The Significant Contribution Of Islamic Relationship Marketing Practice In Malaysian Takaful Industry Towards Determining Customer Gratitude, Trust, And Commitment

Parallel to the achievement of the Takaful industry, agency system becomes the main medium utilised by the industry to educate the public and assist them about future fnancial preparation. As a mirror to an Islamic type of insurance, Takaful agents play signifcant role not only to sell the Takaful products, but also to behave according to the Islamic norms in front of their customers. Thus, this research is conducted to introduce new concept of Islamic relationship marketing (IRM) and investigates its signifcance towards customer gratitude, trust, and commitment in the industry. A total of 741 of Family Takaful customers in Klang Valley area have participated in the survey conducted in this study. Few statistical analyses were performed to confrm the proposed measures of IRM including descriptive, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), measurement model, and structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis. Through EFA and measurement model, four variables were confrmed to measure the IRM which are Islamic ethical behaviour, social, structural, and fnancial bonds. Furthermore, these measures of IRM have signifcantly affected customer gratitude, trust, and commitment via SEM analysis. This study serves as a starting point to promote new approach of marketing in the Takaful industry based on the Islamic norms. It basically aims to tackle the needs of Takaful participants which should be taken care by the Takaful agents as to ensure both of these parties receive benefts in the Takaful contract

Retaining customers through Islamic relationship marketing practice: findings from Malaysian takaful industry

In recent times, the ability to maintain good and quality relationships with customers has become a competitive advantage for a company. In this context, a few marketing scholars have suggested that retaining customers is much more profitable than acquiring new ones. Parallel with the objective of Relationship Marketing (RM) which is to minimize the lost of profitable customers by ensuring future customer retention, this research is conducted to introduce a new concept of Islamic Relationship Marketing (IRM) and investigate its influence towards future customer retention. By selecting 755 customers of Malaysian Takaful industry and utilising stuctural equation modelling as statistical method to achieve the research objective, it is found that customers in this industry intend to remain with the same Takaful operator and agent for long term period given that they practice the Islamic ethical behaviour and build strong relational bonds (social, structural, and financial bonds) with the customers. Besides that, the application of social exchange theory in the research framework have been proven in this research whereby the practice of Islamic relationship marketing in the Takaful industry would give positive affect towards future customer retention. Overall, the results of this research would urge Takaful operators and agents to be more concerned with the marketing approach that they utilise which basically must parallel with the maqasid Shari’ah as to ensure future customer retention. These factors are also important in helping Takaful to remain competitive in the market for the long term. Key words: Customer Retention, Islamic Relationship Marketing, Takaful industry, Takaful Customer, Structural Equation Modelin

Islamic relationship marketing practice, customer satisfaction, and retention: a mediation analysis

The aim of this study is to develop an indirect effect of customer satisfaction towards the structural relationship of the Takaful agents’ Islamic relationship marketing (IRM) practice and future customer retention. The model was designed and later examined by utilizing the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) procedure on data collected from a survey of Malaysian Takaful customers that yielded 755 usable questionnaires. The results confirmed that customer satisfaction has significantly mediated the four measures of IRM which were Islamic ethical behaviour, social, structural, and financial bonds on future customer retention. It is vital to do the empirical study utilizing primary data on the perspective of customers as to observe the real practice of marketing in the Takaful industry in Malaysia. The findings imply that the practice of Islamic relationship marketing is very crucial to ensure the sustainable of future Takaful industry which at the end would affect the bright future of the industry. Therefore, the industry needs to ensure their marketing channel practicing the IRM towards achieving customer satisfaction and retention. This research is one of the first known attempts to use SEM to test a mediation effect particularly on the IRM practice in the industry

Formulating an Islamic Health Protection Retirement Plan (i-HPRP) for Government Servants in Malaysia

Malaysia an official statistics suggests that the number of aging population (age group of 65 years old and above) would increase and is expected to grow double digit by the 2030s (Malaysian Department of Statistics; EPF Report 2015). This scenario implies that there should be enough effort and preparation done either by the government, scholars, or practitioners to offer special retirement scheme(s) that can enhance the pensioners’ income as well as financial health preparation on top of the existing Employees Provident Fund (EPF). In view of this issue, this research aims to formulate an Islamic Health Protection Retirement Plan (i-HPRP) for Government Servants in Malaysia. Other objectives are; to investigate patterns of spending and saving among government pensioners before and during retirement period, to examine the preparation of the government servant towards retirement, and to explore the viability of introducing Islamic Health Protection Retirement Plan (i-HPRP) from the perspective of government servants. To achieve the said objectives, this research adopted a mixed-methodology approach based on structured survey questionnaires as well as interview as mediums of data collection. A total of 23 pensioners were selected conveniently in Klang Valley and it is found that majority of them did not plan or have a proper plan during their working periods. In terms of health condition, it is found that most of them having health issues over the ageing pattern, and they were agreed that having a shariah-compliant retirement income for health protection is necessary to reduce the financial burden during retirement period. In addition, the survey results indicate that majority of the government servants were in favorable to the proposed product due to its importance to comply with the Shariah. Accordingly, most of the government servant when they show their preferences towards I-HPRP, given three factors (saving, benefits, and commitment), they were actually concerned on their future planning. The findings can clearly demonstrate that the proposed model is quite marketable and able to satisfy the current employees future retirement needs. In other words, employees find it satisfactory and enable them to fulfil their retirement planning prospects

