MBA

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://rda.sliit.lk/handle/123456789/2465

Students enrolled in the Master's of Business Administration (MBA) programme are required to submit a thesis as a compulsory component of their degree requirements. This collection comprises merit-based theses submitted by MBA postgraduate candidates. Abstracts are available for public viewing, while the full texts can be accessed on-site within the library.

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Theses and Dissertations of the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 29

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Adoption of e-business for the success of the fashion industry in Sri Lanka
(2020) Vijayanthi, H.G.S.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the adoption of e-business for the success of the fashion industry in Sri Lanka. It sets the light on why the public is reluctant in the adoption of e-business for the fashion industry even during the pandemic. The research was conducted from a deductive approach. Hypotheses were designed based on a rigorous review of the literature. The study adopted a deductive approach having the stratified convenience sample from several areas in Sri Lanka. The data obtained from the survey was analyzed through regression analysis to identify the impact of the variable on the adoption of e-business for the fashion industry. The study concludes that customer attitudes, customer abilities, ICT secure and awareness were the most influencing factors of adoption of e-business for the fashion industry according to the customer perspective. All previous studies referred to in this study have been carried out in the pre-COVID19 environment. The present study is also significant since the study also considers the effects of the pandemic. The study argues that the contradictory nature observed in perceived ease of use and perceived risk, security, and privacy concerns which were well established in previous studies is caused by the pandemic. The study was also significant since computer and internet literacy has not been tested in the Sri Lankan context in the near past and leads for recommendations that would enhance e-business to the successful fashion industry.
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The adoption of the Sri Lankan corporate sector towards digital banking during the COVID - 19 period
(2020) Deshappriya, S.K.
The pandemic of COVID- 19 can be cited as a serious challenge faced by the countries. Social mobility and physical restrictions imposed to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic have made it difficult for banking to function as usual. This applies to private banking as well as the corporate sector. Maintaining social distance is very important in terms of Health regulations. In such a background, it is very unfavourable to physically come to the bank branch and make transactions. Therefore, the need for working digital banking has always been acute. Banks for business and Business for banks are two indispensable sectors. Public and private banks are making strenuous efforts during this period to keep the banking business afloat. Many people think that digital banking is the best solution for this. The main objective of this study is to identify the factors influencing the Sri Lankan corporate sector to move towards digital banking. In the Sri Lankan context, there is also a research gap due to minimal publications on the subject. The quantitative research methodology has been used for this study. An online questionnaire for data collection was primarily distributed to the corporate sector. This research is based on five hypotheses. This research has been carried out by selecting a sample covering various areas of the corporate sector in the Colombo District.
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Analyzing the digitalization factors affecting to enhance service quality of the Srilankan airline
(2020-01) Viduranga, H.K.S
This study was conducted to investigate and identify all digitalization factors affecting to service quality of the airline operation. Quantitative method was carried out with sample size of 160 respondents who travelled with SriLankan Airlines. With intensive and extensive studies have identified its essential to implement some advance technical implementation for defeat with Covid 19 pandemic situation. Some of those digital solutions are very brand new concepts to SriLanka and need considerable budget as well as advance technical knowledge to implement those new norms. Therefore it’s identified some digitalization factors unable to apply as it is when compare with other profitable airlines in the industry. Due to very limited articles and journals within aviation industry in south Asian region it may lead to some kind of research gap as well. Therefore outcomes of this research are very important to take some decision relating to new digital implementation process and decision making to policy makers. The survey result indicated that airline need to make special attention to deliver good customer services to passengers for improve the service quality of the airline operation.
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Antecedents of adopting Just Walk Out groceries concept to supermarkets in Sri Lanka
(2020) Wijesinghe, W.A.N.P.
The purpose of this study is to identify the factors affecting queues in supermarkets and propose "Just Walk Out" new technology to the supermarkets in Sri Lanka and how the customer responds to this fully automated, convenient selling experience in the supermarket industry in Sri Lanka. The research was conducted fully qualitatively and with an inductive approach. Through this research, the researcher was able to identify the most important factors that contributed to the adoption of new technology by supermarkets in Sri Lanka through this research. With the responses taken, the study disclosed the background which affected the adoption of new technology in the supermarkets in Sri Lanka. A new technology is a newer concept to the Sri Lankan supermarket industry, which has not tested the factors very much yet. Therefore, the research was significant to the Sri Lankan supermarkets since the scope was required due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic requirements. For qualitative data analysis, the thematic data analysis technique was used. The researcher closely monitored the data to find out the common themes, topics, meanings, patterns, and ideas. The highly sensitive nature of the data was collected by the researcher, and trustworthiness was an essential component of the researcher-participant relationship. Through this research, the researcher was able to identify the most important factors that contributed to the adoption of new technology by supermarkets in Sri Lanka through this research. With the responses taken, the study reveals the background which affects the adoption of new technology in the supermarkets in Sri Lanka.
