Qualitative Research in Financial Markets

Why do customers patronize Islamic banks? A case study of Pakistan

Asma Abdul Rehman, and Omar Masood
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Asma Abdul Rehman, and Omar Masood, (2012),"Why do customers patronize Islamic banks? A case
study of Pakistan", Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, Vol. 4 Iss 2/3 pp. 130 - 141
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QRFM
4,2/3 Why do customers patronize
Islamic banks? A case study
of Pakistan
130
Asma Abdul Rehman
Superior University, Lahore, Pakistan, and
Omar Masood
London, UK
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Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the selection criteria for Islamic banks employed
by customers in a dual banking system, as in the case of Pakistan, and to know the overall satisfaction
of the customers with Islamic banks.
Design/methodology/approach – This is a survey-based study conducted on the primary data
collected through structured questionnaire. In total, 23 variables are identified from the literature which are
reduced to eight main variables by using factor analysis in SPSS. Data are gathered from 200 customers of
full-fledged Islamic banks in Pakistan, i.e. Meezan bank, Bank Islami and Dubai Islamic bank, Al-Baraka
Islamic bank, Burj Bank Ltd The data have been analyzed in two models: the first includes the selection
criteria according to gender; the second includes the overall customer’s preferences for selection criteria.
Findings – The results reveal that the most important factors are “Religious factors” and “Convenient
location” that customers consider while selecting an Islamic bank. Other important factors include
“Secure feeling” by customer, “Quality related issues” and “Efficiency of bank”.
Research limitations/implications – The data used in this study are limited, so the generalization
of the results is not possible. Also the study is conducted on the full-fledged Islamic banks and it has
ignored the Islamic Windows.
Practical implications – Considering the importance of the topic, this research has identified the
selection criteria that are considered by the customer while selecting an Islamic bank. It will help
banks to improve the criteria said and considered by customers while selecting a bank. This research
will be of interest to both serving banks and potential entrants into this niche market.
Originality/value – The literature shows that patronize factors of Islamic banks are an
under-researched area in Pakistan. So, this paper will contribute to the body of knowledge by
identifying the Islamic banking selection criteria considered by the customers.
Keywords Pakistan, Banks, Islam, Consumer behaviour, Islamic banks, Selection criteria,
patronize factors, Factor analysis, Customers
Paper type Research paper

Qualitative Research in Financial
Markets
Vol. 4 No. 2/3, 2012
pp. 130-141
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1755-4179
DOI 10.1108/17554171211252475
1. Introduction
Over the past decades, it has been noticed that Islamic banking is flourishing day by
day globally and are becoming popular among Muslims as well as non-Muslims (Iqbal
and Molyneux, 2005). Islamic banking institutions basically perform the same
operations as performed by other conventional banks, except that the transactions of
Islamic banks are free from interest and are they are according to principles of Islam
and shariah (Iqbal and Mirakhor, 2007).
Many authors have argued about the patronize factors that customer perceive
important while selecting Islamic bank. These authors include Erol and El-Bdour (1989),
 Erol et al. (1990), Haron et al. (1994), Gerrard and Cunningham (1997), Metawa and Why patronize
Almossawi (1998), Naser et al. (1999), Ahmad and Haron (2002), Mokhlis et al. (2009), Islamic banks?
Masood and Bora (2009), Rashid and Hassan (2009), Osman et al. (2009), Khattak and
Rehman (2010) and Thambiah et al. (2010).
These authors have included different factors in there study like religious factors,
cost and benefits offered by bank, efficiency of the bank, convince in the sense of
location and services, confidentiality of customer’s information, size and reputation of 131
the bank, performance of banking staff, influences of the relatives and friends,
advertising campaign of the banks, quality of service delivered, etc.
These studies have been conducted on Islamic banks of Malaysia, Bahrain, Jordan,
Singapore, USA, UK, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Ghana, etc. The finding of the previous
studies cannot be applied in developing countries like the case in Pakistan because of the
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difference in culture, economic, and legal environment. Since this type of study will explore
the factors that Pakistani customer consider while selecting an Islamic bank and this study
will help out the bankers to determine the strategies that use to retain existing customers
and attract more customers. And as many conventional banks had opened Islamic
windows and as the competition is growing, there is need to identify the factors that are
important for customer while they are patronizing Islamic banks not conventional banks.
In this study, an attempt is made is to know the selection criteria that is considered
by the customer as important while patronizing Islamic bank. The remaining paper
proceeds as follows. Section 2 identify the review of the previous studies, Section 3 will
highlight some facts and figures about the Pakistan Islamic banking sector, Section 4
emphasize on the methodology, Section 5 presents the findings and results of the
investigation followed by Section 6 which contains the conclusion and limitations.

