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The effect of halal foods Religiosity as a

moderating
awareness on purchase variable

decision with religiosity as

a moderating variable 1091

A study among university students in Received 30 September 2017

Revised 12 February 2019
Brunei Darussalam Accepted 20 June 2019

Muslichah M.
STIE Malangkucecwara, Malang, Indonesia
Rose Abdullah
Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali, Gadong, Brunei Darussalam, and
Lutfi Abdul Razak
International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating effect of religiosity on the relationship
between awareness and purchase decision of halal foods.
Design/methodology/approach – Using a convenience sampling procedure, 200 questionnaires were
distributed to various local higher education institutions with a 64% response rate. A moderated regression
analysis is used to test the relationship between awareness and purchase decision, with religiosity as the
moderating variable.
Findings – As expected, the authors find that among the sample, the level of awareness toward halal foods is
high, and that the effect of awareness on purchase decision is positive and significant. Importantly, they find
that religiosity acts as a moderating variable on the relationship between awareness and purchase decision.
Research limitations/implications – First, the sample was taken from higher institutions only and
respondents were selected using convenience sampling. Hence, it may not be fully representative of the Brunei
Muslim population. Second, there may also be omitted variables not considered in the study. Third, the survey
instrument and conceptualization of religiosity are both issues that may require further investigation in the literature.
Practical implications – The results indicate that awareness is an important antecedent of Muslim
students’ intention to purchase halal foods. Marketers should design their campaigns focusing on creating
awareness regarding their compliance with halal products. Moreover, food manufacturers and sellers should use
the reliable halal certification and logo as a way to inform their consumers that their products are truly halal.
Originality/value – This study adds to the current limited knowledge of halal foods research. In
particular, the authors investigate the moderating effect of religiosity on the relationship between awareness
and purchase decision of halal foods.
Keywords Awareness, Religiosity, Purchase decision, Halal foods, Moderator variable
Paper type Research paper