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Assessing the factors affecting to customer adoption for online shopping platforms in Sri Lanka with a moderating impact of culture
(2020-01) Perera, L.K.W.M.V
This Study mainly investigates the factors which directly affect customer adoption for online shopping in Sri-lanka. The researcher identified that, there is a clear gap between people who adapt and people who refused to adopt to the online shopping concept. This gap taken as the research problem. “Online shopping concept is rapidly covering all over the world and people rapidly tend to adopt it. These reasons or factors are a different person to person. There are different reasons for the adaption to use online shopping facilities. Different researches have been found different reasons for the adaptions. In many countries, this application has been used due to its easiness, time-saving advantage, Culture prevailing in the countries and etc. When it comes to the Sri Lankan context, the e-commerce business has grown rapidly in 2019, with a big percentage of shoppers stepping onto the digital platform. In this pandemic situation, people tend to doing transactions based on online platforms. Later on, people reduced their online shopping usage and again getting used to do physical shopping when the Covid -19 pandemic situation got normal for the country. Study is going to find out factors which Sri Lankan customers prefer to adapt to online shopping with a moderate impact of the culture. Since the topic is new to the sri-lankan content researcher found some similar literatures which has done to the different countries. Further The study has used the UTAUT Model, which has been proved model for technological researches. In the literature review, the independent factors identified as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influences, facilitating conditions, service quality. The dependent variable for the study is online shopping behavior adaptation and culture as the moderate variable. This research has used a mono method with a quantitative approach and data collection has been done by using a simple random sampling method. As per the Morgan table requirements of 384 sample size,384 questioners have been distributed and 355 fully completed sheets have been received with a 92% response rate. Reliability analysis has been tested with Cronbach’s Alpha method. Further Pearson correlation coefficient has been used to check the reliability analysis, in order to check the relationship among the pairs of variables. Multiple linear regression analysis has been used to check the direct relationship among the dependent and the independent variables. The moderation impact of the culture also has been checked with the SPSS software aid. With the results of the analysis researcher has found that Service Quality, Social Influence, Effort Expectancy, Performance Expectancy, and Facilitating Conditions are impacting online shopping behavior in Sri Lanka and further study has identified that effort expectancy, social influence, and the service quality has a moderate impact of the culture by achieving the main objective of the research study.
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Determinants of Exchange Rate: Evidence from Sri Lanka
(2020) Presant, .T
This present research investigated the modelling of exchange rate volatility of USD/LKR and analyses whether macroeconomic factors could influence the exchange rate. A combination of Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (ARCH) family models were used to model the exchange rate volatility. The most suitable model was determined based on the maximum likelihood criterion. To explore the presence of dynamic short-run and long-run relationships, and the impact of macroeconomic variables on the exchange rate was analyzed using the ARDL model. The empirical findings indicate that the most appropriate statistically significant model for volatility is ARIMA (1,0,0)- ARCH (1). The ARDL model suggested that a long-run relationship between the macroeconomic variables and the exchange rate does not exist. In contrast, a short-run relationship exists between exchange rate lag one, exchange rate lag two, inflation, Merchandising trade balance. Thereby, we suggest that improving the merchandising trade balance and minimizing inflation could minimize volatility in the exchange rate. The practical implications inferred from this study could influence all stakeholders exposed to foreign exchange volatility, including policymakers, importers, exporters, and financial institutions. The contribution of this research considered the most recent economic phenomena of Sri Lanka and used Gross official reserve as a variable that was not used earlier in Sri Lankan studies.
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Examine the impact of service quality on tourist satisfaction in hotel industry in Sri Lanka
(2021-11) RATHNAYAKE, R.R.M.T.R.T.
