Is religiosity an importantdeterminant on Muslim consumer

behaviour in Malaysia?Syed Shah Alam

Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,Bangi, Malaysia, and

Rohani Mohd and Badrul HishamFaculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA,

Shah Alam, Malaysia

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of religiosity on Muslim consumerbehaviour and on purchasing decision.

Design/methodology/approach – Survey comprised a sample of 232 Muslims from the middle-and upper-income groups who work in Shah Alam and Bangi in the Selangor state of Malaysia.

Findings – The findings indicate that religious Muslims in Shah Alam and Bangi area consider Islamas their source of reference and they spend moderately, as commanded by Allah in the Quran. Thisstudy confirms that religiosity acts as a full mediating role in the relationship between relative andcontextual variables, and purchase behaviour of Muslim consumers.

Originality/value – The paper’s interesting findings serve to remind entrepreneurs that they cannotneglect the element of religion in their marketing activities, particularly in the development of products.

Keywords Malaysia, Islam, Religion, Consumer behaviour

Paper type Research paper

1. IntroductionCulture and subculture are the central issues in any consumer behaviour research.Thompson and Tambyah (1998), Shaw and Clarke (1998) and Schouten and McAlexander(1995) identified culture as the main external factors that shape consumption behaviour ofindividuals. It represents living style, which came into being after adjustments to theenvironment, people and things through generations. The effect of culture on people’s lifeis so great that it will even affect the motives and choices when consuming or shopping(Chang, 2005). Otts (1989) defined culture as all technologies, beliefs, knowledge and fruitsthat people share and transfer to next generations. It includes patterns of behaviour,learned responses, basic assumptions, habits and traditional ways of thinking, feeling andreacting (Shweder, 1991). Culture, subculture and social class are the three parts of culture.Although culture is the most basic deciding factor of human desire and behaviour, it isactually religious groups that are one of the major determinants in subculture influencingconsumer behaviour. Everyone is included in many smaller subculture groups, whichprovide a clearer sense of identification and social process. Basically, subculture can bedivided into four types: nationality groups, religious groups, racial groups andgeographical regions where religion is one of the most influential determinants of humanbehaviour.

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Journal of Islamic MarketingVol. 2 No. 1, 2011

pp. 83-96q Emerald Group Publishing Limited

1759-0833DOI 10.1108/17590831111115268

Religion is an important cultural factor to study because it is one of the most universaland influential social institutions that have significant influence on people’s attitudes,values and behaviours at both the individual and societal levels (Mokhlis, 2009). Religionis a set of beliefs that are taught since childhood, and people gradually commit to thereligion as they have greater understandings towards its teachings. According to Kotler(2000), religion is part of culture that can shape people’s behaviour. Specifically, whatthis means is that people who have religion hold certain values that are able to influencetheir actions and decisions.

Islam is a religion that guides Muslims in every aspect of life, not just in specific actsof worship. For instance, in the Quranic verse, Al Isra’:26-27, Allah commands Muslimsnot to consume or spend extravagantly, but to spend in a way of Allah. Some otherguidance which have been provided for by Islam are how and what to trade, how tointeract with others and what can be consumed. Eating and drinking are strictlyfollowed according to the Islamic rules in the everyday life of the Muslim society. Butthese norms however vary between different religious faiths and degree of observation.

Recently, there is growth in the number of Muslims in Malaysia who have understoodand show concern for the Islamic teachings and practices. Since most individuals makedecisions on what and how much to consume, does the growth of Islamic teachingsamong them really give an impact on what and how much to buy? We expect thatMuslims will follow every guidance of Allah and thus we expect that this can influenceMuslim consumers more than any other factors such as gender, occupation, education,salary, to name a few, can. We hope that this study will help us to see how much influenceIslam has on this aspect of a Muslim’s life.

2. ObjectiveAs have been mentioned earlier, theoretically, the growth of Islamic teachings amongMuslim should have given an impact on their buying decision. However, there is nodetailed empirical research that has been carried out in order to prove this statement.Therefore, the objectives of this research are:

(1) to conduct an empirical study on the consumer decision makings of Muslims;

(2) to examine the influence of religion on the buying behaviour of middle-incomeconsumers; and

(3) to identify the factors that could influence the decision making of Muslims inthe purchasing of products.

