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The present study was undertaken to identify what practices are considered best business practices by business firms in Sri Lanka and to explore whether there exist different practices in different sectors.

Data were collected from managers attending postgraduate and mid‐career development programs in a large Sri Lankan university. A total of 71 managers responded to the questionnaire representing 71 firms. The data were analyzed with principal component factor (Varimax rotation) technique to identify the best practices and Tukey's post hoc test was employed to compare them across different sectors.

The findings indicate that the following are considered to be best business practices in Sri Lanka: a bias for action, quality focus, customer orientation, relationships with customers, relationships with employees and outsourcing. These best practices belong to four key performance areas, namely external market orientation, internal organizational process, current business performance, and internal customer orientation. It was also found that medium‐sized firms are different from large, and service firms are different from firms in the trade sector in terms of a bias for action. Further, firms operating in the overseas markets and manufacturing firms are significantly higher in “quality focus” than their counterparts.

The researchers suggest that future research be undertaken using large samples, taking the four‐dimensional framework as the conceptual framework.

Though the history of best business practices runs into the early 1980s, empirical studies on the topic are limited both in the West and the East. During the last two decades a number of lists of best practices appeared with little empirical support, thus causing a research gap.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the impact of transformational leadership behavior of salespersons on the level of customers' trust and customers' relationship commitment with the salespersons in the Sri Lankan corporate banking sector.

Based on the literature, it was hypothesized that idealized influence behavior and individualized considerate behavior of salespersons positively affect customers' trust and customers' relationship commitment. A survey was undertaken among 47 sales persons in the Sri Lankan corporate banking sector, and the regression analysis was performed to test hypotheses.

It was found that idealized influence behavior of salespersons positively influences customer trust, which, together with individualized consideration of salespersons, in turn influences customer commitment. It was also found that the joint effect of both customers' trust and individualized considerate behavior of the salesperson is greater than each alone on customers' relationship commitment.

The small sample and non‐probabilistic sampling procedure demand further corroboration of the findings. As the relationship marketing literature stresses the coexistence of both relationship and transactional marketing, future researchers may use the full‐range of leadership model.

This study shows how the two facets of transformational leadership behavior of salespersons implicate their customers' relationship marketing behavior, and thus points out how leadership development training can be adapted to improve relationship marketing skills of sales persons.

The present paper illustrates how transformational leadership provides a more appropriate knowledge domain for understanding relationship marketing dynamics at salesperson‐individual customer level.

Recently, banks have focussed on teaching marketing skills, especially customer orientation. This issue, according to previous studies, has led to improved employee and bank performance. In this regard, Tejarat bank (an Iranian Bank) also organised specialised customer orientation courses for its employees with the help of the Iranian Scientific Marketing Association. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to examine the effect of customer orientation coaching on employee’s individual performance and financial and non-financial performance of the bank.

Accordingly, by using theoretical foundations, this study attempted to present a comprehensive conceptual and theoretical model on the effect of customer orientation coaching on employee and bank performance. The structural equation modelling was run to test the relevant hypotheses.

The results showed the significant effect of customer orientation coaching on employee performance either directly or indirectly. Customer orientation, competitor orientation, sales orientation and the long-term orientation of the employees were mediating factors between customer orientation coaching and employee performance. The effect of employee’s performance on the financial and non-financial performance of the bank was also significant.

These results help to understand the importance of coaching for developing customer orientation and perception about competitor orientation, sales orientation and long-term orientation of employees and their effect on individual and organisational performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent bank manager's coaching, a managerial relationship behavior based on mutual trust, openness and quality of exchanges, affects front-line employee's performance through the mediating effect of salesperson's customer orientation.

The paper conducted a non-experimental, cross-sectional study; a Canadian bank agreed to participate in the study and 122 financial advisors with sales responsibilities answered a web-based survey; data were analyzed using structural equation modelling.

