Effects of Halal social media and customer engagement on brand satisfaction of Muslim customers: Exploring the moderation of religiosity

Title : Effects of Halal social media and customer engagement on brand satisfaction of Muslim customer: Exploring the moderation of religiosity
Authors :
1.Dr. Syed Alamdar Ali Shah
2. Prof. Dr, Raditya Sukmana, SE, MA.
3. Bayu Arie Fianto, SE., MBA., Ph.D
4.Muhammad Ali Ahmad
5. Dr. Indrianawati Usman, SE., M.Sc.
6. Waqar Ahmed Mallah
Department : Sharia Economics
Journal Name: Journal of Islamic Marketing
Kind of Journal : Scopus Q3
Keywords : Moderation; Religiosity; Halal social media; Social-media disguised snowball sampling

Arab countries were among the last to adopt the internet. The first country was Tunisia in 1991 and the last two were Saudi Arabia and Iraq around 2000 (Alllagui, 2017). Islamic leaders and preachers in the twenty-first century began to use the web to spread the religion (Bunt, 2000; Ibahrine, 2007). Social media has helped remove geographic boundaries for brands (De Mooij, 2013). In 2017, about 33 percent of global advertising was done through digital channels which is expected to grow. Thus, the majority of future advertising will be on digital devices (Stephen, 2016). Therefore, it is necessary to study various dimensions of consumer behavior in such an environment (Stephen, 2016).
The results of social media activities are often unsatisfactory (Zhu and Chen, 2015). The main reason is that the threats and opportunities of social media are not taken into account in the true sense. Social media is a new opportunity as well as a threat where, to be successful, one needs to have proper knowledge of the appropriate products and platforms (Zhu and Chen, 2015). It can assist in gathering experience, seeking and acquiring knowledge, mentoring and transferring knowledge (Gupta et al., 2010). Social media can also lead to an increase in company performance if it is synergized with optimal expertise (Alavi and Leidner, 2001). According to Rasmussen et al. (2011), the success of brand innovation depends on knowledge of the external environment, such as social media, along with various internal factors.
In the context of Islam, religiosity is the belief that Allah guides Muslims through his last messenger Muhammad SAW and the Koran. Rasulullah SAW also guides Muslims through various explanations as mentioned in the books of hadith. Eid and El-Gohary (2015) found that religiosity is a significant factor that can affect customer satisfaction, and therefore, can moderate the relationship between customer value and satisfaction. Therefore, the interaction of religion and religiosity as well as their impact on consumer attitudes is a growing area in Islamic marketing (Wahyuni ​​and Fitriani, 2017).
Shariah-compliant marketing on social media has become as important as Shariah compliance in other business activities. Although it is believed that Shariah-compliant social media can increase the number of Muslim subscribers, it still has the potential to be influenced by religiosity (Eid and El-Gohary, 2015). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between “halal social media” customer involvement and brand satisfaction and to examine the role of religiosity as a moderating variable between “halal social media” customer engagement and brand satisfaction. The results showed that religiosity had a moderating effect on the relationship between halal social media and brand satisfaction of Muslim customers and even higher moderating effect on the relationship between customer engagement and brand satisfaction of Muslim customers.

For full article please visit: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JIMA-06-2019-0119/full/html