3. Review of the literatureAlthough religion exercises powerful influence over personal and social behaviour ofhuman beings, there is a dearth of research in this area. Kotler (2000) mentioned theinfluence of religion in buying decision but did not emphasize the degree to whichreligion could influence the decision of buying as it is a small portion of culture. However,in Islam, religion is not a culture but a way of life that could form a set of behaviour that istermed as “Islamic”. As one of the foundations of moral teaching in the society (Bowen,1998), religion provides its adherents with a set of principles by which to live, and thosebelievers will be strongly influenced by the religion in which they have faith, in theirdaily activities.

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3.1 The consumption modelThe theory of consumer behaviour developed by the West after the rise of capitalism is theoffspring of a duality, namely “economic rationalism” and “utilitarianism”. Economicrationalism interprets human behaviour as being founded on “rigorous” calculation,directed with foresight and caution toward economic success. Economic rationalityassumes that consumers will aim at maximizing their “satisfaction” in a peculiar sense,which is not altogether devoid of utilitarian meaning. It is said that the concept does notapply to any particular type of satisfaction, whether spiritual, material, or otherwise(Adila, 1999).

Rationalism is defined in Islam as achieving the end through moderation inconsumption. According to Siddiqi (1992), a rational Islamic individual would try tobehave (at his maximum effort) in accordance to the Islamic norms. A Muslim consumerforgoes his (economic) satisfaction when it clashes with any of the demands of theIslamic spirit. He has stated four objectives that Islam wants to achieve in the field ofconsumption which are:

(1) Every individual should consume enough economic goods to lead an efficient life.

(2) Certain (prohibited) goods should be consumed.

(3) Consumption of economic goods must not be extravagant just as excessiveindulgence in luxurious living is discouraged.

(4) Consumption of economic goods and the consequent satisfaction must not bethe ultimate objective of individuals. It should serve as a means to theachievement of the higher ends of a purposive life.

Hamouri (1991) modified the conventional model to suit Muslim consumers. Theyconsider the effect of Islamic teaching on their behaviour. According to Hamouri,Muslims will choose to consume the most preferred item but must be permissible inIslam. Those items which are not attainable (unlawful item or haram) will not be chosen.Zaman added in three new axioms which are:

(1) lexicographic preferences (some preferences are more urgent than others);

(2) utility for basic needs can be satisfied; and

(3) externalities in secondary utility (i.e. utility derived is a function of all otherconsumption bundles).

In the aspect of utilitarianism, El-Ashker (1985) introduced the utility function which ismade up of secular, moral and piety utilities. According to him, the moral utility is afunction of consumption; voluntary social spending; saving for bequest to dependentheirs; saving for other purpose; “zakat” payment and returns on accumulated wealth atthe beginning of year. Choudhury (1986) reformulated the utility and income criteria interms of quantifiable imponderable variable. He used graphical and mathematicaltechniques in his analysis.

Al-Zarqa (1992) revised the utility function for individuals in the Islamic system byadding in a new variable – reward or penalty in the hereafter. He looked at the partialrelationship between rewards (dependent on one’s belief and balance of intentions andactions in this life) and consumption. In the same year, Fahim introduced the concept ofMaslahah instead of utility. He sees efficiency in the Islamic framework as the

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maximization of the fulfillment of needs. He divided consumer choice into four levelswhich are:

(1) between worldly needs and the cause of Allah;

(2) between present and future consumption;

(3) between essentials, complimentary and amelioration; and

(4) between substitutes.

3.2 Relationship between religiosity and buying behaviourFor the last three decades, there has been considerable research establishing a linkbetween cultural and subcultural values, and aspects of consumer behaviour. However,religion as an inherent human value has received little attention from consumerresearchers. This is partly a result of an initial assumption by a smaller numberof consumer writers who maintain that religious influences on consumption process areindirect and that the topic of religion had no place in theories of consumer behaviour.Hawkins et al. (1980) made one of the strongest statements on this position. They felt thatdifferences in consumption processes related to religious affiliation were more closelyrelated to social class or ethnic variations than to religion. Hawkins et al. (1980)summarised their thought on the role of religion in consumer choice as follows:

[. . .] religious differences in the United States related to the consumption process are moreapparent than real [. . .] are indirect, and are often more closely associated with social class orethnic variations than with religion itself.

