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- ItemVol. 1 No. 1 - February, 2015(NSBM Green University, 2015-02-25)
- ItemTop Manager Orientation, Management Accounting Systems and Strategy Implementation: Evidence from the Sri Lankan Manufacturing Sector(National School of Business Management, 2015-06) Wijesinghe, D.; Samudrage, D.This paper examines how technically oriented top managers use Management Accounting Systems (MASs) for organizational strategy implementation in the Sri Lankan manufacturing sector. Based on the Upper Echelon Theory (UET), the researchers argue that technically oriented top managers use MASs more interactively than diagnostically and prefer the use of innovative to traditional MAS information. Further, the researchers argue that technically oriented top managers support the implementation of prospector strategy as a result of their innovativeness. In order to achieve the objectives of the study a quantitative based approach was adopted. The hypotheses were developed and tested in a survey among the technically oriented top managers in the manufacturing sector in Sri Lanka. The researchers conducted a few in-depth interviews as well. The findings of the study confirmed that the technically oriented top managers prefer the interactive style in the use of MASs and also prefer to use innovative MAS information. The results also confirmed that technically oriented top managers prefer to adopt the prospector strategy. Further, the findings confirmed that the interactive style of using MASs and innovative MAS information strongly supports the adoption of prospector strategy. The findings confirmed the applicability of UET in the Sri Lankan manufacturing sector. The findings will also aid business organizations in preparing MAS information to complement prospector strategy implementation. The paper contributes to the existing literature on UET and the role of MASs in supporting strategy implementation particularly in a South Asian, Sri Lankan setting
- ItemOwnership Concentration and Degree of Compliance with Corporate Governance Best Practices of Public Listed Companies in Sri Lanka(National School of Business Management, 2015-06) Mapitiya, G.S.; Ajward, R.; Seneratne, S.This study examines the relationship between ownership concentration and the degree of compliance with corporate governance best practices of public listed companies in Sri Lanka. Firstly, the study examines ownership concentration in terms of ownership types of fifty two companies listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) for a five-year period from 2009 to 2013 by focusing on their ultimate ownership. Accordingly, two ownership types-‘closely held’ and ‘widely held’-were identified. Secondly, to measure the degree of compliance with corporate governance best practices, a Corporate Governance Index was developed incorporating selected governance characteristics pertaining to the board of directors. The study was conducted as a quantitative study based on secondary data collected from annual reports. The study finds that the ownership is concentrated in most of the selected companies with the presence of a controlling shareholder and widely held entities are rare in Sri Lanka as in the case of other Asian countries. Further, the analysis finds that a higher degree of ownership concentration has a significant negative relationship with compliance with corporate governance practices. This indicates that the degree of compliance with corporate governance best practices is significantly lower in closely held companies than in widely held companies. Hence, the study concludes that the degree of ownership concentration in Sri Lankan public listed companies has a significant influence on compliance with the corporate governance practices pertaining to board characteristics.
- ItemResearch Note: Validating INDSERV (Industrial Service Quality) Scale in Business to Business Context: A Study Based on the Sri Lankan Hotel Sector(National School of Business Management, 2015-06) Galahitiyawe, N.W.K.; Musa, G.Service quality is generally measured on the SERVQUAL scale, developed by Parasuraman, Berry & Zeithaml (1985). However, the appropriateness of SERVQUAL is disputed as it is specifically designed for the B2C (business-to customer) context (Gounaris 2005a, 2005b, Lee 2011). Thus, Gounaris (2005a, 2005b) developed an instrument called INDSERV that specifically measures business-to-business (B2B) service quality performance. The purpose of this study is to validate the INDSERV scale in Sri Lanka as well. Cross-sectional data of service quality in the outsourcing context was collected through a survey of managers in the hotel sector in Sri Lanka using self-administered structured questionnaires. A total of 183 usable responses were collected. Unidimensionality, reliability and validity of the scale were assessed accordingly. Among the four dimensions of the scale, Hard Process Quality shows the highest contribution on the vendors’ service quality performance (β= 0.98) followed by Output Quality (β= 0.86). Statistical tests were proposed to exclude the ‘potential service quality’ dimension from the scale as it reported weak reliability (α = 0.25, all item total correlations were below 0.1). There were 22 items in the INDSERV scale and the refined model contains only 12 items. In conclusion, this study identified the need for a field survey to uncover unique factors that measure industrial service quality in Sri Lanka as it may be a reason for the contextual mismatch of a borrowed scale.