Ibda' binafsi

This short writing is written to remind myself and all readers that if we want to ensure that we and our family will be united in the paradise, we should start with ourselves. Surah At-Thur (52) verse 21 have clearly mentioned ―And those who believed and whose descendants followed them in faith - We will join with them their descendants, and We will not deprive them of anything of their deeds. Every person, for what he earned, is retained.‖. Therefore, we should increase our iman and „amal in order to bring our family members with us in the Paradise

Comparing the internet to others sources of information for acquiring knowledge on Takaful among Prudential BSN takaful agents

Malaysian Takaful industry is progressively taking innovative steps to improvise their marketing efforts via the introduction of Wakala system (agency system). Agents as one of the distribution channel for the industry play a prominent role in educating the society about the objectives and concept of Takaful. This effort may increase the awareness of the society about the Islamic insurance which remain low previously. Thus, this study is an attempt (1) to explore the sources of information that influencing the knowledge of Takaful agents; (2) to compare the contribution of the Internet and other sources of information towards understanding the objectives and concepts of Takaful by Takaful agents; and (3) to analyze the relationships between the usage of the Internet and other sources with the acquisition of knowledge on objectives and concepts of Takaful. A preliminary study was conducted with 50 Takaful agents from Prudential BSN Takaful Berhad. Data were collected through survey research design using questionnaire as the research instrument. Data gathered will be analyzed using SPSS WIN 17 for both descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (paired t-test and step-wise regression analysis)

Growth and Value Effect on Jakarta Islamic Index: Analysis towards Performance of Sharia Equity Mutual Fund

This study provides evidence that value and stocks’ growth able to explain Net Asset Value of Shariah Mutual Fund. It is important for investment managers and investors to estimate future profit or loss that may happen on their mutual funds prior they venture into the investment platform. This study therefore is conducted to prove that factors including value and growth may affect the future profit of Shariah Mutual Funds. Based on quantitative analysis with secondary data from companies indexed in the Jakarta Islamic Index and Sharia Mutual Fund from year 2013 to 2017, it is found that both growth and value of stock have equally affected the profit of Sharia Mutual Funds. In addition, growth of stock has a larger R-Square than its value which means that the investors or fund managers would need to observe the stock growth more often than its value in order to predict future profitability of Shariah funds.  It is expected that the results of this study can provide additional insight to investment managers when choosing a portfolio for investors. For investors, this information is useful to predict the risk and return that they will receive from the investment

Modeling the Demand for Family and General Takaful in Malaysia (a Comparative Study): ARDL Approach to Cointegration

Objective- Nowadays, numerous studies focus on the determinant of the demand for takaful, either family or general takaful in Malaysia. In this respect, these studies employ economic and socio-demographic variables to examine the determinants of takaful. They found that income, interest rates, financial development, pensions, stocks, price of insurance, life expectancy, dependency ratio, education, and age have positive on determinants of takaful. However, previous tudies have found that inflation, savings, and unemployment rate have negative relationship with the determinant of takaful in Malaysia. This study attempts to examine the determinants of the demand for family takaful and general takaful for comparative study in Malaysia for the period of 1988 to 2010. It employs economic and socio-demographic variables to measure these determinants.Methods-Using time series data, this study applies the Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration to examine the determinants of the demand for family takaful and general takaful in the short and long run.Result-The findings indicate that the economic and socio-demographic variables such as income, and education have positive relationship with the demand for family takaful in the short run, but not in the long run.Conclusion-Meanwhile, it also indicates that income and education have no relationship with demand for general takaful in Malaysia in the short run and long run. It indicates that if there is an increase in income, people tend to buy more family takaful of STMB. At the same time, the educated people already aware of the takaful products, they may necessarily purchase family takaful than life insurance

Financial Performance of Islamic and Conventional Banks in Malaysia: A Comparative Analysis

This paper analyses the financial performance of Islamic (IB) and conventional banks (CB) in Malaysia comparatively, within the scope of a dual setting arrangement in the Malaysian financial industry. Performance evaluation of both types of banks relies on ratio analyses which include Return on Equity (ROE), Return on Assets (ROA), Earnings per Share (EPS) and Debt Ratio. Data for this study covers four full-fledged IBs and four CBs in the period between 2012 and 2016. Based on statistical analysis (ttest and correlation analysis), the average of ROE was 6% for IBs and 14% for CBs. Results of t-test reveals that this higher performance of CBs is significant (ttest=1.957, p-value= 0.029). Furthermore, both ROA and EPS were significantly different between the two groups at p-value less than 1%. These results indicate that the Malaysian CBs performed better than IBs, at least for the banks included in this study. In terms of debt ratio, (the percentage of liabilities to total assets), IBs carry more debts than CBs. The risk of this higher debt is that the bank may be at risk of bankruptcy and may not be able to pay its obligations on time. The difference between the average debt of the two groups is significant at less than 5% (t-test= -2.251, pvalue= 0.015). Therefore, not only is IBs’ performance inferior to CBs but their debt ratio is also higher. This research has implications for IBs; they should further improve their performance to become more competitive in the current environment for the financial industry. More importantly, IBs need to uphold Islamic ethics throughout their business operations to ensure that both the stated principles and subsequent objectives are achieved