The service quality is most important factor in any service-related business. The hotels have big role to play in service quality aspect to meet the customer requirements. Therefore, the hoteliers should find ways to provide excellent and quality services and other facilities to their customers and stand out among the rivals. Service quality creates direct impacts on the guest return behaviour and company profit in the long run. In recent years, the hotel industry in Sri Lanka has become highly competitive and challenging. Most of the hotels getting customer complaints due to not providing quality services to their customers. The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of service quality on tourist satisfaction in the hotel industry in Sri Lanka with reference to Asia Leisure hotels. The SERVQUAL model has been applied to detect the quality improvement areas and tourist satisfaction based on five dimensions such as tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. This research adopted a quantitative approach and as the study mainly focused on testing the hypotheses, the deductive research approach was applied. Data were collected from 376 respondents which consisted of 34 fivepoint Likert scale questions, using a stratified random sampling technique. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS version 26. The impact of the service quality on tourist satisfaction has been studied by applying the Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis. The findings revealed that the service quality dimensions have different aspect in influencing tourist satisfaction. Assurance illustrates strongest impact on tourist satisfaction with having the highest beta coefficient value, followed by empathy, tangibility, reliability and responsiveness. This study will help managers of Sri Lankan hotels to identify the service quality areas that need to be improved and assist in related decision making to enhance tourist satisfaction.
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Factors afecting the job security of apparel industry in Sri Lanka
(2020-01) Chandrasiri, T. G. S. D.
During last year, this COVID-19 pandemic causes us a massive damage to the employment and economically business damage to Sri Lanka. Many employers laid off their employees due to their financial break due to the pandemic. People were helpless and emotionally been abused. The most hit was caused to the exporting businesses and channels. As a human resource professional, I had to witness the whole process of laying off employees from their employment. The job security was inline and cannot do anything since the there was only one ultimate reason, “COVID”. While dig down deep to job security, even before the pandemic the employees have been terminated from their employment illegally and legally. Even though the government strengthen the employment of Sri Lanka, there are so many cases are taken into the consideration at labor departments and labor tribunals daily to strengthen their employment security. These reasons have been taken into the consideration to identify the factors that affecting to the job security and how best can the employees strengthen their job security in perspective of the factors. Whenever the employees’ sense that their job security is inline this study will help them to strengthen their job security by focusing on the best alternatives and the best ways to use as shield. Or else the same can be decide which factors are the supportive factors which need to be focus more in order to achieve to improve the job security. The research will be help for both employers and employees to mark their stance when it comes to the job security.
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Impact analysis of the project manager skills on the success of agile software development projects in Sri Lanka
(2020-01) Bandara, W.G.E.C.D.
Software industry has grown at a rapid pace over the past decade in line with the changes in business environment including automation and interconnectivity in fourth industrial revolution. The business world today is highly uncertain and complex due to the rapidly changing business needs which demand the software development companies to provide faster technology solutions while still dealing with the complexity and uncertainty. Agile is one of the most successful methodologies that is highly flexible and capable of dealing with these dynamic business demands; therefore, a trending shift in the industry from traditional project models to agile can be seen. Agile replaced the traditional project management role with self-managed teams. Nevertheless, studies indicate the existence of the title ‘project manager’ in most agile projects. Although many researchers have explored the contribution of the project manager’s tasks and responsibilities in agile projects, there were only a few empirical studies which explored the contribution of the soft skills were found; especially within Sri Lanka. Hence, a quantitative study was carried out with the objective of identifying the most significantly contributing skills of a project manager towards the success of agile software development projects. Primary data was collected through an online survey conducted among the Sri Lankan software professionals. The findings revealed that leadership, communication and team building skills of a project manager have a significant impact on the agile project success. The outcome of this study is expected to be beneficial for the project managers, top management of the project organizations, agile authors and researchers.
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The impact of digital marketing on financial performance of fashion industry during the covid-19 pandemic in Sri lanka
(2020-01) Harasgama, N.M.
