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Purpose: There is a resistance in the adoption of e-commerce in certain parts of the world even though most successful businesses in the world has successfully adopted e-commerce to their businesses gained an increasing success. The study aims to find the crucial factors affecting to the adoption of e-commerce by using the evidence of retail sector in Sri Lanka as a developing nation. Methods: The targeted population for the study was the retail sector registered as Small and Medium Enterprises in Colombo District. Adopting stratified simple random sampling technique, the study selected 200 SMEs in Colombo District who are engaged in retail sector. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Five dimensions namely adoption of e-commerce, perceived benefits, computer literacy, government support and technology infrastructure were measured by using a Likert scale measurement items, acknowledging the prior studies. Findings: The results revealed that computer literacy, government support and technology infrastructure had significance influence on e-commerce adoption of SMEs in Sri Lanka even though perceived benefits had less impact on e-commerce adoption. Implication: It has been realized that Sri Lankan government support and intervention is necessary to build speedy technology infrastructure in order to encourage the usage of e-commerce as government support and technology infrastructure share a significant correlation with e-commerce adoption.

Aim: Online shopping is the most popular feature around the world as well as in Sri Lanka. People are tending to do online shopping by using those social media and also by using online shopping websites. As well as most of the business organizations try to use online shopping to sell their product and to increase their market. The objective of this research is to assess the factors influencing customer satisfaction while doing online shopping. Further, the study tested the moderating effect of income level on the relationship between factors influencing customer satisfaction on online shopping. Design: This study used the deductive approach and research design was based on quantitative and cross sectional. The targeted population for this study is customers living around the Colombo area, those who have internet facility in their living place or working place. The sample size was 380. The survey method is employed to collect data through a standardizes questionnaire. The selected dimensions (customer satisfaction, convenience, security, website functionality and customer service) were measured by using a Likert scale measurement items, acknowledging the prior studies. Findings: According to the survey findings of this study, Convenience, Web site functionality, Customer service have significant influence on customer satisfaction on online shopping. The results also indicated that the income level has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between Convenience, Web site Functionality, Security and Customer service and Customer satisfaction on online shopping. Implications: According to the findings of this study online retailers can identified that their consumers are more concern about the website functionality, customer service, and convenience of the online shopping. Therefore, online retailers can develop their website by adding more functions which will be helpful and easy for the customers and they can further improve their customer service at the prior purchase level as well as at the post purchase level in order to attract more customers and retain the existing customers with their business.

Scholarly attention on environmental literacy has been increased in recent years since the knowledge level and interest in environmental issues are decisive to engage in environmental protection functions. The study aims to investigate the environmental literacy level believing that understanding the level of environmental literacy will lead to influence attitudinal changes and actions of undergraduates towards environment. Total number of 650 Bachelor of Commerce undergraduates in state universities of Sri Lanka were selected as the sample of the study. A self-administered structured questionnaire was administered to collect data on the environmental literacy level, the interest and the activity engagement in environmental activities of the respondents. The regression-based path analysis was performed to examine the relationships among the constructs. Based on the descriptive analysis, there was low level of environmental literacy of the selected undergraduates in this study. The overall level of interest in environmental issues and the level of engagement in environmental activities were moderate. The regression-based path analysis indicated that environmental literacy as well as the environmental interest were significant predictors for environmental engagement. Further, interest in environmental issues mediated the relationship between the environmental literacy and the actual engagement in environmental activities. The study exclusively examined the relationship between the undergraduates' knowledge level of the environment and the interest in environmental issues and also examined the factors that influence undergraduates' participation in activities that promote sustainability of the environment, which has been neglected by prior studies. The results facilitate to recommend that the degree programmes should be integrated with environmental areas where such knowledge could lead to promote the interest and the action towards the environmental activities. Keywords Bachelor of Commerce undergraduates, Comparative study, Environmental literacy, Sustainability

