Theses
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Postgraduate students are required to submit a thesis as part of fulfilling the requirements of their respective postgraduate degree programmes. This community features merit-based graduate theses submitted by SLIIT postgraduate students. Abstracts are available for public viewing, while the full texts can be accessed on-site within the library.
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Publication Open Access The Role of Social Capital and ICTs in Inter-Organizational Collaboration in a Developing Economy: An Empirical Study of the Finance Industry in Sri Lanka(Curtin University, 2017-09) Nawinna, Dasuni PriyanwadaIn the contemporary world of business, organizations cannot rely solely on their internal strengths to survive. Forming inter-organizational partnerships is becoming one of the most popular strategies available to an organization to share risks, resources and other capabilities with partners. Collaborative business strategies are especially beneficial in the emerging economies where organizations are constrained with lack of resources, technology, skills and infrastructure. Accordingly, explaining why and how some organizations do better in inter-organizational relationships (IORs) than others is a dominant challenge in the study of IORs. Social capital (SC) is an influential concept in understanding why and how some organizations do better in inter-organizational relationships. It is recognized as an important factor in developing relationships of trust, forming the foundation for greater collaboration and successful collective action. Social capital is a multi-dimensional, relational concept that turns into a powerful tool when combined with the network analysis approach and tools to study inter-organizational relationships such as alliances and joint ventures or collaborations of any form. While social capital has been found to support different firm-level value creations, such as creation of intellectual capital, resource exchange, innovation, knowledge sharing and performance, it has significance as the basis for the development of stakeholder relationships, which are essential to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSR is touted as a key enabler of both organizational performance and of sustainable development, which are also essential for developing economies. Information Systems (IS) researchers have increasingly become interested in exploring social capital in relation to Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). It is evident that social capital and ICT are mutually complementary in the interorganizational-level. While the role of social capital in the development or acceptance of ICTs and the role of ICTs in the formation of Social Capital is widely explored, the combined effect of SC and ICT on the IOR in developing contexts remains unexplored. Very little is known about the effect of ICT enabled Social Capital in the inter-bank context. The aim of this empirical research is to develop a model of how ICT-enabled social capital affects inter-bank strategic collaboration in a developing context, Sri Lanka. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the multiple dimensions of social capital influence the strategic collaboration in the Sri Lankan banking context, and the enabling role of ICTs. In order to accomplish this objective, the researcher uses quantitative techniques, the structural modelling approach combined with network measurements. Data is gathered through a survey of high-level management of banks and from public sources such as annual reports and web sites. The network analysis tools (e.g. ORA) and the statistical analysis methods (PLS-SEM) and tools (e.g. SmartPLS) have been used to derive results. The results of this study suggest that structural, relational dimensions of social capital have a positive influence towards the degree of strategic collaboration of banks. It is also evident that higher ICT capabilities at the firm-level strengthen the effect of cognitive social capital on collaboration. The results of the other moderation tests indicate that firm-size, age, gender-ratio of directors, ownership, geographic spread, culture, organization structure and previous experience strengthen the effect of social capital on strategic collaboration. The results of further analysis indicate that the structural social capital is influential for the corporate social responsibility of banking organizations. Both the inter-organizational collaboration and the corporate social responsibility yield higher financial performance at the firm-level. The study also provides evidence that the use of network measurements as the indicators of social capital provides better predictability in comparison to regular indicators. These findings provide a valuable contribution to the theory of social capital, literature on ICT for development and and network theory, contributing to a more holistic perspective that incorporates social, technical and organizational aspects and provides insights useful for building effective strategies in similar developing contexts.Publication Embargo An Empirical Evaluation of SQA Practices and Their Effectiveness in Sri Lankan Software Industry(2021) Weerakoon, H.M.K.Quality Assurance (QA) refers to the planned activities carried out in a system, so that quality requirements for a product or service will be fulfilled. It is the systematic measurement, comparison with standards, analyzing processes and associated feedbacks focusing on high level of accuracy. Quality assurance in software is a highly demanding and an emerging area effecting to the success or failure of a software project critically, hence an integral part of project management. The importance of sustaining a positive quality assurance is highly determined by the fact that it builds a proactive management system that reduces the rework amount, leading to low cost and improve productivity. Software Quality Assurance (SQA) domain deals with the quality principles in software engineering development processes. It defines and measures the outputs at different stages of software development process quantifying the quality in terms of defects. In Sri Lanka software industry is the fifth largest job category according to 2019 ICT Workforce survey by the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA). The objectives of this study are achieved by gathering data by consultation with IT professionals; developers, QA engineers, project managers and analyze them by the use of various statistical techniques such as, percentage analysis, chi-squared analysis and correlation analysis presenting results in suitable hypothesis and relevant interpretation. The purpose of this empirical evaluation is to explore different SQA practices across a range of IT organizations in Sri Lanka aiming to help these organizations to identify what approaches in eliminating bugs are effective and support finetuning their QA strategies in software development projects by focusing on few of important areas, such as, software testing, quantitative project management, etc. while bridging the gaps identified in various areas of project management relating to software development.Publication Embargo 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.Publication Embargo 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.Publication Embargo Occupational stress and its impact on employee health and organization: with reference to hotels based in central province Sri Lanka(2020) DASSANAYAKE, T.D.M.P.B.Work – Related / Occupational stress has been a global concern in the hospitality industry and literature. Regardless of the massive growth in the Sri Lankan hospitality industry very little is known on the area of occupational stress among employees and how it can impact the overall organizational performance. From the study, it was discovered that mainly five cases where it proved to be the reason for employee stress and how it impacts their day-to-day routines. Hoteliers indicated that they experience problems with anger management in the workplace, headaches, and the inability to focus on the day-to-day operations because of poor management, work environment issues, personal problems, and training problems which are acting as the activation key to occupational stress among hoteliers. Top management of hotels / managers most definitely should start to address the issues which are related to occupational stress. Finally, hoteliers are encouraged to have a change in the way they work daily by adding activities like Exercise, rest, sleep, nutrition plans etc., which allows them to relax their mind and increase productivity in their daily routines.