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The aim of this paper is to determine the factors that most likely influence non‐Muslims' understanding of Halal principles in a country where almost 60 percent of the population is Muslim.

Cross‐sectional data were collected through a survey of 800 non‐Muslims in the Klang Valley, via structured questionnaires, to gather information on their understanding of Halal principles and food products. The logit model was applied to determine the extent to which socio environment factors influenced the respondents' understanding and familiarities with Halal principles and Halal food products.

The results of this study suggest that non‐Muslim consumers are aware of the existence of Halal food in Malaysia. In general, socio‐environmental factors such as mixing with Muslims socially and the presence of advertised Halal food significantly influence non‐Muslims' understanding of Halal principles. The findings also suggest that non‐Muslims understand that Halal principles are also concerned about food safety issues and environmentally friendly ways of doing things.

The research used a quantitative method to analyse 800 non‐Muslim respondents in the Klang Valley only.

The practical implications extend to food policy decision makers and food marketers who might pursue strategies in their distribution and communication efforts which target the growing Halal food market segment among non‐Muslims. Dissemination of information plays an important role in making non‐Muslims improve their understanding of Halal principles.

This study is one of the first to investigate the level of understanding of Halal principles among non‐Muslims in Malaysia.

This study aims to revisit the practice of multiculturalism within the co-existence of halal food products in non-Muslim communities in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.

Data were collected through observations, interviews and documentation using a case study approach.

The important findings in the existing study indicate that social practice related to the acceptance and expression of non-Muslim communities towards halal products and certificates is integrated into the daily life of the people. It has contrasted with other regions in Indonesia where debates between cultural and structural aspects of halal product studies and certification prevail, often dominated by ego-sectoral interests and Islamic theology. Although Kupang’s predominantly non-Muslim population, the practice and model of halal products emerge with uniqueness within communal traditions and socio-cultural practices take precedence over structural factors.

The most significant contribution of this research lies in mutual understanding, interfaith dialogue and religiosity that have fused into social life, specially building social coexistence in halal products.

These findings contribute to policymakers to reformulate halal certification and products, which are not solely driven by the interests of the Muslim community.

This study presents a new synthetic theory about halal products, confirming a case study in Kupang where non-Muslim communities accepted halal products as a reflection of cultural and local customs. This acceptance has led to the development of a new identity without contradictions among business interests, ideologies, sectoral aspects, hygiene, health and structural state movements.

There is paucity of research on the significant criteria that non-Muslims consider when purchasing halal cosmetics. Consequently, this paper aims to apply the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the health belief model (HBM) to investigate the effects of subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioural control (PBC), halal certification and health consciousness on attitude; as well as the impact of attitude on promoting the intention to purchase halal cosmetic products among non-Muslims.

Data collection involved the use of a web-based survey of 238 non-Muslim respondents that are resident in Malaysia, a south east Asian country reputed for being the global hub for halal products. The proposed model was evaluated using Smart PLS 3.3.5.

According to the structural model results, halal certification, health consciousness and SN have significant relationships with attitude. In addition, there are significant relationships between attitude, health consciousness, SN and the intention to purchase halal cosmetic products. In contrast, there is no correlation between halal certification, PBC and intention to purchase halal cosmetics. Furthermore, attitude significantly mediates the relationships between halal certification, SN, health consciousness and intention to purchase halal cosmetics. However, attitude did not significantly fulfil the role of a mediator in the relationship between PBC and intention to purchase halal cosmetic products.

The study findings provide valuable insights to companies targeting non-Muslim markets. The study findings contend how halal cosmetic production/marketing companies may customize their marketing activities based on social and health perspectives, thereby increasing the consumers’ social expectations and confidence in halal cosmetics production standards and guaranteeing safety to influence their attitudes and quickly penetrate the new market for non-Muslim consumers who make a relatively unexplored population.

Given the scarcity of studies regarding religious food as a destination attraction and limited research on tourist halal food experience, this study aims to explore and compare halal food experience perceived by Muslim and non-Muslim tourists in a non-Islamic destination.

This study was carried out in a halal food street in Yuanjia Village, China. It used a qualitative approach and interviewed 16 Muslim tourists and 20 non-Muslim tourists.

