Attributes of loyalty card programme membership and their influence on customers’ behavioural and attitudinal loyalty: a case of fashion retailing in the Sri Lankan context

Purpose: Loyalty card programmes are commonly used by fashion retailers with the intention of building customer loyalty and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of company financial performance. The purpose of this paper is to study whether customer loyalty depends on the loyalty membership, number of loyalty cards and gender. These questions remained unanswered as the past studies showed mixed results and even very few studies have been carried out in Sri Lanka on this topic. Design/methodology/approach: The study critically analyses the influence of loyalty card programs under three aspects; the loyalty program membership, the number of loyalty cards available, and the gender of the cardholders to find out if there is any loyalty difference between male and female customers. 250 fashion retail customers within the Western Province of Sri Lanka were conveniently selected for the sample. All hypotheses were tested using an independent sample t- test. Findings: The findings show that a loyalty difference exists between the customer being a member of a loyalty card programme and a non-member whereas no difference is shown in terms of the number of cards a customer holds and the customer’s gender. Originality: The study fills the existing gaps of knowledge and arrives at a proper conclusion on the influence of loyalty card programme membership on both behavioural and attitudinal loyalty in fashion retailing in the South Asian context whereas the majority of the studies have focused on grocery retailing (Liu, 2007and influence on behavioural loyalty aspect only (Ha, 2007). Implications: The loyalty programmes can be identified as a means of building customer loyalty. It brings other benefits for retailers such as providing opportunities for personalization and aiding in decision-making encouraging to invest on such programmes. While the present study fills the gap of knowledge regarding the attributes of loyalty programs and gender to some extent it still offers a lot of potential for future research.&nbsp

Impact of Problems associated with Supply Chain Management Practices of Wholesalers on their Business Performance in the Coconut Industry in Sri Lanka with special reference to Kurunegala District

Plantation sector plays a major role in the export sector in Sri Lanka where Tea, Rubber and Coconut have been the major agricultural export commodities. According to the Export Development Board (2018), coconut accounts for approximately 12% of all agricultural products. As an agricultural commodity, coconut must undergo a series of operations before they reach to the market. It can be observed that in every operation, practices of supply chain management (SCM) are involved.  In developing countries, especially in country like Sri Lanka, traditional supply chain (SC)s are usually involved by many players and they exercise many practices. A wholesaler is a vital player in the SC for a coconut industry. They exercise many practices when they work with the SC, especially with manufacturers and other intermediaries as well as face with many problems in performing these practices. Still whether these problems will have an impact on their business performance is a question that should be answered. However, a comprehensive search of various local and international literature revealed that the impact of problems of SCM practices of wholesalers in the coconut industry on business performance have not been studied in depth in Sri Lankan context.  Therefore, this study is designed to examine the impact of problems associated with SCM practices of coconut wholesalers on their business performance with special reference to Kurunegala district, Sri Lanka.A questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 60 wholesalers in the coconut industry in Kurunegala district, Sri Lanka. Problems cited in the literature were condensed into eight practices of SCM, namely human resource management, technology, facilities, supplier relationship management, customer relationship management, regulatory factors, geographic proximity and logistics and transportation. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and discriminant analysis. The results show that these problems discriminate the business performance of the coconut wholesalers.  KeywordsSupply chain Management Practices; problem in supply chain management practices; Wholesalers; Business Performance.     

Marketing Culture and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case in Service Firms in Sri Lanka

Literature on marketing culture stresses the importance of establishment of a cultural orientation to guide decision making and problem solving to successful implementation of CSR. The marketing culture (MC) apparently enables frms to emphasize social concern than the frms that do not have this culture. The fundamental question is whether MC has measurable impact on CSR in services organizations. Therefore, this study examines the impact of MC on the degree of CSR in the Sri Lankan context with special reference to service frms. The major objectives are to assess the degree of MC and CSR in service frms, and to examine the association between MC and CSR in the same industry. A single cross sectional design was employed to collect data through a self- administered questionnaire. The unit of analysis was the Service Firms in Sri Lanka, a sample of which was randomly selected from the registry of the Colombo Stock Exchange–2010. The proxies were the service or service related managers of the sampled frms. The analysis shows that the degree of MC and CSR varies across the service frms and that the association between MC and CSR exists and is strong.KeywordsCorporate Social Responsibility, Marketing Culture, Organizational Cultur

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND SUPPLY CHAIN ORIENTATION: AN EMPIRICAL DESCRIPTIVE STUDY IN MANUFACTURING RELATED BUSINESS SECTOR IN SRI LANKA

