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Multinational corporations (MNCs) that want to compete in markets worldwide should not underestimate the influences of religion on consumer demand. Almost one quarter of the world’s population is Muslim so it is important for MNCs to get into the Muslim mind set when operating in countries where Islam has a large influence. The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which consumer-based brand equity in a religious market results from the psychological and behavioural characteristics of consumers rather than from product characteristics.

A quantitative survey method was adopted, using a total sample of 551 Muslim consumers in Malaysia and Pakistan. A holistic model conceptualising three potential psychological and behavioural predictors of consumer-based halal brand equity (CBHBE) was created and then tested using structural equation modelling.

The strength of an individual’s religious identity was found to be a strong predictor of consumer halal choice behaviour and perceived self-expressive religious benefits. Consumers’ halal choice behaviour and perceived self-expressive benefits directly predict CBHBE. Moreover, consumer halal choice behaviour partially mediates the relationship between self-expressive benefits and CBHBE.

The authors conclude that firms targeting Muslim consumers can maximise CBHBE by focussing their marketing strategies on the three psychological and behavioural constructs identified in the model. For example, by using halal certification logos and providing convincing information about the halalness of their brand, businesses can facilitate Muslim consumers’ search processes in relation to their choice behaviour.

The study contributes to the existing international branding literature in two main ways. First, it introduces and defines the concept of CBHBE. Second, it identifies and empirically validates the important psychological and behavioural predictors of CBHBE.

Islamic marketing is an emerging field with a lot of potentials, so it is worthwhile to explore it. This paper aims to conduct research on the unexplored relationship of antecedents of the equity, image and consumers’ trust and satisfaction of halal brands.

A structured questionnaire was designed to conduct research to analyze the halal brand equity and its antecedents. Data were collected from 250 halal consumers of Kota Samarahan and Kuching, Malaysia through a self-administered questionnaire using a convenience sampling method.

The study finds a positive relationship of three antecedents of brand equity, which confirms a strong relationship between the image and satisfaction of halal brand equity. The results further showed that halal brand image is linked with halal brand trust, but the relationship between halal brand trust and its equity could not be proved.

This has been a cross-sectional study that was limited to Malaysia, a Muslim majority country. Researchers can conduct a longitudinal study and can conduct it in non-Muslim societies to comprehend their diversity and wider impact. Additionally, this study was limited to halal food brands in Malaysia.

Islamic marketing has received great attention of researchers, academicians and practitioners that has rather been unexplored earlier particularly the relationships among antecedents of the equity, image and consumers’ trust and satisfaction of halal brands.

This study aims to determine the effect of halal brand awareness (HBA), halal brand image (HBI), halal brand loyalty (HBL) on halal brand equity (HBE) and purchase decision-making (PDM). This study will also discuss the mediating role of HBE and the moderating role of interactive social media (ISM).

A total of 700 questionnaires were distributed with an effective rate of 94% to customers in large supermarkets in 3 major cities in Indonesia by using convenience sampling. The hypothesis was tested using structural equation modeling processed using AMOS. The Sobel test was used to test the significance of mediating variables.

The results of the study reveal that there was a positive and significant influence between variables. Other results reveal that HBE acts as a partial mediator and ISM as a moderator.

This study builds a new construct, namely, ISM and is the first to build and test a comprehensive direct and indirect relationship between HBA, HBI, HBL, HBE, ISM and PDM on halal cosmetics in Indonesia.

International restaurant and fast food chains such as KFC, McDonald’s and Subway currently serve halal food in some non-Muslim countries, with mixed results. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that most influence the product judgements of halal food amongst non-Muslim consumers in non-Muslim countries and to assess the extent to which these judgements are related to willingness to consume halal food.

A quantitative survey method was adopted, using a total sample of 1,100 consumers in Canada, Spain and the UK. The proposed model was tested using structural equation modelling.

