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This study aims to explore the perceptions of Arabian Muslim consumers about halal food products and to investigate their behaviour towards halal-labelled food products in UK mainstream supermarkets using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). The role of Islamic religiosity and consumers’ confidence regarding the halal logo as moderating factors is investigated.

Cross-sectional data were collected through distributed 400 questionnaires in Scotland, mainly to Muslim consumers who come from different Arabian countries and are currently living in Scotland.

The results show that the TPB is a valid model for predicting Muslim consumers’ intention to purchase halal-labelled food products. The findings reveal that for consumers with high and low Islamic religiosity, subjective norms are the most influential determinants of their intention to purchase halal-labelled food products.

Limitations include the focus on only Arabian Muslim consumers within an ethnic minority population living in Scotland, and the use of convenience and snowball sampling.

The findings could be useful for halal industry food makers to better serve their customers through sophisticated marketing strategies.

This study extends understanding of consumers’ halal-labelled food purchasing behaviour using TPB to determining the rationales for purchasing halal foods from mainstream UK supermarkets. Unlike others studies, this study used Islamic religiosity instead of self-identity (being a Muslim) as a moderating factor.

The purpose of this paper is to address the challenges which the concept of halal presents – when attempting to understand how halal‐conscious consumers behave and what it takes to maintain an emotive, credible and authentic brand proposition.

Interpretive phenomenological analysis and syllogisms, as a basis for conceptual metaphor theory and critical discourse analysis, were employed. Evidence supported by discussions and participant observation method, whilst attending Oxford Global Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum, 26‐27 July 2010, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford – in addition to the empirical data presented by keynote speakers.

The author asserts that halal‐conscious consumers are risk averse, which drives discerning and high‐involvement behavioural traits. Furthermore, in the face of this, brand managers are still unclear how far they can push more emotionally led brand messages. Finally, the paper presents a halal decision‐making paradigm – as a basis for constructing salient and engaging brands. The halal paradigm is a nub where the perceived importance of halal is brought into the Muslim consciousness. This is a dynamic and cyclical process, whose final verdict is finite and perishable – due to hyper‐sensitivity and environmental factors influencing Muslim perceptions of what is halal.

The models presented synthesise conceptual thinking with primary and secondary data. Further, tests related to specific brands are suggested.

Whilst the author concurs with the general Islamic principle of halal being the norm and haram as the exception, within the halal paradigm of consumption attached to consumerism, an argument is put forward asserting that this is increasingly being reversed. Furthermore, it is proposed that brand theory could view brands as Muslims.

This paper examines the profitability and performance measurement of U.S. regional banks during the period 1994–2011, using the GMM estimator technique. Our study extends prior research by including several factors not previously considered using U.S. data.

We use bank-specific, industry-specific, and macroeconomic determinants of profitability contemporaneous with our performance indicators. We follow the accounting fundamental analysis path in explaining the bank performance.

Among the performance measures, the efficiency ratio and provisions for credit losses are negatively and equity scaled by assets is positively related to profitability. However, these relationships either reverse (efficiency ratio and provisions for credit losses) or become insignificant (equity scaled by assets) when the target becomes change in profitability. The level of nonperforming assets is negatively related to profitability across all measures of profitability used. Macroeconomic variables are largely unrelated to profitability during the year they are measured. However, they have a significant relationship with earnings change measures, suggesting they have a lagged effect on profitability. The slope of the yield curve is especially strong in this regard.

We use our determinants to model changes in bank profitability one year ahead, in addition to including several factors not previously considered, using the predictive focus of the fundamental analysis research.

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.

The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual model of Islamic branding. Based on the theory of self-congruity and existing literature, the conceptual model proposes three antecedents that can form the building blocks of Islamic branding.

The authors have developed a conceptual model to propose the antecedents of the Islamic branding construct based on the theory of self-congruity. The antecedents are adapted from existing literature and customized according to the Muslim consumer market. Three hypotheses are formulated on the basis of the proposed model and justified from existing literature.

The proposed Islamic branding model can be applied to both local and multinational brands in both Muslim majority and minority markets. Religiosity, Islamic brand knowledge and Islamic corporate social responsibility are proposed as the antecedents of Islamic branding. Muslim consumers are attracted to brands that portray congruity with their religious values. The proposed antecedents of Islamic branding can result in the subsequent formation of an emotional attachment between the Muslim consumer and the respective Islamic brand, and thereby a stronger Islamic brand.

The proposed Islamic branding model has not been empirically tested in this study.

Islamic branding is in the infancy stage of conceptual development. Currently, limited research exists on the operationalization of this construct. A gap exists in the literature regarding models and instruments for the operationalization and development of Islamic branding. The proposed model attempts to fill the conceptual gaps while taking into account the heterogeneity of the Muslim consumer market. Up until now, religiosity, Islamic brand knowledge and corporate social responsibility have not been studied as antecedents of Islamic branding. This study offers new insights by proposing customized brand-building blocks for an organization’s Islamic branding strategy based on theoretical grounds.

The purpose of this study are: to study the difference between halal awareness and halal certified awareness, and the relationship between the two variables; to study the differences in knowledge about halal and halal certified, as well as their relationship with halal awareness and halal certified awareness; and to build and test research models regarding factors that affect certified halal awareness.

The target population is Muslims who live in Indonesia and are 18 years old or more. The self-administered survey method is carried out based on a purposive sampling technique. The authors collect data from 428 Muslim respondents in Indonesia through an online survey. This study applies the partial least square–structural equation model to examine causal relationships and test hypotheses.

