Measuring Muslim Consumers’ Decision to Patronize Halal Stores: Some Insights from Malaysia

Abstract

Consumers’ decision to patronize halal stores requires a high involvement among Muslims. This study aims to measure Muslim consumers' decision to patronize halal stores. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to test a model using a sample of 548 Muslim consumers in the city of Kuching, Sarawak Malaysia. Empirical results revealed that measurement items for attitude factor scored the highest reading in factor loadings and this makes it the largest contributor in explaining respondents’ intention to patronize halal stores. Muslim consumers develop favourable attitude in patronizing stores that show high degree of halal images, feel very pleased to know that each item available in the store is a confirmed halal and decide to re-patronize the stores more often as they practicing the Islamic teaching by supporting Islamic-based retail shops. The main theoretical contribution relates to the inclusion of the Halal image dimension in connection to consumer behaviours in a single model. Direction for future research is also discussed.