Editorial Note
Abstract
Editorial Note
The Editorial Board of the Asian Journal of Marketing Management (AJMM), affiliated with the Department of Marketing Management, Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka, is pleased to present Volume 5, Issue 2. This issue brings together six peer-reviewed contributions that reflect the evolving nature of marketing and management scholarship in an increasingly digital, technology-enabled, and socially conscious environment. Collectively, the articles examine how emerging technologies, changing consumer behaviours, customer experience, and inclusive organisational practices are reshaping contemporary markets and service systems.
The issue opens with the growing importance of digital technologies in supply chain transformation. Sewwandi et al. (2026), in “Mapping the Knowledge Landscape: A Bibliometric Analysis of Blockchain in Supply Chain Management,” provide a comprehensive bibliometric synthesis of Scopus-indexed publications published between 2014 and 2024. Using Biblioshiny in RStudio together with the PRISMA framework, the study maps the intellectual development of blockchain research in supply chain management. The findings identify three major research clusters: blockchain foundations and distributed ledger technologies; applications in supply chain operations and logistics; and governance, trust, and performance implications. Importantly, the study highlights sustainability, circular economy practices, and the integration of blockchain with technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things as promising areas for future research.
Building on the broader digital transformation of business, Dinuka and Asanga (2026), in “Examining Consumer Switching Behavior Towards Digital Payments: A Push-Pull Mooring Perspective,” shift attention from technology acceptance to consumer switching behaviour. This concept paper proposes the Push-Pull-Mooring (PPM) framework as a behavioural lens for understanding consumers' movement from cash payments to QR-based digital payments in Sri Lanka. Perceived inconvenience and perceived risk associated with cash represent push factors, attractiveness of QR payments represents a pull factor, while switching costs and inertia constitute mooring factors. The proposed framework therefore conceptualises digital payment adoption not simply as the acceptance of a new technology, but as a behavioural migration from an existing payment practice to an alternative. The paper further opens avenues for examining merchant adoption, additional behavioural factors, emerging concerns such as privacy and cybersecurity, and cross-country applications of the PPM framework.
The third contribution extends the issue's digital transformation perspective into the domain of accessibility and healthcare services. Abeysinghe et al. (2026), in “When AI Meets Accessibility: How Perceived Ease of Use Mediates and Disability Type Moderates Healthcare Website Usability,” investigate the role of AI-powered accessibility features in improving healthcare website usability among differently abled users in the Colombo District. Based on a quantitative cross-sectional survey of 106 respondents and analysed using PLS-SEM, the study demonstrates that AI-powered accessibility features do not exert a significant direct effect on usability. Instead, perceived ease of use fully mediates this relationship, while disability type moderates the relationship between accessibility features and usability. These findings reinforce the importance of moving beyond a one-size-fits-all approach and designing digital healthcare platforms around the specific needs and experiences of different disability groups.
The fourth article turns to digital consumer experience and satisfaction. Perera et al. (2026), in “An Empirical Study of Customer Satisfaction in Online Cosmetic Purchases in Sri Lanka,” examine the determinants of customer satisfaction among 392 undergraduates with previous online cosmetic purchasing experience. Drawing on Expectation-Confirmation Theory (ECT), the study evaluates product quality, product price, payment methods, and convenience. All four factors were found to have significant positive relationships with customer satisfaction, with product quality emerging as the strongest predictor, followed by convenience, product price, and payment method. The regression model explained 62.4% of the variance in customer satisfaction. The study consequently highlights the importance of quality assurance, reasonable pricing, secure payment systems, and convenient digital shopping experiences in developing successful online retail relationships.
The fifth contribution examines customer satisfaction in financial services, focusing on the life insurance sector. Jayalath et al. (2026), in “Key Determinants of Life Insurance Customer Satisfaction in Emerging Markets,” investigate customer awareness, policy type, insurance company reputation, and claim settlement as determinants of satisfaction among 385 life insurance policyholders across Sri Lanka. Using proportionately stratified sampling and quantitative analysis, the study finds statistically significant relationships between all four determinants and customer satisfaction, with the proposed variables collectively explaining a substantial proportion of the variance in satisfaction. The findings particularly emphasise the importance of customer awareness, appropriate policy selection, organisational reputation, and effective claims settlement in building trust and sustaining long-term relationships between insurers and policyholders.
