Religiosity and Muslim consumers' decision-making process in a non-Muslim society

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to empirically investigate the impact of religious commitment of Muslim consumers in a non-Muslim country on their purchase decision-making process and develop a broad-based taxonomy of these consumers based on that. It also aims at identifying the sources of information that Muslim consumers perceive to be most important in influencing their decision making and then measuring them in terms of consumer trust and influence. Finally, it intends to examine the effect of product information/labelling on the decision making of different categories of Muslim consumers. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses responses obtained from a convenient sample of Muslim consumers living in various suburbs of Sydney metropolitan area, who are the main grocery buyers of their respective households. It utilizes a single cross-sectional design employing a combination of computer assisted and self-completion survey. Findings: The research reports that food and personal hygiene products, generally viewed as low-involvement products in the non-Muslim cultures, are actually high involvement products to religious Muslims. Religious commitment appears to be an antecedent to Muslim consumers' involvement in the brand decision but not in the product decision. There are four decision segments within the Muslim market; each tends to vary with respect to information search for the purchase of food and personal hygiene products, depending on their trust on information presented on labels and product packaging. Research limitations/implications: Consideration of only three decision-making outcomes, use of a convenient sample drawn from a single Australian city are the two major limitations which might have resulted in overestimation of research results, reducing their generalizability. Practical implications: The research results suggest the importance of adopting marketing strategies to stimulate product/brand purchase or trial for Muslim consumers. Results also show how product labelling impacts purchase decisions of Muslims and how best to design labels and product packaging for them. Originality/value: This is an original research that both marketing practitioners and researchers would find useful. It also identifies certain areas for future research. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.