Religion is an important cultural factor to study because it is one of the most universal andinfluential social institutions that have significant influence on people’s attitudes, valuesand behaviours at both the individual and societal levels (Mokhlis, 2009). In general, thereligions practiced in a society influence the emphasis placed on the material life, and theattitudes toward owning and using goods and services. Religious traditions may prohibitthe use of certain goods and services, for example, Islamic teachings forbid its followersfrom drinking liquor and eating pork, while the veneration of the cow among the Hindusexcludes them from consuming beef. Religion also affects the sanctity of different actsand rituals, for example, by officially prohibiting the use of certain method ofcontraception. Less obvious is the influence of religion on the consumption of goods andservices that are not directly restricted by religious laws. In such a case, religious valuesshape an individual’s emotional experience, cognition and psychological well-being,which in turn, affect the consumption choices that consumers make.

There have been several investigations on the relationship between religiosity andconsumer behaviour with the general conclusion that the association is real. In anempirical study of religiosity and consumer behaviour among 602 mostly Protestantconsumers, Wilkes et al. (1986) reached a significant conclusion that religiosityinfluences several aspects of consumer’s lifestyle, which eventually may affect choicesand/or choice behaviour. When age, income and sex were controlled, the researchersfound that people with a higher degree of religious commitment tend to be satisfiedwith their lives, have a more traditional sex-role orientation and are more likely to beopinion leaders. Although additional findings were not statistically significant, resultsfrom their study also provided indication that consumers with greater religiouscommitment were less likely to use credit and more likely to prefer national brands of

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products. Adila (1999) conducted a survey among a sample of Muslims andnon-Muslims living in Singapore to investigate whether the ends or objectives of theconsumer and his means to achieve them are as understood in Islam. The findingsindicated that the Muslims in Singapore generally are moderate spenders, displayingthat moderation, one main concept of the Islamic consumption model, is beingpracticed. The research was conducted in a place where majority are non-Muslims whomake up of 85 per cent of the population of Singapore. Hence, the respondents did notportray the demographics of the country. The study only concentrated on goods thatsatisfy physiological needs, such as food and clothing, hence focusing only onnon-durable goods. Thus, we could not see the behaviour of Muslim consumers on thepurchasing of durable goods, particularly when buying an automobile (today, this isconsidered as necessities).

A study by Zaidman and Lowengart (2001) investigated the interaction ofconsumers and retailers in the marketing of religious goods and services at the time ofJewish pilgrimage to saints’ tombs in Israel. The researchers attempted to analyse theexchange process in private religion where sacred goods (e.g. Jewish textbooks,candles, amulets, and crystals) and services (e.g. blessings, healing) are transferreddirectly from an individual marketer to an individual consumer. Using an ethnographicapproach, they found that the meaning attributed to religious goods, or the process bywhich goods acquire sacred meaning, involves not only the goods or the context butalso the marketers themselves. The marketers’ mediation process is intended to embedauthenticity into the products or services they market and this authenticity ismonotonically related to the retailer’s proximity to the consumer’s cultural world.

Fam et al. (2004) conducted a large-scale study that analysed the influence ofreligion and intensity of religious belief on attitudes towards the advertising offour controversial product groups. These include gender/sex-related products(e.g. female and male underwear), social/political products (e.g. guns and funeralservices), health and care products (e.g. weight-loss programmes) and addictiveproducts (e.g. cigarettes and alcohol). Student samples from four main religious groupsnamely Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and non-religious believers (mainly Taoism andConfucianism) across six different countries were included in their study.The researchers found that the followers of these four religious denominations havedifferent attitudes towards the four controversial product groups. The study showedthat the followers of Islamic faith were more likely to find advertising of all fourproduct groups most offensive relative to the other three groups. The study alsoindicated that the religiously devout followers were more likely to find advertising ofgender/sex-related products, health and care products and addictive products moreoffensive than the less devout followers.

Gayatri et al. (2005) found that a Muslim who holds Islamic cultural valuesinfluence his or her evaluation criteria for restaurant, hotel and airlines service qualityand in turn, the use of these services. Religiosity has been shown to influence one’smakeup and lifestyle, information search, purchase risk aversion, attitude towardsadvertising, purchasing behaviour of major durables and selected aspects of retailstore patronage behaviour. Thus, there is ample evidence to support the application ofreligiosity in explaining consumer behaviour. The following section discussesprevious attempts in measuring religiosity and the application of such measures inconsumer research.