The results suggest that it may be possible for firms to satisfy specific niche market segments with standardised mass market products. Consumer cosmopolitanism and non-Muslim religious identity were found to be positively related to halal product judgement, and consumer ethnocentrism and national identification were negatively related to halal product judgement. There was a strong relationship between product judgement and willingness to consume halal food.

The findings indicate that halal marketing may provide promising business opportunities for international restaurant and fast food chains, as well as food manufacturers and retailers. However, in countries or regions where there are many consumers with high levels of national identification or consumer ethnocentrism, firms should not expect non-target consumers to accept halal products.

This is the first study to suggest that, in non-Muslim countries, food companies may switch entirely to halal produce for certain products as an effective market segmentation strategy targeting Muslim consumers.

India has an over-180-million Muslim population, which makes it an ideal marketplace for halal products. However, not much research has been done to understand the opportunities and challenges pertaining to halal business in India. The purpose of this study is to explore and examine how halal products are perceived by the Indian consumer and how these products are creating values for a larger consumer base.

The paper opted for an exploratory study using an inductive approach. To understand the peculiarities of the issue, the authors also used the case-research approach to develop a broader understanding of the topic.

Findings of this study show that the market and consumers are increasingly becoming more aware of halal products in India. Further, the demand for such products is no longer limited to Muslims. Halal products have also become an attractive option for consumers, as they are also addressing safety and environmental concerns. This is an essential factor for a flourishing certification business in India.

A limitation of this study is a quantitative study which could have been conducted to confirm the findings of this research. Further, the sample was limited to participants in the age group of 21-30 years. Older people might share a different perspective on halal products because they are believed to be more experienced and socially conscious. Further, our cases were limited to a certifying agency and cosmetics agencies.

One important implication of this study is that it reaffirms the success of Islamic branding in the India context. Though this research was carried out on a limited scale, it opens up opportunities to examine the halal phenomenon in more detail. Acceptability of halal products among non-Muslims is a sign of growing tolerance among different communities to accept and adopt culture and practices of a different religion in their daily living.

The authors have observed that halal products and Islamic branding as a whole can positively help in reshaping the image of Islam across the globe. Observations such as identifying halal products being eco-friendly reflects the increased sensitivity among the consumers in the developing nations, which were earlier a behavior common among the Westerners.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other study has been done to explore the halal product market and consumers’ perception in the Indian context. This is particularly an important contribution because India is a home for over 180 million Muslims and a marketplace worth trillions of dollars. Further, past research in the area of religious marketing was limited to conceptual papers. This paper is an attempt to re-initiate discussion through empirical studies on Islamic branding in the emerging economies context.

The gravity theory of trade explains the potential for trade between nations, but its application to trade in halal food has been questioned by previous studies. This study aims to investigate this issue and the role of trading partners’ economic strength and their distance from one another to identify Malaysia’s potential to export food to key halal markets.

The gravity theory of trade was used to examine Malaysia’s top 10 food exports to key halal markets from 2000–2017. The gravity panels were estimated using the Hausman-Taylor modelling technique to control for endogeneity within the model.

The application of the gravity theory of trade to a halal market context provides mixed results. Although the high economic strength (gross domestic product) of the trading partners enhances halal trade, the distance between the partners does not affect the volume of halal food exports. Moreover, the study identifies Malaysia’s potential to export only a few food commodities to key halal markets.

This study challenges the applicability of the gravity theory of trade to the halal food market. The study extends the model with additional controls for behavioural aspects and applies it to commodity-specific segregated trade in halal food. The findings underscore the need to extend the theory beyond its current focus when explaining trade opportunities in halal markets.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how religious values of Islamic banking users influence their active social media engagement behavior (SMEB), when exposed to online brand related-content.

The method used for data collection was an online self-administered questionnaire. A total of 448 valid responses were obtained from Islamic banks customers, who are members of at least one online brand community (OBC) on Facebook. Responses were analyzed and processed by means of structural equation modeling.