The issue concludes with a contribution that broadens the discussion of value creation beyond conventional technology and consumer perspectives to consider inclusion as an organisational and service capability. Chandratilaka (2026), in “Disability-Inclusive Employment and Company Value Proposition Enactment: A Qualitative Framework from a Sri Lankan Service-Sector Case,” develops a contextually grounded framework based on an interpretive qualitative single-case study. Drawing on accounts from employees with disabilities, peers, supervisors and managers, and customers, the study identifies five interrelated mechanisms: task–environment fit, ethical consistency, capability signalling, adaptive innovation, and internal marketing effects. These mechanisms connect inclusive employment practices with supported performance, service reliability, employee advocacy, process learning, and possible perceptions of organisational authenticity. Importantly, the study positions inclusion as a rights-grounded organisational practice rather than merely a promotional or commercial instrument, while recognising that its potential contribution to value proposition enactment depends on leadership commitment, supervisory capability, accessibility infrastructure, staffing conditions, and repeated service interactions.
Taken together, the six articles demonstrate the multidimensional transformation of contemporary marketing and management scholarship. At one level, the issue illustrates how emerging technologies are reshaping markets and organisational systems—from blockchain-enabled supply chains and QR-based payments to AI-supported accessibility and digitally mediated retail experiences. At another level, the contributions demonstrate that technological transformation cannot be separated from human behaviour. Consumer switching, perceived ease of use, customer satisfaction, trust, and expectations remain central to determining whether technological and organisational innovations generate meaningful value. The issue also extends this discussion by highlighting that value creation must increasingly be considered through the lens of inclusion, accessibility, organisational capability, and stakeholder experience.
A further connection across the articles is the movement from viewing innovation as a technological outcome toward understanding innovation as a process of value enactment. Blockchain creates possibilities for transparency and traceability, but its future relevance depends on how it integrates with other technologies and organisational systems. QR payments provide an alternative to cash, but adoption depends on the behavioural forces that encourage or constrain switching. AI-powered accessibility features provide technological possibilities, but their contribution to usability depends on perceived ease of use and disability-specific requirements. Similarly, online retail technologies and insurance services create opportunities for customer value, but satisfaction ultimately depends on whether customers perceive that their expectations, needs, and requirements are being effectively addressed.
The issue therefore provides several directions for future scholarship. Greater attention may be given to the convergence of AI, blockchain, IoT, and other emerging technologies, particularly in developing-country contexts. Consumer research can further examine switching behaviour across payment technologies while incorporating privacy, cybersecurity, digital literacy, habit, and social influence. Digital accessibility research can extend beyond visual, auditory, and motor impairments to consider cognitive and multiple impairments and can employ longitudinal and multi-district approaches. Online consumer research may incorporate trust, brand image, delivery performance, website design, influencer marketing, and after-sales service. Insurance research can further examine technology-enabled claims settlement, financial literacy, digital engagement, and trust-building mechanisms. Finally, research on disability-inclusive employment can benefit from comparative, longitudinal, participatory, and intersectional approaches that examine how inclusion becomes embedded within organisational routines and service encounters.
The Editorial Board believes that this issue contributes to the continuing development of marketing and management scholarship by bringing together technological, behavioural, service, and inclusion-oriented perspectives. More importantly, the collection encourages researchers to move beyond narrow disciplinary boundaries and consider how technological innovation, consumer behaviour, organisational practices, and social value interact in shaping contemporary markets.
We sincerely thank all authors for their scholarly contributions and for their commitment to advancing knowledge through research. We also express our appreciation to the reviewers, language editors, editorial team, and production team whose valuable efforts have supported the quality and timely publication of this issue. We hope that the articles presented in Volume 5, Issue 2 will stimulate further academic discussion, research, and practical engagement among scholars and practitioners in marketing and related fields.
Dr. Sachithra Somasiri and Mr. Dilan Rathnayake
Co-Editors in Chief (AJMM) University of Sri Jayewardenepura