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3.3 Relative and contextual factors and buying behaviourAccording to Ganassali et al. (2006), the social psychology concepts argued thatindividual or group such as social perceptions, social influence, social rewards, peerpressure, social cues, social sanctions, etc. has greater influence on individuals’ buyingbehaviour. Engel et al. (1968) argued that the whole idea behind this reasoning is thatconsumer behaviour takes place within the context of groups and other individuals’presence which influences consumer’s processing of information and decision making.Especially, the consumer behaviour of young people, who communicate with peers morefrequently about consumption matters (Moschis and Churchill, 1978; Churchill andMoschis, 1979) and who are more susceptible to their influence (Achenreiner, 1997).These may reflect their status of anxiety and the need for peer approval for fashionpreferences when evaluating the products.

Price is another factor that implies a pervasive influence on all purchase situations(Lichtenstein et al., 1988). Nevertheless, price as a purchase decision determinant is rathercomplex and customers do not buy solely on the basis of low price (Ganassali et al., 2006).

Buijzen and Valkenburg (2003), Chan (2003), Kwak et al. (2002) and Moschis andMoore (1982) reported that advertisements have long-term effects, as well as short-termeffects on adolescents’ adoption of inferences about product owners and influence theirmaterialistic values and attitudes. In global phenomenon “fashion” as expressed in themedia, in the advertisements and by celebrities is a very important attribute used byyoung consumers when assessing a product (Herbst and Burger, 2002). And brandedfashion goods can fulfill emblematic functions (Hogg et al., 1998). Bearden and Etzel(1982) who focused on the influence of reference groups on the consumption of prestigebrands found that the conspicuousness of a product was positively related to itssusceptibility to reference-group influence.

Brands have played an important and informational role to various consumers.Consumers tend to use their existing value perceptions to evaluate the new offerings ifan existing brand is used to introduce a new product (Vaidyanathan and Aggarwal,2000). Thus, people’s desire to possess prestige brands may serve as a symbolic markerof group membership. To conform to the majority opinion of their membership groups,consumers use the perceived extended self-value of prestige brands to enhance theirself-concept (McCracken, 1986; Belk, 1988; Dittmar, 1994).

Based on previous studies of some other factors, such as sales presentation, quality ofproduct and good customer services; these are also considered for this study asadditional determinants for relative and contextual factors believed to have significanteffects on consumers’ buying behaviour.

4. Conceptual frameworkThe conceptual framework of this study focuses on the development of a model tomeasure the relationship between relative and contextual factors, religiosity andconsumer buying behaviour. Examining the relationship between relative andcontextual factors, religiosity and consumer buying behaviour should contribute toour knowledge of the relationships that exists between them. The link between relativeand contextual factors, religiosity and Muslim consumer buying behaviour is shown inFigure 1.

In this framework, the relative and contextual dimensions are independent variableand Muslim consumer buying behaviour is the dependent variable. Further, we believe

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that this relationship is mediated by religiosity. The present study thus attemptsto bridge the gap by providing a basis for a thorough and insightful discernmentof religiosity and buying behaviour. The model suggests that there is a strongrelationship between the dimensions of religiosity and Muslim consumer buyingbehaviour.

5. Hypotheses developmentBased on the extensive study of previous research, the following hypotheses areproposed:

H1. There is a significant relationship between relative and contextual factors andMuslim consumers’ buying behaviour.

To date, there has been little effort made to study the potential mediating effect ofreligiosity at the individual level, relating to Muslim consumer buying behaviour.Owing to the dearth of studies relating religiosity on consumer buying behaviourliterature, we attempt to investigate the mediating influence of religiosity on therelationships between independent factors and buying behaviour. Consequently, thefollowing hypotheses are conjectured:

H2. Religiosity mediates the relationship between independent factors andconsumers’ buying behaviour in such a way that consumer buying behaviourwill be smaller (partial mediation) or non-significant (full mediation) in thepresence of religiosity.

