Search results

Introduction Although there is no Muslim country, at present, which can be called an Islamic economy, in the sense of following, in a strict fashion, the teachings of the Qur'an, the traditions of Prophet Muhammad and the practices of early Muslims, a majority of Muslim consumers would seem to hold to Islamic values and views regarding the disposal of their incomes. The aim of this paper is to throw some light on the effect of this behaviour on optimal consumption of a Muslim individual. The paper is divided into three sections. Section one briefly summarises the economic behaviour of a non‐religious (rational) consumer. Section two discusses the utility function of a Muslim consumer and highlights the differences between this function and that of a non‐Muslim consumer. Section three determines the conditions of optimum consumption of a Muslim consumer.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the globality and intentionality aspects of consumer boycotts among the Muslim dominant markets around the world through the consumer animosity perspective, to provide better understanding of the issues. Some applied and potential solutions for marketers and policy makers in dealing with the issues are also discussed.

The analytical definition of consumer boycotts through the consumer animosity perspective is proposed and the relevance of the discussion is considered. The relationships between the globality and intentionality attributions with animosity and consumer boycotts are assessed before strategies to deal with the issues are diagnosed. Seminal works of classic and current consumer boycotts and animosity literature are reviewed in developing the conceptual background of the paper. Further conceptual reflections are stated based on the depicted current events in the market around the world.

The conceptual discussion revealed that consumer boycotts in the Muslim dominant market and animosity are two related issues worthy being explored. The issues are of the global concern and occurred unintentionally, therefore they could stimulate unexpected outcomes for the marketers and policy makers alike. Nonetheless, several strategies in dealing with the issues are found to be effective in preventing the issues from getting worse. However, the strategies would not work for all entities in all situations. Understanding the root of the issues would be the best solution.

The discussion is limited to conceptual background of the aspects discussed. Further empirical studies would enhance the applicability of the discussions presented.

In order to find strategies to deal with consumer boycotts in the Muslim dominant markets, marketers need to understand the real reason for the events to occur and demonstrate sincere understanding towards the issues. By doing so, consumer boycotts would not obstruct the progress and growth of the international business in general. Looking at the issues from the animosity perspective is a prolific attempt to understand the events.

The paper reveals the relationship between consumer boycotts and animosity in the Muslim dominant markets and offers understanding of the specific events occurrence. The discussion is extended to describe the events' globality and intentionality attribution assessment.

The Muslim population is growing at twice the non-Muslim rate and forecast to represent over 25% of the global population by 2030. The Muslim fashion market is predicted to be worth $311bn globally by 2024. This market is currently not well understood or served. This study aims to present new insights into the fashion consumption opinions, attitudes and behaviours of female Muslim consumers through the lens of consumer culture focusing on Muslim identity.

An inductive qualitative method was adopted comprising 23 in-depth semi-structured interviews from respondents of seven ethnicities residing in the UK. Data were coded using a thematic approach.

Findings highlight the effect of Muslim identity on fashion consumption. Data demonstrates the importance of fashion for Muslim women despite the potential conflict between Islamic principles and public image. Respondents were conscious that their fashion behaviours were consistent with their identity; however, concerns were raised around limited choice and availability. Religiosity and family context/background were highlighted as key influences.

Findings provide clear guidance, enabling fashion brands to most effectively serve this substantial and rapidly growing market. It is important that Muslim women are able to engage fully with fashion trends, satisfying their will to fit in with both their religion and their wider community.

This qualitative research provides depth of understanding of consumer motivations and attitudes and a multi-ethnic perspective which is lacking from previous studies that have adopted quantitative and single nationality approaches.

Environmental pollution due to the enormous usage of conventional plastic products has alerted consumers to change their attitude towards green plastic products. This study aims to examine the effects of environmental concern, knowledge of the environment and religiosity on young Muslim consumers’ attitude towards green plastic products in Indonesia. Additionally, the moderating role of gender on these relationships is investigated.

An online survey was used as a method of data collection. Data gathered from 231 young Muslim consumers in Bandung, Indonesia, was analysed via the partial least squares-structural equation modelling approach.

The results revealed that environmental concern is the factor that has the biggest impact on consumers’ attitude and behavioural intentions, both directly and indirectly. This research implies that as a young Muslim’s concern for the environment grows, his or her attitude towards the environment improves, leading them to purchase and endorse green plastic products.

Green plastic product managers should increase the environmental concern of young Muslim consumers through effective marketing communication strategies and green education programs to disseminate a positive message that green plastic products consumption aids in making the environment safe and healthy.

This empirical study is imperative for green managers to improve their capabilities in boosting young Muslim consumers’ attitude towards green plastic products through strengthening consumers’ environmental concern, knowledge of the environment and religiosity towards supporting the sustainable development goals.

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 examine the impact of social advertising (informative, entertainment, credibility, ease of use, privacy and contents) on the buying behavior of Muslim consumers toward the fashion clothing brands during the Holy Month of Ramadan along with the moderating role of brand image. Precisely, it focuses on the marketing techniques and strategies in social advertising to enhance buying behavior.

Using the convenience sampling technique, data was collected from 304 Muslim consumers during the Holy Month of Ramadan. Questionnaires were self-administered, and data was analyzed via Smart partial least square structural equation modeling.

Social advertising (informative, entertainment, credibility, privacy, ease of use, contents) and brand image have a positive relationship with the buying behavior of Muslim consumers toward the fashion clothing brands during the Holy Month of Ramadan, while the brand image has nonmoderating effects. Furthermore, social advertising has a positive and significant relationship with the brand image.

