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The principles of mindfulness have been increasingly applied in medical education for stress reduction. One of the most often used measures for mindfulness research is the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). The purpose of this paper is to determine the factor structure, and investigate its reliability and validity in a sample of multi-ethnic medical students in Malaysia.

In total, 590 medical students were involved in the study. After minor modification of the MAAS, a test battery including sociodemographic information, the MAAS, Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Five-facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was administered to the participants.

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a one-dimensional factor structure of the MAAS. Cronbach’s α coefficient of the scale was 0.92 and in a sub-sample (n=118), it showed satisfactory temporal stability in two weeks period. There were significant positive correlations with SHS, SWLS, and four subscales of FFMQ scores (convergent validity); and negative correlations (discriminant validity) with the DASS and PSS scores (p<0.05). In another sub-sample (n=52) who participated in a four-week mindfulness-based intervention, the scale showed significant change in scores (p=0.002).

The study provided preliminary results supporting the use of the MAAS as a valid, reliable and stable factor structure of mindfulness measure among medical students in Malaysia.

This paper aims to model Muslim consumers' purchase behaviour that predicts the impacts of behavioural factors of spirituality, emotional value, image, trust and satisfaction on Halal-labelled food products. The model was used among Muslim consumers in Indonesia and France.

A survey was conducted among Indonesian and French Muslim consumers who had bought Halal-labelled food products. The model was examined using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with multi-group analysis (PLS-MGA) to test specific differences between sample groups.

All proposed hypotheses were accepted, except for the trust in purchasing behaviour. It was not significantly different in the two sample groups. The linkage from image to purchasing behaviour was not significantly related to the French sample group, and emotional value did not influence Halal-labelled food product purchase behaviour in the Indonesian sample group. The MGA results found a significant difference in spirituality, emotional value image and trust among Indonesian and French Muslim consumers.

The guarantee of Halal food through a Halal label can fulfil the spirituality of Muslim consumers in carrying out Allah’s (SWT) command to consume Halal food, creating a product image, trust, satisfaction and emotional value that encourages positive buying behaviour. The finding shows that Muslim spirituality has extended the Islamic marketing literature to predict Muslim consumer behaviour. The company can emphasise in advertisements that the Halal-certified logo reflects the quality of products.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the early study empirically confirming that spirituality and emotional value are critical domains to predict purchase behaviour between two different groups of Indonesian and French Muslim consumers.

This paper aims to investigate the antecedents of Muslim millennial’s purchase intention for halal-certified cosmetics and pharmaceutical products by expanding the theory of reasoned action (TRA) through the inclusion of religiousity (RG), halal knowledge and halal certification as the exogenous constructs in addition to TRA’s subjective norm, with attitude as the mediating variable.

A sample of 403 Muslim millennial customers of cosmetics and pharmaceutical products from the Greater Jakarta area, Indonesia. The data were analysed using partial least squares method.

Based on the study, attitude fully and/or partially mediates all the exogenous variables. RG and subjective norm are found to have no direct and significant relationship to purchase intention, but they indirectly affect the latter through attitude. Finally, both halal knowledge and halal certification have partial mediation with purchase intention through attitude as the mediating variable.

By understanding the relationships between the latent constructs, halal players in the industry could use the findings to better comprehend the urgency and importance of the halal aspects of their products, particularly halal certification, with regards to the Muslim millennials, and devise appropriate policies and strategies to capture the increasingly potential slice of the market.

The extant literature on halal products has mostly examined the food industry, and little attention has been given to the halal cosmetics and pharmaceutical products, inspite of its growing importance in Indonesia as the world’s largest halal market. Unlike earlier studies on the topic, this study also limits its focus on the Muslim millennial consumers, which is arguably the most potential and lucrative share of the halal market.

This study aims to investigate the influence of religiosity (intrinsic and extrinsic) and halal literacy on the intention of Muslim consumers to purchase halal branded food products in India. An extended version of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was used as a framework. Apart from religiosity and halal literacy, the influence of attitude, social norms and perceived behavioural control of halal on buying intention were also tested.

