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Decision-makers, practitioners and community members have a need to assess the disaster resilience of their communities and to understand their own capacities in disaster situations. There is a lack of consensus among researchers as to what resilience means and how it can be measured. This paper proposes a novel technique to achieve consensus among stakeholders on definitions, objectives and indicators for measuring a key dimension of community disaster resilience (CDR), physical infrastructure (PI).

This study uses a five-step approach utilizing Q-methods to contextualize a resilience index for PI. Interviews, focus groups and Q-sorting workshops were conducted to develop a tool that ranked measures according to stakeholder preference. A total of 84 participants took part in the workshops across four countries (United Kingdom, Malaysia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka).

The initial set of 317 measures was reduced to 128 and divided into the three community capacities of anticipatory, absorptive and restorative. The physical infrastructure capacity assessment tool (PI-CAT) was then finalized to have 38 indicators that were also ranked in order of importance by the participants.

The PI-CAT can be useful for local governments and communities to measure their own resilience. The tool allows stakeholders to be confident that the metrics being used are ones that are relevant, important and meet their requirements.

The Q-method approach helps stakeholders to develop and use a community capacity assessment tool that is appropriate for their context. The PI-CAT can be used to identify effective investments that will enhance CDR.

Climate change mitigation and adaptation play an important role in overcoming the climate change challenges facing Sri Lanka today. Many initiatives have been undertaken to implement different policies and plans in this regard, which require considerable mobilisation of national and international financing. In acquiring climate finance, many barriers can be identified. This paper aims to investigate such barriers to climate financing in Sri Lanka and proposes strategies to address them.

The qualitative research approach was undertaken in this study by conducting ten semi-structured interviews with experts who are involved in climate change policy implementation activities in Sri Lanka. The collected data were analysed using the content analysis method via Nvivo software.

The empirical findings unveil six key barriers and the corresponding root causes to climate financing in Sri Lanka. Inadequate domestic funding for climate actions was captured as the dominant barrier in this direction. This study also revealed that barriers and their root causes are interconnected, leading to many financial limitations in implementing climate actions. The importance of playing a leading role by the government and enabling an integrated approach between the private and public sector organisations were identified as key strategies to combat climate finance barriers.

Despite there being studies focusing on climate change and related policies, limited research has been carried out with regard to climate financing. Within this context, this study makes an original contribution in the area of climate financing with particular reference to a developing country like Sri Lanka. Further, the identification of barriers to climate financing, their root causes and strategies to address them also provides an original contribution to theory and practice.

The occurrences of disasters have become a common phenomenon in the world and there is evidence that the frequency and intensity of disasters are increasing. There have been more than 7,000 disaster events and around 265 million displacements in the period from 2008 to 2018, which constitutes more than three times of conflict and violence-related displacements (Disaster Displacement – A global review, 2019). Natural disasters are responsible for nearly 60,000 deaths per year on average and are responsible for 0.1% of global deaths. Various forms of natural disasters pose significant threats to lives, livelihoods, economic development, and ecological diversity around the world. Similar to the world scenario, Sri Lanka has a similar situation. Sri Lanka has been identified as a drought hot spot. Nearly, 15,000 people per million are at risk of disaster-induced displacement every year in Sri Lanka. During the Tsunami, in 2004, 31,000 human lives were lost, and more than a million people were displaced. Thus, natural disasters cause a huge negative impact on society and the economy in Sri Lanka. In this context, the main objectives of this study are to overview the disasters and displacements that have occurred during the last two decades and to explore the livelihood activities of the affected people and their best practices of disaster resilience. Secondary data were used to overview the disasters and displacements of the last two decades and the related policy framework of the country. Primary data were used to identify livelihood activities and disaster-resilient strategies of the affected people. In-depth interviews were conducted with an unstructured questionnaire from 15 recovered families who have been affected by Tsunami and landslides that occurred in the country. The purposive sampling method was used to select families from the most disaster-affected areas. Descriptive methods were used to analyze the data. The study revealed five recovery strategies followed by displaced people from tsunamis and landslides. Those are continuing with the previous livelihood activities as much as possible, moving to different livelihood activities, moving to different areas to find better jobs, attaining external assistance, and self-management on household finance. Finally, policy guidelines for building resilience in communities that will help to enhance their capacity to cope and recover from vulnerability are proposed in improving their lives.

This study explores digital transformation in the tea supply chain within developing economies, with a focus on smallholder tea producers in Sri Lanka. Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. Among the tea producers, smallholder tea producers account for a substantial portion of total tea production in several countries. Mobile phones play a significant role in providing smallholder producers with access to crucial agricultural information, markets and financial services.

This study adopts a deductive approach, analysing mobile phone ownership, literacy, experience and perception among smallholder tea producers. The chi-squared test of independence and hierarchical clustering methods were used to test the hypotheses and address the research questions.

The study identifies four clusters of smallholder tea producers as Basic Tech Adopters, Digital Laggards, Skeptical Feature Phone Users and Tech-savvy Adopters based on their characteristics towards mobile-based technologies. Approximately 75% of the surveyed sample, which included both tech-savvy and basic-tech adopters, showed a positive attitude toward adopting mobile-based agricultural technologies.

The study suggests developing targeted strategies and policies to enhance the productivity of the smallholder tea production process in developing economies. The study highlights the importance of awareness, access, affordability and availability when implementing digital services for businesses at the base of the pyramid, such as tea smallholdings in developing economies.

The present study aims to address the lack of data-driven empirical studies on the use of mobile phones in smallholder settings. The findings of this study enable the enhancement of entrepreneurship within the tea production supply chain, especially, within stakeholders who deliver digital transformation support services.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between internal branding (IB) and employees' brand commitment and analyze how transformational leadership (TFL) moderates this relationship.

Data were collected through structured questionnaires from 394 employees in Indian telecommunication sector. The hypotheses and conceptual model were tested by structural equation modeling (SEM), using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS).

The results suggest that employees' brand commitment is higher when organizations implement IB supported by transformational leaders. Results also indicate that impact of IB on affective commitment (AC) and normative commitment (NC) is greater than its impact on continuance commitment (CC).

Consistent with the brand commitment dimensions, the findings present an empirically tested comprehensive and integrative model of IB moderated by TFL. This study provides scholars a deeper understanding of relationship among IB, employee's commitment and TFL. Though multicollinearity is addressed, presence of cross-sectional data is a limitation in the study.

The study would help practicing managers to gain a new perspective to manage their internal brand mechanisms through TFL style by stimulating change among employees and create emotionally committed brand advocates.

This paper suggests an empirically validated framework of IB tested for moderation effect by TFL. It adds value to literature by reinforcing the effect of IB employees' AC and NC, especially among customer contact employees who represent brand during customer service delivery in telecommunication sector.