Sri Lankan Context Research Articles

Improving Quality of Information: Does Integrated Reporting matter? Evidence from Sri Lankan Listed Companies

This study examines the information quality of Integrated Reporting (IR) adopted companies compared to non-adopted companies. Information Quality was measured in terms of the decision usefulness approach based on fundamental Qualitative Characteristics (QCs) of financial information. Data were collected through annual reports of listed companies of 26 IR-adopters and 27 non-adopters for 2010 (pre-adoption year) and 2019 (post-adoption year). The results revealed IR-adopters have significantly improved information quality from 2010 to 2019 compared to non-adopters. Also, there is a significant positive relationship between the information quality of IR-adopters with the number of years of experience in IR.
 Our novel QCs-based quality measurement index provides numerical measures for evaluating information quality. The study shows that IR has achieved its overall objective of improving information quality in the Sri Lankan context. Thus, it provides moral confidence for the firms expecting to adopt IR to improve their information quality in the future.

Understanding women's performance of entrepreneurship in the Sri Lankan context

PurposeThe aim of this study is to explore how women in Sri Lanka cultivate entrepreneurial personae to navigate the various gendered roles they situationally enact, as they attempt to secure legitimacy and acceptance and overcome their otherness. Drawing on Goffman's theorisation of symbolic interaction, this study investigates how gender informs the performance of entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka. In this way, the study engages with the challenges women in the Global South navigate while undertaking entrepreneurship, and it contributes to the critical entrepreneurship literature on the intertwined nature of gender and entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approachFollowing feminist standpoint epistemology (FSE), this qualitative study focuses on women entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka by examining the performance of entrepreneurship through 44 life history interviews (LHIs) and 40 Field Observations conducted over a seven-month period.FindingsThe findings reveal that women carefully cultivate entrepreneurial personae by striking a balance between entrepreneurial ideals and patriarchal social expectations around womanhood. The findings of the study present how the entrepreneurial personae are constructed by way of appearance, mannerism and setting, which presents opportunities for future research to explore the dramaturgical aspect of gender and entrepreneurship.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the growing body of feminist research surrounding women entrepreneurs, by drawing on insights from the lived experiences of women entrepreneurs in the Global South. This study also expands Goffman's theorisation of audience segregation and shows that a subject's understanding of the audience shapes their personae. A further contribution of this research is how space becomes an extension of the personae at play.

Chronological attribution of Sinhalese inscriptions using deep learning approaches

A study of this caliber can be identified as a profound source for a wealth of knowledge as the aim of this study is to present chronological attribution of Sinhalese inscriptions based on deep learning approaches. Inscriptions shed light on a multitude of information such as chronicled civilizational thought, economic status, language evolution, cultural boundaries, details of royal officers, local rules, ethnic groups, land tenure, religious activities, beliefs, and trade and industries. Inscriptions are major assets to showcase inclusive of listed above, multitude information; hence, the benefits served by a study of high caliber, especially to the historical heritage research and to the heritage tourism. Several computer-aided solutions have been proposed to resolve the recognition of inscriptions in the Sri Lankan context. But this paper proposes an optimized classification. A dataset of five hundred images of original Sinhalese inscriptions dating from the 3rd century BC to the present was used to train and test the models. This study adopts four deep learning models to classify Sinhalese inscriptions: a newly proposed convolutional neural network model, and the pre-trained models Inception-v3, VGG-19, and ResNet-50. Palaeographical and morphological rules were adopted in the manual classification of Sinhalese inscriptions into a number of eras, namely, the Early Brahmi (3rd century BC to 1st century AD), Late Brahmi (2nd century AD to 4th century AD), Transitional Brahmi (5th century AD to 7th century AD), Medieval Sinhala (8th century AD to 14th century AD), and Modern Sinhala (15th century AD to the present). The results of the study indicate promising outcomes with accuracies of 70.66%, 85.94%, 57.44%, and 58.77% respectively for used four models. Further, the study revealed that the Inception-v3 model outperformed in classifying the Sinhalese inscriptions in respective eras.