The study uses a survey design. The data were collected from 350 individual respondents, using a closed-ended, structured questionnaire. The quality of the measurement model has been assessed through reliability testing, factor loading, average variance extracted and Fornell-Larcker criterion. The test of hypotheses was conducted by performing the partial least square structural equation modelling.

The result of hypotheses testing shows that both intrinsic and extrinsic types of religiosities did not have a direct influence on buying intention. However, religiosity (extrinsic and intrinsic) and halal literacy have significant relationships with most of the antecedents of the intention of the TPB. In addition, both kinds of religiosities (extrinsic and intrinsic) and halal literacy had a significant indirect effect (through TPB antecedents) on buying intention.

Muslim population in India is one of the largest in the world, yet there is a lack of popular halal branded food products in the market. Nevertheless, few researchers have attempted to study the consumer behaviour of the Muslim population for halal products in India. A large amount of research work on halal food behaviour is from countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, where the Muslim population is in the majority and halal brands are already popular. Further, this paper studies the impact of dimensions of religiosity, which has been overlooked by researchers studying the halal food purchasing behaviour. The study also explores the impact of halal literacy, an understudied construct in halal marketing literature. The present study is amongst the earliest empirical research based on Muslim consumers in India on the topic of halal branded food products.

The purpose of this study is to propose an extended model of technology acceptance model (TAM) in the use of financial technology (Fintech) in the context of Islamic philanthropy, especially by studying and exploring the role of trust, image and religiosity in TAM, and to provide policy recommendation for the authorized organizations in Indonesia regarding several crucial factors that need to be considered so that Indonesian Muslims are willing to use Fintech for philanthropic purposes.

Online surveys were conducted to collect the data, of which 425 respondents have completed and returned the questionnaire. Multiple linear regression model and multi-variate analysis of variance are applied to test the statistical hypotheses.

This study supports the theory of reasoned action and the TAM. In which, the relationship between perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness with TAM is determined by trust and religiosity.

It is worth to note the limitation of this study lies in the sampling technique and data collection. Indonesia is a fast archipelago country and consists of 34 provinces, but not all of the provinces are represented in the sample. The selected respondent heavily depends on the previous respondent’s willingness to share the questionnaire. So that the number of respondents does not proportionate to region or province.

This study offers an extended model of TAM that has never been done before, namely, by exploring the role of trust, religiosity and image, in the context of Islamic philanthropy.

Despite the importance of pharmaceutical products in everyday life, particularly after the coronavirus outbreak in early 2020, only a few studies have attempted to analyse consumer behaviour with regard to halal pharmaceutical products. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the factors influencing purchase intention for halal pharmaceutical products among Indonesian Muslims.

This study uses a theory of planned behaviour approach, in which religiosity and knowledge of halal product variables are added to attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control variables. Primary data were collected from 225 Indonesian Muslims in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia and analysed using structural equation modelling.

The study found that the intention to purchase halal pharmaceutical products is positively affected by attitude, religiosity, knowledge of halal products and perceived behavioural control. However, the influence of the subjective norm variable was found to be insignificant in this study.

It is possible to improve the empirical model by including more explanatory variables and investigating the mediating effect of the variables. The study could also be scaled up to reach more respondents in different regions and countries. These additional aspects would provide better insights into the behaviour of consumers when considering halal pharmaceutical products.

The findings suggest the importance of designing and implementing appropriate strategies and campaigns to enhance knowledge of halal products, of positive attitudes and of better resources/opportunities to consume halal pharmaceutical products. The industry needs to highlight its products’ halal and tayyib aspects through proper branding and promotion strategies. The government and other stakeholders could also implement education campaigns to increase halal products and halal literacy knowledge. These are ultimately expected to enhance the effectiveness of halal regulations and meet Muslim consumer expectations in the country.

Despite the importance of halal pharmaceutical products, this area has received limited attention in the academic literature. Thus, this study attempts to elaborate on consumer behaviour in this niche area.

Blockchain technology (BCT), since its emergence touted to be disruptive, is gaining momentum, especially in the agri-food system owing to its multiple benefits.

The authors attempted to conduct a systematic bibliometric visualization analysis of the BCT in the agri-food system. The analysis investigated the list of countries and institutions that conducted research on BCT in agriculture, growth trend analysis in research publications, bibliographic coupling of journals using the VOSviewer tool, and the countries and institutions researching BCT.