The fashion industry can be identified as one of the most important contributors for the economy of Sri Lanka which is contributing over 6% of the country’s Gross Domestic Production (GDP). COVID 19 pandemic has resulted higher drawbacks in the management of the applications in the organizations as the human mobility has limited. Online transactions and the purchasing have evolved in different industries as the pandemic has caused many loses in the income compared with the pre COVID era. Along with this fact, digital marketing has identified as one of the best and timely need in improving the performances of the organizations. Accordingly, it is very important to identify the corrective measures and practise in implementing the digital marketing in financial performance increasing in the fashion industry organizations. The study has undertaken with the employees who are included in the fashion industry and as the number of employees are 1000+, the sample has selected as 278 with the reference to Anderson table of sample selection. Questionnaire has been distributed among the respondents to gather the needed information and collected data are used to analyse the impact of digital marketing strategies on the financial performances of the organizations. With the 100% response rate, it has recorded that respondents in the age of 36 to 45 years represents 47.84 %. The unmarried sector has been recorded with 36 % which is nearly 100 respondents of the sample. There are 37 % of the male in the sample recording 104 respondents. It has showed that many are in the diploma qualification of the certificate qualification and it is 57 % of the sample. It has recorded that many respondents are from the organisations which is operating for 4 to 10 years and this is 32 % of the sample. 37 % are using the digital media marketing in partially effective manner and rest are using the digital marketing in rarely. With the application of the regression analysis, hypotheses testing has recorded and it is showing that digital marketing is having direct relationship and impact on financial performance of the organizations. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Video Marketing, and Content Marketing has identified as the needed applications in management of the digital marketing in the fashion industry companies where the positive relationships in 90 % and 95 % confidence intervals are representing with the higher R squared value of 0.867. Thus, 86.7 % variation is showing here. Thus, the organizations are in a timely need to consider the digital marketing strategies to increase the financial performance to gain the maximum advantages in the developments in future.
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The Impact of Existing Microfinance Practices to the Development of Entrepreneurship in University Students in Sri Lanka
(2020-01) RUPASINGHE, R.M.S.P
The major focus of this research is to see how present microfinance practices affect the growth of entrepreneurship among university students in Sri Lanka. The majority of the researchers have worked in the fields of microfinance and microbusiness development, as well as rural women's development and entrepreneurship. Microfinance methods have played a vital role in the development of the economy and the reduction of poverty in rural parts of nations such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Kenya, and Africa, among others. Even if microfinance is a broad notion, it is built on a foundation of major components and models. Microcredit, Advisory Services, and Training programs were used in this research. The research outcomes are derived from quantitative data in this study. The population consisted of university students, and the sample consisted of 384 respondents chosen at random by the researcher. Structured questionnaires consisting of likert scaled questions and questions for abstracting the general data of the participants were employed as data collection methods, and the instruments' reliability was satisfactory. Since this study is based on quantitative data, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were used to examine the data. The findings revealed that microfinance methods had an impact on university students' entrepreneurship growth. According to the research findings, the four hypothesis assertions were accepted. After all, this study concludes that existing microfinance practices can be effectively applied to the entrepreneurship development of university students in Sri Lanka as a solution to non-performing loan ratios, bad microfinance debts of microfinance institutes as well as financial institutes engaged in the microfinance industry, and the barrier that exists for university students in financing their startup businesses.
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The impact of lean manufacturing practices acceptance level on employee productivity in ABC Company
(2020-01) Gamlath, K.G.O.A.
Lean manufacturing is rapidly getting to the top of many production companies' improvement strategies in a global manufacturing environment where businesses must know how to manufacture high-quality goods at the lowest cost. ABC company has tried many times to turn into a lean culture and used lean tools and techniques. These lean implementations failed because of less acceptance level of the employees. Therefore, this paper is aimed to investigate the impact of lean manufacturing practices acceptance level on employee productivity in ABC company in Sri Lanka. The findings of this study will have a real contribution for the managers in manufacturing firms, especially in the apparel field in Sri Lanka. The literature review highlighted four independent variables to measure lean manufacturing practices acceptance. The dependent variable of the study is declared as employee productivity and there is a moderating variable as lean culture, which effect the relationship between independent and dependent variables. The study used a mixed approach by including both quantitative and qualitative approaches. In this study, primary data for the quantitative part has been collected from a survey questionnaire with close-ended five-point Likert scale questions. The reliability of the questionnaire has been assessed by using Cronbach’s Alpha. The sample size in this study was 112 and a 100% responsive rate has been achieved. This study performed multiple regression analysis to test the hypothesis by using SPSS software. The moderating effect from the lean culture has been measured by installing PROCESS macro to the SPSS software. The regression model implied that the main four independent variables have a statistically significant relationship with the dependent variable. There is a significant moderating effect from the lean culture for the relationship between lean manufacturing practices acceptance level and employee productivity. The primary data for the qualitative part of the study has been collected through eight managers in the ABC company through structured interviews. Then thematic analysis has been used to develop the themes from the transcribed interviews. In summary, the study found main eight themes which are the barriers to implementing lean manufacturing practices in ABC company. These findings have been used in making possible solutions and recommendations for the study
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The impact of the traditional vs digital marketing tools during the covid-19 outbreak, in the service market performance in Sri Lanka
(2021-11) Pranavan, R.
