Intention to choose Halal products: the role of religiosity

By: Arshia Mukhtar and Muhammad Mohsin Butt

Abstract
Purpose Muslims living in multi-religious societies are considered more conscious about
the permissibility (Halal) o products and thus the ma!ority o Halal research in the non-
inancial sector "as conducted in multi-ethnic societies# $onetheless% the global trade is
changing the "ay "e perceive the origin o products and brands and their permissibility
under &slamic 'haria la"s# (his apparently has serious implications or international
companies operating in ood% cosmetics and pharmaceutical products# (he purpose o this
paper is to investigate the role o Muslim attitude to"ards Halal products% their sub!ective
norms and religiosity in predicting intention to choose Halal products#
)esign*methodology*approach A structured +uestion "as designed to elicit consumer
attitude% sub!ective norms% intention to choose Halal products and degree o inter and intra
personal religiosity# )ata "ere collected rom ,-. adult respondents using a convenience
sampling method# /nly ,0. responses "ere deemed suitable or urther analysis% yielding a
response rate o -1 per cent# 'tep"ise regression analysis "as used to test the proposed
model#
2indings (he results indicated that theory o reasoned action ((3A) is a valid model in
predicting intention to choose Halal products# (he results urther indicate that sub!ective
norms (b 4 .#500% p% .#..,)% attitude to"ards the Halal products (b 4 .#670% p% .#..,) and
intra personal religiosity (b 4 .#,78% p% .#..,) positively inluence attitude to"ards the Halal
products# &nterestingly% sub!ective norm appears to be the strongest o all the predictors or
choosing Halal products#
3esearch limitations*implications (he data collected or the current study investigate global
attitude to"ards Halal products# &t "ould be interesting i uture researchers e9amine
consumers: attitude to"ards speciic Halal products or speciic product categories#
Practical implications &t is argued in this research that the presence o strong attitude
to"ards Halal products in Muslim consumers might play an important role in e9clusion or
inclusion o brands% based on their conormance to Halal re+uirements#
/riginality*value (he paper e9tends the applicability o the theory o reasoned action model
by investigating the role o inter-personal and intra-personal religiosity in intention to choose
Halal products#
;ey"ords &slam% <onsumer behaviour% Brands% &slamic marketing% Halal market% 'elling to
&slamic markets% (he Muslim