The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of halal concern as well as emotional and epistemic values on consumer behaviour in the choice and purchase of halal-certified food supplies.
This study used a quantitative methodology of convenience sampling to collect survey data from 1,550 Muslim respondents in Malaysia. It also employed multiple regressions by covariance-based structural equation modelling in the data analysis as well as in the validation of the proposed model.
The empirical results showed that the importance of halal certification had the highest impact on consumer choice behaviour, particularly in the purchase of halal-certified food supplies. Also, epistemic and emotional values were both statistically significant in terms of their influence on the consumer decision-making process.
The results emphasize the importance of enhancing the hedonic (halal concern and emotional value) aspect as a way for the halal food industries to obtain an added value advantage for their products and services.
This paper is the first to employ an empirical approach to consider the halal sentiment as a determinant of consumer purchasing behaviour in the context of halal-certified food supplies.
