The Influence of Rational Competency on Business Performance: The Mediating Role of Business Uncertainty among Private Ayurveda Practitioners in Gampaha District, Sri Lanka

Although Ayurveda has a strong cultural foundation and economic opportunities, scholars highlighted that Private Ayurveda Practitioners (PAPs) in Sri Lanka face heavy competition in the marketplace with Western medicine and poor capabilities of strategic decision making. The study attempts to empirically examine how the rational competency of PAPs affects the business uncertainty and thereby the business performance of PAPs in the Gampaha District of Sri Lanka, employing a quantitative method. Data was gleaned through a pretested structured questionnaire among 114 PAPs selected employing a multi-stage sampling technique, and the primary data was mainly analyzed with the help of Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLSSEM). The results show that there is a negative effect of rational competency on business uncertainty, which implies that the greater information access, processing, and decision-making abilities reduce business uncertainty among the PAPs. Further, rational competency dis-plays a positive and significant effect on business performance, as it is proven that evidence-based decision-making ability contributes to improving the business performance among the PAPs. The study further revealed that business uncertainty mediates the relationship between rational competency and the business performance of PAPs. The findings contribute to substantial theoretical, empirical, and contextual knowledge gaps and offer new insights on the Ayurveda healthcare business. The study empirically underlines that rational competency is a viable strategic weapon to mitigate business uncertainties and improve business performance among PAPs in Sri Lanka.