This study is only limited to fashion clothing brands in the Malaysian Muslim community and is based only on the few dimensions of the theory of reasoned action and technology acceptance model (TAM).

Results clarified the impact of social advertising and brand image on the buying behavior of Muslim consumers toward the fashion clothing brands during the Holy Month of Ramadan and the moderating role of brand image in achieving the business objectives.

This study has evaluated the effects of social advertising and brand image in enhancing the buying behavior of Muslim consumers during the Holy Month of Ramadan toward the fashion clothing brands along with the moderating role of brand image based on the theory of reasoned action and TAM model. Precisely, this study examined the unique characteristics of social advertising and the relative importance of informative, entertainment, credibility, ease of use, privacy and content in enhancing the buying behavior of Muslim consumers during the Holy Month of Ramadan, where consumers are emotionally involved in buying fashion clothing brands due to Eid al Fitr celebration.

This study aims to examine the halal brand image, halal logo and halal awareness of non-Muslim customers on attitude and behavioral intention.

This study uses a quantitative survey approach to 400 respondents consisting of 400 non-Muslim millennials in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore who have to buy halal cosmetics two years later. The sampling technique is purposive sampling. The analysis technique used in this study is structural equation modeling.

This study showed that halal logo, halal awareness and halal brand image have an effect on customer attitude. Then, the halal logo, halal awareness and halal brand image have an influence on behavioral intention. The existence of this positive signal has provided a great opportunity for businesses to make profits by meeting the demand for the halal market. Consumption of halal cosmetics produced by manufacturers attracts many non-Muslim consumers because of the safety, comfort and cleanliness of product ingredients, which of them must be given by the halal product, especially for cosmetics.

This study broadens the understanding of the attitudes and behavioral intentions of non-Muslim consumers toward halal cosmetic products. Furthermore, this research has provided a deeper interpretation of non-Muslim understanding of halal logos, halal brand images and halal awareness which have been minimal in research studies.

This study contributes to the literature related to the behavioral intentions of millennial non-Muslim consumers for halal cosmetics. Therefore, respondents in the study were specific, that is, non-Muslims who are millennial generation in the Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore context.

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.

This study aims to explore whether religiosity influences consumer purchase behavior among Muslim consumers in Pakistan.

An in-depth, semi-structured interview protocol was developed and administered to a sample of 90 participants, both male and female, across eight metropolitan cities of Pakistan. Professionals, university students and housewives were part of the sample. NVivo Version 11 was used for data analysis to answer the research questions raised in this study. Moreover, the purposive sampling method has been used in this research.

The behavior of consumers was found to vary with the degree of involvement and the degree of religiosity. Study findings are divided into three themes. Firstly, a high level of religiosity makes Muslim consumers follow the Islamic principles of food consumption, by evaluating the product ingredients, spending moderately and verifying a halal logo at the time of purchase. Secondly, a major theme is the view that religiosity has no influence on food consumption; it is more about individuals’ needs and priorities. Finally, the consumers’ overall perception of quality, product value, purity and health consciousness over-powers the concept of religiosity.

Because of its qualitative and exploratory nature, the generalizability of this paper is limited. In addition to that, this research is just focused on one Muslim country.

This study suggests that western food exporters may use religiosity and other factors as probable segmentation variables to effectively position their brands. Religious images and other factors may be highlighted in product packaging and communication campaigns by marketers to gain recognition and usage of western food and consumption among religious, Pakistani Muslim consumers. The output of this research may support prospective entrants into the food business; those interested in exploring the Asian consumer market. Findings from this study may also be helpful for those in the west interested in exploring Pakistan as an emerging consumer market.

The presence of western imported food may improve the quality of life by having more opportunities and healthier options for the nation. Western food products can also bring cultural convergence whereby the underdeveloped nation feels upgraded and modern. Moreover, if the western food products are certified halal, the product has a fair chance of adoption and penetration in the society. Also, the food products coming from the western world induces mindfulness, people are more aware about innovative and useful ingredients that can satisfy their taste buds, improve their health, increase their life expectancy and contented approach toward life.

Thus far, limited research has analyzed religiosity of an overwhelmingly Muslim population and its impact on consumer behavior. This study is a preliminary effort to provide a basic understanding of the behavior of Pakistani Muslims, who have been insufficiently investigated by marketing and consumer researchers. The intriguing results are to remind marketers that there are several factors that govern religiosity and lead to a purchase decision.

Halal markets are rapidly growing in terms of market size and global coverage; therefore, there is a critical demand to have a deeper understanding of the consumption behavior of Muslim consumers. This study aims to explore the influence of using the Halal logo on Muslim consumers’ attitudes toward food products using the neuroscience technology of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The theory of planned behavior represents the foundation of this research, where consumer attitudes during an fMRI experiment were evaluated based on two different groups of images: images of just the Halal logo and images of meat labeled with the Halal logo. The study used the blocked design approach to track brain responses produced from displaying the two groups of images to study participants, where brain activity represents participants’ attitudes toward selecting the products.

There were no significant variations in brain activity when participants viewed Halal and non-Halal logos; in contrast, there were significant brain changes in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex region when meat images were labeled with Halal and non-Halal logos. This suggests that the Halal logo only has an influence on perception when it co-occurs with a product.

Tracking Muslim consumption patterns is important for managers to be able to establish strategies to target Muslim consumers. This study uses a unique technique to study the behavioral attitude of a rapidly growing market segment, which can help marketing managers tailor their advertisement strategies to be more effective.

Previous research on the consumption of Halal products uses conventional approaches to study the influence of the Halal logo; however, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore the influence of the Halal logo on Muslim consumers’ attitudes using fMRI technology.