2. Literature review
2.1 Banking selection criteria
Various studies had been conducted for customer preferences and selection criteria for
Islamic banks in many countries by using different approaches and methodologies.
Findings of Omer (1992), Metwally (1996) and Al-Sultan (1999) suggests that religious
factors are the important factors that customer consider while selecting Islamic bank.
Haron et al. (1994) discovered the important criteria for the selection of Islamic banks
considered by Malaysian customers include fast and efficient services, speedy
transactions and good reputation off the bank. Holstius and Kaynak (1995) conducted
research on customer of Finland by investigation from 258 customers and this study
complimented the results of study by Haron et al. (1994).
At Poland, study has been conducted to know selection criteria of Islamic bank by
Kennington et al. (1996). Findings of the study showed that reputation of the bank,
price of the products and services, these are most important factors followed by image
of the bank, stability of the bank, and friendly personnel.
Metawa and Almossawi (1998) has conducted study on customer’s perception
regarding Islamic banking in Bahrain and his findings revealed that customer consider
“Islamic factors” followed by “cost and benefits in services” and “influence of the
people”, and “location near to home”.
Factors like bank’s reputation and image, confidential information, convenient
location, influence of friends and relatives and provision of quality services are
also considered important by the customers for the selection criteria of Islamic bank
 QRFM by the following authors for example, Metawa and Almossawi (1998), Naser et al.
4,2/3 (1999) and Ahmad and Haron (2002).
Almossawi (2001) has conducted research on 1,000 student to know the banking
selection criteria considered by the males and females separately. Findings revealed that
students consider the location of ATM, parking space, friendliness of banking
personnel, and reputation of the bank important factors for selection of bank. Islamic
132 banking is established to satisfy the financial and economical needs of Muslims who
have to observe the prohibition of interest-based transactions (Haq and Smithson, 2003).
Okumus (2005) have conducted study in Turkey to know the banking selection
criteria of Islamic banks by investigating 161 customers. Results revealed that Turkish
customers give importance to the religious factors, friendliness of the banking
personnel followed by speedy transaction.
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Dusuki and Abdullah (2007) discovered that customer consider friendliness of

banking staff, effective handling of the matters, knowledge and experience of personnel
are important factors that must be considered by the customer while selecting a bank. In
addition, researcher found that older, relatively well-educated, low and middle-income
customers prefer Islamic banks.
Mokhlis et al. (2009) has suggested that attractiveness, branch location, ATM service,
financial benefits and secure feeling are the significant selection criteria considered by
the customers for banking. He has studied the perception of Malaysian people.
Rashid and Hassan (2009) discovered the most important factors corporal efficiency,
core-banking services, and confidence that customer consider while selecting Islamic bank.
Masood and Bora (2009) investigates the perception and customer satisfaction
regarding Islamic banking. Results showed that customer consider reputation of the
bank, religious factors, are the most important factors followed by shariah principles,
confidentiality, and profitability.
Rashid et al. (2009) conducted research on customers of Bangladesh to know their
preferences in Islamic banks. Results concluded by using factor analysis that not only
religious factors are being considered by customer while selecting Islamic bank but
they also consider other factors important like efficiency, higher cost benefit, convenient
financial transaction system.
Thambiah et al. (2010) have determined the factors that influence Malaysian
customers to adopt the retail Islamic banking services. This study investigated the
economic benefits and service delivery of Islamic banking services.
Khattak and Rehman (2010) conducted study on Pakistani customer and their
finding showed that Pakistani customer consider bank reputation, effectiveness of
transaction, confidentiality of information, and religious factors as important factors
for Islamic banking selection criteria.
Much of the research in this area has been undertaken in a developed country
context and there are few researches conducted to address the needs of customers in a
developing country context like in the case of Pakistan. Since literature lacks the study
regarding preferences of Pakistani customer for Islamic banks. Therefore, this study
will fill the gap and it will add value to the existing knowledge.