This study reveals several results: halal awareness is a different concept from halal-certified awareness; knowledge of halal is a different concept from knowledge of halal certificates; awareness is an outcome of knowledge, but knowledge is not an outcome of awareness; halal awareness has a significant effect on halal-certified awareness; knowledge about halal certificates has a significant effect on halal-certified awareness, but knowledge about halal does not have a significant effect; knowledge of halal certificates is not influenced by knowledge of halal and halal awareness; and exposure and religious commitment have a significant role in increasing knowledge and awareness.

Research that explores the difference between halal awareness and halal certified awareness, and Muslim knowledge about halal and halal certified, especially in the context of halal-certified food, is still very limited in the literature provided, if not unavailable. Furthermore, this study also builds and tests research models regarding the factors that affect certified halal awareness, which is limited or may not have been found in the literature.

The purpose of this study is to explore the regulatory framework in China and the extent to which Chinese multinationals have implemented and disclosed their anti-bribery and corruption (ABC) compliance practices. This is done against the backdrop of the evolving international ABC compliance standards.

This study is based on detailed reviews of the ABC compliance standards of international organizations; legislation passed by the USA, the UK and Chinese Governments; seven semi-structured interviews with leading experts in the field; and comparisons of ABC program disclosures of four Chinese with four best-in-class western multinational corporations.

A high level of convergence was found in the ABC standards published by the international organizations. Several positive features were found in the Chinese ABC regulatory frameworks but our findings indicate that there is minimal disclosure around ABC compliance program practices. This paper shows that a transparent disclosure would represent an easy win for Chinese multinational corporations and contribute to raising their reputations internationally.

While there are numerous studies in the law literature on ABC compliance standards and the extent to which they are effective in achieving their objectives, this is an emergent area in management research, to which our study makes a contribution. Future research could explore how other emerging economies are tackling this important issue.

By proactively adopting ABC compliance practices, corporations can seize the ethical high ground and build solid reputations with their stakeholders.

It is believed that this study is the first academic study that compares Chinese and international ABC standards.

The purpose of this study is to test Islamic religiosity scale’s reliability and validity and to evaluate the impact of Islamic religiosity on materialism in Turkey.

Using a quantitative research method, a self-administered survey was distributed to the students of two faculties – Faculty of Theology and Faculty of Business – of the same university in Izmir, Turkey. In total, 400 questionnaires for each faculty were distributed and a total of 529 completed questionnaires – 326 from the Faculty of Theology and 203 from the Faculty of Business – were returned. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted via SPSS and AMOS.

Islamic religiosity and materialism have been found to be negatively correlated, supporting the existing literature. However, not all the dimensions of Islamic religiosity (behavioral religiosity, spiritual religiosity and necessity of religion) had this negative effect on materialism (possession-defined success, acquisition centrality and acquisition as the pursuit of happiness). Negative influence of “behavioral religiosity” on all three dimensions of materialism was observed. However, the “spirituality” dimension of religiosity was found to have a positive impact, while the “necessity of religion” had no significant impact on the dimensions of materialism.

A sample consisting of undergraduate students might limit the generalizability of the findings to Turkish Islamic population in general. This study is one of the first attempts to test the Islamic religiosity scale which needs to be further analyzed and developed.

The present study will contribute to the literature by testing an Islamic religiosity scale developed by a Turkish researcher. Besides, this is the only study undertaken on the impact of Islamic religiosity on materialism using an Islamic religiosity scale.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the nature of emotion, self-esteem and life satisfaction tendencies amongst Iranian Muslim consumers when making impulse purchases.

Questionnaires were distributed amongst female Muslim participants at a shopping centre in Yazd, Iran – each of which were selected using cluster and random sampling methods. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling techniques, where LISREL software was used to measure the direct and indirect relationships between variables.

Within the sample, there was a direct causal relationship between impulse buying tendencies, impulse buying behaviour and purchasing. Second, there was a negative relationship between self-esteem and life-satisfaction within impulse buying tendencies. Finally, a positive relationship exists between emotion and impulse buying tendencies, which elicits impulse buying behaviour culminating in purchases. Emotion drives these consumers towards dissonance-reducing behaviour, which mediates low self-esteem and life satisfaction – through consumerism as a form of retail therapy. Some of the items purchased on impulse, that fulfilled this role, were hijabs (headscarves) and mantos (a type of tunic/shirt-dress/coat common in Iran).

The hijab is worn by Muslim females across the globe. However, the manto is an item of clothing worn almost exclusively by Iranian females. Therefore, it is likely that Muslim females in different geographies may exhibit similar behavioural traits, but their consumption patterns would substitute this item with a different one, such as an abaya or jilbab, for example.

Whilst the notion of retail therapy is widely understood, the novel contribution of this study lies in highlighting that the purchase of clothing such as hijabs and mantos by Iranian Muslim females is not just driven by rational and emotional decision-making seeking to fulfil religious obligations. There are cases where these religious artefacts are used to raise feelings of self-esteem and life satisfaction within the same individuals.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between attitude functions and attitude towards social media advertising. Additionally, this study also examines the relationship between attitude towards social media advertising and purchase intention.

The data was collected via an online survey among Malaysian Muslim participants. Quantitative analysis was used to test the hypothesis. A total of 280 respondents participated in the online survey but only 264 responses fit the analysis. The data was analysed via SPSS and partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The findings of this paper show that attitude functions, namely, utilitarian, value-expressive, ego-defensive and religiosity have a significant positive influence on attitude towards social media advertising, whilst knowledge function was found to be insignificant. Attitude towards social media advertising was also found to have a significant positive influence on purchase intention.

Advertisers should also consider the religious aspects of Muslim consumers and their level of sensitivity as Muslims nowadays are well-informed. This is to avoid controversies and have a better understanding of their consumer needs.

This is one of the few studies examining the influence of religiosity in the social media advertising of controversial products such as bubble tea.