Sheikha S. Acas* and Jeanette Isabelle V. Loanzon
Philippines is a non-Muslim dominant country where Halal industry is still emerging. Considering such environment, Halal food consumption becomes one of the Muslim consumers’ vital concern and an interesting subject for behavior study. This research is to address the gap in the literature pertaining to Filipino Muslim minority’s purchase consumption. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is utilized to ascertain the influence of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control as well as Islamic religiosity among Muslim consumers of processed food products in the country’s largest urban area- Metro Manila. This work also attempted to identify the most influential among the four determinant factors.
The study employed a quantitative survey and used responses obtained from 444 Muslims who are grocery buyers of their respective households in top three cities with high concentration of Muslim residents in Metro Manila-Taguig, Manila and Quezon cities. The data collection was through a structured questionnaire using the purposive and the snowball sampling methods. Data gathered from the survey were then explored and analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the frequency of the respondents’ demographic characteristics. Multiple regression analysis using SPSS was done to test the hypotheses of the study. Regression results reveal that the identified independent variables (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and Islamic religiosity) in this study exhibited a positive and significant influence towards the dependent variable (Halal food purchase intention). This indicates that as these four determinant factors increase positively, the purchase intention towards Halal food products would also increase. Results also show that the subjective norm is the most important predictor and is followed by Islamic religiosity. This study gives important implications to the food manufacturers, marketers, policy-makers, Halal consumers, and academic community. Stated findings recommend to understand more the current phenomenon, respond to consumer's necessities, and encourage businessmen in providing Halal products to capture the growing Muslim community’s preference and maximize profit as well.
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