The results of the online survey reveal that religious values have a positive influence on the active SMEB in terms of contributing (like and/or share) and creating (posting positive comments) of brand related-contents via Facebook OBC. Religious values play a key role in encouraging Islamic banks’ customers to share and forward posts, advertisements and/or contents. Furthermore, religious values encourage customers to forward contents that comply with their religious values and beliefs and are also compatible with the Islamic rules of Shari’ah.

The findings of this study suggest that religious values are likely to impact customer behavior when consuming, liking, sharing and commenting on the online contents generated by Islamic banks. Given the fact that Islamic religious values are universal and persistent, there is a potential for long-term benefits for those Islamic banks that identify profitable religious consumer segments within the domestic and global markets as well as to promote and enhance active SMEB in terms of number of positive comments, likes and shares of brand-related contents.

The purpose of this study is to explore the acculturation caused by the Korean wave among Indonesian Muslim consumers, especially in the food and cosmetic sectors, based on religious grounds.

Data were collected through focus group interviews with 20 Muslim respondents in Indonesia.

The findings specifically highlighted that Muslim consumers’ acceptance of Korean products varied. Muslim consumers’ acceptance was influenced by similarities and differences in values between Islamic and Korean cultures. Consumers categorised into each acculturation mode (assimilation, separation, integration and marginalisation) showed different behavioural patterns in Korean product acceptance. This study proposes that global products can be optimised through specific and targeted marketing campaigns for different types of Muslim consumers with products that comply with their religious values.

Few studies have explored the importance of religious values (e.g. righteousness, compassion and respect for others) with respect to the acceptance of foreign products in the acculturation context. Additionally, how values from other cultures reconcile with the Indonesian Muslims’ affinity for Korean culture has been limitedly studied. This study aims to fill these gaps by identifying the role of religious factors in the acceptance of global products by taking the example of Indonesian Muslim consumers and Korean products.

This study aims to establish the psychometric properties of behavioural integrity scale at an organizational level from external stakeholders’ perspective and its subsequent influence on consumer trust and commitment with a brand. Moreover, the study also examines how different crisis response strategies moderate the relationship between consumer attributions of the responsibility and corporate brand behavioural integrity in the context of emotional product harm crisis caused by alleged violation of Halal certification by an MNC.

A quasi-experimental design was applied to test the impact of firm crisis response strategies on its corporate brand behavioural integrity.

The results provide evidence that behavioural integrity scale can be used to measure consumer perceptions of a corporate brand behavioural integrity. In addition, results indicate that crisis response strategies offer some moderating influence on the relationship between consumer attribution processes and corporate brand behavioural integrity.

Results indicate that existing corporate crisis response strategies are not very helpful in the context of emotional product harm crisis. This study demonstrates that behavioural integrity positively impacts customer relationship-oriented constructs. Furthermore, behavioural integrity scale offers excellent psychometric properties when used at the corporate level.

Organizations can use this proposed conceptual model to monitor and manage behavioural integrity of its corporate brand and its influence on customer-brand relationship constructs.

This study is first of its nature that underscores the importance of measuring and monitoring corporate brand behavioural integrity as a customer trust-building mechanism. It is also the first study that investigates consumer reaction towards alleged brand transgression of its Halal certified product.

The purpose of this study is to, first, analyze the past years of research on international branding and, second, building on an early literature review, to analyze patterns in the field and suggest future research.

The analyzed papers were compiled using the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The author searched papers published between 2007 and 2023 that used terms related to international branding in their title, abstract and keywords.

This paper structures and identifies key institutions, papers, regions and authors in the field. It provides an overview of the past years of research in the area. The study identifies important gaps in the literature and suggests further research dealing with, for example, the B2B sector and emerging markets.

Despite the increase in international branding studies, few literature reviews have been published since 2007. This review fills this research gap. It identifies future research areas dealing with branding in the B2B sector, branding in emerging markets, branding process and implementation studies using longitudinal methods and more practical research.