The one-billion-plus marginalization: Toward a scholarly understanding of Islamic consumers

Abstract

Information regarding the Islamic perspective on marketing is still lacking in mainstream literature. The present work aims to assemble the theoretical foundations of Islamic marketing thought in relation to the modern marketing paradigm. The paper highlights the opportunity costs involved with marginalizing the one billion plus Muslim consumer segment and presents a conceptualization of Islamic religiosity and its marketing implications building upon the Islamic theology infrastructure in terms of its inherent broad objectives (maqasid ash-shari'ah) while putting forth multi-stakeholder research propositions for future testing. The conceptualization presented serves to establish an enlightened dialogue and foster further cross-cultural understanding of the Muslim consumer segment to benefit academics, practitioners, and policy makers.