The influence of halal food knowledge and trust on non-muslim consumers' halal food purchase intention

Abstract

The drivers of non-Muslim consumers in Malaysia to consume halal food have become one of the topics in halal studies. Those studies mostly mentioned that health benefits become the main reason for the non-Muslim consumers to consume halal food. However, there are still perceptions amongst the non-Muslim consumers that the Islamic slaughtering method is inhumane. As a result, inconclusive findings are identified within the literatures leading to the need to address the gap of empirical evidence for the knowledge and trust of the non-Muslim consumers towards halal food purchase intention. This study aims to fill this gap by introducing both knowledge and trust constructs into the theory of planned behavior (TPB) framework. Further, the introduction of both constructs is supported by the food choice theory (FCT) which act as the complementary theory in the study. This study applies the quantitative research methodology and collects the purchase intention data by questionnaire distribution. Data were collected from 600 non-Muslim consumers in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor through self-administered questionnaire. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data analysis and screening. Subsequently, Structural Equation Modeling with Smart PLS was adopted to validate the model of this study. The findings of this study reveals that halal food knowledge does not have a significant direct relationship towards purchase intention. Nonetheless, the mediating constructs of trust, attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control play a key role between the relationship of halal food knowledge and purchase intention. The significant mediating role of attitude and subjective norm suggest that health and animal-friendly attributes of halal food are aligned with non-Muslim consumers' motives on food consumption. Meanwhile, trust and perceived behavioral control are found to have insignificant mediating role. This finding suggested that the non-Muslim consumers could not relate themselves with the halal logo that lead to reluctance and hesitation to purchase halal food. In addition, the significant role of the non-Muslim consumers' subjective norm further suggests that collective decision-making is crucial to determine their purchase intention toward halal food. Based on the findings, this study proposes that the inclusion of non-Muslim consumers into the Malaysian halal ecosystem is beneficial to reduce their reluctance and hesitation to purchase halal food.