3. Pakistan Islamic banking sector

The Islamic banking in Pakistan was started in 1985 and in 2001 it has been introduced
as the alternative to the conventional banking system. Starting from the scratch this
 industry now has market share of 6.1 per cent in total banking system and by 2012 it Why patronize
will achieve 12 per cent share. There are many opportunities for the growth of Islamic Islamic banks?
banking industry in Pakistan because 97 per cent of the population of Pakistan is
Muslim and majority of the people are not using banks due to low penetration of
banking system and for the reasons of disliking for interest. A study by the World
Bank on access to finance in 2008 revealed that only 14 per cent of the population in
Pakistan is using banking system. Thus, a huge opportunity exists for Islamic banks 133
that can be explored. Islamic banking industry has to face tough competition with the
conventional banks because of the strong and deep roots of conventional banking in
the country. Islamic banking system comprises of five full-fledged Islamic banks and
12 Islamic windows by the conventional banks (State Bank of Pakistan, 2011).
Islamic banking industry is flourishing with time in Pakistan. Islamic banking
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industry has maintained a tremendous growth rate in assets, deposits and investment.
Tables I and II presents the facts and figures of Islamic banking in Pakistan.
Table I shows the figures with industry share and growth rate. The assets of
Islamic banks have increased to Rs. 641 billion in December 2011 from Rs. 477 Billion
in December, 2010. Deposits have increased by almost 34 per cent during 2011.

Rupees in billion, industry share and growth in percentage

December 2011 December 2010 December 2009 December 2008
Total assets 641 477 366 276
Share in industry 7.8 6.7 5.6 4.9
Growth 34 30 32.7 34.0
Deposits 521 390 283 202
Share in industry 8.4 7.2 5.9 4.8
Growth 34 38 39.9 37.4
Net financing and investment 475 338 226 186
Share in industry 7.4 6.2 4.5 4.3
Growth 40 50 21.3 34.8
Total Islamic banks 17 18 19 18
Branches of Islamic bank 886 751 651 515
Table I.
Source: SBP Annual Report 2011; Annual Accounts except for December 2011, data for which is Industry progress and
based on Unaudited Quarterly Account market share

Amount in rupees (billion)

Credit rating
Profits / Paid-up Long Short
Bank name Deposits Investment (loss) capital term term
Bank Islami Ltd 50.569 21.067 0.40956 5.052 Aa A-1a
Meezan Bank Ltd 170.03 98.488 3.391 8.029 AA 2 A-1 þ
Al-Baraka Islamic
Table II.
Bank Ltd 61.559 26.179 0.410 8.935 Aa A1a
Burj Bank Ltd 20.341 9.9 (0.288) 7.410 A A2 Deposit, investment,
Dubai Islamic Bank Ltd 38.4916 12.937 0.190 6.154 A A1 profit and paid-up capital
of full fledged Islamic
Notes: aRepresents credit rating by PACRA; remaining credit rating by JCR-VIS credit rating banks of Pakistan
Source: Annual Reports of the above mentioned banks for the year 2011 for the 2009
 QRFM Net financing and investment of Islamic banking industry has also increased to
4,2/3 Rs. 475 billion at the end of 2011 from Rs. 338 billion at the end of year 2009. Islamic
banking industry consist of 17 banks in 2011 as Faysal bank has acquired RBS bank
and Emirates global Islamic bank has merged into Al-Baraka Bank in year 2010.
Table II shows the brief summary of the deposits, investment, profit, paid-up capital
and credit rating of full-fledged Islamic banks. Meezan Bank Ltd enjoys the biggest share
134 in Islamic banking industry. Meezan Bank Ltd shares 40 per cent of the profits of the
Islamic banking industry and has deposits, investment, paid-up capital and profit more
than other full-fledged Islamic banks. Islamic banks are currently running at low profits
due to the heavy investment in opening new branches like bank Islami Ltd, Al-Baraka
Islamic Bank and Burj Bank Ltd PACRA has rated Bank Islami Ltd and Al-Baraka Islamic
Bank on their long-run and short-run operations and other Islamic banks are rated by
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JCR-VIS credit rating. Meezan Bank has received entity ratings of AA 2 (double A
minus) for medium to long term and A-1 þ (A-one plus) for short term. BankIslami has
a significant growth in the finances portfolio in 2011. The network expansion contributed
significantly towards the deployment of advances and profits (Meezan Bank Ltd, 2011;
Al-Baraka Islamic Bank, 2011; Burj Bank Ltd, 2009 Bankislami Pakistan Ltd, 2011).

