FACTORS INFLUENCING ON SUPPLY CHAIN RESPONSIVENESS IN CLASSIFIED TOURIST HOTELS IN SRI LANKA (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CENTRAL PROVINCE)

Abstract

The hospitality industry in Sri Lanka has had a significant impact on the country's economy for decades. Enhancing supply chain-related factors enables better customer service and cost efficiency and improves overall performance. Achieving high responsiveness in the supply chain can also provide organizations with a competitive edge. This study examines how key factors such as technology, decision-making, and supply chain agility impact supply chain responsiveness in Sri Lanka's classified tourist hotel industry. Organizational Information Processing Theory, Dynamic Capability Theory, and Resource-Based View were employed by the researcher to explain the theoretical aspects of this study. This quantitative study is exploratory. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire, and the sample consisted of 163 management- and executive-level employees from classified tourist hotels in the Central Province, selected through systematic sampling. The collected data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Reliability, correlation, and multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the three hypotheses: that there is a positive impact of individual variables (supply chain agility, decision-making, and technology) on supply chain responsiveness in classified tourist hotels in Sri Lanka. According to the analysis, all variables showed acceptable significance (p > 0.7) in the reliability test. The relationships between variables were tested using Pearson’s correlation coefficients, with all indicating a significant positive relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses, and all results were accepted based on the decision rule (p < 0.05). The R² value of the model summary is 0.675, indicating that the independent variables explain 67.5% of the dependent variable. Based on these findings, the researcher recommends improving knowledge of supply chain responsiveness. In addition, future research could explore a wider range of internal and external variables beyond the three factors focused on in this study.