6. MethodsA cross-sectional research design was used to examine the relationships betweenindependent factors, religiosity among the Muslims in Shah Alam and Bangi inSelangor, and their purchase decisions. The influence of religion was only tested on thepurchasing of food and clothing (non-durable) and automobile (durable). This is becausethe two types of goods might need different degrees of involvement by the consumer.The target population was from the middle and upper income group working in ShahAlam. Shah Alam and Bangi were chosen as these cities have majority of Muslimpopulation. For this research, the income level was a controlled variable, so spendingpatterns were not influenced by this variable.

6.1 InstrumentationThe instrument contained sub-parts. These sub-parts of the instrument were retrievedfrom different previous studies. According to Wilkes et al. (1986), religiosity cannot be

Figure 1.The conceptual

framework of this research

Relative and Contextual factors Trend of fashion Price of the product Brand name Quality Image Peer pressure Good sales presentation Good customer services

Consumers’ buyingbehaviour

Religiosity

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viewed in academic research as a single, all-encompassing phenomenon. For instance,church attendance alone is not a satisfactory measure of religiosity. Adila (1999) used theIslamic practices (amal ) as a measurement of religiousness as that is more apparent andvisible than other dimensions of religiosity in Islam, namely; knowledge (ma’rifah),belief (iman), consequences and realization of excellence (ihsan). Practice of Islamincludes a set of behaviour expected of a Muslim. It is considered as a partof righteousness rather than a dependent measure. A Muslim who has knowledge ofIslam, high sense of its realization, and a strong confession of its truth with tongue andassent of it by heart, is believed to have good practice of the Islamic teachings. Therefore,the researchers assumed that (for this research only) a person who performs the religiousduties would be more religious than those who do not consistently and cautiouslyperforming them. Judgments about the extent of religiosity were gauged using eightitems. Of this, six items were adopted from Rehman and Shabbir (2010) and theremaining two items were developed by the researchers.

Moreover, this was determined through respondents’ perception on the importance ofthose practices in their daily lives. The researchers were assuming that the opinions ofthe respondents are reflective of their actual behaviour, that is, the more importance theyplace on the item, the more likely they practice it. To check on the validity of the proxy,the researchers asked respondents to rate themselves in terms of their religiousness.Responses to all the items were made on a 5-point scale (1 – strongly agree, 2 – agree,3 – neutral, 4 – disagree and 5 – strongly disagree). One question therefore contains fivepossible responses that address how respondents view their religiousness. The studydepended on an overall weight rating that was based on the responses received from thefollowing proxy statements:

. I regularly offer prayer five times a day.

. I fast regularly in the month of Ramadhan.

. I pay Zakat Fitrah every year if I meet the prescribed criteria.

. I always pray Friday (Zummah) prayers every week.

. I try to follow Islamic injunctions in all matters of my life.

. I always keep myself away from earning through haram (prohibited) means.

. I regularly recite the Holy Quran.

. I always try to avoid minor and major sin.

The sub-part of the questionnaire regarding relative and contextual factors wasdeveloped by the researchers, where items are measured on a five-point Likert scaleranging from 1 – strongly disagree to 5 – strongly agree. The sub-part of thequestionnaire regarding pre- and post-decision stages of consumer purchasing wasadopted from the paper of Piron (1993) and then modified to suit our research, whereitems are measured on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 – strongly disagree to5 – strongly agree. This instrument basically comprised of four parts in which thequestions were distributed according to demographic variables, religiosity, relative andcontextual variables, and pre- and post-decision stages of Muslim consumer purchases.

Furthermore, to ensure data validity and reliability, this study first pre-tested thequestionnaire by having several consumers and professionals review it. Once the finalsurvey was administered, analysis of the responses revealed no problems with the

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survey design. The various constructs were tested for validity using principalcomponent analysis with varimax rotation. As a result, all items were retained as therewas no cross loadings, and the items loaded as a single factor. Regarding the reliability,the survey had strong internal consistency with all multiple-item constructs exceeded theacceptable standard of reliability analysis of 0.70 (Nunally and Bernstein, 1994), so theywere deemed acceptable. The results indicate that all the constructs are valid and reliable.