4. Methodology
The purpose of this research is to find out the important and significant factors that
customer consider in patronizing an Islamic bank and to know the overall satisfaction
of the customers with Islamic bank. Data has been collected through structured
questionnaire which is prepared in the light of literature review.

4.1 Research questions

The main objective of this study was to investigate the selection criteria considered by
the customers of Islamic banks. In particular, the study sought answers to the following
questions:
RQ1. What are the factors that customers consider important when selecting Islamic
bank?
RQ2. What are important criteria that male customer and female customers consider
while choosing Islamic bank?
RQ3. What is the overall satisfaction of customers with Islamic banks?

4.2 Data and sample

Data has been collected from full fledge Islamic banks of Pakistan that include Meezan
Bank, Bank Islami Ltd, Dubai Islamic Bank Ltd, Burj Islamic Bank, and Al-Baraka
Islamic Bank. Random sampling is used for the selection of the branches of banks and
respondents for data collection. Since this study is exploratory one as never been
conducted before in Pakistan so sample size consist of 200 respondents from full-fledge
Islamic banks will be thought an adequate. Data is collected by self-administrated
questionnaire (Dubai Islamic Bank, 2011; Al-Baraka Islamic Bank, 2011).

4.3 Research instrument

Data has been collected through a structured questionnaire based on two sections mainly.
First section contains the demographic variables such as gender, age, occupation and
 monthly income. Second section consists of the list of 23 attributes which respondent Why patronize
consider for patronization of Islamic bank. They were measured on five-point Likert scale Islamic banks?
ranging from “strongly disagree – 1” to “strongly agree – 5”. Many of selection factors
were adapted from the studies of Haron et al. (1994), Almossawi (2001), Dusuki and
Abdullah (2007), Masood and Bora (2009), Mokhlis et al. (2009), Rashid and Hassan (2009)
and Osman et al. (2009).
135
4.4 Data analysis
SPSS 16.0 has been used for the data analysis. It includes both statistics, i.e. univariate
statistics (it includes the descriptive statistics and t-test and f-test) and multivariate
statistic (it includes factor analysis and loading and it variance) techniques.
Factor loading through factor analysis and principal component analysis with
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varimax rotation have been used in this study. This method supported by many studies
which include Haron et al. (1994), Mokhlis et al. (2009), Almossawi (2001), Erol and
El-Bdour (1989), Erol et al. (1990), Dusuki and Dar (2005), Gerrard and Cunningham
(1997), Metwally (1996) and Rashid and Hassan (2009).

5. Results and findings

Data analysis is performed by applying descriptive statistics. First section of
questionnaire includes the demographic factors like gender, age, occupation and
income of the respondents.
Table III shows some descriptive statistics on gender, age, occupation and income of
the respondents. Results show that males are predominant consisting of 72 per cent of
the respondents, majority of them belongs to the age group of 21-40 years and most

Demographic factors Frequency % Cumulative %

Gender
Male 143 71.5 71.5
Female 57 28.5 100.0
Age
17-21 5 2.5 2.5
21-30 68 34 36.5
31-40 77 38.5 75.0
40 þ 50 25 100.0
Occupation
Public sector 8 4 4.0
Private sector 93 46.5 50.5
Self-employed 27 13.5 64.0
Semi government agency 11 5.5 69.5
Wage earners 13 6.5 76.0
Students 13 6.5 82.5
House wife 30 15 97.5
Other please specify 5 2.5 100.0
Income
Less than 10,000 19 9.5 9.5
10,000-40,000 116 58 67.5
41,000-100,000 46 23 90.5 Table III.
More than 100,000 19 9.5 100.0 Respondent profile
 QRFM of the respondents belong to the private sectors. The 81 per cent of them earn a
4,2/3 monthly income in the range of Rs. 10,000-100,000
Table IV explains the factors and their groups for the selection of an Islamic bank. This
study shows that there are 23 items that are loaded in eight factors through factor analysis.
We named factor one as secure feeling which consists of the maintaining confidentiality,
professionalism of staff, image of the bank and friendly personnel. Factor 2, named as
136 banking services offered which consists of five items. Factor 3 named as efficiency which
includes sufficient transactions, ATM services, and fast and efficient services. Factor 4
named as religious factors which include riba-free banking and shariah principles. Factor
5 relates to the quality related issues which includes two items. Factor 6 relates to the
responsiveness. Factor 7 named as attractiveness which include market promotion,
banking atmosphere and financial counseling. Last factor named as convenience. The
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eigen value of all eight factors is more than 1 and these factors shows the total variance of
73.59 per cent. Each factor group has its own participation in variation and describes its
eigen value. The factor groups are arranged as per their participation in variance like
Factor 1 – secure feeling explains 28.20 per cent of the total variation in the data. In the
process of data reduction we lost 26.41 per cent of the variation.

