Browsing by Author "Koththagoda, K.C."

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

Customer based brand equity for empowering Sri Lanka as a tourism destination: with special reference to tea tourism
(University of Kelaniya, 2016) Koththagoda, K.C.; Thushara, S.C.
Tea tourism is one of the alternative forms of tourism which is being operated in the tea growing regions in the world. Sri Lanka also can benefit from adopting and promoting tea tourism. The main purpose of this study is to propose a practical model to empower Sri Lanka as a tea tourism destination. In this study, Keller’s constructs of the pyramid of brand equity, including brand salience, brand performance, brand imagery, brand judgments, brand feelings, and brand resonance, are investigated and their relationships with brand equity, as well as their effects on customer loyalty and satisfaction in Tea tourism in Sri Lanka are determined. The statistical population of the present study is all foreign visitors from tea estates based recreational sites in Sri Lanka. The data were collected by administering questionnaire. The sample consisted with 385 randomly selected individuals. The research hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling and the final model was confirmed. The findings of the study revealed that only the relationships between brand salience and customer loyalty, brand imagery and brand performance towards brand equity were not significant, and all other relationships were significant. Also, fit indices obtained from the conceptual model indicates that model is valid in explaining the relationships among variables to empower Sri Lanka as a Tea Tourism destination. Therefore this proposed model emphasized how marketers should design and implement the effective marketing programs to empower Sri Lanka as a tea tourism destination. In this way, Sri Lanka can be positioned as one of the attractive and more competitive tea tourism destinations in the world which in turn could make a positive impact on foreign exchange, employment oportunities and other economic factors.
The Impact of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) Service on Customer Satisfaction: A Studv Based on State Banks in Sri Lanka
(Sabaragamuwa University of Si Lanka, 2016) Weerasiri, R.A.S.; Koththagoda, K.C.
The aim of this paper is to understand the impact of the ATM service quality towards the customer satisfaction in Sri Lankan state banking sector. This research bridges the gap that exists in the current body of knowledge by investigating the ATM service qualities and their impact on customer satisfaction. It also examines the impact of demographic factors for the relationship between the ATM service quality and the customer satisfaction. Given these gaps in the literature, the research problem in this research is: the factors which influence on customer satisfaction in relation to the ATM service. To investigate the research problem, a pilot study.involving 30 state bank customers was used to check the initial reliability and validity of the constructs in the questionnaire. The fpctor analysis was employed to refine the measurement items and test the reliability and validity. The study has used the primary data of customer satisfaction survey (N:385). The data were collected using a structured questionnaire designed to ascertain the satisfaction levels. Regression, ANOVA and T-test were used to identifu the significant factors and frequency analysis was used to analyze the customer satisfaction. The ATM service qualities have a positive impact on the customer satisfaction and the demographic factors like age and educational qualification show a moderate the relationship between the ATM service quality and the customer satisfaction. This paper identified the significant factors which the banks may take care to enhance the customer satisfaction.
THE IMPACT OF PERCEIVED BRAND EQUITY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO EMERGING TOURISM DESTINATIONS
(Department of Marketing Management, University of Kelaniya,Sri Lanka., 2017) Koththagoda, K.C.
Destination marketing is an area which is not well addressed and understood, specially in developing countries. Therefore, this study has aimed to conceptualize the customer based brand equity in the tourism industry with respect to its effect on customer satisfaction. A sample of 385 tourists who have visited Sri Lanka for recreational purpose was used to test the relations which are in the proposed model of study. Structural Equation Modeling was used to confirm the relationship of the dimensions of brand equity towards perceived brand equity and perceived brand equity on customer satisfaction. Findings have shown that brand salience, brand performance, brand imagery, brand feelings, brand judgments, brand resonance are significantly affecting factors for perceived brand equity which is enhanced customer satisfaction of tourism industry in Sri Lanka. Further findings of the research conclude that brand salience, brand imagery and brand feelings are the highly affected factors towards perceived brand equity to emerging tourism destination. Also fit indices obtained for the conceptual model implies a high validity of the model in explaining the relations among variables. Hence destination marketing promoters could follow these findings of the research for implementing branding strategies in the sector of destination marketing and these findings could help the implementation bodies or policy makers to prioritize and allocate resources across important dimensions to optimize the investment based on the outcome of the model.
Perceived effectiveness of celebrity endorsement on Perceived Brand Evaluation in the Scope of Services Sector: A Review Paper
(International Journal of Business and Management Review, 2017) Koththagoda, K.C.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.
Celebrity endorsement practices are referred in many studies in relations to behavioral and cognitive perspectives across the markets and product scopes. The notion of effectiveness of celebrity endorsement is noted as one of the niches in many empirical studies. Meanwhile, multiplicity has been postulated as another investigation area that claims further investigations to determine its influence on the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement. Besides, industry significance and empirical gaps found in recent studies note services sector as a significant case to examine the overall effectiveness of celebrity endorsement on endorsed brand evaluation. Meanwhile, consumer-celebrity emotional bond resulted via celebrity worship motives has also being emphasized as a mechanism that patterns the influence of celebrity endorsement on perceived brand evaluation. Accordingly, this paper focuses to postulate how the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement influences perceived brand evaluation in services sector brands by specifying Sri Lanka as a specific context. Paper referred the source-based factors and multiplicity, which is a context of management –based factors, to determine the overall effectiveness of celebrity endorsement whilst Brand Trust and Brand Love and Brand Attitudes were highlighted as different facets of perceived brand evaluation. It has pointed out the industry significance of the celebrity endorsement practices in Sri Lanka within the services scope by concluding managerial implications. Finally, paper postulates future research directions with reference to the relationship between effectiveness of celebrity endorsement and perceived brand evaluation.
Potential of Tea Tourism in Sri Lanka: A Review of Managerial Implications and Research Directions
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Koththagoda, K.C.; Dissanayake, D.M.R.
Tea tourism is increasingly recognized as an important scope as per the trade value and integrated contribution marked for the sustainable development in tourism industry. At present, most of the tea growing countries are practicing tea tourism as a diversified concept alongside its main stream of revenue generations as bulk tea and value added tea. Since Sri Lanka has a prominent Ceylon tea brand image embedded with quality value proposition to worldwide consumer segments, tea could also be turned as multiple channel of revenue generation to tourism sector. Thus, the main aim of this concept paper is to study the possible managerial applications in tea tourism in the Sri Lankan context and to postulate research insights for future studies to investigate the proposition of how Sri Lanka as a tea destination could influence consumer behavioral responses. Further, this paper has highlighted the future directions for the industry practitioners to penetrate tea tourism as a concept-based tourism option to skim the potential revenue models. According to the empirical findings the tea tourism concept could have ability to build and strengthen different theoretical basements such as Destination Branding, Designation of Origin and willing to pay aspects in order to attract potential customers towards the destination and enhance the revisiting choice of customer towards the destination with the influence of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Further findings have emphasized the necessity of destination profiling to be alongside customer profiling when branding a destination. Conclusively the study demonstrates how empirical research propositions could provide knowledge inputs to tea tourism related business models.