Table I shows the results of Pearson correlation analysis. The correlation coefficientsfor the relationship between the independent variable (i.e. relative and contextualvariable) and the mediating variable (religiosity) and the dependent variable (buyingbehaviour) were less than 0.90, indicating that the data were not affected by seriouscolinearity problems (Hair et al., 1998). The measurement scales that had validity andreliability were used to test the research hypotheses.

7. Results and analysis7.1 Demographic profileOf the 300 survey questionnaires distributed, only 232 were returned to the researchers.Of them (62.9 per cent), 146 were from the lecturers whom are better known with theresearchers.

A majority of the respondents (62.9 per cent) were from the income level ofRM2,000-4,500. Only 7.8 per cent were from the income bracket between RM1,500 andRM2,000. Male respondents made up more than half of the sample group; there were120 males and 112 females. There were only two respondents whose age is less than25 years. A total of 76 (32.8 per cent) were between 26 and 35 years and 154 were morethan 35 years of age. More than 85 per cent (86.2 per cent) of the respondents weremarried. The general profiles of the respondents are summarized in Table II.

7.2 Hypotheses resultsPearson correlation analysis was unable to determine the mediating role of religiosity inthe hypothesized model. Stepwise regression analysis was undertaken to test themediating hypothesis because it can assess the magnitude of each independent variable,and vary the mediating variable in the relationship between many independentvariables and one dependent variable (Baron and Kenny, 1986). According to Baron andKenny (1986), the mediating variable can be considered when it meets three conditions:first, the predictor variables are significantly correlated with the hypothesized mediator.Second, the predictor and mediator variables are all significantly correlated with thedependent variable. Third, a previously significant effect of predictor variables isreduced to non-significance or reduced in terms of effect size after the inclusionof mediator variables into the analysis (Wong et al., 1995). In this regressionanalysis, standardized coefficients (standardized beta) were used for all

Relative and contextual Religiosity Buying behaviour

Relative and contextual 1.00 – –Religiosity 0.491 * 1.00 –Buying behaviour 0.587 * 0.462 * 1.00

Note: Significant at: *p , 0.01 level

Table I.Pearson correlation

analysis

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analyses ( Jaccard et al., 1990). The results of testing H1 and H2 were shown in Table III.Table III shows two important results of testing mediating model in Step 3. First, therelationship between relative and contextual variable and religiosity is significantlycorrelated with Muslim consumers’ buying behaviour (ß ¼ 0.491, p , 001); hence H1was supported. Before the inclusion of religiosity into Step 1, relative and contextualvariables were significantly correlated with buying behaviour (ß ¼ 0.462, p . 0.001).As shown in Step 3 (after the inclusion of religiosity into this step), the previoussignificant result changed to non-significant (Step 2: ß ¼ 0.131, p . 0.05). In terms ofexplanatory power, the inclusion of religiosity in Step 3 had explained 28 per cent of thevariance in the dependent variable. This result sends a signal that religiosity acts

Number of respondent %

AgeLess than 25 2 0.9Between 25 and 35 76 32.8More than 35 154 66.5Marital statusSingle 30 12.9Married 200 86.2Unstated 2 0.9GenderFemale 112 48.3Male 120 51.7SalaryBelow RM1,500 0 0RM1,500-2,000 18 7.8. RM2,000-4,500 146 62.9Above RM4,500 68 29.3Education levelSPM 2 0.9Diploma 20 8.6First degree 66 28.4Masters 136 58.6PhD 6 2.6Others 2 0.9Total number of respondents 232 100

Table II.Number of respondentsand the percentageaccording to their profiles

Buying behaviourVariables Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

Independent variableRelative and contextual variable – 0.462 * * * 0.131Mediating variableReligiosity 0.491 * * * – 0.336 * * *

R 2 0.241 0.214 0.287Adjusted R 2 0.238 0.210 0.281F 73.131 62.446 46.159

Note: Significance at: *p , 0.05, * *p , 0.01 and * * *p , 0.001Table III.Regression results

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as a mediating effect in the relationship between relative and contextual variable andMuslim consumers’ buying behaviour.

8. ConclusionAll the hypotheses examined in this research have supported the assumption thatreligion has greater influence on purchase decision of Muslim consumers. Hence, it istrue that in Islam the behaviour of a consumer is governed by religious injunctions. Thisis opposed to the assumption placed on consumption behaviour in the conventionaleconomics.

