An Empirical Analysis on Perceived Compliance of Islamic Marketing Principles in Bangladesh

Introduction

Business and businessman have been given respect and importance in Islam. In holy Quran several verses are present which provides significant directions for business. Allah says in Holy Quran “Do not devour one another’s property by unlawful ways; but do business with mutual consent” (Sura Nisa, 29), “Give just measure and weight, nor withhold from the people the things that are their due” (Sura Hud, verse 85), “Allah has made trade halal and riba haram” (Sura Baqarah, verse 285). Hazarat Muhammad (SAW) Said: “The honest and trustworthy merchant will be with the prophets, the truthful, and the martyrs.” (Source: Sunan al-Tirmidhī 1209). These are just few verses from the Holy Quran and Hadith that reflect the significance of business in Islam. Islam has specific rules and regulations to run business related activities such as finance, marketing, human resource management, accounting etc. Hasan (2020) argued that many conceptual and theoretical indications are available of broader acceptance of Islamic marketing. Wilson (2012) argued that there is a huge demand or interest on Islamic marketing among students, customers, practitioners, and academicians in either Muslim majority countries or Muslim minority countries. Therefore numerous studies have been conducted to investigate consumer perception toward various Islamic marketing topics (Hoque et al, 2019; Ashraf, 2019; Khan et al, 2020; Abdullah and Ahmad, 2010; Kumasi, 2021). However, still now there is a serious lack of studies to evaluate the compliance of Islamic marketing principles by the businesses in Muslim dominating areas of the world.

Ethnocentrism is a significant and widely investigated variable in marketing literature (Zeugner-Roth, 2015). It is a strong and significant predictor of consumer product evaluations (Orth and Firbasova, 2002). Very often, consumers with ethnocentric attitudes are more likely to evaluate domestic products positively than those with less ethnocentric attitudes (Nijssen et al.,1999). However, the influence of ethnocentrism is lower if the people of a nation treat the domestic products as lower quality (Lu et al, 2004). The impact of ethnocentrism tendency on Muslim consumer’s behavior has been investigated in several studies (Sari and Liu, 2017; Farah, 2021). However, the interrelationship between ethnocentrism and perceived compliance to Islamic marketing principles has not been analyzed still now.

Religion still plays a significant role in influencing social and consumer behavior (Kharim, 2010). Previous studies have shown that religiosity and consumption behaviors are strongly linked (Benabdallah & Jolibert, 2013; Rahman et al,2015). The consumption behavior of Muslims is also heavily influenced by religiosity (Alam et al, 2011). For instance, religiosity significantly influence the consumption of Islamic banking products (Muslichah & Sanusi, 2020). Religiousness is a significant determinant of consumer ethical beliefs (Vitell, 2005). However, the effect of religiosity on perceived compliance of Islamic marketing principles has not been analyzed still now.