- ItemAn Empirical Study of Success Factors in Transforming Accounting and Engineering Professionals into Entrepreneurs in the SME Sector, Sri Lanka(National School of Business Management, 2015-06) Thiranagama, R. K.This paper examines the success factors in transforming Accounting and Engineering Professionals into entrepreneurs in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector in Sri Lanka. Employing a qualitative research approach methodology, twelve semi-structured interviews and three focus group discussions were conducted with entrepreneurs who have successfully become entrepreneurs in the SME sector. The findings of the study clearly indicate that personal success factors such as risk taking, need for achievement, internal locus of control, professional confidence, passion, need for recognition, need to serve society and opportunity seeking help Engineers and Accountants to emerge as entrepreneurs. It is further influenced by environmental success factors such as family background, perceived government policies, social networks and entrepreneurial culture. Moreover, it reveals that entrepreneurial engineers tend to start ventures in the field of technology whereas entrepreneurial accountants belong to various types of disciplines. The paper concludes with a discussion on the practical implications of the findings for Engineers, Accountants and national policy makers.
- ItemCharisma as a Follower-centric, Cognitive-affective Phenomenon: Initial Qualitative Evidence for the Cognitive Dimension(National School of Business Management, 2015-06) Jayakody, J.A.S.K.Taking the follower-centric approach to charismatic leadership, this paper explores how followers construct charisma. Based on in-depth data from followers representing members of the Senior Management Team and a task force of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation project of two Sri Lankan business operations, this paper illustrates that followers construct charisma through multiple cognitive processes concurrently. The paper concludes that charisma is a constellation of meanings consisting of leader prototypes, leader archetypes, leader extraordinariness and perhaps even leader group prototypes. Consequently, this paper contributes to the follower centric theory by showing the need and the possibility of taking an integrative approach to charisma.
- ItemDisaster Risk Management and Resilience: What Remains Untouched?(National School of Business Management, 2015-06) Prasanna, R.; Ahangama, N.The contemporary generation of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) scholars is increasingly contributing to the ongoing debate on applying resilience in theory and practice. Nevertheless, the theoretical foundations of resilience in the DRM context have not yet been sufficiently validated on empirical grounds. This paper produces a review of literature on the DRM and Resilience concept and recognizes unanswered questions in the body of disaster management and resilience literature. There are several theoretical and empirical research gaps recognized and several future research implications are suggested, in particular, of how disaster resilience is achieved in a multi-stakeholder environment, and how to frame the bounce forward concept in disaster. In order to add value to the context, this paper also elaborates on the research gaps specific to Sri Lanka.
- ItemVol. 1 No. 2 - June, 2015(NSBM Green University, 2015-06-15)
- ItemVol. 1 No. 3 - September, 2015(NSBM Green University, 2015-09-29)
- ItemVol. 1 No. 4 - November, 2015(NSBM Green University, 2015-11-27)
- ItemKnowledge Management for Service Innovation: A Study of Sri Lankan Business Service Organizations(National School of Business Management, 2015-12) Kariyapperuma, K.A.S.K.The world is moving fast from a production-based economy towards a knowledge-based one. As a result, organizations are becoming more knowledge intensive and are increasingly dependent on innovative knowledge to create value. Therefore, the question of how activities should be organized in order to generate and exploit new forms of knowledge is very important. The main objective of this research is to explore practice-based innovation (or how this is done) in service sector organizations. Building on qualitative data from five business service sectors, the analysis identified three work activities through which knowledge for innovation is generated, showed how they constitute a common ground for knowledge creation and redefined practice as a coherent frame for these activities. The three work activities are routine designing activities, participating in the whole flow of designing, using and reflecting in action. Further, the study explains how conventional organizing destroys this knowledge. In addition to the main findings, this research identified the key factors that influence knowledge management and innovation in Sri Lankan service sector organizations. Of clear importance are strong internal linkages, open and less hierarchical structural elements, an open and positive organizational culture, strong knowledge dissemination, the availability of an expert and skilled work force, carrying out internal R&D, technological exploration, internal systems and processes. The study makes both an empirical contribution to the emerging work on service innovation on the basis of knowledge intensiveness, and by extending a theory grounded in the existence and role of practice-based knowledge.
