The acceptance of halal food in non-Muslim countries

Andrea Pérez,Farshid Shams,Stephen Wilkins,Muhammad Mohsin Butt

doi:10.1108/jima-11-2017-0132

Abstract

PurposeInternational restaurant and fast food chains such as KFC, McDonald’s and Subway currently serve halal food in some non-Muslim countries, with mixed results. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that most influence the product judgements of halal food amongst non-Muslim consumers in non-Muslim countries and to assess the extent to which these judgements are related to willingness to consume halal food.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative survey method was adopted, using a total sample of 1,100 consumers in Canada, Spain and the UK. The proposed model was tested using structural equation modelling.FindingsThe results suggest that it may be possible for firms to satisfy specific niche market segments with standardised mass market products. Consumer cosmopolitanism and non-Muslim religious identity were found to be positively related to halal product judgement, and consumer ethnocentrism and national identification were negatively related to halal product judgement. There was a strong relationship between product judgement and willingness to consume halal food.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate that halal marketing may provide promising business opportunities for international restaurant and fast food chains, as well as food manufacturers and retailers. However, in countries or regions where there are many consumers with high levels of national identification or consumer ethnocentrism, firms should not expect non-target consumers to accept halal products.Originality/valueThis is the first study to suggest that, in non-Muslim countries, food companies may switch entirely to halal produce for certain products as an effective market segmentation strategy targeting Muslim consumers.

Highlights

With the onset of the global recession and saturation in international markets, companies have increasingly turned to new strategies such as green and ethical marketing (Ng et al, 2014), and bottom-of-the-pyramid marketing to grow their businesses (Izberk-Bilgin and Nakata, 2016)
By including consumer cosmopolitanism in our model, we have introduced a consumer attribute that may be associated with positive product judgements
Followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to establish convergent and discriminant validity of the measurement scales used in this study (Hair et al, 2010)

Summary

Introduction

With the onset of the global recession and saturation in international markets, companies have increasingly turned to new strategies such as green and ethical marketing (Ng et al, 2014), and bottom-of-the-pyramid marketing to grow their businesses (Izberk-Bilgin and Nakata, 2016). Food manufacturers and retailers based in non-Muslim countries have begun to recognise the potential of faith-based marketing in both home and foreign markets. International restaurant and fast food chains such as KFC, McDonald’s, Nando’s, Pizza Express and Subway currently serve halal food in some non-Muslim countries, with mixed results. There are 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, which represent 23% of the world’s population (Yuhas, 2015). Faithful Muslims are only able to consume halal products, which are permissible under Islamic law. It is important to faithful Muslims that halal products are certified as such (Annabi and Ibidapo-Obe, 2017). The global halal food market is worth $632 billion annually, which represents 16% of all food consumption worldwide (Power, 2009)

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