Public and patient involvement (PPI) in systematic reviews: challenges in Sri Lankan setting and recommendations for the potential way forward

Introduction: Public and patient involvement (PPI) in systematic reviews is an area of growing interest due to the importance of ensuring that research is relevant, appropriate and acceptable to the people it seeks to benefit.Objectives: To provide an overview of the rationale and methods for involving the public in systematic reviews, as well as identify common and specific challenges associated with it while carrying it out in low-resource setting in a country like Sri LankaMethods: The report begins with an introduction to PPI and its importance in health research, followed by a description of PPI involvement in each step of a systematic review. The report then explores the resources available to guide researchers on how to incorporate PPI into systematic reviews and identifies the barriers that exist to effective PPI.Conclusions & Recommendations: The report concludes by highlighting the importance of PPI in systematic reviews and the need for more work to promote greater engagement and involvement of patients and the public in research in Sri Lankan context.

Future Directions for the Use of Fluorides in the Prevention of Dental Caries in Sri Lanka: Opinion Review

Dental caries is one of the most common oral diseases that affect children as well as adults globally. The prevalence of dental caries among 5-year-old Sri Lankan children remains high, creating the need of regular well-panned preventive programs. The use of fluorides is a one of the milestones in preventing dental caries. The aim of the present opinion review is to summarize the available literature on different fluoride modalities used to prevent dental caries globally and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of those regarding the Sri Lankan context. The authors searched for systematic reviews and meta-analysis on fluorides in the prevention of dental caries where the best evidence is synthesized and summarized in this article with the opinion of the authors.

Determination of barriers in embedding environmental sustainability practices in the apparel sector of Sri Lanka

After oil, apparel is the second most polluting industry in the globe. Therefore, the implementation of environmentally sustainable practices in the apparel industry is a hotly debated topic around the globe. Sri Lanka's principal export revenue generator is the apparel industry, which accounts for more than forty percent of its export revenue. This research was conducted to identify the barriers that challenge in embedding environmental sustainability practices in Sri Lanka's apparel industry. Using a mixed method approach, quantitative data were collected via an online questionnaire survey (205 respondents) and qualitative data were collected via semi-structured interviews (30 interviews). Using universally accepted scientific methodologies, sample size, and data analysis methods were determined. The researcher was unable to locate any similar scholarly work on Sri Lanka's apparel industry, despite finding numerous studies on the same topic for other important apparel-producing nations in Asia and Africa. Consequently, five barriers, namely lack of environmental awareness, lack of financial resources, lack of management commitment and leadership, poor organizational culture, and lack of technology were extracted from the extensive literature review conducted using previous scholarly work from other countries and evaluated for the Sri Lankan context using the quantitative and qualitative data mentioned above. All these barriers were found to be pertinent to Sri Lanka's apparel industry, with lack of financial resources being the most challenging and lack of environmental awareness being the least challenging barrier. None of the respondents mentioned any other barriers apart from those listed above.

Working Capital Management and Working Capital Policies on Firm’s Value: A Special Reference to the Listed Companies in Sri Lanka

The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence between working capital management and firm value in the Sri Lankan context. This research has used pooled panel data of 475 observations from 95 listed firms across 18 sectors. Secondary data which are gathered from the annual report published by the CSE for the five years period from 2018/2019 to 2022/2023. The findings states that this model in the study explains a rise in the number of days in the cash conversion period decreased the firm's valuation by 43%. Further, working capital investment policy increases, or in other terms, the degree of WCIP’s aggressiveness rises, the firm value decreases, and increases in financing policy leads to decreases in firm value. This study includes both working capital investment policy and working capital financing policy with control variables in Sri Lanka. This research provides limited literature on working capital management, working capital policies, and firm value in Sri Lanka.

