Seeking legitimacy through CSR: Institutional Pressures and Corporate Responses of Multinationals in Sri Lanka

Arguably, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of multinational enterprises (MNEs) are influenced by a wide range of both internal and external factors. Perhaps most critical among the exogenous forces operating on MNEs are those exerted by state and other key institutional actors in host countries. Crucially, academic research conducted to date offers little data about how MNEs use their CSR activities to strategically manage their relationship with those actors in order to gain legitimisation advantages in host countries. This paper addresses that gap by exploring interactions between external institutional pressures and firm-level CSR activities, which take the form of community initiatives, to examine how MNEs develop their legitimacy-seeking policies and practices. In focusing on a developing country, Sri Lanka, this paper provides valuable insights into how MNEs instrumentally utilise community initiatives in a country where relationship-building with governmental and other powerful non-governmental actors can be vitally important for the long-term viability of the business. Drawing on neo-institutional theory and CSR literature, this paper examines and contributes to the embryonic but emerging debate about the instrumental and political implications of CSR. The evidence presented and discussed here reveals the extent to which, and the reasons why, MNEs engage in complex legitimacy-seeking relationships with Sri Lankan institutions

Financial literacy

The global financial crisis has intensified the problems of over-indebtedness, especially for the poor. In this context, the microfinance industry is giving more attention to building their customers’ financial capabilities, designing products that respond to their needs and preferences, and ensuring their protection as consumers. In a world where financial products and institutions are expanding rapidly, deciding which services to choose and how to use them is an increasing challenge. That challenge is especially great for customers who are poor and have limited experience in the formal financial sector. While money-management strategies can be innovative, the financial choices they make are defined by environments where informal financial practices are dominant and the consumer is often uncertain about commercial products and services. In increasingly complex and competitive financial markets, consumers with low levels of financial literacy lack the information and tools necessary to make informed decisions. Building financial capabilities can help people move from being overwhelmed by their financial options to being empowered by them.Education, Financial literacy, global financial crisis, Microfinance,

Scandals from an Island: Testing Anglo-American Corporate Governance Frameworks

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an account of banking scandals in relation to corporate governance (CG) failures in an emerging economy, arguing that Anglo-American ideas of CG are misplaced in traditional settings. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders. Observations of annual general meetings (AGMs) and the personal working experience of one of the researchers, along with documentation, provided triangulating data on CG practices. Findings The authors have found that both of the banks studied had adopted CG practices contrary to the expectations of the Sri Lankan CG codes. Key features of CG practices that emerged from their investigations of these two scandals are ineffectual central bank regulations, familial boards of directors, ceremonial board meetings, biased auditing practices and manipulative AGMs, relying on traditional structures of accountability centred around families, kin and social networks. Research limitations/implications The authors argue, drawing on Weber (1958, 1961, 1968, 1978), that the traditionalist culture mediates the process of rationality in bank governance codes and regulatory frameworks Therefore, practices fall far short of expectations. Originality/value The paper builds on the extended critique of shareholder-centric CG models and their transferability to alien contexts. It contributes to the CG studies calling for more appreciation of the need to move beyond the conventional view of CG problems as simply down to conflicts of interests. The authors complement and advance the decoupling debate in CG studies drawing on the Weberian notion of traditionalism

Small and medium entrepreneurs’ perspective on E-commerce in eastern province of Sri Lanka

Even though there is a rapid development of social commerce, developing countries are still confronted by infrastructural and cultural issues related to the acceptance of e-commerce. Since Sri Lanka is a developing country, the acceptance of e-commerce by the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is still in challenge by such barriers; it is now applying models for the acceptance of new technologies by SMEs. The paper aims to discuss these types of issues. This research study is endeavoring to develop a model, with the ideas of existing models on e-commerce, which will be applied with Sri Lankan conditions. The data collected by a survey is composed with prior models in e-commerce area to investigate this study, and it has been empirically tested to recommend an innovative model. The findings of this research reveal that poor awareness of the advantages of the e-commerce and organizational issues lined with its applications are the reasons for most of the e-commerce obstacles in Sri Lanka. The findings and suggestions of this study, can be applicable to other developing countries as well. This paper is giving a better representation of Sri Lankan market. Lastly the paper deliberates probable upcoming guidelines of this research, as well as its boundaries. This research supports to the hypothetical basis of information systems and e-commerce acceptance studies through recommending and testing a pre-acceptance model for e-commerce. The acceptance of e-commerce in SMEs in Sri Lanka has not been considerably inspected. It is obvious that the SMEs in Sri Lanka play a significant role in its economies. The findings of this study demonstrate a substantial affiliation between organizational readiness and the acceptance of e-commerce and validate the positive relationship between readiness of e-commerce and its acceptance

E-Learnification Of Sri Lanka Higher Education Sector: Adoption Perspective

The adoption rate of e-learning is found to be in a poor state which is evident from the e-learning implementations as well as the e-learning readiness scores of Sri Lanka. The objective of this research is to develop a research model to identify factors that affect the adoption of e-learning in Sri Lanka. UTAUT was used as the theoretical foundation; however other variable extensions were included to improve the variance which the model intends to explain. Cross sectional survey was conducted with 358 responses which were analyzed using correlation analysis and regression analysis. Correlation analysis found that all variables were significant. However, anxiety was found to have a negative correlation. The model was able to explain 36.7% (R2=0.367) of variance in students acceptance of e-learning. The findings show that Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, attitude towards e-learning, Self Efficacy, Positive Facilitation Conditions, and Social Influence need to be improved to increase students’ acceptance

Advantages of corporate social responsibility concept: evidences from Sri Lanka

This is a review paper addresses the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its present contribution of the Sri Lankan context. Recently, CSR has become a topic of discussion in the Sri Lankan corporate sector. Due to the country‗s serious economic problems the people, employees, customers and other interested parties put pressure on the government and business sector to improve the people‗s social and economic livelihoods. Most of Sri Lanka‗s private companies and groups of companies are run by families, and there is little evidence to show that these companies are engaged in philanthropic activities. This review paper discussed the main contribution of the CSR in the government for the employees, general public and environment as well as the education and health. CSR is renowned and known concept in the world wide organisations. This paper objective was to identify the basic activities of CSR that was implemented in the Sri Lanka‘s organisations. Finally, it was revealed that the country‘s economic, social and environmental development has been increased and the concept of CSR is being helped to develop those development. The government and the private sector both favour the adoption of CSR concepts, and are attempting to promote the implementation of CSR programmes in Sri Lanka