One of the objectives of this study is to examine whether the results of the hypothesescan be supported empirically. This has been done by using data that were collected froma sample of 232 Muslims in Shah Alam of middle-income group. Similar to Adila (1999),the results show that religious Muslims do take Islam as their source of reference whenmaking purchases in general, as well as in the specific case of buying food andautomobiles. These are consistent with Islamic verses that commanded Muslims to obeyAllah’s guidance and to spend moderately.

The present study also indicates that those high in religiosity tend to be lessimpulsive when making purchase decision. While this effect of religiosity on shoppinghas not been investigated before, the finding is apparently consistent with the literaturewhich suggest that highly religious individuals tend to behave in a relatively moremature, disciplined and responsible manner. A possible interpretation could be that theindividuals who committed to their religious group (although moderate) hold a strongsocial value and are more susceptible to normative influences as a result of their regularinteraction with others affiliated with the same religious organization. These influencesmay have created greater awareness in brand and fashion. So for future research, it isinteresting to see whether religion also influences the purchases of branded items andfashion. It is also interesting to see the influence of other religion than Islam in terms ofinfluencing purchases, in the context of Malaysia. Subsequently, we are able to comparewhich religion has stronger values thus stronger influence on purchase decisions.

As a conclusion of this study, the results reveal that the Islam religion have greatinfluence on the purchase decision of Muslim consumers. This influence has formed anew behaviour model of Muslim consumers. The findings also indicate that other factorslike salary, age, etc. claimed as important by many conventional scholars displayedlower or almost non-impact on the purchase and consumption decision of Muslimconsumers. For entrepreneurs whose countries are populated by majority Muslims, orwho intends in penetrating the Muslim countries with their businesses should considerthe element of religion in the development of products and in marketing activities. Thisincludes developing a new product, promoting, pricing and placing as these are some ofthe main concerns of Muslim consumers today.

This paper has also extended the literature in terms of empirical studies on Islamicconsumption models. The analysis and results would help the development of theIslamic model of consumer behaviour and the Islamic economics in general.

9. Limitations of the study and future researchLike other empirical studies, this study is not without its limitations. First, due to timeand situational constraints, the respondents were only limited to the Selangor state inMalaysia (i.e. the cities of Shah Alam and Bangi). A wider geographical area would have

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been preferable for generalizing the results to the overall population. Nevertheless, theresponse rate for this study was encouraging enough and this could be the basis forfuture researches.

This study could be suffering from the limitations of sampling bias. We acknowledgethe failure to obtain a “truly representative” sample. The entire sample was located onlyin the Selangor state (Shah Alam and Bangi) in Malaysia. Thus, certain businesses maynot be represented appropriately in the sample. It is also important to note that it ispossible that there might be regionalization of the respondents, and one needs to becautious in generalizing the results of this study to the overall population.

Finally, the small sample size might not be substantive enough for this kind ofbehavioural research. Moreover, all the respondents are Muslims; hence, the results ofthis study cannot be generalized to the entire Malaysian population.

Future research to verify the results of this exploratory study could be conductedthrough more empirical cross-cultural and cross-country studies. In addition, attemptsto investigate similarities and distinguishing characteristics of entrepreneurs fromvarious nationalities could also be done in future research. Moreover, those studies couldalso be based on broader set of cultural values. Potentially, a cross-cultural studyinvestigating differences between Muslim and non-Muslims could provide additionalinsights in terms of consumer behaviour and purchase decisions. Potential correlationsbetween some of the independent variables (e.g. gender, race, education, and incomelevel) are other implications that could also be revealed from future researches.

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Further reading

Khan, F.M. and Ghifari, N.M. (1992), “Shatibi’s objectives of Shariah and some implications forconsumer theory”, in Ghazali, A. and Abu Hassan, M.S. (Eds), Readings in IslamicEconomic Thought: Selected Readings, Quill, Kuala Lumpur, pp. 176-202.

Michell, P. and Al-Mossawi, M. (1995), “The mediating effect of religiosity on advertisingeffectiveness”, Journal of Marketing Communications, Vol. 1, pp. 151-62.

Michell, P. and Al-Mossawi, M. (1999), “Religious commitment related to messagecontentiousness”, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 427-43.

Corresponding authorSyed Shah Alam can be contacted at: shahalam@ukm.my

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