Impact of Green Supply Chain Management Practices on Triple Bottom Line Performance and Moderating Effect of Institutional Pressure

Parallel to the rapid population growth, manufacturing as one of the supply chain practices should be increased to fulfilling their requirements. Due to the advancement of industry and technology, the needs of human beings are constantly changing and the process of supplying goods and services becomes more complex. Reasoning competition and profit maximization, the manufacturing sector creates severe environmental problems and social problems as well. Under this scenario, conducting research has begun on how manufacturing should take place while conserving the environment. Accordingly, previous literature confirms that green supply chain management is the appropriate solution for overcoming environmental issues.Although several research studies have been conducted to examine this relationship, moderating effects of various pressures on this relationship have not been investigated within the Sri Lankan context. Therefore, this research aims to identify the impact of green supply chain management practices on firms’ triple-bottom-line performance and also examine the moderating effects of regulatory pressure on this relationship. A hundred large-scale manufacturing companies were selected as the sample through the purposive sampling method. Moreover, a questionnaire survey was employed for the data collection, and data was analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis using PLS-SEM software. Findings indicate that significant positive relationship between green supply chain management practices and triple bottom line performance i.e., environmental, economic, and social. Moreover, findings accentuate that regulation pressure moderates the relationship of green supply chain management practices only with environmental and social performances. This explored knowledge will encourage practitioners to implement green practices within their supply chains and it enables the country to achieve sustainable goals.

Oral Cancer Disease among the Poor: A Sri Lankan Context

Oral cancer (OC) is the 16th most common cancer worldwide. In Sri Lanka, OC is the most prevalent cancer among men and the eighth among women. In most instances, OC is preceded by clinically recognizable disorders appearing on the oral mucosa, termed oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD). The distribution of OC among low- and middle-income socioeconomic groups contributes to various factors. Poor oral health literacy, a lower quality of higher education, and the economic burden results in neglected oral health. The further economic recession has led to the formation of risk habits, such as chewing betel quid, smoking and the consumption of alcohol, among these groups to minimize stress levels. But with a lack of oral health awareness, the incidences of OC increase in this category. This review elaborates on a few cross-sectional studies conducted in various locations in Sri Lanka, discussing the low awareness of neglected oral health, the usage of tobacco in a smokeless and non-smokeless manner, consuming alcohol, and the chewing of betel nuts. This review aims to overcome the barriers in these low- and middle-income socioeconomic groups in developing nations such as Sri Lanka by creating more awareness and minimizing the incidence and diagnosis and treatment at early stages to improve the quality of life as well as longevity.

Level of Adaptation of Green Human Resource Management Practices of the Tourism Industry Companies Listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange

Green Human Resource Management is considered to have significant implications for organizational sustainability. Better application of these practices is regarded as important in improving the rate of employee retention, public image; improvement in attracting better employees, productivity, the sustainable use of resources; reduction of practices that cause the degradation of the environment; reduced utility costs; and increased business opportunities. The identified research gap of this study was, in the Sri Lankan context, there are limited researches have been conducted regarding Green Human Resource Management Practices in the tourism industry, and the study purpose was to measure the level of adaptation of Green Human Resource Management practices of the Tourism Industry companies Listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange. Practices of Green Recruitment, Green Selection, Green Training & Development, Green Health & Safety, Green Compensation Management, Green Performance Management, and Green Employee involvement were examined to measure the objective of the study. All the publicly listed firms of the tourism industry in the Colombo Stock Exchange have been selected as the study population, and 22 companies were selected as a representative sample of the industry based on market capitalization. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean score values and standard deviations of the variables, and research data found that mean score values recorded the values greater than the average mean scores of each dimension of the independent variable.

