The Application of The Fuzzy Delphi Method (Fdm) in Developing Contract Parameters For Shari‘ah Compliant E-Commerce

Abstract

E-commerce has become a norm among today’s world community including in Malaysia. The Muslim community, with no exception, is also involved in this modern transaction as it is now expanding rapidly. Nevertheless, such transactions need to be ensured in accordance with the principle of sale and purchase according to the Islamic fiqh. Using a quantitative approach based on the Fuzzy Delphi Method, this study aims to analyse the consensus of 12 panels of muamalat experts to develop items that need to be present in the Shari‘ah compliant e-commerce contract parameters. This research adopts the research design based on the design and development (DDR) technic involving three phases – analysis, design and development, and evaluation phases. This article aims to analyse the second phase of the process and findings, that is, the design and development phase. This phase intends to analyse the group consensus on the 29 parameters suggested by the researcher. The process involves some procedures for obtaining threshold value (d), percentage of expert consensus, and defuzzification value using Likert 7-Point scale questionnaire instrument. The result of the study comes to a conclusion that the expert group has reached a consensus for 28 item parameters with defuzzification value exceeding the value of α-cut = 0.5 (based on the threshold value ≤ 0.2 and expert consensus exceeding 75%). The findings also show the dimension of products and prices reaches the highest value compared to the dimensions of contracting parties and form of contract. In short, the application of Fuzzy Delphi Method has resulted in a Shari‘ah compliant e-commerce contract parameters which can contribute to larger studies, such as the development of Shari‘ah compliant e-commerce transaction model or prototype.