The researcher developed this study using a practical subject that was faced by Dialog Axiata PLC. The issue is mainly identified as a constant issue and mainly engaged with the Covid outbreak. Through the identification of the problem, the researcher outlined research questions and research objectives of the study. Previous articles which were published by scholars were used to outline the study and the conceptual framework of the study developed using specific articles. The researcher outlined the hypothesis of the study referring the conceptual framework of the study and researcher used only quantitative method as the research method of the conducted study. The target sample of the study was 200 and all responses were collected using a developed google form. The researcher used the SPSS software as the premiere analytical tool of the study and all the analysis was conducted mainly using that software. Through the analysis, the researcher found that, all independent have positive correlations with the dependent variable and it shows the positive relationship with all variables. The digital marketing tools has the highest correlation value with the performance of the firm. However, both variables have positive moderate relationship with the dependent variable of the study. In the consideration of significant impact, both variables are significantly impacting on the performance of the Dialog Axiata PLC.
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The impact of working from home on employee performance among executive and above employees who work in private sector organizations in Sri Lanka
(2020-01) Gamage, U. K.
This study attempts to identify the impact of WFH on Employee performance among executive and above employees who work in private sector organizations in SL. The research questions of the study are to see the impact and whether to identify whether employee performance is negatively or positively impacted by WFH. Employee performance, job satisfaction, employee wellbeing, work-life balance, Skills & Competency of the employee and Technological Infrastructure are considered as the independent variables while WFH is considered as the dependent variable. Due to the COVID 19 Pandemic most of the private sector organizations in SL have moved to practice the WFH concept. The researcher was considering the population as the executive and above grade employees in private sector organizations in SL where the sample was calculated as 369 by using Krejcie and Morgan formula. Also the data was collected through an online voluntary questionnaire where the researcher didn’t have any biasness on the responses as it was impossible to meet the respondents face to face. To analyze data, the researcher used the Likert scale and used the IBM SPSS software. The study conducted was cross sectional. The secondary data was also collected through online resources that were published and available. Also for data analyzing was based on univariate and bivariate methods. Where the personal and employment details of the respondents were assessed through univariate method while the variable analysis and hypothesis testing were done according to the bivariate method. The researcher was unable to collect responses from the whole sample as it was hard to get the sample respondents to fill the questionnaire as it was voluntary as well as there is no physical presence to make the respondent motivated to fill the questionnaire, but the researcher was able to collect a significant amount of data and do the analysis. According to the results of the data analysis, it was identified that each and every independent variable have a strong positive relationship with the dependent variable which also states that there is an impact to each and every factor from WFH. Also, according to the results all the hypothesis were accepted at the significant level of 0.005. Accordingly it is concluded that WFH has an impact to employee performance.
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Impact on training and development for employee productivity of blue-collar workers in Crystal Ceramics Lanka PLC
(2020-01) NILUPA, B. S.
Human Resources is the key asset that can be used to gain a competitive advantage in many organizations. Especially in a large-scale manufacturing organization, Human Resources plays a major role. Therefore, it is vital to protect the employees and take necessary actions to improve employee productivity concerning their work and what they do. However, employee performance or employee productivity can be significantly hampered when employees lack in knowledge, skills, and motivation towards performing duties or not doing their best to the ability. Large scale manufacturing organizations require skillful manpower who could handle the new technological equipment or who could understand the new processors and is willing to dedicate their knowledge and strength to achieve the targeted output. Training and Developing is one method to improve employee’s skills, knowledge, and attitudes towards the company and the work allocated. Having proper training leads the employees to perform their duties effectively and efficiently and will increase the productivity levels as well. Therefore, this study is used to analyze the impact on Training and Development on Employee Productivity of Blue Collar Workers and selected Crystal Ceramics Lanka PLC as the sources to collect data. The main objective of the study is to identify the impact of Training and Development on Employee Productivity. Also, the research uses Employee Work Experience within the industry to find out how effectively moderate the relationship between Training, Development and Employee Productivity. Through the Random Sample technique study use the Cluster Sampling method to select the sample population. The total sample population is selected as 300 samples out of 1020 workers in all three factories. A structured questionnaire was designed, pre-tested, and used to collect data from the selected sample whilst secondary data was collected through company reports and HRIS (Attendance) system. The research findings revealed that all the components tested as per the developed hypothesis showed that there is an significant impact on Training and Development to Employee Productivity as well as there is an effect on industry work experience to the relationship between Training and Development and Employee Productivity.