Journal of Islamic Marketing

1. Introduction Vol. 11 No. 5, 2020
pp. 1091-1104
Religious influences can strongly affect consumer behavior and purchasing decisions. Halal © Emerald Publishing Limited
1759-0833
dietary laws, derived from the Quran and the Hadith or the practices of the Prophet DOI 10.1108/JIMA-09-2017-0102
JIMA Muhammad, determine which foods are lawful or permitted for Muslims. With Islam being
11,5 the second largest, and fastest growing religion in the world, Muslims are projected to
comprise 26 per cent of the global population by 2030 (Euromonitor Research, 2015). This
represents the significant growth potential of market segments that serves Muslims,
particularly the food and beverage industry. Expenditure on halal food and beverage
amounted to US$1.3tn in 2017 and is forecast to reach US$1.9tn by 2023, according to
1092 Thomson Reuters (2018) latest report on the state of the global Islamic economy.
For marketers, there is a clear need to ascertain the factors that influence consumers
purchasing decisions in order to tap into the halal food market. Typically, businesses make use
of halalcertificates and logos to help differentiate their products. This enables consumers to
identify foods which are halal, and those which are not. However, halal logos can be abused by
irresponsible or misleading marketers. Shafiq et al. (2015) argue that this makes it difficult for
Muslim consumers to distinguish the real halal logos from the fakes. Furthermore, authors such
as Tieman (2011) and van der Spiegel et al. (2012) explain how complex food production
processes involving global trade networks have also necessitated sophisticated technologies for
the detection of non-permissible ingredients such as pork, lard and alcohol.
Given that there can be different interpretations of Islamic law, universal halal
accreditation may be unlikely, especially in the near future. However, standardization in
halal certification is clearly desirable for discerning Muslim consumers. In some Muslim-
majority countries, government agencies have been tasked to inspect and regulate the
availability and provision of halal foods such as JAKIM (Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia,
or Department of Islamic Development Malaysia) and MUIB (Majlis Ugama Islam Brunei or
Brunei Islamic Religious Council).The presence of a single authority in a country can help to
eliminate potential confusion that can arise from the availability of multiple halal logos,
allowing Muslim consumers to make better-informed decisions. Some authors, such as Ab
Talib and Abdul Hamid (2014), assert that this can be achieved through the adoption of a
consistent halal definition and uniform halal standards.
In 2009, Brunei Darussalam became the first country to introduce both halal certification
and halal brand logos under the Brunei Halal brand (Temporal, 2011). This became part of
the national economic diversification strategy, aimed at reducing the county’s reliance on oil
and gas exports by positioning the country with a competitive advantage in the halal food
market through a high standard of halal compliance. For companies that choose to
manufacture products under the Brunei Halal brand, the costs of halal certification are
absorbed by the Brunei government. This is particularly valuable for smaller companies
looking to gain access to international markets. It also serves as an incentive for global food
suppliers that wish to get involved with the national brand, although global awareness and
recognition may take time. Companies may also choose to obtain Brunei halal certification
without being under the Brunei Halal brand. Nevertheless, Ab Talib et al. (2016) explains
that companies may face some challenges with regards to halal certification. This includes
additional monitoring and enforcement, as well as a potentially negative impact on business
efficiency. Hence, businesses need to ascertain the importance of halal logos or certificates in
particular, and of halal food awareness in general, among their target consumer base (Anam
et al., 2018).
In recent years, research interest in the halal concept has grown considerably, especially
within the marketing and branding context (Wilson and Liu, 2010). The role of halal
marketing and branding is to influence consumer behavior and purchasing decisions
through consumers’ awareness of halal products. Awareness implies some form of
understanding, but also an ability to be conscious of, to feel or to perceive. The literal
meaning of “awareness” in the halal context is to have special interest in or experience of
something and/or being well informed of what is happening at the present time on halal Religiosity as a
food, drinks and products (Ambali and Bakar, 2013). This means that halal food awareness moderating
is related to the concepts of “knowledge” and “watchfulness”. While halal knowledge
expresses the individuals understanding of religious orders regarding the lawful and the
variable
prohibited, halal watchfulness expresses the individuals sensitivity in ensuring the
lawfulness of the product that he or she consumes. Halal watchfulness is strongly related to
the individuals religiosity, the degree to which a person adheres to his or her religious
values, beliefs and practices and uses them in daily life (Abdul Shukor and Jamal, 2013). 1093
While several studies have found that religion is an important determinant of the
halal food purchasing decision, we explore the role of religiosity as a moderating
influence that strengthens the relationship between halal food awareness and purchase
decision using a moderated regression analysis (MRA). We find evidence for this
hypothesis based on a sample of Muslim students in Brunei Darussalam. These results
are crucial to marketers of halal food products, especially food exporters into Brunei
Darussalam, in terms of market segmentation and targeting. In addition, these results
are important for families, as well as the state, who are particularly concerned about the
well-being of Muslims.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows. The next section briefly reviews the
literature on consumer behavior towards halal foods and the role of religiosity, which leads
to the hypothesis development in the third section. The fourth section provides an
explanation of the data and methodology used, whereas section five presents the results.
The final section concludes with a discussion of our findings, its policy implications,
limitations and possible extensions.

2. Literature review
There is a large literature that seeks to uncover the role of religion in determining consumer
behavior. Several authors, such as Cornwell et al. (2005), Essoo and Dibb (2004) and
Hirschman (1983), have focused on the effects of consumption patterns across different
religious affiliations. However, religious affiliation is a discrete construct that treats
followers of each religion as a homogenous group. Wilkes et al. (1986) argued that religious
affiliation is insufficient in helping to understand the impact of religion on consumer
behavior. Hence, another stream of literature in consumer research focuses on religiosity,
which is a continuous construct that measures the level of religious commitment or
adherence. In this section, we provide a concise review of the literature with specific focus on
the measurement of religiosity in consumer research and the role of religiosity in the halal
food purchasing decision.