Social Success of the Women Workers in the Garment Industry in Sri Lanka: A Case of Women Workers in Katunayake Free Trade Zone

There are a number of Free Trade Zones (FTZ) in Sri Lanka, which house a variety of industrial businesses, including garment manufacturers. Most of the workers on the factory floor are women who work as machinists. Scholars highlight labor exploitation, gender subordination, and social perceptions in the apparel sector. But there is no research to explore the social success of women employees in the apparel sector. This research adds to the literature by providing empirical information from the Sri Lankan clothing industry about the success of women in the Sri Lankan apparel industry. A qualitative approach utilizing information gathered from interviews with female shop floor employees in the garment industry who work in export processing zones (EPZs). Thematic analysis was used as the analysis tool to process the research. The analysis identifies how those women workers started their careers as women machinists at a young age, and with time, they successfully adapted to the job role and the evolution of their lives through social aspects. Contrary to the social acceptance within the Sri Lankan context that women prefer government jobs, women have mentioned they prefer and that it is better to be a woman machinist. Finally, this paper concludes that women machinists have succeeded in their lives in social aspects by achieving work-life balance, well-structured families with educated children, and recognition and respect from the villagers and the whole society.

Traditional Games and the Sri Lankan Culture; Reflection of Traditional Games as a Component of Implicit Culture of Sri Lanka

Traditional games are still preserved in Sri Lankan context since it acts as a major role in Sinhala new-year season. However, the vicinity of the traditional games such as Eluwan keema (catching of goats/Goats Play), and Gudu paneema (Tip-cat game) are gradually declining due to the inception of new games for the Sinhala New Year festival by unanimous people for different objectives. Traditional games have been so far identified as a reflection of explicit culture and therefore, the main aim of the study was to understand the relationship between traditional games and culture and to reveal whether the said is a sub-section of implicit culture with the use of prevailing literature. The main concentration of this research was given to present the cultural background of traditional games created by the mindsets of our forefathers and to understand the blend of implicit and explicit cultural knowledge that guided such activities. Thorough observations of traditional games played by different parties were also observed by the researcher to narrate the implicit cultural values embedded in such games. Literature reveals that playing a game is explicit but molding a game is part of the implicit culture. Traditional games are evolved throughout the years from their inception and had changed the basics from time to time. Changes include the costumes of the participants, the equipment used, and the objective of playing such games. In-depth interviews were conducted with fifteen elderly villages. The results of this study synthesized through observation, interviews, and secondary data review established that it can be treated that the traditional games of Sri Lanka as the reflection of components of implicit and explicit culture.

Sustainable consumer behaviour in clothes disposal in the Sri Lankan context

Purpose: Interest in sustainability has developed in recent decades and individuals are being encouraged to shift toward consumption that is more socially and environmentally sustainable. Sustainable consumption encompasses the acquisition, use, and disposal of goods as a subset of general consumption. The phrase "disposal" in the context of apparel consumption refers to whether a garment is merely discarded, resold, reused, or recycled. This study investigates how consumers can be persuaded to adopt sustainable practices when disposing of clothes.
 Design/methodology/approach: The study has been conducted by using 366 respondents in Sri Lanka as a quantitative study. This study used the Fogg Behavior Model to investigate what would stimulate consumers to include sustainability criteria. There are three independent variables of the study namely; motivation- sensation anticipation, motivation-social evaluation, and ability which have tested the influence on the dependent variable sustainable clothing disposing behavior while investigating the moderation effect from the trigger. 
 Findings: The results of the study indicated that variables motivation- sensation anticipation, motivation- social evaluation, and ability have a significant positive impact on sustainable clothing disposing behaviour. Furthermore, the trigger has no moderation impact on the relationship between motivation- sensation anticipation, motivation- social evaluation, ability and sustainable clothing disposing behaviour.
 Originality: Even though clothing disposal has become a significant area for marketing research, especially in post-consumption behaviour, no research has been found on how consumers sustainably dispose of clothing in the Sri Lankan context.
 Implications: This research provides recommendations, suggestions, and insights for marketers and fashion retailers to design their strategies when introducing a novel approach like sustainable clothing disposal.
 Keywords: Clothing Disposal, Fashion, Post Consumption, Sustainable Consumption

From State to Public Service: Legal and Structural Constraints in the Sri Lankan Broadcasting Sphere


 
 