- Item‘I am How I Consume’: The Construction of Identity through Use of the Mobile Telephone(National School of Business Management, 2015-12) Wijetunga, D.Although identity construction has been discussed extensively in relation to consumption, such studies have also been criticised for reducing consumption objects into mere signifiers or symbols of various identities, ignoring the complex meaning construction processes of objects in use. This paper addresses this criticism, through a study of mobile telephone consumption practices in Sri Lanka, by examining how different usage patterns of the mobile telephone could play a role in consumer identity construction processes. The study focuses on three consumer groups: senior business managers, young consumers representing a high socio-economic stratum, and young consumers representing a lower socio-economic stratum. The findings indicate that consumers use differences in consumption patterns as a means of distinguishing their identities from those of others; further, varying the consumption patterns is used by consumers to manage multiple identities of the same individual.
- ItemTime-Varying Exchange Rate Exposure: Evidence From Emerging Markets(National School of Business Management, 2015-12) Jayasinghe, P.Using weekly data obtained from three emerging market economies, this study looks into the time-varying characteristic of exchange rate exposure coefficients. In doing so, unlike in some previous studies, exchange rate exposure is viewed through the eyes of an investor in the relevant country. The analysis is carried out using country-level stock indexes and trade-weighted exchange rates. Time-varying exchange rate exposure coefficients are obtained by estimating a multivariate BEKK-GARCH-M model with explicit focus on the non-orthogonality between exchange rate changes and market returns. The findings of the study indicate that, although they are likely to vary over time, exchange rate exposure coefficients of two out of the three cases follow mean-reverting long-memory processes. The presence of mean-reverting exchange rate exposure coefficients has important implications for investment and hedging strategies. In addition, time-varying exchange rate exposure coefficients turn out to be more volatile than respective market betas.
- ItemThe Impact of Situational and Demographic Factors on Ethical Perceptions of Earnings Management Practices among Professionals(National School of Business Management, 2015-12) Ajward, R.Earnings management has re-emerged as a contemporary topic particularly during and in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. In this backdrop, the two main objectives of this study were to examine whether situational factors, (i.e., nature, direction, materiality and intention of earnings management practices), and selected demographic features (i.e., gender, age, sector, employment status, tenure, educational qualifications, and professional qualifications) have an impact on the ethical perceptions of earnings management practices of professionals. For this purpose, 90 professionals from the accounting and auditing disciplines were selected and a questionnaire consisting of thirteen scenarios on earnings management administered among them. The findings of the study showed that the ethical perceptions of professionals differ according to the nature, direction, materiality and intention of the earnings manipulations involved. Further, overall, it was revealed that their ethical perceptions are not impacted by the selected demographic factors. These findings shed light on an important topic (i.e., perceptions of earnings management practices) that has not yet been examined adequately in the local context.