2.1 Measurement of religiosity in consumer research

Early work relied on single indices or uni-dimensional indicators to measure religiosity,
such as religious attendance. Subsequent work explored religiosity as a multidimensional
construct. In a seminal contribution to the literature, Worthington et al. (2003) developed a
general of measure of religiosity known as the Religious Commitment Inventory (RCI-10)
which has been validated across different samples. The RCI-10 is made up of statements
which express intrapersonal religiosity and interpersonal religiosity, which measure
cognitive and behavioral dimensions of religion, respectively. Although most researchers
agreed that religiosity is a multidimensional construct, there is some disagreement in the
literature regarding the precise number of dimensions to employ in measuring religiosity.
Nevertheless, regardless of the number of dimensions adopted, the concept of religiosity
allows a richer understanding of the relationship between religion and consumer behavior.
JIMA Worthington et al. (2003, p. 85) described religiosity as:
11,5 The degree to which a person adheres to his or her religious values, beliefs and uses them in daily
living”. Furthermore, they posit that the “supposition is that a highly religious person will
evaluate the world through religious schemas and thus will integrate his or her religion into much
of his or her life.
Based on this religiosity measurement scale, Mokhlis (2009) finds significant differences in
1094 shopping orientation (quality consciousness, impulsive shopping and price consciousness)
between Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Christians. Using both religious affiliation and
religious commitment, he found that differences in shopping orientation were much more
profound for religious commitment than religious affiliation, which implies that religiosity
may serve to be a powerful predictor and determinant of consumer behavior.
However, Muhamad and Mizerski (2010) contended that the commitment of consumers to
their religion needs to be measured based on each religions’ perception of religious
commitment rather than a single generic measure. In the context of the Islamic faith, Khraim
(2010) found that three dimensions (i.e. seeking religious education, Islamic current issues
and sensitive products) yielded the best combination of dimensions for the measurement of
Muslim religiosity. This measure however was noted to be directed more on practical
behavior by Abdul Shukor and Jamal (2013), and argued that it did not fully reflect the true
meaning of Islam. Instead, they argued that the measurement of a Muslim’s religiosity should
include two important aspects: relationship with Allah (hablum minallah) and relationship
with other people (hablum minannas). Hence, it is important to gather a measure of religiosity
that incorporates both these aspects along both cognitive and behavioral dimensions.

2.2 Role of religiosity in the halal food purchasing decision

While Jamal (2003) suggested that consumer segmentation may be diluted as subjective norms
adapt through the influence of marketing in multicultural societies, Mukhtar and Butt (2012)
posit that Muslims living in multi-religious societies tend to be more conscious about the
permissibility or halalness of products. These contrasting views highlighted the importance of
religiosity in influencing consumption patterns in countries with Muslim minorities. The latter
view suggested that Muslims in Muslim-majority countries may take the issue for granted and
instead assume that food products sold are halal for consumption by default.
Based on a sample of both Muslims and non-Muslims in a Muslim-majority country,
Lada et al. (2009) and Shah Alam and Mohamed Sayuti (2011) found that subjective norms
were important predictors of halal food purchasing intention. Abdul et al. (2009) found
customers seek assurance in relation to the halalness of business premise, the halalness of
product, and assurance from environmental elements such as the halal logo. They also found
a significant relationship between respondents’ religious affiliation and perceptions toward
halal logo and ingredients. Nevertheless, previous studies have found that non-Muslim
consumers have a positive attitude and perception towards the halal concept (Rezai et al.,
2012; Mathew et al., 2014), which translates into a positive intention to purchase halal food
products (Abdul Aziz and Chok, 2013; Haque et al., 2015).
Among Muslims in Muslim-majority countries, several authors such as Ambali and
Bakar (2013), Khan et al. (2017), Rehman and Shabbir (2010) and Soesilowati (2010), find that
religiosity is, as expected, a strong determinant of the halal food purchasing decision.
However, Salman and Siddiqui (2011) found that in Pakistan, those who are highly religious
may not necessarily have high level of awareness about halal food. Furthermore, Ahmad,
Abaidah and Yahya (2013) also found that Muslim customers are more likely to choose a
food outlet based on price and taste instead of halal logo and certification.
 Several studies explore the relative importance of religiosity and other determinants Religiosity as a
of the halal food purchasing decision. Hamdan et al. (2013) found that knowledge or moderating
familiarity of halal foods was the most influential factor in determining the purchasing variable
decision among Muslim consumers. However, Ahmad et al. (2015) found that religiosity
was more influential towards behavior compared to knowledge pertaining to halal
matters. Consistent with this result, Abd Rahman et al. (2015) found that the
relationship between knowledge and attitude is insignificant, but there is a significant 1095
positive relationship between religiosity and attitude. Similarly, Muhamad and
Mizerski (2010) found that the constructs which mediate religions influence on
purchasing decision include commitment, motivation, affiliation, knowledge about a
religion and awareness of the social consequences of following a religion.
While, there is a strong link between religiosity and the halal food purchasing decision, few
papers explore the role of religiosity as a moderator variable that influences the strength of the
relationship between the halal food purchasing decision and other determinants. Based on a
sample of British Muslims, Jamal and Sharifuddin (2015) found that religiosity negatively
moderates the positive link between perceived value of a halal label and the intention to patronize
stores selling halal labeled food products, such that the effect is stronger for those with low
religiosity than for those with high religiosity. Similarly, based on a sample of Muslim consumers
in Scotland, Elseidi (2018) found that the relationship between halal logo awareness and the halal
food purchasing decision is moderated by Islamic religiosity.
Hence, there is a clear gap in the literature to explore the role of religiosity as a
moderating variable between halal foods awareness and the halal food purchasing decision
among Muslims in Muslim-majority countries.