Six themes and 18 attributes of halal food experience were identified. The findings revealed that Muslim tourists saw the reassuring options and religious value of halal food as important experiences. By contrast, the experiences of abundant choices, value for money, sensory pleasure and unique charm were frequently mentioned by non-Muslim tourists. The nature of halal food, the context of China (i.e. Chinese halal food culture) and the feature of research site (i.e. food operation of Yuanjia Village) work together to create such experiences.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to explore and compare halal food experiences of Muslim and non-Muslim tourists in a non-Islamic country (China). This study suggests that halal food could be an appealing destination attraction, even in non-Islamic destinations. Thus, this study contributes to a better understanding of the halal food experiences and assists destination marketers in promoting halal food.

This study aims to investigate the determinant factors that consumers may consider in buying halal packaged food produced by non-Muslim manufacturers.

This paper develops a seven-constructs-based model. Halal awareness, Islamic brand and product ingredients are used as the pre-determined factors for measuring consumer’s purchase intention.

The hypotheses which were tested using partial least squares have revealed that halal awareness and product ingredients have significantly influenced Muslims’ intention to buy halal packaged food that are produced by non-Muslim manufacturers. The findings show that the religious belief, exposure and certification/logo are potential sources of Muslim awareness about halal packaged food from non-Muslim manufacturers.

This research is also not exempted from its limitations. The data collected for the current study investigate general purchase toward halal products. It would be interesting if future researchers examine consumers’ purchase intention toward specific halal products for specific product categories. A comparative study is also worthy of being steered, as such a study is beneficial for producers and marketers of the halal industry.

As an overall implication, this study will provide a valuable and important information for non-Muslim halal packaged food manufacturers in identifying the appropriate strategy to fulfill the needs and wants of Muslim consumers at best. It is sufficed to suggest that the Muslim community has adopted halal food from non-Islamic brands as part of their lifestyle choice. Clearly, this gives implications to non-Muslim halal food producers. Thus, it is critical for food manufacturers to increase the level of awareness toward halal products by providing sufficient and interesting information, especially on halal certification. Hence, the manufacturer must take the opportunity to do intensive promotion to encourage more consumers to purchase their products.

This paper examines consumer purchase intention toward non-Muslim packed food manufactures in Saudi Arabia. It is critical for non-Muslim packed halal food manufacturers to increase the level of awareness toward halal products by providing sufficient and interesting information, especially on halal certification.

To tap into the global market, it is important to evaluate and predict the trends of the acceptance of non-Muslims towards halal food products. This review paper aimed to evaluate the evidence relating to the potential barriers to the acceptance of halal food among non-Muslim consumers.

The authors searched ScienceDirect, Scopus, Emerald and JSTOR databases. The search for the studies was performed without restrictions by using the terms “Non-Muslim” OR “Jews” OR “Christian” OR “Hindu” OR “Buddha” AND “halal” OR “halalan toyyiban” OR “sharia compliance” AND “food” OR “dietary” AND “perception” OR “opinion” OR “attitude” OR “barrier”. Quantitative studies were included, and the quality of the studies was assessed with the Crowe Critical Appraisal Tool.

Two themes were identified to be the potential barriers in the acceptance of halal food among non-Muslim consumers. There were two major factors: weak intention (negative attitude, perceived low behavioural control and perceived low subjective norms) and lack of food safety awareness, whereas the minor factors were as follows: perceived low food quality, halal logo/brand, lack of halal awareness, religious belief, animal welfare, consumer motive, low confidence level, lack of proper marketing/promotion, bad cognitive dissonance, bad food assurance and poor product judgement.

By realising these potential barriers, it will benefit many parties including stakeholders and the food industry to improve their strategy to expand the halal market, especially for non-Muslims.

Based on the findings, the authors believe that while research towards halal needs to continue and improve its basis in theory and design, researchers and food marketers can be confident that intention of purchasing halal food products can be increased by securing the aspect of attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control as well as food safety awareness. Based on the identification of these potential barriers, this review hopes to further explain effective methods of communication for conveying halal concept in different parts of the countries.

Tourists often travel to different tourism destinations in advancing the knowledge of diverse cultures, environments, history and social aspects. The purpose of this study is to explore tourists’ perception of halal tourism and its impact on word-of-mouth towards halal tourism destinations.

A quantitative research approach was applied in this study. Data were collected via 375 survey questionnaires and were analysed using partial least square method. Data were collected from Malaysia’s capital city and tourist spots in Kuala Lumpur, the administrative capital city in Putrajaya, and several cities in Selangor, the richest state in the country.

The findings revealed that trip quality has a higher significant impact on satisfaction and trip value. The perception of a halal tourism destination is found to have a significant influence on satisfaction and trip value. Trip value is significantly related to satisfaction but not associated with word-of-mouth (WOM). Satisfaction of tourists has a significant impact on WOM towards travel destinations.

