Exploring Significance of Word-of-Mouth Marketing: A Systematic Review Analysis of Sustainable Marketing Strategies from an Islamic Perspective

Abstract

Purpose: Marketing is a powerful instrument to promote goods and services, and word-of-mouth is used as a marketing strategy. This article aims to develop a theme from existing literature by systematically reviewing the literature. This paper also explores the ethical and Islamic dimensions of the word-of-mouth marketing. Methodology: The authors used the best-known Science Direct database to search online literature, including 1,164 research and 69 review articles available in peer-reviewed journals between 2019 and 2022, and to shape the paper after conducting a thorough literature review and setting exclusion criteria. The studies proved it is a simple and easy way of marketing communication. Finding: The findings uncover the efficacy of this modern way of marketing. The study concluded that this way of marketing is a sustainable tool of marketing that provides the guidelines to be implemented by researchers, academicians, and policymakers in the future. Furthermore, a wide range of overlapping dimensions have been found between sustainable, ethical and Islamic perspectives. Novelty: The novelty of the paper is that very few studies on the topic are available on science direct database sites. Furthermore, few studies have discussed the ethical implications of word-of-mouth marketing.