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Impact on Work Life Balance on Employee Performance During the COVID 19 Outbreak: A Case of IT Sector, Sri Lanka.
(2020-01) Paranagama, G.S.
In the corporate world today, every organization are facing many challenges where organizations are forces to develop strategies and goals to survive in their place as a stable organization. It is with the support of the work delivered from employees and the success of these strategies which support and strengthen the organization to sustain in the business world. As we evaluate the business context today, human resource can be considered as the most vital resource to any sort of businesses. Specially, the Information Technology (IT) Industry of Sri Lanka is considered to be one of the main streams of businesses that rely on their employees in order to be successful and productive. Organizations and establishments are currently experiencing a large number of changes in demand for the products and services that they supply as a result of the current economic environment, and they are under pressure to enhance performance in order to meet organizational goals and objectives. This has increased the need for organizations to assess their processes, organizational mission and goals, performance targets, and performance measurements, in addition to improving the way they deliver services. Presently, Work-life Balance has become fair concepts in many organizations where the management focuses more on the employee’s work and life balance aspects. It is quite evident that when employees have a balance between work and life, it can gain a healthy, happy and successful life in long term. And also, the individuals who concern about an upright quality of work balance will ultimately lead an upright quality of life. Balance of work and life activities characterized as the degree to which people are similarly occupied and happy with their both work and family and it is also proposed that work-life can be taken as a worldwide evaluation. Consequently, family requests come through work assets just as work requests come through family assets and the cooperation is viable in the two fields. Individuals who ought to have a capacity to adjust among work and family responsibilities is to look for harmony between work and life activities, just as other non-work obligations and exercises. Thus, balance of work and life activities alludes to the adaptable working plans that permit the two guardians and non-guardians to profit of working courses of action that give a harmony between work obligations and individual duties. Organizations who support in the work environment, advances to expand the degree of harmony between work-life activities through offering adaptable plan for getting work done which empowers representatives to achieve work. Therefore, work environment support has been demonstrated to be pivotal logical assets that can assist representatives with getting the things done that they esteem, including more prominent harmony between work and life activities. The current pandemic situation, the Coronavirus has massively impacted the business and organization all across the world shifting work from office to work from home (WFH). Therefore, the normal routine of workers has changed entirely, rephrasing it as the “new normal” where the office setup has changed and people are forced to WFH. Simply the Work Life Balance (WLB) can be defined as finding the right amount of taste between the life and work, and also feeling happy, healthy and comfortable with both work and family obligations. In this set up employees try to find the balance in paid and unpaid work plus personal time. But off course the technology has made it easier for the people to WFH without lacking absence.
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An investigation of factors affecting to the retirement of private sector employees in the western province of Sri Lanka
(2020-01) HAPURUGALA, H. G. S. M.
Many governments and organizations in the world are attempting to enhance the engagement of older employees in the workforce while discouraging early retirement due to skill shortage and socio-economic impact on the country and the organizations. But most of the private sector organizations still stick to the retirement age according to the Employees’ Provident Fund act as it mentions retirement in the stipulated age is mandatory to withdraw statutory funds. However, it is crucial to revamp the retirement policies of private sectors as the baby boomer generation reaches retirement without considering only the age factor for retirement. This study mainly focuses on investigating factors affecting the retirement of private-sector employees in the Western province of Sri Lanka. The participants of 323 have delivered their perspective about this subject matter through the survey distributed among 351 private-sector employees in the Western province. The findings were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. The word cloud generator was employed to analyze the qualitative findings while the reliability and ordered probit model was employed in analyzing the quantitative findings. The sample has predominantly consisted of executive, non-executive, and manager above categories without gender bias. The findings revealed that only mental health and physical health factors are affecting retirement by eliminating age and competencies in the further analysis. Further, the findings suggest that the probability of affecting physical and mental health factors to retirement increase positively when the mental and physical status of employees are stable and, vice versa. Since the older generation increases, it is better to revamp policies on retirement and develop new policies and procedures to determine retirement based on the mental health and physical health factors in organizations and governments. Looking at the factors and decisions made by various countries and organizations in relation to the retirement age which went beyond from 55 years to 65+ years as per the contemporary status in some countries, the researcher thinks administrative decision regarding this matter is necessary since the life expectancy is high in Sri Lanka.