Factors and items Factor loading Eigen values Percentage of variance

Factor 1 – secure feeling

Maintain confidentiality 0.811 6.48 28.20
Professionalism of staff 0.797
Reputation and image of bank 0.715
Friendly personnel 0.694
Factor 2 – banking services offered
Lower interest 0.817 2.100 9.1
Lower charges 0.787
Higher benefits 0.636
Variety of services offered 0.518
Strong financial position of bank 0.496
Factor 3 – efficiency
Sufficient transactions time 0.801 1.929 8.39
ATM services 0.742
Fast and efficient services 0.478
Factor 4 – religious factor
Shariah principles 0.916 1.693 7.36
Riba and interest 0.826
Factor 5 – quality related issues
Customer service quality 0.736 1.324 5.76
Knowledgeable personnel 0.618
Factor 6 – responsiveness
Strong network 0.748 1.237 5.38
Ease of obtaining loan 0.605
Influence of relatives, employer 0.601
Factor 7 – attractiveness
Market promotion 0.867 1.180 5
Table IV. Banking atmosphere 0.625
Factor groups for Financial counseling 0.457
selection criteria of an Factor 8 – convenience
Islamic bank Convenient location 0.907 1.011 4.4
 Table V shows the reliability analysis of the factors identified for this study. Cronbach’s Why patronize
a is used to know the internal consistency of the factors combined. In this study, the value Islamic banks?
of Cronbach’s a ranged from 0.500 to 0.827 which shows the high reliability between
factors. The most reliable factor in this study according to Cronbach’s a is secure feeling
whose reliability factor is estimated to be 0.827 and of religious factor whose reliability
is 0.805. There are four items which describe the secure feelings. The Cronbach’s a of
quality of banking factor is 0.500 and two items are included in this factor. The value of 137
Cronbach’s a of convenience is missing because it’s having one factor.
Table VI shows the ranking of the factors on the basis of their mean values. The highest
ranking belongs to “religious factors” whose mean score is 4.56. Second important factor is
“convenience” with mean value of 4.16 followed by “secure feeling”, “quality related issues”,
“efficiency”, “attractiveness” and “banking service offered” for selection of Islamic bank.
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And the lowest ranking is for responsiveness whose mean score is 3.13.
Table VII shows the results of regression analysis of the models applied for this
study. Model 1 is comprised of the factors which determine the selection of a bank on

S. no. Factors No. items Cronbach’s a

1 Secure feelings 4 0.827

2 Banking services offered 5 0.783
3 Efficiency 3 0.682
4 Religious factor 2 0.805
5 Quality related issues 2 0.500
6 Responsiveness 3 0.537
7 Attractiveness 3 0.672 Table V.
8 Convenience 1 – Reliability analysis

S. no. Factors Mean SD Rank

1 Religious 4.56 0.52 1

2 Convenience 4.16 0.95 2
3 Secure feeling 4.09 0.61 3
4 Quality related issue 4.07 0.52 4
5 Efficiency 3.92 0.59 5
6 Attractiveness 3.82 0.60 6 Table VI.
7 Banking services offered 3.57 0.71 7 Ranking and descriptive
8 Responsiveness 3.13 0.74 8 statistics of factors

