Awareness on Issues related to Indonesian Islamic Spiritual Tourism
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Some countries have found it useful to have one designated authority to inspect and regulate the availability and provision of halal foods such as JAKIM in Malaysia and
MUIB in Brunei. Even then however, the implementation of halal certification is not without its challenges, most particularly regarding the adulteration of food products as
well as the enforcement by halal food authorities Shahidan and Md Nor, 2006. Food production has increasingly been based on the advancement of science and technology,
which has led to increasingly complex methods for detection of non-permissible ingredients such as pork, lard and alcohol Nurrulhidayah et al., 2011. Furthermore,
although relatively still in its infancy, technological advancements have also been mooted to assist the enforcement of halal logo usage Mohd. et al., 2011.
In response to certification issues described above, the Brunei halal Brand was launched in 2009 to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Temporal 2011 notes that
Brunei is the first country to introduce both halal certification and halal brand logos. The objective is to gain the consumer trust towards the Brunei Halal logo, which is
automatically associated with a high halal compliant standard. However, it is acknowledged that the process to bring about this global awareness and recognition will
take time and high costs.
In any case, the presence of a single authority in a country to regulate halal food issues should assist consumers in making better-informed decisions, but several questions
remain. What is the extent of consumer awareness and understanding towards halal foods? Do consumers assume that food items coming from traditionally Muslim countries
are halal? Do consumers accept all food items with halal logos, regardless of origin, as halal
? Does the presence of an authority to handle halal food issues mean that consumers delegate the responsibility of checking the ingredients?
2.4
Purchase Decision
Nowadays, Muslims are making their presence felt socially and politically and are requesting halal certified food products Riaz Chaudry, 2004; Shafie Othman,
2006. Therefore many producers start applied the halal certification on their products. Leading retailers such as Carrefour in France and Belgium or Albert Heijn in the
Netherlands are testing to include halal meat in their products. Previous attempts in a retail environment were often unsuccessful because of lack of insights in food purchasing
and consumption behaviourof Muslims. Ramdani, 2005, Shah Alam and Sayuti 2011 mentioned that Muslims worldwide today are become more aware towards the halal
concept and this has opened up the demand for halal foods in compliance with their religious requirements. Gaining better insights in halal food and meat consumer behavior
will be useful to several stakeholders in the food chain, including food policy makers, the industry and retailers.
The decision to purchase a product typically goes through a complicated process. The analysis of purchasing decisions will reveal consumer preferences, behavior, attitude
and perception towards particular products. Several empirical studies have recently been conducted to understand the purchasing intention or purchasing decision of halal
products.
For example, Mohani et al. 2009 finds that assurance is sought in relation to the “halalness” of business premise, “halalness” of product, and assurance from
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environmental elements such as the halal logo. Unsurprisingly, they also find a significant relationship between respondents’ religious affiliation and perceptions toward
halal logo and ingredients. Furthermore, Yushanis and Chok 2013 found that halal
awareness, halal certification, marketing promotion, and brand were positively related to purchase intention, whereas food quality was negatively associated with it. Also,
Hasleena et al. 2013 found that knowledge or familiarity of the processed halal foods was the most influential factor in determining the purchasing decision among Muslim
consumers.
All these studies indicate that there is a multitude of factors that affect the consumers purchasing decision.
3
HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT 3. 1
Linkage between Religiosity and Purchase Decision
Food which is consumed by Muslims must be halal, unless it is categorized in Al- Qur’an
or Hadith as haram or forbidden. The word halal means permissible or lawful according to Islamic laws, and therefore the permissibility or halalness of different types of foods
should be of great concern to all Muslims. However, the commitment or adherence of Muslims towards halal foods may not necessarily be identical due to different levels of
commitment or adherence towards their faith. In general, we expect that a Muslim with a stronger level of faith, or a more religious person, would be more committed towards the
decision to purchase and consume halal foods. Based on this argument, the following hypothesis can be developed:
H
1
: There is a direct effect of religiosity on purchase decision 3.2
Linkage among Religiosity, Awareness and Purchase Decision
The purchase decision of halal foods is complex, and not necessarily straightforward. Although we expect a direct link to exist between religiosity and purchase decision, this
relationship may not be complete. In other words, there may be other factors which affect the relationship between religiosity and the decision to purchase halal foods, such as
awareness.
Awareness in the halal context refers to the state of individuals who are well- informed of what is happening at the present time on halal foods. In particular, the use of
halal logos are common throughout the world, to provide awareness, and enable consumers to identity foods which are halal. However, there are still unresolved issues
with regards to the certification and the standardization of halal logos. These issues affect public understanding and awareness of what is permissible. Furthermore, in some cases
halal logos are abused, which makes it increasingly difficult for the discerning Muslim consumer.
In general, we expect that a religious person who is more aware of the issues pertaining to halal foods is more likely to make better purchase decisions, than one who
is less aware. Thus, these arguments suggest the following hypoyhesis:
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H
2
: There is an indirect effect of religiosity on purchase decision through awareness
Based on the arguments developed above, the model proposed in the present study is as follows:
Figure 1 Basic Theoretical Model of the Present Study 4
METHODOLOGY
4.1
Research Design
Data for this study was gathered by primary data collection method through a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire contains four 4 sections and comprises 25 items. The
first section of the survey sought demographic information from the respondents such as gender, age, marital status, edu
cation level. The second section asks for respondents’ perception of purchase decision based on 6 given statements. The third section is
designed to investigate the awareness towards halal foods. The last part of the questionnaire measures religiosity consist of 9 items. In the second, third and fourt
sections respondents were requested to rate their opinions according to a five point Likert type scale ranging from 1 to 5. 1 refers to strongly disagree, 2 refers to disagree, 3 refers
to neutral, 4 refers to agree, and 5 refers to strongly agree. The questionnaire was developed in both Malay and English language, as the majority of the respondents were
educated in the languages. Data were collected from Bruneian muslims in Brunei Muara using a convenience sampling procedure. A questionnaire was administered to a sample
of 300 Bruneian Muslims, 198 were returned yielding a response rate 66. Tabel 1 presents the reliability of the scale used in this research.
Religiosity X
1
Awareness X
2
Purchase Decision
X
3
P
21
P
32
P
31
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Table 1: Reliability Coefficients
Variables
No. of items
Cronbach’s alpha
Awareness 10
0.616 Purchase Decision
6 0.874
Religiosity 9
0.833 Table 1 shows that the three scales has Cronbach’s alpha value for all items are more than
0.6. A value of 0.6 or higher is generally considered to indicate high reliability Hair Jr. et al. 1998.
4.2
Analysis of the Proposed Model
A path analytic method was used to test the model of the study as shown in figure 1. Path analysis is a statistical technique primarily to examine the comparative strength of direct
and indirect relationships among variables Lleras, 2005. In the model, the relationships between variables were specified by a series of path coefficients P1j which are
equivalent to standardized beta . The equations in the path model are shown as follows: X
2
= P
21
X
1
+ P
2a
…………………...…1 X
3
= P
31
X
1
+P
32
X
2
+ P
3b
R
b....
…………..2
The first equation shows the religiosity X1 as the independent variable and awareness X2 as dependent variable. The second equation treated religiosity X1 and the
awarenss X2 as the independent variable and purchase decision X3 as the dependent variable. Test on the adequacy of the regression models indicates that the results of each
model are fairly normally distributed. To diagnose multicollinearity, the variance inflation factors VIFs are examined for the predictors. VIFs vary from a low of 1.024 to
a high value of 1.064.
5 RESULTS