This study comes up with a novel understanding of the theory of tourism practices by estimating non-Muslim tourists’ perception and its significant influence of WOM towards tourism destinations. The results of this study are significant to industry practitioners, policymakers and marketers in promoting halal tourism. The results of this study provide useful insights for Malaysia’s tourism industry, particularly for the tourism marketing in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya cities as tourist destinations.

This study comes up with a novel understanding of the theory of tourism practices by estimating non-Muslim tourists’ perception and the influence of WOM towards tourism destinations. The results of this study are significant to industry practitioners, policymakers and marketers in promoting halal tourism.

This study examined the potential impact of non-Muslim tourists’ perception of halal tourism destinations and their WOM for halal tourism destinations.

This paper aims to explore the perceptions of non-Muslim tourists towards halal tourism in Malaysia and Turkey. It also investigates the extent to which non-Muslim tourists are willing to purchase certain types of halal products and services.

Qualitative data were collected by conducting 35 semi-structured interviews with non-Muslim tourists in Malaysia and another 25 in Turkey.

Six major aspects are identified that describe the perceptions of non-Muslim tourists towards halal tourism. This paper also provides some suggestions for destination marketers on how best to cater for Western tourists and increase international arrivals.

This paper explores the perceptions of non-Muslim tourists towards halal tourism which is totally new research in destination marketing. It provides some original insights into the interactions between the religion of Islam and non-Muslim tourists. The insight should be of value to authorities, the industry and academics in both the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds.

This study aims to identify the intention to purchase Halal food products amongst non-Muslim consumers in Malaysia, moderated by the acculturation effect.

A structured close-ended questionnaire was used to gather data through the random distribution of 397 non-Muslim consumers from the Alumni network of several private higher education institutions in Malaysia.

The collected data was analyzed through the structural equation modelling technique using partial least squares with SmartPLS 3.0. The result indicated that attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control were positively influenced by the purchase decision of Halal food products amongst non-Muslim consumers in Malaysia. Apart from that, the acculturation effect moderates the relationship between attitude and intention to purchase.

This finding will contribute to academics, Halal food makers and government in understanding the Halal food purchase intention amongst non-Muslim consumers in Malaysia.

The outcome of this study can be used as an input for Halal entrepreneurship in terms of marketing and operation strategy. On the government aspect, this study also provides an implication on national public policy and strategic economic planning in developing overall national Halal policy.

The social harmonization amongst the multiple races in Malaysia is partially contributed through the acculturation effect. The acculturation effect has been reflected through the food choice decision amongst Malaysian, despite of different religious belief and home culture background.

Research in studying Halal food purchase intention amongst non-Muslim consumers are scarce. This research is able to reinforce the theory of planned behavior model in dealing with Halal food choice decisions, taking into consideration of acculturation effect.

Islamic finance has exhibited immense potential to transform the global financial landscape in the recent years. In reaction to the trend, Nigeria introduced Islamic banking system to cater to the need of the teeming population and promote financial inclusion, among other potential benefits. Unfortunately, the notable growth recorded by the banks since the inception of the Islamic banking system is slowing down because of religiously induced sentiments and criticisms championed by certain non-Muslim segments of the society. Interestingly, even with the impish hype and publicity, non-Muslims make a significant customer base of the Islamic banks. Therefore, the current paper aims to investigate the factors influencing the choice of Islamic banking among non-Muslim customers, using the theory of planned behaviour as a conceptual framework.

This research adopts a positivist approach and relies on facts and quantitative data in an objective manner. Positivism emphasizes on using scientific methods to derive factual and quantifiable results.

Based on the regression analysis, subjective norm was found to be the most significant factor influencing the choice of Islamic banking followed by perceived behavioural control and attitude. As a result, it is important for Islamic banking institutions and relevant regulatory agencies to take preemptive measures that may protect and enhance these factors in a bid to promote patronage and eventual success of Islamic banking in Nigeria, especially in the face of growing scepticism.

The existing literature focuses on the choices of either Muslims without due emphasis on the determinant of choice in the case of non-Muslim customers. The growing support of Islamic banking products, cutting across religious divides, compels research on the factors that influence the choice of Islamic banking among non-Muslim customers. Hence, this research seeks to bridge the gap in the existing literature by embarking on an investigation into the factors influencing the choice of Islamic banking among non-Muslim customers in the context of Nigeria.