 In the contemporary world, Public Service Broadcasting plays a decisive and challenging role in creating an informed citizenry through editorial independence, diversity of content, freedom of expression, audience participation, and active democracy. However, in Sri Lanka, the opposite is true, where there are no public service media, but state-owned and privately-owned media enterprises. This paper looks at the absence of public service broadcasting in Sri Lanka, its effect on a democratic society, and its resistance to the initiative. The case study desk review approach was employed to investigate public service broadcasting in the Sri Lankan context. The study finds that in the absence of public service media, citizens tend to consume information reproduced and delivered through a hegemonic media landscape, compiled according to the agenda of radio and television station owners. Such content has been found to be devoid of professionalism, editorial independence, diversity, and pluralism, leading to misrepresentation of facts in the coverage of conflicts, controversial issues, and elections, and by extension the destruction of society. In Sri Lanka, a developing country, state-owned media must be transformed into public service media. The selfish interests of political parties, policymakers, bureaucracy, and trade unions and limited awareness amongst the public makes this task difficult. The study recommended to appoint a public commission to identify processes and actions to transform State owned media to public service media. Nevertheless, suggests to launch a public campaign that would educate the public and influence policy makers’ thinking towards liberating State owned media from government control.
 
 

State in/security, ethnicity, and tourism: mapping tourist spaces and Sri Lankan identity politics

ABSTRACT This article follows suggestions from participants in interview and mapping exercises in Sri Lanka from December 2017-January 2018 that travellers and tourists to the country should visit the former war zones in the North and East of the country. These were the primary territories inflicted by the Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009) between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils. I extend these discussions to underlying identity and ethnic politics that caused these now tourist locations to be war zones in the first place, as well as reflect how the exclusionary politics of nationalism reflects continued postcolonial anxiety and the acceptance (or not) of Islamic identities within the contemporary state. Examining an underlying nexus of security, development, and ethnic politics in the Sri Lankan context, I argue that economic relations within its tourism industry indicates the anxiety, insecurity, and limitations of the nation-state more broadly.

The Perceived Barriers to Transition to Entrepreneurship: A Case of Sri Lanka

The Great Resignation, or the Big Quit, shook the world of work, leaving it questionable whether organizations could find and retain the necessary talents. Nevertheless, the shrinking Transition to Entrepreneurship (TE) demonstrated that developing countries were less affected by this massive attrition wave. However, in the context of developing countries, the causes of thinner TE remain unknown. The current study investigated the perceived barriers to TE in the Sri Lankan context. The present study followed a quantitative approach to test the extent to which demographic, environmental, motivational, human capital, and behavioral factors are perceived as barriers to TE intention. Participants in the field survey provided the data based on a psychometric measure with a seven-point response scale. Structured Equation Modelling (SEM) analyzed the data. According to the findings, employees in Sri Lankan context are more likely to avoid transitioning from their current employment to entrepreneurship because they perceive behavioral, human capital, and demographic factors as barriers to TE. However, the prospective entrepreneurs in the Sri Lanka did not perceive motivational and environmental factors as significant barriers to TE. The implications suggest modeling TE by incorporating the identified roadblocks to TE to predict entrepreneurial penetration in developing countries.

Impact of Glass Ceiling Effect on Women’s Career Success with the MediatingRole of Women Empowerment: Perspective from Sri Lankan Hospitality Industry

This research explores the gender equality in the hospitality sector with the support of the Glass Ceiling Effect and how it applies to Women's Career Progress. Women's Career Progress. Women's career progress and women's empowerment being the dependent variable and mediator respectively, this study employed five independent variables as the key predictors of glass ceilings. Simple random sampling procedure was applied to select 123 respondents and SPSS and Smart PLS software were used to analyze the data. Research findings revealed that there is no impact of internal job mobility and organizational culture on women empowerment at 3 and above-star hotels in the Sri Lankan context due to having less P-Values than 0.05. Female representation in hotels was lower (7.40%) than male representation. By delegation of authority, fair performance reviews, training and incentives, scholarships, and flexible work arrangements are all ways to improve the qualification credentials of female employees.