3. Hypothesis development
In this section, the researchers develop hypotheses based on the theoretical framework of
Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB). According to TPB, a person’s intention to
behave is an important factor in determining an action (Ajzen, 2005). TPB has become the
dominant expectancy-value theory, and has been applied in a wide variety of behavioral
domains (Shaw et al., 2000; Simon, 2016). In the following subsections, this paper discusses
the role of awareness and religiosity on the halal food purchasing decision.

3.1 Awareness toward halal foods

Brunei Darussalam is a Muslim-majority country that 78.8 per cent are Muslims, 7.8 per cent
Buddhists, 8.7 per cent Christians and4.7 per cent follow other faiths (Government of Brunei
Darussalam, 2011). Islam plays a very important role in Brunei society. The Brunei
Darussalam government has adopted an integrated education system which promotes the idea
that education contains both Islamic and worldly knowledge. The Ministry of Education
(Government of Brunei Darussalam, 2004, p. 8) report highlighted that:
Brunei Darussalam’s Education Philosophy is founded on the National Philosophy of a Malay
Islamic Monarchy and also incorporates the two key elements: religion (naqly) on the basis of the
Holy Quran and hadith and rational (aqly)on the basis of reasoning.
The integrated system makes Islamic education a compulsory subject taken by all Muslim
students. According to Al-Shaybaniy (1991), as cited by Lubis et al. (2009), a person can be
educated and trained to understand and uphold the Islamic faith, laws and the morals in
one’s life through an integrated Islamic education.
JIMA Those who have received religious education should be more aware of halal foods. Given
11,5 the education system in Brunei Darussalam, Muslim students are expected to be aware of
halal foods. Hence, the following hypothesis can be developed:

H1. Respondents have a high-level awareness towards halal foods.

1096 3.2 Linkage between awareness of halal foods and purchase decision
The decision to purchase a product starts with information. Information on halal food
eateries or products is most efficiently transmitted to the consumer through the use of halal
certificates or halal logos. However, as described earlier there still exist some issues
regarding the use and abuse of halal certificates and halal logos. Therefore, it is important to
assess the level of awareness among respondents regarding what constitutes halal, as well
as the extent of their understanding on reliability of halal certificates and halal logos.
Individuals with a high level of awareness on halal foods should therefore be more well-
informed and would be expected to make better purchase decisions. Based on these
arguments, the following hypothesis can be developed:

H2. Awareness of halal foods has a positive and significant impact on purchase decision
(or the higher the awareness, the higher the purchase decision).

3.3 Linkage among awareness, religiosity and purchase decision

The decision to purchase halal products involves faith. We postulate that customer
purchasing behavior is influenced by awareness, and mediated by religiosity.
Individuals place their trust on halal certificates and halal logos in the hope that they
provide authentic information regarding the permissibility, or not, of food products.
When such information is doubtful, or unavailable, then the individual relies on faith to
make a purchase decision. Religiosity, which measures the level of religious adherence
or commitment, serves to augment the awareness of halal products into purchase
decisions. This means that if two persons had the same level of awareness of halal food
products, then the individual who reported a higher level of religiosity would be
expected to be more likely to make the purchase. Thus, the arguments suggest that
religiosity mediate the relationship between awareness and purchase decision:

H3. The higher the degree of religiosity, the stronger the effect of awareness on
purchase decision.
Consistent with TPB, the model proposed in the present study can be visualized in Figure 1
below.