The paper found support for the hypotheses that managerial coaching behavior can help bank employees develop their customer orientation and increase their performance, as well as reduce opportunistic behavior (sales orientation). The paper found that the direct link between coaching and performance, plus the mediating effect of sales orientation and customer orientation (SOCO) can potentially explain a significant variation in employee's performance (r2=0.23). The paper also found that the hypothesized model provided better explanations of the phenomenon when compared with two rival models, one considering SOCO as a full mediator between coaching and performance, and the other one considering only the effect of coaching on performance.

In the banking sector, practitioners and scholars are paying increased attention to the role of trust and relationship behaviors in the development of market orientation and customer relationships. The paper identified a key relationship behavior (customer orientation) and tests its impact as a mediator between a relationship managerial behavior (coaching) and business outcomes (performance) in an international banking setting (Canada).

Based on customer value-based and social exchange theories, the purpose of this paper is to hypothesize and examine the relationships between salespeople entrepreneurial behaviors (innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk taking) and customer trust in, satisfaction with and commitment to the salespeople.

The influences of salespeople’s entrepreneurial behaviors on customer trust in, satisfaction with, and commitment to salespeople were examined utilizing a structural equations model with a sample drawn from the newspaper industry.

As predicted salespeople entrepreneurial behaviors (treated as a higher order factor) significantly and positively influence customer trust in, satisfaction with, and commitment to the salespeople.

This study confirms innovative, proactive, and risk-taking practices are useful in fostering customer trust, satisfaction, and commitment in the domain of personal selling. The key limitations are the small sample size, the use of a single company, and the omission of other potential outcomes.

Entrepreneurial behaviors/activities such as, innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk taking are worthy undertakings for salespeople. Considering these traits in salespeople hiring and/or fostering them in salespeople training should be worth pursuing.

By improving the quality of exchanges through salespeople’s entrepreneurial behaviors and customer-salespeople relationship quality, social exchanges, and in turn social welfare are promoted.

As per the literature search, this is the first study linking salespeople’s entrepreneurial behaviors and customer-salespeople relationship quality represented by trust in, satisfaction with, and commitment to salespeople drawing insights from customer value-based and social exchange theories.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of career plateau (hierarchical plateau and job content plateau) and supervisory career support on career satisfaction.

A random sample of 119 IT professionals employed full‐time in offshore outsourced IT firms in Sri Lanka responded. Multiple regression was used for the data analysis.

Supervisory career support significantly predicts career satisfaction. However, hierarchical plateau and job content plateau do not significantly predict career satisfaction.

Although IT employees attached to the offshore IT firms may be identified as a unique population worthy of empirical investigation, details on how they actually manage their careers remain obscure. The findings of the study provide interesting implications for individuals' career satisfaction and will be a source of general guidance in stimulating future research in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to examine healthcare organizations for the improvements in their existing services (incremental innovation) as well as for the new service developments (radical innovation) initiated through the utilization of resources and co-producing behavior.

The paper uses an SEM approach to analyze the responses obtained from 257 medical administrators of 50 hospitals registered with National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers.

The results reflect a positive and significant impact that is more driven by internal resources and is found to be stronger for incremental innovation in healthcare. The study also posits that resource utilization in conjunction with co-production activities has greater potential to bring innovation that is likely to succeed and stay inimitable.

The paper outlines scope for future research and suggests inclusion of other service sectors, geographical locations and performance indicators to attain a better understanding of the constructs examined.

The paper outlines implications for policy makers concerned with healthcare. Providers of health services ought to develop a proactive customer-oriented approach so as to deliver value through service innovations. Integrating customer co-production processes may further augment the overall quality of care.

Empirical studies integrating the resource-oriented view of innovation along with firms’ co-production and collaborative mechanisms are majorly lacking. The study bridges this gap and suggests ways to bring innovation in health services, a pivotal need for health institutions of an emerging economy like India.

