Muslim immigrants’ purchase intentions of fatwa products

Abstract

Religion is an important cultural factor that shapes the decision-making and consumption patterns of some people. For Muslims, Islam is a code of conduct that guides and influences all aspects of life. Religion is widely used in the marketing domain to investigate the behaviour of Muslims under several consumption situations. However, there is limited knowledge on how fatwa rulings influence Muslim consumers’ behaviour and decision-making processes under ambiguous consumption and hospitality settings. Thus, the present study investigated how Muslim immigrants in Western countries such as Australia and New Zealand respond towards products and brands subject to fatwa rulings. For this purpose, data were collected in two phases. Firstly, structured interviews (Study 1) were conducted to explore the notion of fatwa in-depth and its impacts on Pakistani Muslim immigrants. Subsequently, interview findings were used to design a questionnaire (Study 2) in order to understand the effect of fatwa rulings on a large sample. An initial conceptual framework was developed based on the interview findings. During the interviews, the researcher discovered that several factors contribute to ambiguity about fatwa rulings among Muslims, such as religious sources, individual interpretation, gender-based rulings, locality, unofficial religious authorities, religious affiliation, and blasphemy issues. Additionally, the interview findings revealed various marketing elements that marketers can use to deal with fatwa rulings and increase the permissibility of products and brands subject to fatwa rulings in growing Muslim consumer markets. For instance, factors like corporate social responsibility (CSR), standardised products, marketing media, brand attachment, substitutes, low price, brand availability, positive religious endorsement, and demonstrating product benefits can help marketers in better positioning their products and brands linked with prohibition rulings. Lastly, the research found that various influences that are beyond marketers’ control, such as animosity, religious media, religious commitment, religious identity, and social pressure, may affect an individual’s decision-making and fatwa compliance processes under ambiguous consumption and hospitality situations. In Study 2, the researcher hypothesised some observed relationships from Study 1 and these relationships were tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). This study found that ambiguity negatively influenced Muslims’ attitude and subjective norms towards fatwa products. The findings from Study 2 showed that religious media usage contributed to animosity towards a brand’s country of origin, with a positive relationship between these constructs. However, a negative relationship was found between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and animosity towards a brand’s country of origin. More specifically, CSR activities may help companies in reducing animosity towards Western countries. Additionally, four moderators - animosity, religious media, religious identity and CSR - were tested to examine how, if at all, these moderators influence the negative relationship between ambiguity and attitudes towards consumption of fatwa products. The researcher discovered that only religious identity was a significant moderator, which implies that Muslim immigrants with higher levels of religious identity are more likely to develop negative attitudes towards consumption of fatwa products. Animosity, religious media and CSR were found to be insignificant moderators. Lastly, the role of the Theory of Reasoned Action was examined towards fatwa products in an ambiguous consumption and hospitality setting. The results show that both constructs of the Theory of Reasoned Action - attitude and subjective norms - are significant and help in determining Muslim consumers’ intention to consume fatwa products.