Factors Contributing to the Entrepreneurs’ Awareness Towards Halal Cosmetics

Abstract

Halal cosmetic products have become a topic of interest in Malaysia recently. Muslim consumers have begun to question the halal status of the ingredients used in these products. One of the reasons behind this issue could be due to the consumers’ own growing interest on the concept of halal products as well as technology advancement that has enabled them to gain necessary information from the Internet. Thus cosmetic products’ entrepreneurs too need to have the awareness and knowledge of halal concept to enable them to recommend suitable products to Muslim consumers. The objective of this study is to determine the factors contributing to entrepreneurs’ awareness towards halal cosmetics. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 74 Muslims entrepreneur of cosmetic products from four small townships in Pahang. The result indicated that there are five factors that influenced the awareness on halal cosmetics, namely, entrepreneurs’ knowledge, influence from environment, product safety, education level and age. The significant factors that contributed to the awareness among entrepreneur with education of SPM or below are product safety and influence from environment, while knowledge is the significant factor for the higher educated group. Furthermore, young entrepreneurs are more concerned with product safety compared to their more experienced counterpart. The latter are more knowledgeable on the product and more influenced by the environment factor. The intention of this paper is to provide insightful information to supporting bodies such as Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) and Halal Development Centre (HDC) to assist them in constructing suitable programmes and activities to educate the entrepreneurs especially in Islamic business.