- ItemApplication of Six Sigma Methodology in Glazing and Printing Processes: The Case of Lanka Wall Tiles PLC(National School of Business Management, 2015-12) Kulasooriya, D.M.A.; Kumarasinghe, K.K.A.N.Six Sigma is a data-driven process of thinking to create new knowledge and skills for business process improvement. It is a buzz word in the business community today as Six Sigma thinking has gained widespread popularity as a part of business process improvement methodology. This paper presents the results of applying Six Sigma methodology at Lanka Wall Tiles PLC in the areas of glazing and printing operations. The company in its process re engineering project identified glazing and printing operations as the main processes in which defects occur regularly. In order to address the issue of production defects a five-step DMAIC framework, viz. Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control, was applied. In the define stage, the size of the problem was gauged after mapping the process by means of the SIPOC (Supplier, Input, Process, Outputs, Customer) model. In the measurement and data analysis stages, a set of carefully chosen statistical methods and problem solving techniques of Six Sigma system were applied to uncover the sources of variations (SOV). Data was collected from both the past records of production and by observation of the process for a period of 21 days. Data analysis was done using tools and techniques such as quality function deployment (QFD), control charts, cross tabulation, cause and effect diagrams and Pareto charts. A detailed analysis of the data revealed the major sources of variations for which homegrown solutions were found and implemented by the project team at the improvement stage. A cautious application of DMAIC over a period of two months resulted in a gradual and steady reduction of defects by a significant 3.3 percent giving rise to savings of approximately LKR 3.36 million per month for the company. It further revealed that the methodical and systematic application of the Six Sigma system using the thinking process of DMAIC enabled the team to identify sources of variations that had been undetected for a long period of time. The success of the experiment paves the way for further studies as well as the application of Six Sigma methodology in the manufacturing environments of all production units of the company.
- ItemNot So Silent: How Social Support is Given and Received in Dealing with Sexual Harassment in Sri Lankan Work-Places(National School of Business Management, 2015-12) Adikaram, A.S.The aim of this paper is to explore how silence, secrecy and censorship related to sexual harassment are fragmented through dialogue and information sharing among social networks, leading to different types of social support given and received. In-depth interviews with 40 respondents and focus group discussions with four groups were carried out under the qualitative research approach. The theory of social support was employed as the theoretical basis of the study. The findings indicated that through dialogue and information sharing related to sexual harassment within social networks of friends, family, co-workers and sometimes superiors, women gain and give emotional, informational, instrumental and appraisal support, emphasizing the many instances when the issue becomes open, non-privatized, and social. Stemming from these findings, implications for managers in terms of using social support as a means of dealing with sexual harassment in organizations are discussed.
- ItemThe Stronghold of Tradition and Tensions in Juxtapositions (Exploring the Sri Lankan MOD-TRADI Consumer) by Dinuka Wijetunga, 2014, Postgraduate Institute of Management, Colombo(National School of Business Management, 2015-12) Liyanage, S.; Wijayawardane, C.J.
- ItemVol. 2 No. 1 - March, 2016(NSBM Green University, 2016-03-04)
- ItemEnvironmental Management Accounting Practices and their Diffusion: The Sri Lankan Experience(National School of Business Management, 2016-06) Gunarathne, A.D.N.; Alahakoon, Y.When implementing environmental management strategies it is important to use effective accounting tools to facilitate corporate decision making. In this context, a body of accounting practices, known as Environmental Management Accounting (EMA), has emerged as an interface between management accounting and environmental management. This paper attempts to provide a snapshot of EMA practices in Sri Lanka using the authors’ experience in dealing with several industries. It presents the commonly observed EMA tools and techniques used in Sri Lankan organizations while discussing how they have been diffused through adopters and propagators. Despite the rapid diffusion, the authors do not find a comprehensive and systematic adoption of EMA in Sri Lanka. This situation offers opportunities for Sri Lankan organizations to benefit from the proper adoption of EMA in the future.
- ItemDeterminants of Young Sri Lankan Individuals’ Intention to Engage in Viral Marketing(National School of Business Management, 2016-06) Perera, I.; Dharmadasa, P.Despite the prolific growth of viral marketing, factors that determine successful viral marketing campaigns remain largely unknown. Since the extant literature postulates that individual who pass along messages play a vital role in viral marketing, this paper examines the factors that determine the individuals’ message pass along intention in light of the behavioural theory proposed by Ajzen, namely, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and the interpersonal relations theory proposed by Schutz, namely, Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation (FIRO). The data collected from 391 young undergraduates in Sri Lanka were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling method. The results revealed that perceived behavioural control, attitude towards viral marketing, subjective norms, and need for affection and need for control are influential in determining the intention among young individuals to engage in viral marketing. Thus, the findings reveal that firms may need to develop different strategies to manipulate those critical factors that affect one’s intention to engage in viral marketing so as to enhance the effectiveness of viral marketing campaigns.