Browsing by Author "Fernando, P. I. N."
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Item Identifying Barriers in Commencing Own Business: Evidence from Hospitality and Tourism Graduates in Sri Lanka(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Milinda, H.K.K.; Fazana, S.F.; Fernando, P. I. N.Tourism has become a booming industry in Sri Lanka in recent decades. As a result, higher educational institutes such as universities tend to focus their attention on the development of tourism industry by offering various tourism related courses. These courses have been designed to create graduates who will reinforce tourism industry in a proper manner by considering contemporary requirements and the output of these courses will be directly or indirectly involved with the tourism industry. As a result, graduates are coming up with new business ideas which in turn to help the development of Sri Lankan economy. But there is a lack of start-ups in this sector though the new business ideas arise from tourism graduates. Understanding common start-up problems can help entrepreneurs to find the right path. Hence a study was carried out to identify the barriers in commencing own business who has been already followed up hospitality and tourism courses in Sri Lanka. Among the population of students who have already followed up tourism related degrees, 120 graduates in three universities namely, Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka and Rajarata University of Sri Lanka were selected as the sample using the convenience sampling technique. Data was collected using self-administrated questionnaires. They were analysed using Principle Component Factor Analysis Method. Results revealed that three major factors affect as the barriers to start a business. They are aversion to risk, socio cultural influence and negative perception. Further they overlook on the competition in the market and avoid preparing business plans and tend to find jobs in the industry. Study also revealed that to mitigate such type of barriers, obtaining the attention of financial institutions, which reinforce the upliftment of tourism graduates through the universities, build up positive perception toward entrepreneurship by conducting different programs.Item The Impact of Brand Exposure through Brand Ambassador on Consumer Purchasing Intention in Sri Lanka (With Special Reference to Millennial Audience)(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019) Withanage, O.S.; Fernando, P. I. N.; Fernando, A.G.N.K.With the increasing competition in today’s market, it has become a common practice to use brand ambassadors to endorse brands without being restricted only to celebrity endorsement. Unlike celebrity endorsers who merely appear on advertisements, brand ambassadors represent the company in public as its employees. Companies may often have certain doubts whether they can have a large reach and a positive influence over the marketing process, as they are being signed for a large sum of money. Since most researches have been focused on the celebrity endorsers’ impact over consumer behavior, this study’s objective is to assess the impact of brand exposure through brand ambassador in terms of ambassadors’ gender, credibility, attractiveness, endorsement type and multiple product endorsement on consumer purchasing intention. The sample of this study is 200 millennials from Colombo district, selected using stratified sampling and mall intercept technique who purchase products endorsed by brand ambassadors. A questionnaire was used to collect primary data and analyzed using SPSS software. The results obtained implied that there exists a weak positive relationship between overall brand ambassador endorsements and consumer purchasing intention. It was also observed that endorser gender, endorser credibility, endorser attractiveness and endorser type have weak positive relationships with consumer purchasing intention and a weak negative relationship with multiple product endorsement. Hence it can be concluded that all the dimensions have a significant impact on consumer purchasing intention in Sri Lanka. Further, according to the regression model, endorser credibility was identified as the most influential factor for consumer purchasing intention. Thus, it is recommended that when selecting brand ambassadors, marketers should be more focused on the expertise of the endorser which makes him/her credible for the marketing of the product or service than other attributes.Item Impact of Microfinance Services on Growth of Micro Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (With Special Reference to Micro Small Medium Scale Enterprises in Kalutara District)(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019) Rathnayake, K.M.N.D.; Fernando, P. I. N.; Fernando, A.G.N.K.Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSME) sector has been identified as an important strategic sector to create economic and societal sustainability in Sri Lanka. The sector is playing vital role in economic growth, regional development, employment generation and poverty reduction in emerging economy of Sri Lanka. The Micro Finance Institution (MFI) have been developed the variety of services to assist the financial and non- financial needs of the entrepreneurs including credit, saving, leasing, insurance facilities and training programs. The research developed to address knowledge gap which was raised from literature. Therefore objectives derived to explore the impact of microfinance services on growth of MSMEs and explore the impact of micro credit, micro savings, and training on growth of MSME. Further study explores the effect of mediator on growth of MSME through Microfinance services. Sample has been derived from Kalutara district and 100 numbers of respondents have been selected through the random sampling method. Primary data has been collected and administered through questionnaire. The data were analysed using descriptive analysis, correlation coefficient analysis, Regression analysis, Baron and Kenny mediator analysis method and Sobel test. The findings revealed the positive relationship between Microfinance services and growth of MSMEs. Mediator analysis and the Sobel test identified that experience level partially mediate the relationship between the microfinance services and growth of MSMEs. Study recommends to government implement different tax policies for this sector, increase the investment on infrastructure in rural areas and this enable MFIs to maintain lowest rate of interest, increase their outlets in rural areas and to deliver more effective on training programs in order to empower the MSMEs in Sri Lanka to achieve long term sustainability in Sri Lanka.Item Study the Impact of Destination Attributes on International Tourist Satisfaction in Uva Province as a Tourist Destination(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Srilal, H.A.I.; Fernando, P. I. N.Tourist satisfaction has been identified as a key performance indicator in the tourism industry. Uva province is not attracted by many tourists as their tourist destination even with a vast collection of tourist voluminous collection of tourism possibilities. Therefore, it's very critical to investigate the current level of tourist satisfaction and the relationship between destination attributes and tourists perspective in order to gain in-depth understanding of tourist’s satisfaction in the Uva province. This study focused on the evaluation of the relationship between destination attributes and tourist satisfaction with special reference to the Uva province. Destination attributes are the independent variable and under that, there were six sub independent variables. Tourist satisfaction was the dependent variable and below that there were two subs dependent variable. There were mainly three objectives based on this research and those to identify the existing level of tourist satisfaction and destination attributes in Uva province, to identify the relationship between destination attributes and tourist's satisfaction and to recognize most significant attributes influence on the satisfaction of tourists in Uva province. A sample 150 tourist was drawn using judgmental sampling. Primary data were collected using selfadministrated questionnaire. Data were analyzed by using SPSS. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression were used to analysis the data to achieve objective of the study. Finding revealed that there is a strong positive relationship with destination attributes and tourist satisfaction. Further finding reveal that destination attraction, accessibility, amenities and ancillary services are significantly influence on tourist satisfaction while available packages and activities are not significantly influence.