سوابقی از قصد خرید برند حلال مصرف کننده Antecedents of consumers’ Halal brand purchase intention: an integrated approach

Introduction These days, Muslim consumers are faced with a broad selection of Halal products and services. Each product group offers many different local and internationally recognised brands. These brands (hereinafter referred to as Halal brand) use Halal logos or/and symbols that provide assurance to the consumers particularly the Muslims that the ingredients used and the production processes are according to Islamic Shariah (Alam and Sayuti, 2011; Yunos et al., 2014). Thus, Halal brands comply with Shariah together with traditional features of a brand and appear to capture their own niches by projecting themselves as Halal brands (Alam and Sayuti, 2011). On our earth, Islam is the fastest growing religion both in birth and adoption (Ireland and Rajabzadeh, 2011). The Muslim population is approximately 1.6 billion (Ireland and Rajabzadeh, 2011; Pew Research Center, 2009) that is close to a quarter of the world’s population (Hanzaee and Ramezani, 2011). It is projected that this figure will increase at an annual rate of approximately 35 per cent in the next 15 years, from 2.1 billion in 2015 to 2.2 billion by 2030 (Temporal, 2011). This is and will lead to a very sizeable demand for Halal products in Muslims as well as non-Muslims countries. Halal is a word which is derived from the Arabic language which means lawful, permissible or permitted by the Islamic Shariah (Alam and Sayuti, 2011; Lada et al., 2009). It is the dietary standard as well as the religious obligation for Muslims to consume only food that is Halal and is prescribed in the Holy Quran. According to this standard, all foods products are Halal except those that are specifically mentioned as Haram. Just like Muslims in numbers, the Halal food consumer market is the fastest growing in the world. According to Halal World Food exhibition (Gulfood), International Halal Market was estimated to be worth more than US$2.3 trillion in 2012 and expected to increase to US$10 trillions by 2030 (www.Halalhighlights.com/HH%20Feb14.html). As an example, fast food chain McDonald has added eight million customers in a year after obtaining a Halal certification and offering Halal food lines in Singapore (Sabri, 2006). Instead of significant demand for Halal brands from Muslim consumers in Muslim and non-Muslim countries, still, the research on the Halal market segment and Halal purchasing is at the nascent stage. Hence, understanding the consumer intention towards Halal brands is important for the marketers.