Religiosity
(X2)

Figure 1.
Religiosity as a Awareness Purchase
(X1) Decision
moderating variable (X3)
between awareness
and purchase decision
Source: Own construction based on Azjen et al. (1991)
4. Research methodology Religiosity as a
4.1 Data moderating
The primary data for this study was collected through a structured questionnaire. The
questionnaire contains four (4) sections and comprises 25 items. The first section of the survey
variable
sought demographic information from the respondents such as gender, age, marital status,
education level. The second section surveys respondents’ purchase intention based on six given
statements. The third section investigates the respondents’ awareness towards halal foods. The 1097
final part of the questionnaire measures religiosity, which consists of nine items. In the second,
third and fourth sections respondents were requested to rate their opinions according to a five
point Likert type scale ranging from 1 to 5. The questionnaire was developed in both Malay
and English language, as the majority of the respondents were educated in these languages.
Data were collected from various local higher education institutions including Universiti Islam
Sultan Sharif Ali (UNISSA), Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), Institut Teknologi Brunei
(ITB) and Politeknik Brunei using a convenience sampling procedure.
A total of 200 questionnaires were sent and 127 questionnaires were returned, which
resulted in a response rate 64 per cent. From the total questionnaire received, 6
questionnaires were excluded from the study because filled by non-students (lecturers). This
left the study with 121 usable questionnaires for data analysis. Reliability analysis is used to
test how consistently the measuring instruments have measured the constructs. Table I
presents the reliability of the scale used in this research.
Table I 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 et al., 2010).

4.2 Regression analysis of the proposed model

In statistics and regression analysis, moderation occurs when the relationship between two
variables (in this case awareness and purchase decision) depends on a third variable
(religiosity). The third variable is referred to as the moderator variable. A MRA is used to
test the model of the study as shown in the above figure. The MRA equation is as follows:
X 3 ¼ b 1 X 1 þ b 2 X 2 þ b 3 ðX 1  X 2 Þ þ «
where:
X1 = awareness;
X2 = religiosity, and
X3 = purchase decision.
Therefore b 1 measures the direct effect of awareness on purchase decision, b 2 measures the
direct effect of religiosity on purchase decision. If b 3 is significant and negative (i.e. b3 < 0),
then the hypotheses will be rejected. In MRA, the new interaction variable calculated will be
correlated with the two main terms used to calculate it. This is known as the problem of
multicollinearity in moderated regression. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to consider
the direction or statistical significance of the effects, rather than the absolute size.

Variables No. of items Cronbach’s alpha

Awareness 10 0.601 Table I.

Purchase decision 6 0.884 Reliability
Religiosity 9 0.826 coefficients
JIMA 5. Results
11,5 5.1 Background of respondents
Table II below provides demographic data collected from the respondents which encompass
age, gender, status, highest-level education and religious education background.
Table II shows that the majority respondents, 95 (78.5 per cent) were aged between 20 to
29 years old. This is followed by 25 respondents (20.7 per cent) aged less than 20 years old
1098 and only one respondent (0.8 per cent) was aged between 30 and 39 years old. In terms of
gender, more than half of respondents, 78 are female (64.5 per cent) and 43 are male (35.5 per
cent). In terms of marital status, the majority of the respondents (95.9 per cent) are single. On
the other hand, a small proportion of respondents (4.1 per cent) are married.
Table II also shows that in terms of highest educational level, there is almost an equal
number of respondents who have GCE A level or equivalent (53 respondents) and bachelor
degree or equivalent (51 respondents). This is followed by seven respondents those who had
diploma or equivalent (5.8 per cent), 5 respondents had postgraduate degree or equivalent a
(4.1 per cent), 4 respondents had GCEO level or below (3.3 per cent), and others 1 respondent
(0.8 per cent). As far as the formal religious education is concerned, majority of respondents
had completed primary six. It constitutes 75.2 per cent of the sample. Further, 6.6 per cent of
respondents attended but did not complete primary six, 2.5 per cent not attended, and others
15.7 per cent. This means that a significant proportion of respondents have received a decent
background in Islamic religious education.