Development of agribusiness sector entrepreneurship is one of the critical pathways to obtain high economic growth, poverty reduction and environmental protection in developing countries. Gaps remain towards understanding the entrepreneurial behaviour in agribusiness in developing countries. This is driven for research opportunity to underlies the formation of farmers’ entrepreneurial behaviour, with a particular focus on the development of farm entrepreneurship in developing context. Drawing upon the capability approach, the study examines what capabilities influence to explore opportunities and implement them into action and how those identified capabilities influence entrepreneurship growth in agribusiness sector in Sri Lanka. The study adopted an inductive qualitative case study approach to gathering data from the farmers. The analysis produced 17 actions denoted by the selected farmers. These 17 actions were then related to 04 pillars of capabilities conceptualized by literature; organizational learning, communication, sharing and exchanging knowledge and technological capabilities. Drawing upon the capability approach to explore capabilities that require to pursue and develop entrepreneurial opportunities, this study is offered a new perspective on entrepreneurship theory. The study was the cross-sectional and it was only about three cases, signifying a need to include other agribusiness sectors for further contextualizing the results.

Purpose: This paper analyses the moderating effects of farm owner’s gender and business intention which could impact on the resource-capability-competitive advantage linkage in agribusiness. The study adopts the resource-based view in combination with dynamic capabilities. Design: The sample of the consisted of the farm owners who have experience in commercial cultivation of minor export crops in Sri Lanka. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Findings: Based on the data collected from 456 farm owners, results of the multiple regression analysis suggest farm owner’s business intention has moderating effects upon the relationship between resources, capabilities and competitive advantage. However, statistically significant moderation effect of farm owner’s gender on the relationship between resources, capabilities and farm’s competitive advantage was not reported. Research implications: The result gives positive sign that gender is not a constraint factor to gain competitive advantage at firm level and psyche of the leaders regarding their business intention which can lead to enhance the link between resources, dynamic capabilities and competitive advantage. Originality: The literature gap in competitive advantage literature by highlighting the potential roles of gender and business intention play in the resource-capability-competitive advantage interaction has been addressed. The results provide practical implications for policy makers, government and local communities with regard to selecting suitable resources and integrating them with proper capabilities for greater competitive advantage of the agribusiness sector.

Purpose: Agricultural e-commerce can assist in overcoming notable challenges and inefficiencies in the agriculture supply chain especially in developing countries. The aim of the study is to identify barriers to sustaining and further developing an E-marketplace in the agricultural sector in Sri Lanka. Design: An exploratory qualitative research approach was used to provide an in-depth overview of adopting and sustaining an e-marketplace. Data collection was carried out using semi-structured individual interviews amongst mass producers and buyers of fruits and vegetables as well as an e-marketplace developing institution in Sri Lanka. As this is a qualitative study, non-probability sampling techniques were used. Sample for mass producers was selected using the snowball sampling approach. Criterion sampling approach was used for the selection of bulk buyers of fruits and vegetables and the e-marketplace developing institutions. Thematic analysis was employed. Findings: The study found that while farmers and buyers both expressed an interest in joining an e-marketplace in the future, they had expectations that must be fulfilled to do so. Unawareness about its existence and the processes behind an e-marketplace was a major barrier common to both farmers and buyers. Further, both farmers and buyers were satisfied with their current process and therefore felt no need for an alternative and therefore would not join an e-marketplace unless that process is supported to an extent. Further, quality, transportation, certifications, and low mobile phone signal were considered major concerns and barriers. Developers face difficulty in acquiring necessary funding to invest in sustaining and further developing the platform. They also believe the absence of a method to guarantee quality and to resolve problems between participants requires an immediate solution. Further, as majority of the farming community is technologically illiterate, developers must account for this issue when developing the platform. Research Implications: The findings of this study provide valuable knowledge necessary to increase the farmers’ and buyers’ adoption of an e-marketplace in agriculture which has been named as a high priority solution, by the Department of Agriculture in Sri Lanka, to solve the agricultural problems currently being faced. Originality: The literature scores in developing context are limited to exploring the e-marketplace adoption in the agriculture sector. This study has deepened the authors’ understanding by investigating farmers’ and buyers’ perspective on the adoption of an e-marketplace for agriculture.

Data Analysis and Findings 91 4.1 Overview of Pilot Survey Results 91 4.2 Data Analysis of the Study 95 4.3 Validation of Measurement Properties 98 4.4 Path Coefficient 105 4.5 Bootstrapping 108 4.6 Findings of the Study 112 4.7 Summary 120 5. Discussion 5.1 Overview of the Findings of the Study 5.2 Assessment of Literature Review and Findings of the Study 5.3 Managerial Implications 5.4 Further Research Insight