the economic health of Sri Lanka. Concurrently, the contribution of tourism is vital for its socioeconomic and sociocultural development. There appears to be a vast opportunity for improving gross development product growth by strengthening the business performance of small and medium-sized tourist hotels (SMTHs), since rapid growth has been observed in those accommodation establishments during the past few years. Such entities are currently in the process of regaining lost market share due to the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic and other macroeconomic challenges. Conversely, effective communication efforts for key global source markets are vital, and Instagram is considered to be an important social media network to use. It facilitates photo-centric activities to connect with people and share important content online. Less acceptance of social media networks by digital immigrants is considered a negative aspect. The main objective of this research is to assess the relationships of perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) with the attitude toward using (AU) Instagram in SMTHs in Sri Lanka. This study is a survey-based, cross-sectional quantitative study, and the SPSS Statistics 20.0 software package was relied upon for data analysis. A total of 59 SMTHs have been selected as the sample, and simple random sampling has been employed for data collection. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was employed as the base model guiding this research. Moderate positive correlations have been recorded, indicating statistically significant linear relationships between PU-AU, PEU-AU and PU-PEU. 33.9% of the variation in AU is explained by the movements in PU and PEU.
Management (SCM) by enhancing visibility, coordination, and performance across global networks. This systematic literature review examines the impact of information systems on supply chain performance, analyzing 67 peer-reviewed articles published between 2019-2024. Following PRISMA guidelines, this study synthesizes current knowledge on how digital technologies including Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing influence supply chain operations. The results demonstrate that information systems significantly improve supply chain performance through enhanced visibility (92% of studies), operational efficiency (85% of studies), and collaboration (78% of studies). However, implementation challenges including data security concerns (91% of studies), organizational resistance (78% of studies), and high costs (72% of studies) persist. The findings contribute to both theory and practice by providing a comprehensive framework for understanding IS-SCM relationships and offering strategic guidance for organizations pursuing digital transformation in their supply chains. This research establishes a foundation for future investigations into emerging technologies and their supply chain applications.
Technology-based collaborative tools provide a promising strategy to boost student engagement. Yet understanding how these tools impact student engagement and their combined effect, especially in higher education, is underexplored. Thus, this research examines the impact of multiple, technology-based learning tools on student engagement in a course offered to undergraduate students at a selected university. Furthermore, how the students’ attitudes towards technology moderate these relationships was also investigated. The research utilized a quantitative approach, using a standard questionnaire and collecting data from 123 students enrolled in a ‘Business Innovation’ course at the given university. The findings indicate significant positive relationships between the use of technology-based collaborative learning tools and student engagement. Furthermore, students’ attitude towards technology was also found to moderate these relationships. The findings contribute to the field of education technology, offering a comprehensive understanding of how a combination of multiple technology-based tools can impact student engagement. It underlines the significance of considering student attitudes towards technology when designing and planning these learning tools. The findings encourage investment in resources as well as training to support the effective utilisation of technology-based teaching and learning tools in the classroom.
IT project failure is a prevailing issue in the IT service providing landscape which impacts organisations across the world, causing losses, leading to customer attrition, and preventing them from reaching opportunities. While there are numerous reasons for IT project failures, a significant contributor to IT project failure is linked to pitfalls of pre-sales of such projects. This research investigates the pre-sales pitfalls, proposes strategies for their effective mitigation and corrective actions. Adopting an interpretivist paradigm, the study qualitatively explored pre-sales pitfalls and their impact on project delivery through semi-structured interviews with 12 IT project management professionals, aiming to answer three key questions: What are the common pre-sales pitfalls causing challenges for project managers during the project management phases of IT projects delivery? What strategies can be employed to mitigate pre-sales pitfalls and enhance project success rates? Why assessing pre-sales pitfalls is important at the start of project lifecycle of IT projects? Several common pitfalls were identified through 12 interviews conducted and validated with documents analysis, which hinder project success by causing various factors. The study also outlines strategies to mitigate pre-sales pitfalls effectively highlighting early project manager involvement, leveraging past experiences, and conducting risk assessments. Further, it stresses the importance of assessing pre-sales pitfalls early in the project lifecycle to prevent challenges and improve project success rates, stakeholder satisfaction, and proactive organizational actions.
Organizational knowledge is in two forms as Explicit and Implicit. The explicit knowledge contains the codified knowledge which is articulated, documented and transferred. The implicit knowledge, popularly known as the Tacit Knowledge among the scholars, is the personal experiences, intuition and expertise accumulated within the employees. This qualitative study identifies the importance of tacit knowledge in the Sri Lankan Banking Sector, its being lost and implications. The study also aims to explore the factors affecting tacit knowledge loss, the impact to the customer relationship and operational efficiency of the industry. Firstly, it traces the vast literature on organizational knowledge and tacit knowledge and identifies the salient themes of the subject area. Secondly, the study focuses on primary research of the industry. Human Resource Professionals and senior operational officers of the banking fraternity become the population. Accordingly, seven participants representing above fraternity were selected as the sample. The primary data gathering involved seven interviews being conducted among the sample participants. A thematic analytical model including themes and codes such as dynamics of employee turnover, knowledge documentation, formal knowledge transfer process etc, was used in analyzing the data gathered through semi structured interviews. Finally, a comprehensive home-grown model in the light of established theories has been developed for the effective tacit knowledge management in the industry.