5.2 Test of H1
The first hypothesis of this study was respondents have a high-level awareness toward halal
foods. Evidence in Table III below indicates that 31.4 per cent of respondents have a very

Characteristics Frequency (%)

Age
Less than 20 years 25 20.7
Between 20 and 29 years 95 78.5
Between 30 and 39 years 1 0.8
Gender
Male 43 35.5
Female 78 64.5
Status
Single 116 95.9
Married 5 4.1
Highest level education
GCE O level or below 4 3.3
GCE A level or equivalent 53 43.8
Diploma or equivalent 7 5.8
Bachelor Degree or equivalent 51 42.1
Postgraduate degree or equivalent 5 4.1
Others 1 0.8
Religious education background
Completed primary six 91 75.2
Attended but did not complete primary six 8 6.6
Table II. Not attended 3 2.5
Demographic profile Others 19 15.7
high level of awareness. Overwhelmingly more than 60 per cent of respondents have high Religiosity as a
level of awareness. Therefore, more than 95 per cent of respondents report to have a high or moderating
very high level of awareness of halal foods. This provides support for H1which indicates that variable
the halal food awareness among students in higher education is significantly high.
Evidence that suggests high degree of awareness of halal foods among Muslim students
in Brunei is non-trivial. Previous studies, such as Ahmad et al. (2013) and Salman and
Siddiqui (2011), have found that people who are highly religious may not necessarily have 1099
high level of awareness about halal food. In our study, the majority of respondents are
students who have completed primary six religious education and have high level of
awareness of halal foods. This suggests a positive correlation between religious education
and respondents’ concern to ensure that the food they eat conforms to halal requirements.
As a Muslim-majority country, the issue of halal food is a sensitive issue for the
community in Brunei. The Government of Brunei has a responsibility to protect the Muslim
community in relation to the halal products circulating in the market. The Government of
Brunei has instilled awareness about halal products from an early age through Islamic
religious education. The Islamic education gives students awareness of the importance of
consuming halal food. The level of awareness of halal food is higher for people who have
knowledge of Islamic religion than people who lack knowledge of Islam. This research
indicates that the number of years of schooling about Islamic religion plays a positive role in
increasing the level of awareness about halal food. Schools can act as a catalyst in spreading
knowledge about halal food and contribute significantly to building awareness about the
importance of eating halal food in daily life.

5.3 Test of H2 and H3

The second hypothesis of the model requires a test of the expected positive and significant
effect of awareness on purchase decision. Table IV presents the results to test our second
hypothesis. As shown in Table IV, the effect of awareness on purchase decision is positive
and significant (t = 5.255, p = 0.000 < 0.05). The results provide strong support for H2.

Total score Level of awareness Frequency (%)

Table III.
41-50 Very high 38 31.40
31-40 High 77 63.64 Percentage of
21-30 Moderate 5 4.13 responses related to
11-20 Low 1 0.83 awareness toward
1-10 Very low 0 0 halal foods

