Islamic religious beliefs and brand personality towards new product adoption in the Islamic market, and scale development and validation

Brand personality is considered as an important element in building and maintaining strong and valuable brands. Several brand personality scales have been proposed within the brand marketing literature, but no reliable and valid brand personality scale has yet been produced for the Islamic context. Therefore, scholars and practitioners have been unable to empirically assess brands‘ personalities, identity and image in such a context. In addition to developing a brand personality measure for an Islamic context, this study explored Islamic religious beliefs‘ influence on brand personality. A related scale was conceptually and empirically explored in this research, and the influence of Islamic religious beliefs on subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, relative advantage, compatibility, complexity and new religious compliant product adoption was investigated. The study also examines the moderation effects of the demographic variables of age and income, and the mediation effects of the constructs of subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, relative advantage, compatibility and complexity. This study advances the marketing knowledge by presenting a more critical and empirical understanding of the degree to which Islamic religious beliefs influence a brand personality measure, consumers‘ favouring or not favouring a brand‘s personality, and their adoption of new religious compliant products in religiously featured societies. The influence of Islamic religious beliefs on new product adoption generally has not been investigated previously, with exception of the study by Shabbir (2010), and more specifically no previous study has examined the influential relationship between Islamic religious beliefs and new religious compliant product adoption. Given that the value of while the religious markets‘ is expanding, with the Muslim market value alone estimated to be US$2.7 trillion currently, and expected to increase to US$30 trillion by 2050, this makes this study a valuable addition to the marketing management field. A quantitative methodology was employed to collect data from the three largest cities in Saudi Arabia: Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam; a total of 352 usable questionnaires were returned. After verifying raw data coding accuracy, the missing values from the raw data were assessed, and data tested for normality, outliers and multicollinearity. The brand personality scale development and the conceptual framework were assessed with 287 questionnaires. Exploratory factor analysis was employed to purify the scale, followed by confirmatory factor analysis to verify the scale and determine its psychometric properties. The hypothesised relationships were tested by employing structural equation modelling based on partial least square procedures. Mediation effects were examined using the Sobel test, and moderation effects were assessed using multi group analysis.The findings yielded a unique Islamic brand personality with four dimensions and 28 sub items, which contained one dimension with five religious traits. Gender, age and income were found to moderate some of the hypothesised relationships. Significant influence of Islamic religious beliefs was observed on the Islamic brand personality scale, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, relative advantage, compatibility, complexity and new religious compliant product adoption. The influence of Islamic religious beliefs on the brand personality measure was observed to be stronger than anticipated by this study. Also surprisingly it was found that the adoption behaviour differs between men and women with the same Islamic religious beliefs and values. Wealthy and educated participants were found to be more concerned with whether the personality of the products that they purchase contradicts with their Islamic religious beliefs or not. The developed Islamic brand personality scale will significantly support marketing managers who operate in the Muslim market to design a more desirable brand personality for their brands. Additionally, marketing practitioners will be helped understand the factors that affect their consumers‘ behaviour and purchasing activities, and carry out the segmentation process more effectively bearing in mind the differences observed between the age, gender and income groups. Finally, this study is one of the first that explores the links between Islamic religious beliefs, brand personality and new religious compliant product adoption in the light of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DIT). It develops a new Islamic brand personality scale and it is believed to provide a ground for different directions for future research

Understanding new religion-compliant product adoption (NRCPA) in Islamic markets

This study examines the relationships between religious beliefs, brand personality, and new religion-compliant product adoption (NRCPA) in Islamic markets. Findings confirm that religious consumers tend to behave in accordance with a society or group that follows the same beliefs, and that these consumers’ behavior and lifestyle are influenced by similar religious groups and social relationships. In addition, the more religious the consumer, the more likely they will adopt or favour/disfavour a new product in accordance with his/her religious beliefs. Finally, the three constructs–relative advantages, compatibility and complexity–are found to partially mediate the influential relationship between religious beliefs and new religion-compliant product adoption. International firms that target Muslim markets, with an aim to profit and fit in these markets, must take into account the Islamic values, standards and guidelines