Browsing by Author "Rajapaksha, A"

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Embargo
From initiations to sales: leveraging social media referral initiatives on customer willingness to participate in the cosmetics landscape in Sri Lanka
(Emerald Publishing, 2025-06-03) Jayasuriya, N; Jayasinghe, P. S.K; Rajapaksha, A; Dharmasiri, T; Sumanasinghe, D; Dasanayake, A
Purpose: Referral marketing can be identified as the commercial form used to encourage word-of-mouth (WOM) communication. It has become popular in recent times, supporting organisations to attract new customers towards making strides in how customers are pursued to purchase certain types of products/industries. However, some factors impact the success of referral marketing programmes. This study focuses on analysing the impact of such factors as brand, rewards and celebrity endorsement on user engagement in social media referral marketing programmes. Design/methodology/approach: Further, this study discusses the moderating impact of social ties on this relationship mainly focusing on the cosmetic industry. The data were collected from respondents with exposure to referral marketing programmes through the social media platforms: Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Instagram. The structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the data collected. Findings: The results of the study revealed that brand, reward and celebrity endorsement significantly impact the participation willingness of customers in social media referral marketing programmemes. Moreover, it showed that the social tie moderates only the brand impact on the participation willingness of customers, whereas it does not moderate the impact of rewards and celebrity endorsement on the participation willingness of customers. In doing so, the study looks extensively into the elements that drive or shape customer behaviour within this specific market niche by investigating the effect of brand, incentives and endorsements by celebrities on customer engagement. Originality/value: Accordingly, this study sheds light on the complex relationship among brands, rewards and celebrity endorsements, while also considering social ties within the context of social media referral marketing initiatives. It also delivers useful information for academics as well as practitioners. Limited studies have been conducted in this field, and therefore, this study adds some knowledge, also highlighting the moderation effect of social ties.
Open Access
Mini Market: Information Technology Based Support Tool for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Sri Lanka
(ICRD Publicatio, 2019-07) Thilakarathne, S; Herath, S; Rajapaksha, A; Karunasena, A
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in developing countries such as Sri Lanka in growth of an economy. Recently online platforms are being extensively used by SMEs for both marketing and selling items. In a context of keen competition among the online selling platforms, sellers are increasingly feeling the pressure for improving their sales and marketing strategies. When investigating existing problems of SMEs, we were able to find they do not have proper guidance to improve their own business. Simply, the SMEs cannot identify their own marketing level among the other competitors, they haven't any suitable guidelines to identify how they can improve their own market and they have to use manual reports to get their own sales details for visualizing their marketing level where they waste their valuable time and money for visualizing sales market outcomes. In consideration of this, we propose a web system, that examines the effects of three categories in this system, i.e. Seller trustworthiness, analyze customer's emotions, feelings, thoughts, and opinions through Social media (Facebook) and sales prediction component. This system facilitates a multiple seller platform, where they can dynamically manage virtual shop inside this platform. It increases their stability and it will provide directions to overcome economic and unemployment barriers in our country. The results support our research hypotheses partially. The findings of this study are expected to provide some suggestions for sellers on promote and improve of their sales
Open Access
Smart Airport: A Review on Future of the Airport Operation
(Global Journals, 2020-02-22) Jayasuriya, N. A; Rajapaksha, A
Smart Airport concept is the future of Airport operation and it may dramatically change the industry towards modern technology adaptation. This study mainly focuses on the Smart airport applications in to passenger terminal process. Literature scattered on different sources have been summarised to explain the features of smart airport with practical cases in global context. Empirical indications on implementation of the smart airport applications discussed based on practical implications of airport operations. Special attention given to the cases of the best performing major airports in Asia, Middle East & Europe. This study contribute to the field of academia and industry by identifying the advantages of smart airport implementation under the key areas of Aviation Security, Passenger Convenience, Operational Efficiency and Optimizing Limited resources. Further implantation methodology under passenger, baggage handling & regulatory controls have been discussed in this paper. Finally key challenges in implementation of the smart airport concept has been addressed and concludes with empirical justifications highlighting future research priorities on implementing the concept.
Open Access
Social Media Referral Marketing and Consumer Engagement in Sri Lanka's Cosmetics Industry: Unravelling the Moderating Impact of Social Ties
(SLIIT Business School, 2023-12-14) Rajapaksha, A; Sumanasinghe, D; Dharmasiri, T; Dasanayake, A; Jayasuriya, N; Jayasinghe, P
The aim of this research is to examine the influence of many variables, including brand, rewards, and celebrity endorsement, on consumer participation in social media referral marketing campaigns in the cosmetic sector. Furthermore, this study investigated the moderating effect of social ties on the influence of these factors on consumers' propensity to participate in referral marketing initiatives. A self-administered survey questionnaire was utilized to collect a total of 384 responses from individuals in Sri Lanka who utilize WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Linkedin. The researchers employed a convenience sampling strategy to choose the sample. The researchers conducted the final data analysis utilizing a structural equation model. The findings of this study indicate that the influence of brand and rewards on customer willingness to participate is greater compared to the impact of celebrity endorsement. Furthermore, based on the findings, it can be concluded that the presence of a social tie moderates only the impact of brand on customer willingness to participate, and it does not moderate the impact of rewards and celebrity endorsement on customer willingness to participate. This study corroborates certain findings from prior research while also presenting contradictory outcomes. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.