This paper aims to study the perception of school students towards online classes via virtual meeting applications and to unravel the teachers' preparedness and students' preparedness for running synchronous online classes and its impact on student's engagement and their satisfaction during the period of lockdown due to COVID-19.

On the basis of focused group discussions with teachers and students of top 10 private CBSE affiliated schools (National capital Region, Delhi, India), survey instrument was constructed. Further, 489 valid responses were finally analysed through partial least square (PLS) method and structural model was tested.

All the six independent variables such as teachers' structured approach, teachers' technical readiness, teachers' self-efficacy, students' technical readiness, students' autonomy and students' self-efficacy influenced students' engagement and satisfaction towards synchronous online classes significantly. The result of the structural model also reveals that students' engagement is a significant predictor of students' satisfaction.

The paper outlines the scope for future research in ascertaining more critical success factors other than satisfaction and engagement. Scope of this research suggests inclusion of not only schools but framework is also important for college and university level educational bodies. Data collection was confined to students only whereas viewpoint of teachers and parents may also be included.

This study devised a collaborative form of learning where both the parties learnt while making continuous interactions and also co-created value in terms of new skills. Provision of autonomy given to students can't be overlooked as an important indicator for his/her preparedness. As a result, students feel motivated to get engaged in the whole process which makes them satisfied and will be able to identify the learning outcomes equal to or greater than in physical classroom settings.

Digital transformation has made enormous changes in the banking domain, where FinTech is the salient driving force inside it. Especially in the banking industry, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain technology act as the most innovative technologies. Similarly, Chatbots in commercial banking and Robo-advisors in investment banking has shifted banks into the entire virtual environment. In this context, the main objectives of this chapter are: to determine the current application of AI and blockchain in the banking industry, to identify the challenges faced by banks in adapting AI and blockchain technology, and to provide new insights on future banking in the industry 5.0 in this digital era. This chapter discusses the application of two robotic platforms widely used in banking, chatbots, and Robo-advisors. Chatbots are more like frontline employees of banks who are commonly engaged in customer relationship management, sales, and marketing. In contrast, Robo-advisors are a relatively advanced AI tool involved in investment and portfolio management. Blockchain will accelerate digital transformation where a decentralized digital ledger system is used for banking transactions. However, this is entirely the opposite of conventional centralized digital banking, and the adoption of these technologies is still in its infancy. Employment, performance, security, privacy and trust, cost, ethical and regulatory challenges are the most common challenges. To avoid the challenges, banks should concern with strategies like collaboration with robots, increasing the platforms’ performance, etc. Finally, the chapter provides insights on banking at industry 5.0. In the future, banking customers can experience completely virtual and customer-oriented banking services. In this regard, the fusion of all technologies and collaborative human effort is essential.

This study uses hedonism as a mediating variable to examine the relationship between mobile money adoption and financial inclusion in Sri Lankan small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

We conducted a quantitative research study utilizing a survey strategy and distributing standardized questionnaires to 150 SMEs in Sri Lanka using a simple random sampling technique.

According to our analysis, a significant relationship exists between mobile money adoption and financial inclusion in SMEs in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, we found that this relationship is mediated by hedonism, offering insights into the phenomenon.

This study’s findings significantly impact Sri Lankan policymakers, financial institutions, and SMEs. Policymakers can use this research to create plans encouraging mobile money usage, potentially improving financial inclusion among SMEs. When SMEs adopt mobile money, financial institutions can adjust their services to match their demands. It is advantageous for SMEs to understand how adopting mobile money can enhance their financial inclusion and overall business stability.

Our study contributes to existing literature in two key ways. Firstly, it addresses a significant research gap by examining the impact of mobile money use on financial inclusion among SMEs in Sri Lanka. Secondly, we introduce the concept of hedonism as a potential mediator, providing a fresh perspective on the complex dynamics that shape the relationship between mobile money adoption and financial inclusion in this context.