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An investigation on factors affecting the adoption of e-commerce for small businesses in Sri Lanka
(2020-01) Ramawickrama, R. G. R
This research focuses on investigating the factors affecting the E-Commerce adoption for small businesses in Sri Lanka which is very important during the current COVID 19 pandemic. Main objectives of the research are to identify the factors and to identify the level of impact from each identified factor for the E-Commerce adoption for small businesses in Sri Lanka. Data gathering of the research done through a questionnaire distributed online among the participants and using phone calls due to the pandemic situation. The Observed data was analyzed to obtain results using Multiple Linear Regression model. As per the results, Computer/internet skills, Willingness of the owner and Customer Readiness identified as major factors affecting the Ecommerce adoption for small businesses in Sri Lanka. All three factors showed positive relationship with the dependent variable. Adoption Cost and Security risks of online transactions didn’t identify as major factors for E-Commerce adoption and the significance levels of those factors were not satisfactory. The findings obtained through the research shall be used by the government or relevant authorities to promote E-Commerce for small businesses in Sri Lanka and the factors identified shall be addressed by formulating strategies, national level policies and Ecommerce adoption roadmaps. As the Ecommerce has become the best way of doing business in many countries throughout the globe, Sri Lanka shall strengthen their economy by moving the small businesses sector to adopt E-Commerce since their contribution to the economy is high and the survival of the small businesses during a pandemic situation like this shall be ensured .
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An investigation on factors affecting the adoption of online school education in rural areas in Sri Lanka
(2020-01) Weerasena, D. W. A. S.
This research investigates rural area students’ online adoption during the fourth wave of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The main objective of this study was to identify the factors affecting the adoption of online education in rural areas in Sri Lanka. This case study was carried out based on data gathered from the online survey during the pandemic covering sixteen districts in Sri Lanka. Using the ordered probit regression model through the stepwise technique, the study investigates the factors affecting the adoption of online education in rural areas in Sri Lanka. According to the results generated, attitude, perceived use, awareness, and new technology adoption have a positive impact on student adoption of online education in Sri Lanka. Online education so far is one of the effective and feasible solutions for providing education in a pandemic situation in any country. These findings are helpful for responsible educational institutions to address and contribute to key issues such as low perceived use, poor attitude, low awareness, and poor technology adoption. The study will also assist policymakers in preparing a roadmap, at the policy level with the perceived benefits of online education during similar future crises in Sri Lanka. Finally, students in the rural areas will be benefitted.
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An investigation on factors affecting the adoption of online/digital banking products in Sri Lanka
(2021-05) Yapabandara, Y. M. A. S.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors affecting the adoption of online/digital banking products in Sri Lanka. It sets the light on why the public is reluctant in the adoption of online/digital banking products even during the pandemic. The research was conducted from a deductive approach. Hypotheses were designed based on rigorous review of literature. The study adopted deductive approach having the stratified random sample from the districts of Colombo, Gampaha and Kandy. The data obtained from the survey was analyzed through binary logistic regression to identify the impact of the variable on adoption of online/digital banking products. The study concludes that computer and internet literacy, perceived usefulness and awareness were the most influencing factors of adoption of online/digital banking products. However, contrary to literature, surprisingly perceived ease of use and perceived risk, security and privacy concerns were not found to be significantly impacting the adoption. All previous studies referred in this study have been carried out in the pre-COVID19 environment. The present study is also significant since the study also takes the effects of the pandemic into consideration. The study argues that the contradictory nature observed in perceived ease of use and perceived risk, security and privacy concerns which were well established in previous studies is caused by the pandemic. The study was also significant since computer and internet literacy has not been tested in the Sri Lankan context in near past and leads for recommendations which would enhance banking operations on online/digital banking products.