http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/7346 2026-10-25T06:59:33Z http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/21992 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 http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/21991 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 http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/21390 Impact of Capital Structure on Dividend Policy: Evidence from the Food, Beverages & Tobacco, and Capital Goods sectors in Sri Lanka. Athukorala, W.A.A.B.K.; Weerakkody, D.I.D. The relationship between capital structure and dividend policy constitutes a fundamental area of inquiry in corporate finance, significantly shaping investor decision-making and corporate financial strategies. This study examines the influence of capital structure on dividend policies, drawing on evidence from the Food, Beverages & Tobacco, and Capital Goods sectors in Sri Lanka. The study specifically aims to examine whether capital structure determinants affect dividend policy, undertaking profitability, and firm size, controlling for these variables. Based on a sample population of 40 listed companies over five years, the study utilizes secondary data from annual reports to conduct a quantitative analysis. Additionally, previous findings contributed by Scholars are presented in the literature review. The study employs a multiple regression approach to examine the impact of capital structure on dividend policy. The findings from the empirical study reveal significant results, providing insightful descriptions of firms’ financing decisions and their subsequent implications for dividend payments. Specifically, firms with higher debt ratios tend to disburse lower dividends due to financial constraints associated with their debt obligations. Conversely, firms with higher equity ratios have a high likelihood of paying dividends, further validating the point that firms with higher equity bases are better placed to have stable dividend policies and moderately levered firms are likely to have fixed dividend policies. Profitability also emerges as a key determinant of dividend payment decisions, where firms with higher earnings are found to have a higher likelihood of paying dividends. Apart from that, the firms’ size is also revealed to play a moderating role. The findings of this research contribute to the body of literature with empirical evidence for the Food, Beverages & Tobacco, and Capital Goods sectors of Sri Lanka, yielding sector-specific information on the dynamics that drive dividend policies. The findings of this research are particularly relevant to corporate managers, policymakers, and investors who are concerned with optimizing capital structure decisions in line with dividend policies. 2025-09-26T00:00:00Z http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/21389 The Impact of Intellectual Capital on the Financial Performance of Licensed Commercial Banks in Sri Lanka with the Moderating Impact of Sustainable Competitive Advantage. Weerakkody, D. I. D.; Gunarathna, K. G. P. V. A sound financial system is crucial for a country's economy, as it provides financial and non-financial services to both the public and private sectors. Banks play a significant role in the Sri Lankan financial system, sustaining the confidence and performance of other financial and non-financial entities, and strengthening the economic health of the country. The banking industry has encountered significant challenges stemming from global pandemics, economic crises, political shifts, evolving policies and regulations, and intense competition. These circumstances reveal the importance of determining the strategic sources for enhancing the industry as a whole. It underscores the critical role of intellectual capital (IC) in achieving financial performance, encompassing knowledge, experience, technology, and relationships. With the turbulent economic environment, adopting a competitive perspective further emphasises the importance of IC as a cornerstone for strengthening financial success. This study investigates the influence of intellectual capital (IC) on the financial performance of licensed commercial banks in Sri Lanka, focusing on the moderating role of sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). The sample consists of 13 licensed commercial banks registered with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, with data collected from their annual financial reports for the period 2019–2023. Data analysis was primarily conducted using multiple regression analysis. The findings reveal that structural capital, human capital, and capital employed significantly affect the financial performance of the banking industry, whereas relational capital does not. Overall, IC significantly impacts financial performance, and SCA is shown to moderate the relationship between IC and financial performance in Sri Lanka's banking sector. 2025-02-19T00:00:00Z