Table IV.
Equation (1) Y ¼ b1 X1 þ b2 X2 þ b3 X1 X2 þ e Regression results
Variable Value SE t-stat Sig the moderating effect
of religiosity (X2) on
X1 Awareness 1.312 0.250 5.255 0.000
X2 Religiosity 1.510 0.255 5.921 0.000 the relationship
X1X2 Moderating 0.034 0.007 2.590 0.000 between awareness
(X1) and purchase
Notes: R = 0.606; R2 = 0.367; F = 22.659; a = 0.05 decision (X3)
JIMA These results show that Muslim students in Brunei are highly aware of halal foods, and this
11,5 positively influences their decision to purchase those foods. This supports the findings of
authors such as Soesilowati (2010), who found that Muslim respondents consistently put a
high priority on the issue of halal whenever they purchase food, buy meat, or select a
restaurant. Macdonald and Sharp (2000) states that awareness was a rule of thumb adopted
by consumers while making a purchase decision; if they had greater familiarity with the
1100 product, they would show a greater purchase intention for it. The existence of halal logos
and certificates aids customer awareness of halal foods, which in turn supports their
purchasing decisions. Hence, we can deduce that awareness is a key factor of the halal food
purchasing decision across our sample of Brunei Muslim university students.
Halal awareness is based on whether a Muslim understands what halal is, knows the correct
slaughter process, and prioritizes halal food for them to consume. Awareness of buying and
consuming halal products is very important for Muslims. This is because products that are
halal are not only produced by Muslim producers but also handled by a number of non-Muslim
groups. When individuals realize the importance of consuming halal food, this leads to a
positive impact on the interest in buying halal products. The greater the level of understanding
of a Muslim towards halal, the more positive is the behavior of a Muslim about the halal-related
issue. This also affects the interest of a Muslim to buy and consume products in accordance
with Islamic rules. Therefore, halal awareness has a positive effect in buying halal food
products. This result support the previous research that the higher knowledge about halal
products, the higher the intention to purchase Halal foods (Nor Sara et al., 2014)
For the third hypothesis, it was expected that the higher the level of religiosity, the
stronger the effect of awareness on purchase decision. As shown in Table IV, this
hypothesis cannot be rejected (since b 3 = 0.034, p = 0.000 < 0.05). Since the coefficient is
not statistically less than zero, we can conclude that religiosity does not reduce the influence
of awareness on the halal food purchasing decision. This contrasts with the findings of
Jamal and Sharifuddin (2015) who finds that religiosity negatively moderates the positive
link between perceived value and the intention to purchase halal food, as well as Elseidi
(2018), who finds that religiosity moderates the effects of subjective norms and perceived
control on the behavioral intention to purchase. We find insufficient evidence to reject our
hypothesis that the higher the degree of religiosity, the stronger the effect of awareness on
the halal food purchasing decision. This suggests that religiosity positively moderates the
relationship between awareness and the halal food purchasing decision.
The religious level of an individual determines whether the person will buy a product or
not. This finding shows that students with a higher religious level are more sensitive to the
norms and rules determined by the Islamic religion they hold. Prior studies have shown that
religion can affect purchases decision to buy products (Dindyal and Dindyal, 2003). The
influence of religion on purchasing halal food depends on the extent to which Muslims
follow Islamic law. Consumers who identify themselves as people who are obedient to
Islamic religion will show a preference for consuming halal food products (Arsil et al., 2018).

6. Discussion and conclusion

This study explores the effects of religiosity as a moderating variable on the relationship
between awareness on the halal food purchasing decision. The key contribution of this
research is the finding that religiosity positively moderates the relationship between
awareness and the halal food purchasing decision. Religiosity plays an important role in
individual cognition and behavior. More specifically, the extent to which religion affects an
individual’s beliefs and behavior depends on the individual’s level of religiosity. Hence, it is
highly likely that religiosity will govern an individual’s behavior, which includes the
purchasing decisions of halal foods. Our findings suggest that the greater the degree of an Religiosity as a
individual’s religiosity, the more likely it will be that he will strive to conform to his religious moderating
obligations. Additionally, our findings also suggest that the internalization of Islamic values
related to halal foods can be enhanced through the education process. However, the influence
variable
of Islamic values may take time to be reflected in consumer behavior such as the halal food
purchasing decision.
By exploring the role of religiosity as a moderating factor in the halal food purchasing
decision, the findings of this study add to the limited knowledge of halal food research. 1101
However, several limitations of this study may be noted. First, the sample was taken from
university students in Brunei only and respondents were selected using convenience
sampling. Hence, caution should be exercised when interpreting the external validity of the
results. Second, there may be omitted variables that might affect the halal food purchasing
decision. Finally, while awareness and purchase decision measure are well recognized in the
literature, the survey instrument and conceptualization of religiosity may require further
investigation to ensure further robustness of the results. Nevertheless, this study is of
practical significance to marketers of halal food products, especially food exporters into
Brunei Darussalam, in terms of market segmentation and targeting. Further research could
examine the wider significance of our findings in different settings. This is pertinent
especially in light of growing interest (Bashir et al., 2019; Garg and Joshi, 2018) in halal
purchase intentions of consumers in Muslim-minority countries.

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Corresponding author
Lutfi Abdul Razak can be contacted at: lutfi.abdul.razak@gmail.com

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