http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/7400 2026-10-25T06:59:28Z 2026-10-25T06:59:28Z Laksiri, W.M.R. Jeewantha, G.K.C. http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/21992 2026-10-13T09:11:32Z 2026-10-08T00:00:00Z

The investor gaze: recognition heuristic, social liability and legal disillusionment among foreign tourism entrepreneurs on Sri Lanka's southern coast Laksiri, W.M.R.; Jeewantha, G.K.C. This study examines investment failures among foreign visitors and tourism entrepreneurs on Sri Lanka’s southern coast, exploring what can go wrong after tourism-related familiarity encourages investment. It introduces the “investor gaze” as the epistemic position emerging when tourists become resident investors, distinguishing it from familiarity-based confidence and “substitutional collapse,” a specific failure mechanism. A qualitative, interpretive multiple-case study draws on semi-structured interviews with two Sri Lankan attorneys providing proxy accounts of sixteen matters, alongside Sinhala-language press coverage. Inductive thematic analysis identifies four failure typologies: nominee-title property fraud; partnership and operational breakdown; personal, familial and household entanglement; and structural sector traps. Substitutional collapse appears in eight matters and in dyadic or modified form in three, but does not apply to five, including both sector-trap matters. Where this mechanism operates, investors possess substantial economic capital but limited independent local social capital, relying on one trusted intermediary as a substitute for community embeddedness. Relationship breakdown or intermediary defection leaves them without fallback support. The findings identify initial counterparty matching as a critical vulnerability and distinguish this mechanism from established strong-tie pathologies. The study connects macro-level tourism-driven familiarity effects with micro-level failure evidence as a hypothesis requiring further testing. It offers a due-diligence lens focused on control of title, licences and banking, and access to independent local information, alongside policy proposals requiring testing and costing. Because matters were selected through legal or media exposure, findings do not establish failure prevalence; agreement between attorney and press accounts indicates consistency rather than independent corroboration.

2026-10-08T00:00:00Z Laksiri, W.M.R. http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/21991 2026-10-13T09:08:24Z 2026-10-07T00:00:00Z

Sri Lankan ethnic cuisine on YouTube: a computational netnographic study of food‑neophobic and food‑neophilic audience reactions and the digital transmission of culinary heritage. Laksiri, W.M.R. Sri Lankan cuisine is a layered ethnic food heritage shaped by tropical agriculture and by centuries of Arab, Portuguese, Dutch, and British contact atop a South Indian rice-and-curry foundation, and it is increasingly encountered by global audiences not at the destination but on digital platforms. This paper analyses 21,984 predominantly English-language comments posted on 45 YouTube videos about Sri Lankan ethnic cuisine, using VADER sentiment analysis, LDA topic modelling, and a purpose-built keyword lexicon for phobic and philic markers. The findings challenge two conventions of the survey literature. First, philic markers outnumber phobic markers by about seven to one (13.1 vs 1.9%), and where both appear in the same comment (1.5% of the sample) the sentiment reads positive, not negative; because the unit of analysis is the comment rather than the commenter, this co-occurrence is reported as a discursive rather than a dispositional phenomenon. Second, phobic response is not concentrated in a single kind of content but spreads across every one of the eight topics recovered by the LDA. The strongest interpretive contribution of the analysis is the identification of peer-to-peer cultural translation as a discursive mechanism associated with the mitigation of neophobic framing: commenters writing from insider-like discursive positions routinely convert unfamiliar Sri Lankan dishes into familiar reference points for outsider viewers, performing what this paper argues is a contemporary form of oral tradition through which Sri Lankan ethnic food heritage is transmitted to global audiences. Long-form videos polarise audience response more sharply than Shorts do. Implications for ethnic food heritage preservation, cross-cuisine transmission, and destination practice follow.

2026-10-07T00:00:00Z Laksiri, W.M.R. http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/21001 2026-06-10T04:03:13Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Tourism in Sri Lanka during Political, Economic, and Environmental Crises: A Qualitative Analysis. Laksiri, W.M.R. This article examines the impact of interconnected political, economic, and environmental crises on Sri Lanka's tourism sector, analyzing their effects on tourism strategies. Employing a qualitative research design, this study uses framework analysis to analyze data collected from semi-structured interviews with tourism stakeholders (for example, hotel managers, tour guides, and government officials) and secondary sources (for example, government reports and policy documents). The study highlights Sri Lanka's tourism industry's vulnerability to political instability, economic downturns, and environmental issues. It emphasizes the need for adaptive strategies like diversifying offerings and targeting new markets. The study underscores the importance of resilience and flexibility in the sector to mitigate future crises. This study fills a gap in literature by conducting a comprehensive analysis of the interconnected challenges confronting Sri Lanka's tourism sector, as well as providing context-specific resilience-building measures tailored to a multifaceted crisis environment. The findings indicate that policymakers should enact specific policies to promote sustainable tourist development, encompassing crisis management, infrastructure enhancement, and environmental preservation. Emphasizing legal systems and advancing sustainable practices will reinstate global confidence in the business. Keywords: tourism crisis management; sustainable tourism development; qualitative framework

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z Manatunga, M.A.R.D. Gunawardana, T.S.L.W. Madushanka, D.M.T. Sudasinghe, S.A.M.H. http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/20558 2026-01-09T03:26:23Z 2025-10-02T00:00:00Z

The Effect of Omnichannel Logistics Service Quality on Customer Loyalty. Manatunga, M.A.R.D.; Gunawardana, T.S.L.W.; Madushanka, D.M.T.; Sudasinghe, S.A.M.H. Research Background: Even though most of the researchers have conducted their research based on Omni channel, they did not consider how the logistics service quality of Omni channel impact on customer Loyalty. Purpose of the Article: The purpose of this research is to analyses the Logistics Service Quality in the context omni-channel purchasing scenarios while considering four dimensions such as timeliness, availability, condition and return of the product and to assess their impact on customer loyalty Methods: The data were collected structured questionnaires from 200 respondents who use omnichannel shopping in Sri Lanka. Researcher used snowball sampling methods due ensures access to respondents who have relevant shopping experience. The data was further processed statistically using SPSS and SmartPLS 4. Findings and Added Value: Condition has a positive impact on customer loyalty, while other independent variables, availability, timeliness and return has no significant impact on customer loyalty. This study only used several dimensions of the Omni channel logistics service quality. The future researcher can use dimension like Personalization in Logistics Services, Sustainability & Green Logistics, AI-Enabled Customer Support in Logistics etc. By applying practice implication fashion retailer can enhance the customer loyalty, brand loyalty and operational efficiency. Leveraging the advance technology and delivering personalized customer experience creates the competitive advantages for the Omni channel fashion retailers.

2025-10-02T00:00:00Z