The challenge of cultivating or developing supply chain oriented culture is often primarily an organizational one and depends on top management leadership. Strategic leader‟s vision plays a critical role in shaping an organization‟s direction, values and orientation. He/she must first realize the significance of strategic, operational and market impact of applying supply chain oriented culture to his/her firm. Literature suggests that transformational leaders help to realign the values and norms of their organization, to accommodate and promote both internal and external change when necessary, and to influence major changes in organization members and build commitment for the organization‟s objectives. Despite the theoretical and managerial importance ascribed to the transformational leadership (TL), less emphasis has been devoted to empirically test whether or not it has direct influence over the development of supply chain oriented culture. Thus, this study attempts to address the question whether the TL style would foster a supply chain orientation (SCO) inside the firms directly involved in the supply chain. The major objective of this study is to examine the association between TL style and the degree of SCO. The study examined a descriptive hypothesis where an association between TL and SCO was inferred only. It does not examine the causal hypothesis, where the determination of degree of SCO by TL was inferred. The single cross sectional design was employed to collect data through a self administered questionnaire. Unit of analysis was the manufacturing related firms. A sample of 45 firms was randomly selected from the registry of the Colombo Stock Exchange- 2007. Results indicate an association between TL and SCO in manufacturing related organizations though the contribution of each dimension of the TL varies

MARKETING CULTURE AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: THE CASE IN SERVICE FIRMS IN SRI LANKA

Literature on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) stresses the importance of establishment of a cultural orientation to guide decision making and problem solving to successful implementation of CSR. The marketing culture (MC) apparently enables firms to emphasize social concern than the firms that do not have this culture. The fundamental question is whether MC has measurable impact on CSR in services organizations. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of MC on the degree of CSR in Sri Lankan context with special reference to Service Firms. The major objectives, of this study are (1) Assess the degree of MC and CSR in Sri Lankan Service Firms, and (2) Examine the association between MC and CSR. The single cross sectional design was employed to collect data through a self administered questionnaire. Unit of analysis was the service firms in Sri Lanka, sample of which was randomly selected from the registry of the Colombo Stock Exchange-2007. Proxies were the service or service related managers of the business firms. The analysis shows that degree of MC and CSR varies across the service firms and that the association between MC and CSR is strong.   Key words: Organizational culture, Corporate Social Responsibility, Marketing Culture, Service Firms For full paper: [email protected]

MARKET ORIENTATION AND RELATIONSHIP MARKETING IN SERVICE FIRMS IN SRI LANKA

Market orientation has been considered an important precondition for the realization and improvement of profitability, and customer satisfaction. Conceptual account suggests that market oriented firms differ from their more internally focused rivals who maintain an ad hoc, reactive, constrained and diffused stance toward their commercial environment. The ability of the market oriented firm to outperform its less market oriented competitors is based on the premise that the former can create long term superior value for the firm’s customers in comparison with the latter. However, the fundamental question arises as to whether market orientation has been instrumental for the business firms to develop their relationship marketing practices. Therefore, the major objective of this study is to examine the relationship between market orientation and relationship marketing practices in services firms in Sri Lanka. A sample of 42 service firms was randomly selected from the registry of the Colombo Stock Exchange-2007. Unit of analysis was the services firms while the proxies were the managers of the selected service firms. Self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect the data. Measurements of the constructs were developed at priory. The study discloses that the degree to which the services firms in Sri Lanka practice the RMKT varies irrespective of the nature of the service firm and that a strong association between market orientation and relationship marketing practices exists. Accordingly the recommendations were made to improve both the market orientation and relationship marketing practices in Sri Lankan service firms.   Key words: Market Orientation, Relationship Marketing and Strategic Orientation For full paper: [email protected]

Role of Strategic Leadership of a Firm in Successful Implementation of Supply Chain Management: Implications for Sri Lankan Managers

The role of strategic leadership of a firm whithin a supply chain is an antecedent to the successful implementation of supply chain management. A strategic leader of the firm should interact and work with diferent value chain within the supply chain to add and deliver value to the final customer. The most imporant roles of the strategic leader dealing with the member value chains include cultivating a supply chain orientation within the firm, designing the supply chain network structure, organizing the supply chain business process and putting supply chain practitices into effect. Managers must realize the characteristics of national culture and cultivate consistent and uniform supply chain orientation within the firm in applying the supply chain orientation and implementing the supply chain practices in Sri Lankan companies

Consumer Perceived Risk, Involvement and Risk Coping Strategies: A Comparative Study in Product-Service Purchase Situations

