The purpose of this study is to uncover the rationale (why) and the types of designs (what) for application of mixed method approaches in finance research using a systematic literature review approach. The findings revealed that there are four main research gaps in mixed method applications in finance: (a) poorly or nonformulated research questions, (b) lack of identification of the rationale for mixed methods, (c) poor identification of mixed methods and design, and (d) the manuscript reviewing gap. Finance studies based on quantitative methods and proxy variables can be further validated through mixed method approaches, thereby increasing the validity, completeness, and confirmation of findings, and minimizing the inherent weaknesses of monomethod approaches. We suggest that researchers in the finance discipline should justify their research methodology in order to eliminate the biases that arise through the selection of convenient methodologies. Thus, future studies should incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects when formulating mixed method research questions, emphasize the rationale, and choose appropriate mixed method designs to achieve a high level of scientific rigor in mixed methods research. Also, editors of nonmixed method journals need to have reviewing support from mixed method experts or adhere to the guidelines proposed by Onwuegbuzie and Poth when evaluating mixed method manuscripts to achieve a high level of quality and accuracy in their mixed methods research publications in finance.

Neoclassical asset pricing is built on the premise investors are rational and there are unlimited arbitrage opportunities. Behavioural implications of irrational investors led to the development of the counter paradigm, behavioural asset pricing. This study systematically reviews the origin and evolution of behavioural asset pricing distinct to neoclassical asset pricing. It addresses the two pillars of behavioural asset pricing where; investors are not always rational and there are limits to arbitrage. The study captures investor irrationality in two perspectives; investors' beliefs and their preferences. It reviews psychological biases and heuristics adopted from experimental psychology to behavioural asset pricing in explaining beliefs and preferences of irrational investors. Furthermore, it lists key biases and heuristics recognised in behavioural asset pricing literature. It discusses theoretical behavioural asset pricing models that try to explain variation of stock returns through specific biases of investor psychology. Lastly, the study reviews aggregate investor sentiment studies that try to capture mass psychology of investors in financial markets. The significance of this study is that it attempts to develop a holistic view of the foundation and evolution of behavioural asset pricing.

This study investigates the impact of sectoral distribution of commercial bank credit on economic growth in Sri Lanka based on data from 2005 to 2017. The Auto-regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model is used to investigate short and long run impact of sectoral distribution of commercial bank credit on Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The findings of the ARDL Error Correction model indicate that the commercial bank sectoral credit distribution is significantly explaining the short run economic growth. Moreover, ARDL long run form and bounds test shows that there is a long run relation between the variables. The industrial sector has a long run positive relationship with GDP while the other sectors are insignificant in explaining long run economic growth. According to the results, the government can motivate banks to distribute credit facilities to the industry sector to boost GDP in the long-run. This is the first study that discusses the sectoral distribution of commercial bank credit on economic growth of Sri Lanka as per the best of the authors‟ knowledge. Keywords Commercial bank, Credit, Economic growth, Gross Domestic Product

Neoclassical asset pricing models try to explain cross sectional variation in stock returns. This study critically reviews the findings of empirical investigations on neoclassical asset pricing models in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), Sri Lanka. The study uses the structural empirical review (SER) methodology to capture a holistic view of empirical investigations carried out in the CSE from the year 1997 to 2017.The pioneering Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) (Sharpe, 1964; Lintner, 1965: Black, 1972) (SLB) states that market betas of stocks are sufficient to explain the cross sectional variation of stock returns. Alternatively there are multifactor models (Ross, 1976; Chen, 1986; Fama and French, 1993, 2015; Cahart, 1997) that state stock returns are driven by multiple risk factors. Similar to other markets the findings on the SLB model are not consistent in the CSE. The Fama and French (1993) and the Cahart (1997) models are supported in the CSE which is consistent with other markets, but the explanatory powers of them are substantially low in the Sri Lankan context. Contrasting the findings of a significant impact of macroeconomic factors on stock returns in developed markets, the impact of them in the CSE are temporary.The overall findings of the applicability of neoclassical asset pricing models in the CSE are inconsistent and inconclusive and the study identifies two reasons that may have contributed to such results. Firstly, it recognises that the inherent limitations of neoclassical asset pricing models may have affected the findings in the CSE. Secondly, it supports the argument that neoclassical models, as they are may not be applicable in emerging or frontier markets, thus they may need to be augmented with characteristics of such markets to make them more applicable.