Browsing by Author "Maduwanthi, B.C.H."

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    Analysis of Present Status and Production Forecasting of Potato Farming in Sri Lanka
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019-02) Weerasinghe, L.R.; Niranjan, F.; Wijetunga, C. S.; Maduwanthi, B.C.H.
    Potato is one of the most important cash crops in the upcountry Sri Lanka where majority of farmers depend on it as their main livelihood. Despite its importance to the economy, Sri Lanka mainly depends on the importation of potato from low cost producing countries which is a huge burden to the government. Under this background, this study aims to analyze the present scenario of the potato industry in Sri Lanka with a view to forecast the potato production of future. The Box Jekins Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) time series model has been employed for forecasting the potato production and production data obtained from Department of Census and Statistics for the period of 1997-2017 were used. The descriptive analysis shows that self-sufficiency ratio in potato has not improved over the past few decades and there is a 5.28% import dependency. Moreover, potato importation bill has increased over the years from 1.30 billion LKR in 1997 to 5.44 billion LKR in 2017. In the meantime, 6.78% increase in cost of production over the last two decades has been resulted in farmers reluctant to continue potato farming as their livelihood. Among the inputs, seed cost contributed to the highest share of the total cost of production. In spite of that profitability of the potato farming has been increased by 7.81% (Department of Agriculture) over the years. The study also revealed that the best models are ARIMA (0, 0, 1) and ARIMA (2, 0, 0) for future forecasting. Therefore, this forecast would be useful for the policy makers to foresee the future requirement and the government to take measures to enhance the production capacity to cut the burden on country’s food import bill.
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    Evaluation of Tea Center Concept: A Study of Customer Satisfaction with Special Reference to Hayley's Plantation Sector
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019-02) Jayawardhana, M.P.A.T.N.; Maduwanthi, B.C.H.; Mahindarathne, M.G.P.P.; Gamage, A.T.
    Tea Center concept is emerging in Sri Lankan tea industry as an innovative business model to attract new set of customers. However, in today’s competitive market attract new customers and retain them mainly depend on customer satisfaction. Therefore, this study examines what factors contributing to high level of customer satisfaction towards Tea centers while identify potential strategies to enhance customer satisfaction. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 300 respondents from Tea Centers of Hayley’s plantation sector and pre-tested, self-administrated structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Ordered logit regression analysis, Chi-square test and multiple response analysis were performed to obtain results. The results revealed that product quality, service quality and price fairness significantly affect to the customer satisfaction. Most influential reasons to attracted customers for tea centers are; to have best quality tea & to buy made tea product, higher potential to buy organic tea. Further, results revealed that most of the respondents are preferred to participate recreational activities, factory tour and tea tasting sessions. Marketers in tea centers can be used above identified potential strategies to capture the market while enhance the satisfaction of customers.
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    Impact of Brand Awareness on Consumer Purchase Intention with Special Reference to Sri Lankan Tea Brands
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2021) Priyadarshana, K.M.D.A.; Mahindarathne, M.G.P.P.; Maduwanthi, B.C.H.; Dissanayake, S.D.
    Tea is the most widely consumed, most popular, and lower-cost beverage in the world next only to water. Sri Lanka is one of the top tea-producing countries in the world. Apart from the export market, the local market is also critical to sustain the tea industry. At present, a number of tea brands are available in the local market creating huge competition among them. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of brand awareness on the consumer purchase intention of local consumers. Referring to the literature, the brand equity model that explains the relationship of brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand association, and perceived quality with the purchase intention was selected as the conceptual framework of this study, and a structured questionnaire was developed accordingly. In this study, the primary data were collected from 200 consumers in the Colombo district of Sri Lanka selected via non-probability convenience sampling. Data were analyzed using descriptive and regression analysis. The regression results showed that brand awareness and perceived quality have a positive significant relationship with purchase intention whereas brand loyalty and brand association do not. According to the results, the study stresses the importance of creating brand awareness, thus the tea traders should use appropriate marketing communication tools to raise brand awareness. Further, the perceived quality of tea revealed to be significant so that the tea traders take this into account in developing their products. Keywords: Brand Awareness; Brand Association; Brand Loyalty; Local Tea Market; Purchase Intention; Perceived Quality
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    Leadership Behaviour and Its Impact on Employee Job Performance: the Mediating Role of Organizational Commitment
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2016) Maduwanthi, B.C.H.; Mahaliyanaarchchi, R.P.
