Editors’ Note
Abstract
As the Editors-in-Chief of Vidyodaya Journal of Management (VJM), Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka, we are delighted to publish the Volume 8, Issue I of the Journal. The VJM is dedicated to publishing quality and original research papers in Management and related areas. This issue contains eight research papers.
The research papers included in this issue are covering areas of impact of taxation on economic growth; influence of empathy and cynicism on green buying intention; marginal social cost and Pigouvian tax in a Ramsey setting; factors influencing savings behaviour among households; insurance companies' financial and market performance; organizational resilience; customers’ technology know-how and self-service technologies; a legal framework for data protection and privacy.
The first paper analyses the short-run and long-run impact of taxation on the economic growth using a linear Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model under two scenarios: without controlling for economic liberalization (from 1960 to 2018) and the post-liberalized period (from 1980 to 2018). The results of both pre- and post-economic liberalization conditions suggest that there is a significant long-run positive impact of tax level on economic growth. This implies that increasing taxes is a viable policy option in achieving fiscal independence without compromising growth potential in Sri Lanka.
Examining the influence of empathy and cynicism on green buying intention and the mediating mechanism of consumer ethical beliefs is the focus of the second paper. The results revealed that empathy and cynicism predict consumer intention to buy green products directly and indirectly through ethical beliefs. The study asserts that the findings particularly important for developing countries like Sri Lanka in promoting sustainable consumption which enhances environmental, social and future generations’ well-being.
The third research paper is investigating the relationship between Pigouvian tax and marginal social cost in the presence of distortionary taxes such as commodity and wage taxes in a Ramsey setting. The results indicated that the Pigouvian tax in the presence of wage tax is higher when the marginal social cost was considered a variable as opposed to a constant. The mathematical models used in this study enable to see the factors, such as homogeneity/heterogeneity of household preferences and marginal social cost assumed as a variable as opposed to a constant, that impact the dynamics in determining the optimal Pigouvian tax.
The fourth research paper approximates the socio-economic and demographic factors towards the level of saving of households in Sri Lanka using a quantile regression approach based on the Household Income and Expenditure Survey, conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics of Sri Lanka. The results showed that gender, income, education level have a significant positive impact towards the level of saving among households, whilst marital status and poverty have a significant negative impact towards the level of saving.
Insurance companies offer a range of economic and social benefits, such as minimizing the impact of losses, reducing uncertainty and fear, and creating job opportunities. Accordingly, the fifth paper critically analyzed the impact of company-specific and macro-economic factors on insurance companies' financial and market performance in Sri Lanka. The study provides evidence that the capital structure, capital adequacy, GDP growth rate, size of the company and liquidity position are essential factors that affect the insurance sector's financial and market performances.
The concept of resilience is considered to be a very promising notion for explaining how businesses can survive and develop in the face of adversity or instability. The sixth paper evaluates the phases or dimensions of the organizational resilience process and its contradictions in order to improve the understanding of this complex and embedded construct. Findings revealed that contradictions which are encountered in different phases of the organizational resilience process are paradoxical tensions. The study proposed a framework that conceptualizes organizational resilience dimensions to be managed as a paradox to enhance the understanding of the concept of organizational resilience and thereby facilitate its operationalization.
Self-service technologies (SSTs) are characterized as the technologies, provided by an organization, specifically to enable customers to engage in self-service behaviors. Exploring the customer technology know-how, customers' corrective actions in the event of SSTs service/process failures, and differences between customers in terms of service performance, technology know-how, and error corrective capabilities in SSTs are the focus of the seventh paper. The study identified four types of knowledge that SSTs users need to effectively complete service transactions: computer knowledge, SST device knowledge, internet knowledge, and language ability. Furthermore, the study classified numerous mechanisms used by customers to correct errors in SSTs as 'error preventing' or 'error recovering' mechanisms. Interestingly, the study discovered customer performance disparities among SSTs based on their level of technological expertise and error-correcting capabilities.
The eighth research paper assesses the existing legal framework on data protection and privacy in Sri Lanka by comparing the Sri Lankan legal framework with the UK and Singapore, the countries that are known as pioneers of data protection and privacy. With the comprehensive review of existing legal frameworks, the study provides a basic guideline to the policymakers in Sri Lanka on how prevailing data protection and privacy regime need to be improved as non-existence of specific/separate law to deal with data protection and privacy which is identified as a major gap in the law.
On a final note, we are grateful for the contribution of authors, reviewers, editorial board and the publisher for their continuous support in publishing of another volume and look forward to obtaining their valuable scholarly contribution for the upcoming volumes as well.
Dr. L. A. Pavithra Madhuwanthi and Dr. Vilani Sachitra
University of Sri Jayewardenepura