F-statistics p-values

Model 1
Male 5.388 0.000 *
Female 5.312 0.000 *
Model 2
Combined 10.482 0.000 * Table VII.
Regression analysis
Note: *Models 1 and 2 both are significant at 5 per cent level of significance (ANOVA)
 QRFM the basis of gender. In this Model 1, selection criteria for a bank for male and females is
4,2/3 regressed on convenience, secure feeling, attractiveness, responsiveness, banking
services, quality related issues, religious factor, and efficiency. The second model is
constructed on the overall data regardless of gender. This model is also called a
combined model. In this model, selection criteria are regressed on all the eight factors.
The results show that Model 1 is over all significant for male and female at 5 per cent
138 level of significance, respectively. The p-values for both male and female are less than
10 and 5 per cent in this case. Model 2 is also significant at 5 per cent level of
significance because the p-value for this model is also less than 5 per cent.
Table VIII shows the t-test results for two models which are discussed in this study.
“Model 1” explains the selection criteria of Islamic bank according to gender. Whereas
“Model 2 or combined model” explains the factors that are considered by the customers
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while selecting Islamic bank. The null hypothesis that there is no difference between
selection criteria is rejected as, in “Model 1” for males; there are two factors which are
significant at 5 per cent level of significance, i.e. religious and convenience. But for females,
four factors are significant at 5 per cent level of significance, which include efficiency,
religious factor, quality related issues and convenience. In “Model 2”, two factors are
significant at 5 per cent significance level that includes religious factor and convenience.
Table IX shows the overall satisfaction of the customer with Islamic banks. About
86 per cent of the customers agree that they are satisfied with Islamic banking which
shows a positive response of customers towards Islamic banking.

Model 1 Model 2
Male Female Combined
Factors t-statistics p-values t-statistics p-values t-statistics p-values

(Constant) 2.274 0.025 3.334 0.002 2.585 0.010

Secure feelings 0.287 0.774 1.128 0.265 0.183 0.855
Banking services offered 2 0.969 0.334 0.051 0.959 2 0.590 0.556
Efficiency 1.878 0.063 22.063 0.045 * 1.587 0.114
Religious factor 2 3.464 0.001 * 23.344 0.002 * 2 5.057 0.000 *
Quality related issues 2 0.827 0.410 22.142 0.037 * 2 1.004 0.317
Responsiveness 0.669 0.505 0.324 0.748 1.504 0.134
Attractiveness 0.601 0.549 20.491 0.626 0.794 0.428
Convenience 5.556 0.000 * 3.679 0.001 * 7.625 0.000 *
Table VIII. Notes: Significant at: *5 per cent level; predictors: (constant), convenient location, religious, secure
Co-efficient feeling, responsiveness, efficiency, quality issues, attractiveness, banking services

Frequency % Cumulative %

Strongly disagree – – –
Disagree 12 6 6
Uncertain 16 8 14
Table IX. Agree 139 69.5 83.5
Overall satisfaction Strongly agree 33 16.5 100
with banks Total 200 100.0 100.0
 6. Conclusion Why patronize
The purpose of this paper is to identify the important factors that customer consider Islamic banks?
while patronizing Islamic bank. In this study, 23 variables are included which are
reduced to eight major variables by using “factor analysis” through SPSS 16.0. Data
has been collected from 200 customers of full-fledged Islamic banks of Pakistan.
This study reveals that customers consider four factors as important while
patronizing Islamic banks. These include the religious factor (which consist of factors 139
like shariah principles, and riba-free banking), convenience, secure feeling (which
includes factors like confidentiality of personal information, professionalism of staff,
reputation and image of bank, and friendly personnel at bank) and quality related
issues (includes factors like customer service quality and knowledgeable personnel).
Our findings also revealed that the most important and significant factors that are
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considered by the both male and female customers includes “religious factors” and
“convenience”. But females also consider “quality related issues” and “efficiency” as
important factors while patronizing Islamic bank. Efficiency includes factors like
sufficient transactions time, ATM services, and fast and efficient services. 86 per cent
of the participants have responded that they are satisfied with the Islamic banking.
This shows that customers are highly satisfied with the working of Islamic banks.
This study will be important with the point of view of academics interested in
knowing the customer preferences in developing countries like Pakistan. The findings
of the study should be valuable for practitioners as well as for the new entrants in the
Islamic banking industry. This study would also be helpful for Islamic banks for
improvement of the criteria said and considered by customers while patronizing an
Islamic bank.
This study has three limitations. First is that we have limited time measurement for
data collection and questionnaire survey. Second, sample size used in this study is
limited its results contribute to the body of knowledge but cannot be generalized.
Third, only full-fledged Islamic banks are included in the study and ignored the Islamic
windows of the banks. For future studies, we hope these limitations would encourage
future studies on the topic. It is recommended that comparative study on selection
criteria for Islamic banks and conventional banks can also be conducted in future.

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Further reading
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Ghannadian, F.F. and Goswami, G. (2004), “Developing economy banking: the case of Islamic
bank”, International Journal of Social, Vol. 31 No. 8, available at: www.emeraldinsight.
com/0306-8293.htm

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