The literature on services marketing holds that a number of unique characteristics separate services from tangible products. These distinguishing characteristics make service more difficult to evaluate than goods and the knowledge developed from experience in physical product marketing is not sufficient to understand service consumer behaviour. From this ferment this study is designed to examine some consumer behavior related conceptsperceived risk, and consumer involvement (CI) -and risk coping strategies in service purchase situations and compare them withproduct purchase situations. The objectives of the study are (a) to examine whether the differences between product and services influence the degree of association between the perceived risk and the consumer involvement, (b) to investigate whether the differences between product and services influence the consumer s risk coping strategy selection, and (c) to discuss the strategic implications for service marketers. The study is basically an empirical descriptive in nature. A sample survey was conducted with a help of structured questionnaire to collect data. The degree of association between the perceived risk and the consumer involvement was measured by calculating Pearson correlation coefficient. And, the association between the product category and the risk coping strategy selection of consumers was tested by performing Chi-Square test. The results of the tests show that (a) there is a positive relationship between the degree of perceived risk and the consumer involvement in both purchase situations, and (b) the differences between product and services influence the degree of association between the perceived risk and the consumer involvement. The results also show that the coping strategies vary in terms of the degree of perceived risk. The study recommend that services marketers should understand degree of risk the service customers perceive, their degree of involvement and coping strategies to develop their marketing programmes

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND SUPPLY CHAIN ORIENTATION: AN EMPIRICAL DESCRIPTIVE STUDY IN MANUFACTURING RELATED BUSINESS SECTOR IN SRI LANKA

The challenge of cultivating or developing supply chain oriented culture is often primarily an organizational one and depends on top management leadership. Strategic leader’s vision plays a critical role in shaping an organization’s direction, values and orientation. He/she must first realize the significance of strategic, operational and market impact of applying supply chain oriented culture to his/her firm. Literature suggests that transformational leaders help to realign the values and norms of their organization, to accommodate and promote both internal and external change when necessary, and to influence major changes in organization members and build commitment for the organization’s objectives. Despite the theoretical and managerial importance ascribed to the transformational leadership (TL), less emphasis has been devoted to empirically test whether or not it has direct influence over the development of supply chain oriented culture. Thus, this study attempts to address the question whether the TL style would foster a supply chain orientation (SCO) inside the firms directly involved in the supply chain. The major objective of this study is to examine the association between TL style and the degree of SCO. The study examined a descriptive hypothesis where an association between TL and SCO was inferred only. It does not examine the causal hypothesis, where the determination of degree of SCO by TL was inferred. The single cross sectional design was employed to collect data through a self administered questionnaire. Unit of analysis was the manufacturing related firms. A sample of 45 firms was randomly selected from the registry of the Colombo Stock Exchange- 2007. Results indicate an association between TL and SCO in manufacturing related organizations though the contribution of each dimension of the TL varies

MANAGERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY : WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SERVICE INDUSTRY IN SRI LANKA

The discipline of corporate social responsibility has been drawing considerable attention of business firms over the last decade. Many businesses are becoming more active in contributing to society now than they used to be earlier. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues are now being integrated into all aspects of business operations, reflected in the visions, missions and value statements of a number of companies all over the world. In this case, the attitude of managers play a major role in making decisions to include CSR in the visions, missions and value statements of companies. However, no research has been carried out in the Sri Lankan context to study the nature of attitude of managers towards CSR though CSR has become important. This is a serious omission. Therefore, this gap is addressed by this study and thus the purpose of the study is to examine the nature of attitudes of managers towards CSR, and the factors that affect the attitude of managers toward CSR. The data are collected through a structured questionnaire developed based on the respective literature. Fifty (50) managers were selected representing different industries such as telecommunication, banks, education institutes, construction, trading, and textile. A sample of managers was randomly drawn from the list of quoted public companies published by the Colombo Stock Exchange. Chi-square Test, the Duncan Multiple Range Test, ANOVA and the t- test were performed to test the statistical signifi cance wherever applicable in the analysis. The results disclose that a significant portion of managers possess a favorable attitude toward CSR. Also,  most of them believe that CSR activities increase the profitability of their companies in the long-run. Further, the result shows that attitudes of different managers are similar in different businesses.  The study discloses factors such as sector, size of the organization, education and experience of managers, and common practices in the industry  that do not influence the attitudes of managers towards CSR in Sri Lanka. The finding of this study can be used by managers to design their CSR strategies. Keywords: Attitude, Commitment, Consistency, Connectivity, Corporate Social ResponsibilitiesFor full paper: [email protected]