THE CORRELATION IN CORPORATE DEFAULTS: EVIDENCE FROM NON-FINANCIAL LISTED COMPANIES IN SRI LANKA

Default correlation is the extent to which one company's default causes another's default. It measures the relationship between a firm’s individual default probability and the joint default probability among firms. This study makes theoretical contributions by examining the degree of default correlation among non-financial listed firms in terms of credit quality, time horizon, systematic risk, firm size, and liquidity. The researcher selected 550 firm-year observations (240 for default and 310 for non-default) consisting of 55 non-financial listed companies in Sri Lanka from 2012 to 2021. The default firms are selected using the three criteria during the selection period: suffering from losses, having negative net worth, or suffering from negative operating cash flows for more than three consecutive years. The non-default firms are selected by a couple with the default firms based on the same industry and the highest market capitalization. Altman’s (1968) Z-score model is used to determine the credit ratings as high, medium, and low. The study follows Lucas’s (1995) proposed standard binomial approach to measure the default correlation. The study revealed that time horizon, poor credit ratings, high beta, and small size increase the default correlation in the Sri Lankan context; however, liquidity is not a good measurement for default correlation analysis in Sri Lankan context. Credit risk management could underestimate the portfolio credit risk without considering the default correlation. The dynamic nature of default correlation shows that an increment in default risk of individual credit assets engages with a disproportionate increment in portfolio credit assets.

Ownership Structure, Firm Size and the Operational Risk Management of Domestic Commercial Banks in Sri Lanka

Purpose: The banking sector is a crucial player in any economy, often affected by economic and social crises. Thus, it is vital to identify the intrinsic weaknesses of banks to manage their operational risk. The recent COVID-19 pandemic also severely affects the global financial sector, irrespective of the development status. Accordingly, this study is an attempt to find out the evidence on operational risk management and its relationship with bank size and ownership structure of the banking sector in one of the developing countries in the world, Sri Lanka.Design/Methodology/Approach: Financial data of eight out of thirteen commercial banks in Sri Lanka were analyzed over 13 years using panel data regression analysis. Sri Lankan banks' operational risk management practices are measured by excess capital (over the required minimum capital for operational risk). Deposits plus advances are used to calculate the size of a bank.Findings: It is revealed a significant positive relationship between firm size and operational risk management. A significant relationship between the ownership and excess capital held by banks for managing operational risk is also identified. This result leads to the conclusion that the larger commercial banks hold higher excess capital over the required minimum as per Basel accords. Moreover, government-owned banks are recognized to have more excess capital for operational risk management.Implications: Given the high amount of losses from bad loans and the central bank's implementation of Basel III regulations, the study has implications for Sri Lankan banks.Originality: When considering Sri Lankan context there can be found only a little amount of evidence on operational risk management practices and its relationship with size and ownership.

Impact of Covid-19 on Stock Market Indices: Evidence from Colombo Stock Exchange

Purpose: The study intends to address the question, “What is the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on stock market indices in the Colombo Stock Exchange”. This would support potential and existing investors to understand the behaviour of the stock market during the pandemic to make effective long-term decisions since there are only a few studies currently available in Sri Lankan context.Design/Methodology/Approach: A log-linear multiple regression model was executed whereby the dependent variables, All Share Price Index and S&P SL 20 index, were regressed against independent variables, daily new cases and deaths reported, fiscal and monetary policy measures implemented, and island-wide travel restrictions imposed during the period to analyze the impact of Covid-19 on the financial market over 270 days, from 27th January 2020 to 30th April 2021, covering two waves of the pandemic.Findings: The regression analysis revealed a positive relationship between the stock indices and the number of daily cases and deaths and a negative relationship with the travel restrictions imposed during the period. The policy measures implemented by the Government of Sri Lanka were insignificant in the index movements. Based on the results of this study, a positive impact on the stock indices was discovered during the pandemic; hence investors should refrain from panic withdrawals from the market.Originality: This is among the few studies to analyze the stock market performance during the Covid-19 pandemic adapted to the Sri Lankan context. The variables taken in the study can cover various aspects of the pandemic situation.