http://drr.vau.ac.lk/handle/123456789/245 2026-04-05T18:50:19Z http://drr.vau.ac.lk/handle/123456789/2016 Enhancing living and economic sustainability through community based tourism activities in Mahakanadarawa, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka Dayangana, K.T.L.U.S.; Gamlath, G.R.M. This research explores the potentials and possibilities to promote HCA in the Mahakanadarawa area focusing the factors such as; capacity of the communities, natural and manmade resources, institutions, merits/demerits of the destination sites in the district, administrative and policy environment, and infrastructure facilities etc. Mahakanadarawa area was selected using a purposive sampling method in accordance with a requirement of tourism action plan of North Central Province Council (NCPC). Data were collected using observations and in-depth face-to-face interviews. The results indicated that, the formulation of strategic plans, prudent policy initiatives, and entrepreneurial community awareness programs would be extremely helpful to address the possible challenges and to exploit the warranted potentials of tourism within the area in a sustainable manner. Further, the findings of this research would benefit to increase the rural economy by promoting community-based activities, while providing useful evidence for present and future policy makers to introduce a new model in the context of community based sustainability. Further a gap analysis would be recommended for identifying the impact of all socio-cultural factors to implement HCA successfully and future research should validate the findings of the present study focusing the other tourism projects and destination in the country. 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z http://drr.vau.ac.lk/handle/123456789/2015 Capital Structure Approaches and Firm Return: A Comparative Analysis of Banking and Insurance Companies Listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange in Sri Lanka Gamlath, G.R.M. inancing decisions are one of the most critical areas under the purview of financial managers. These decisions have direct impact on capital structure approaches and firm return. Capital structure decisions affect the firm's cost of capital, capital budgeting decisions and firm value. It has always been an area for researchers to understand the relationship between capital structure approaches and firm return. This paper investigates the impact of capital structure approaches on firm return based on data obtained from nineteen (19) listed banking and insurance companies in the Colombo Stock Exchange for the period spanning from year 2009 to 2017. The study measures the firm return in terms of return on assets and return on equity whereas capital structure approaches are measured in terms of Aggressive Capital Structure Investment Policy and Aggressive Capital Structure Financing Policy. The result indicates that most of listed banking firms and insurance firms adopt aggressive capital structure financing policy in their capital structure decisions. It is important to note that Sri Lankan listed banking and insurance companies prefer to use high volume of liquid assets to control the corporate finance in order to maximize the firm return. The result further reveals that Aggressive Capital Structure Investment Policy affects positively to the return on assets and Aggressive Capital Structure Financing Policy affects negatively to the return on equity of both banking and insurance companies in Sri Lanka. Finally, this research confirmed the fact that banks are highly utilizing the debt capital funds than equity capital funds. Therefore, the financial managers of both banking and insurance companies should make trustful and risky decisions as they use more debt funds in order to deploy the firms' financial resources as well as to maximize the profitability which would ultimately affect to increase shareholders wealth subsequently firm value. 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z http://drr.vau.ac.lk/handle/123456789/2014 Impact of Financial Leverage on Firm Growth of Sri Lankan Listed Companies Gamlath, G.R.M. This study investigates the impact of financial leverage on firm growth based on the data concerning twenty (20) listed companies in Sri Lanka during the five years ranging from 2013 to 2017. The study measures the firm growth in terms of sales growth, profit growth and assets growth whereas financial leverage are measured in terms of total debt to total assets ratio and total debt to total equity ratio. According to the correlation analysis, it was found that there is a positive significant relationship between TDTE and firm growth (all indicators) and there is only a positive relationship between TDTA and asset growth. According to the R2 values given that variation among variables shown by the model is not due to change and about 15% -26% (Approx.) of the changes in firm growth are explained by the changes in financial leverage of the firm and rest of the changes are due to the other factors. Furthermore, the results show that financial leverage has a significant effect on firm growth. Specifically, financial leverage was found positively influence firm growth, while older firms saw a faster increase in assets sales and profits, and it would be one of the key motivators in maintaining their optimal leverage on firm growth. Therefore, the financial managers and the key decision-makers in the business fields should make trustful decisions utmost concerning the financial leverage and firm growth changes with exploring the impact of other factors as well. 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z http://drr.vau.ac.lk/handle/123456789/2013 Effects of Working Capital Approaches and Firm’s Returns of Sri Lankan Listed Non-Financial Companies Gamlath, G.R.M. The aim of this study is to find out the effects of aggressive/conservative working capital management policies; (both investment and financing policies) have on firms’ returns for 172 Sri Lankan listed non-financial companies of 17 business sectors listed at Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) for a period of six years from 2014 to 2019. Data were obtained from the annual audited financial statement of the firms presented to CSE. The study adopted Descriptive Statistics Least Significant Differences (LSD), Rank Correlation, and Linear Regression models in analyzing the data. The results revealed that the working capital investment and financing policies have generally significant positive effects on firms’ returns to the investors as well as financial managers in the long run. The empirical evidence suggests that the balanced and well-monitored policy including both conservative working capital investment and financing policies should be an ideal as regularized and reviewed in the process. The study emphasized that the conservative working capital investment policies increase firms returns while conservative financing policies yield negative returns. Therefore, this study would enable finance managers to be able to regularize and prepare the appropriate working capital management policies. Moreover, findings suggest the Sri Lankan business firms pursuing the conservative working capital investment policy should balance it with an aggressive working capital financing policy to enhance firms’ returns and to create value for their investors. 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z