    The leadership role is a necessity in any organization. This study builds on theoretical argument that has dominated the field of organizational behaviour for many years that leadership behaviour directly suggests the competent and committed employees in a firm and organizational commitment has significantly positive effect on employee's job performance. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of supervisor leadership behaviour on employee job performance while investigating the mediating role of organizational commitment on relationship between leadership behaviour and employee job performance. Data were gathered using cross sectional survey strategy. Sample size was 220. Data were collected using, (a) individual semi structured interviews (b) adaptations of House's Path Goal Model of Leadership with Perceived Leadership Behaviour Questionnaire (PBLQ) and Meyer and Allen's Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). Pearson Correlation analysis was employed to assess the correlation among three variables. Sobel Goodman mediating test was carried out to find out the mediating effect of organizational commitment. Results revealed that supervisor leadership behaviour s and organizational commitment of operational level employees are having a positive correlation. Further, it was found that directive and achievement oriented leadership behaviour s are negatively correlated with affective commitment whilst positively correlated with continuance and normative commitments. Further, supportive and participative leadership behaviours are positively correlated with all three types of commitments. Moreover, affective, normative and continuance commitments were positively correlated with employee job performance. Organizational commitment significantly mediated the relationship between supervisor leadership behaviour and employee job performance. Extensive training programs to develop above leadership skills of supervisors and give proper guidance to adopt appropriate leadership style according to the situation is immediate action in order to sustain and retain the competent labor force within the company and enhance the performance of operational level employees and formulating recruitment policy is a long term strategy. Keywords: Path goal leadership behaviour, Job performance, Organizational commitment, Mediating role
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    Remittances, Expenditure Pattern & Gender: Evidence from Urban Sector of Sri Lanka
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019-02) Senarathne, R.A.T.K.; Dharmadasa, R.A.P.I.S.; Maduwanthi, B.C.H.
    Migrants’ remittances take an important position in Sri Lankan economy while it significantly affects people’s livelihood, social processes, and economic development in individual household. However, none of research has carried out to reveal expenditure pattern especially within the households in urban sector of Sri Lanka. Therefore, this study examines migrant remittances on expenditure pattern of households in urban sector of Sri Lanka. Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) conducted by Department of census and statistics in Sri Lanka 2009/2010 period was used as the secondary data in this study. Urban Sector migrant data set comprises 893 households. Fractional logit models were used within the Engle’s curve framework to investigate how the gender of the household head and remittances effect expenditure pattern. Results reveal that, within male-headed household, internal remittances spend more on food while allocate least expenditure on other ad hoc purchases such as transport and entertainment expenditures while international remittances spend more on health while spend less on education. Further, results suggest that within female-headed household, internal remittances spend more on housing expenditure while spend less on education. On the other, female-headed household spends international remittances more on housing expenditure while spend less share in education expenditure. Finally, the study concludes that head of the household play a significant role in the remittance’s allocation on food, housing, health & other expenditure.
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    Site-specific Fertilizer Application in Paddy: Implementation Guidance for Policy Makers of Sri Lanka
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Wimalaweera, H.S.N.L.; Ayoni, V.D.N.; Maduwanthi, B.C.H.; Herath, H.M.S.K.
    Application of correct dose of fertilizer is vital to replenish the soil nutrients, which are lost due to continuous cultivation. The Department of Agriculture has identified site-specific fertilizer recommendation as a strategy to supplement the nutrients based on the properties of specific soils and it is more suitable than the existing blanket fertilizer recommendation. However, a controversial issue still exists on the ‘’optimal use’’ of fertilizers. Among different views, soil practitioners believe that the soil test-based fertilizer recommendation is the best in terms of maximum utilization of fertilizers and cost cut-off. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyze the farmers' perspectives on site-specific fertilizer application and to estimate the farmers' willingness to pay for soil testing. A survey was conducted in 2017 and data were collect from 110 farmers in Polonnarwua and Anuradhapura districts following a multi-stage random sampling. Eleven different statements on farmer's perspectives with five point Likert scale were assessed by factor analysis, which was followed by a multiple regression. Farmer's willingness to pay for a soil testing was elicited using Single-Bounded Dichotomous Choice questions (3 bid values; based on value of soil test kit) of Contingent Valuation Method and estimated using probit regression. The results of the study revealed that, the farmer's perspectives were significantly associated with age, education, training received and type of district. The estimated marginal willingness to pay for a soil test were Rs. 347 and Rs. 302 for Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura, respectively, while age, farming status, farming experience and per hectare fertilizer cost, type of district and the bid value significantly influenced the decision. Further, with the incremental bid value, farmer preference for paying a soil test decreases and also the trainings received has a significant influence on the positive perception on the technology. The policy implications highlight that training can enhance the diffusion and adoption of the proposed technology in the targeted community.