The authors discovered that China, the USA and India were the highly active countries in BCT research and publication. However, India has only limited research collaboration with other countries as compared to China and the USA. The keyword analysis indicates the role of BCT in order to maintain the transparency of the supply chain by means of protecting the privacy of the personal data of the stakeholders.

More research related to the implementation of BCT in livestock, fishery and agro-forestry sector is recommended.

The case examined is of particular interest as it is concerned with efficient supply chain management.

This study adds value and evidence to the scope and benefits of BCT by providing a comprehensive literature review, with a special focus on the opportunities and challenges concerned with implementation of BCT in the Indian agri-food system.

1. Blockchain technology (BCT) – a promising tool to resolve issues in agriculture supply chain.

2. BCT ensures transparency and protection of information along the supply chain transactions.

3. China, the USA and India are the highly active countries in BCT research and publication.

4. Multiple potential benefits to stakeholders are attributed to the BCT in the agri-food system.

5. The key challenge is to bridge the digital gap between developed and developing nations.

6. Future research on BCT should aim at easing and undistorted competition among stakeholders.

Blockchain technology (BCT) – a promising tool to resolve issues in agriculture supply chain.

BCT ensures transparency and protection of information along the supply chain transactions.

China, the USA and India are the highly active countries in BCT research and publication.

Multiple potential benefits to stakeholders are attributed to the BCT in the agri-food system.

The key challenge is to bridge the digital gap between developed and developing nations.

Future research on BCT should aim at easing and undistorted competition among stakeholders.

The development of the banking industry is encouraging increasingly fierce competition. In the face of banking competition, Islamic banks need to build customer loyalty by paying attention to ethical aspects. Ethics has an essential role in forming and preserve relationships between companies and customers in the long term. The measurement model of salesperson ethical behavior in this study was built using the Islamic-based marketing concept. This study aims to test empirical models of Islamic ethics-based salesperson behavior in increasing customer loyalty of Islamic banks through the aspect of customer trust.

Research data were obtained from 165 Islamic bank customers in the Central Java, Indonesia, using the purposive sampling method. Data analysis in this study uses structural equation modeling.

The study shows that the Islamic ethics-based salesperson behavior has a positive effect on customer trust in a salesperson, customers’ trust in Islamic banks and customer loyalty. Customer trust in a salesperson has positively and significantly influenced customer trust in Islamic banks and customer loyalty. Customer trust in Islamic banks has a positive and significant effect on customer loyalty.

This study’s results are expected to be used to reference maintenance salesperson in Islamic banking to behave based on Islamic principles. Islamic marketing principles need to be applied through salespersons behaving realistically (al-Waqi’iyyah) and humanistic concepts (insaniyyah). The application of Islamic ethics can limit and avoid deviant behavior from salespeople that is detrimental to consumers and organizations. The behavior of salespeople based on Islamic ethics will build consumer trust in both organizations and salesperson so that it has implications for consumer loyalty.

This paper provides new findings to understand Islamic banking consumer loyalty that focuses on Islamic ethical salesperson behavior point of view. This paper also presents a new measurement of research variables from an Islamic perspective in examining the role of Islamic ethics-based salesperson behavior toward banking customer loyalty. This study takes the object of research in Islamic banking that has different characteristics from conventional financial institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors affecting the intention of social networking sites (SNS) users to comply with government policy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on the theory of appraisal and coping, the research model is tested using survey data collected from 326 SNS users. Structural equation modeling is used to test the research model.

The results show that social support has a positive effect on outbreak self-efficacy but has no significant effect on perceived avoidability. Government information transparency positively affects outbreak self-efficacy and perceived avoidability. Outbreak self-efficacy and perceived avoidability have a strong positive impact on policy compliance intention through problem-focused coping.

The results suggest that both government and policymakers could deliver reliable pandemic information to the citizens via social media.

This study brings novel insights into citizen coping behavior, showing that policy compliance intention is driven by the ability to cope with problems. Moreover, this study enhances the theoretical understanding of the role of social support, outbreak self-efficacy and problem-focused coping.