Browsing by Author "Fernando, A. L."

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A Conceptual Review on Impact of Green Practices on Green Brand Equity: With the Moderating Effect of Consumer Traceability Knowledge
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka, 2023) Fernando, A. L.; Dissanayake, A. G. M. D. C.
A rapid increase in the implementation of green practices can be observed by companies to support sustainability objectives with the rise of environmental concerns. In today's cutthroat market, green brand equity (GBE), which represents a brand's perceived environmental friendliness, has emerged as a crucial component. Consumer traceability knowledge, which measures how well customers can track the environmental impact of a brand's products, is still not well understood in the context of GBE. Even though previous researchers have focused on the relationship between green practices and green brand equity, this research specifically seeks to determine the moderation effect of consumer traceability knowledge between the variables of green practices and green brand equity. The deductive research approach is adopted by the researcher, which is a formal and top-down way of conducting research based on existing literature. The researcher gathers primary data through a questionnaire to test the research study, hypothesis, and constructs. The researcher intends to use SPSS 25 to analyses the data, applying the hypotheses to the simple regression analysis and the Hayes process model. This study expects to yield several expected findings. One of the main anticipated results is that a company's green brand equity and the implementation of green practices are positively correlated. It is anticipated that the study demonstrates how consumer traceability awareness modifies the link between green practices and green brand equity. This study underlines the critical function of Consumer Traceability Knowledge as a moderator and the value of Green Practices in boosting GBE. It underlines the significance of transparency in building positive consumer views and offers insightful information for firms looking to develop sustainable brand equity. This study advances green marketing and sustainability strategies by thoroughly analyzing these dynamics, empowering businesses to successfully negotiate the shifting consumer environment of eco-consciousness.
Impact of Country of Origin on Product Evaluation: Examining the Moderating Effect of Reference Groups with Special Reference to Automobile Brands in Sri Lanka
(Department of Marketing Management, Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka, 2021) Fernando, A. L.; Dissanayake, D. M. R.
Due to rapid globalization and reduction in trade barriers, world markets witness entry of cross-border brands into their markets. This made consumers to be concerned the importance of the country of origin of products which affects consumers' product judgements. Personal experiences, brand names, advertising and packaging are used to make implicit and explicit references to a country. Previous studies had investigated the effect of COO on consumer behaviors. This study aims to measure the impact of COO on automobile evaluation and effect of informative and normative influence on product evaluations on par with the research gaps claimed. A survey was carried out among 221 respondents followed by a convenient sampling method. The Regression analysis and Hayes process model were incorporated in order to test the hypotheses. The findings proved that there is a significant relationship between COO and product evaluation. It further explicated that Reference Groups have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between COO and product evaluation. The findings will be insightful for consumer durable importers in general and specifically for automobile industry to improve COO perception on foreign-made vehicle brands. Alongside, this study contributes managerial implications as one of the very few studies conducted on the impact of COO towards automobile brand evaluation in the Sri Lankan context.
Optimization of monoplex and multiplex PCR assays to detect meat species and adulteration of meat products in the Sri Lankan market
(Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, 2018 Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Kothalawala, S. D.; Karaliyadda, S.; Fernando, A. L.; Karaliyadda, M.; De Silva, V.
Meat identification testing, detecting intentional adulteration of meat and detecting meat contamination due to poor processing practices are essential to ensure good quality of meat products. Incidence of meat adulteration, product mislabelling, commercially motivated adulteration and contamination of meat products with undesired or forbidden meat species have been reported in some countries. In Sri Lanka, religious and cultural views are one of the primary determinants of choice of meat consumed. Therefore, the necessity for a rapid, sensitive reliable and reasonably cost effective assay that can determine the quality of meat products is high. Even though this need exists, no such reachable methods are currently available to the Sri Lankan meat producers to determine and certify the quality of their products. PCR based DNA methods are the gold standard in food species identification due to its less time consumption, specificity and sensitivity. The present study optimized monoplex and multiplex PCR assays to detect the meat species and to detect any adulterants or contaminants present in meat products. DNA was isolated by high salt TNES extraction method, from samples of raw meat and processed meat obtained from retail outlets in Colombo. The isolated DNA was amplified using PCR which demonstrated the specificity of the adopted primers to each species of raw meat. Mixtures of meat DNA were then subjected to optimized multiplex PCR; chicken-pork and beef-pork assays to detect each of the types of meat present in the mixture. Processed products of chicken (5) and beef samples (5) were subjected to these optimized multiplexes. The assay was found to be effective in determining the species of meat present in meat products containing chicken, beef and pork, clearly demonstrating species specific bands of 266 bp, 271 bp and 149 bp respectively. These PCR assays are useful in detecting main products and the contamination at the same time with reliable accuracy and specificity which can fulfil the requirement of quality testing of meat products that is important for the consumer, the meat industry and organizations that have an interest in food safety and quality. It is also economical and has wider applicability since many species can be detected with one assay. Compared to other available methods which sometimes fail to be effective when used on highly processed samples, PCR can be applied efficiently. Therefore, it is presented as a suitable assay for identification of meat species and for the detection of adulterants and contaminants in processed meat samples.