Strategic Islamic Marketing

This chapter discuss the Islamic marketing concept and its four distinct stages that form a logical sequence before Islamic marketing could attain the thought leadership position it is capable of. These stages are Islamic Marketing 1.0 (IM 1.0), awareness; Islamic Marketing 2.0 (IM 2.0), Islamization of existing theory; Islamic Marketing 3.0 (IM 3.0), theory making; and Islamic Marketing 4.0 (IM 4.0), thought leadership.

This chapter provides basic information on halal industry’s threats and barriers. There are key issues that the halal industry needs to address before it can take its rightful place, such as the halal industry is dominated by non-Muslims; the halal industry in Muslim countries remains mostly fragmented, with numerous insignificant players; halal certification chaos; there is a clear lack of halal-qualified Muslim workforce to keep up with the rising demand for halal services and skills; and the different sectors and businesses in the halal industry seem to have embraced a “silo” mentality where each of these sectors or businesses seems to be developing independently.

This chapter contributes to the nascent field of Halal service marketing and research. We begin by underscoring the importance of services for Halal markets and service marketing theory for Islamic marketing. Through a synthesis of emerging Halal service research and an adaptation of seminal marketing frameworks for Halal markets, this chapter offers a strategic guide for managers to design and deliver better services to Muslims. The role of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence in optimizing services for Halal markets is included in this chapter.

While strategizing Islamic marketing, it is pertinent to mention that strategic decisions are done keeping in mind the ultimate benefit for any business organization or product/service. Thus, it is argued that, under the current marketing scenario of Islamic marketing, the acceptance and usage of Islamic products and services have been witnessed on a continuous rise in non-Muslim cultures and societies. Thus, it is argued that the concept of strategic Islamic marketing and its planning can never be completed without embedding these latest Islamic marketing trends of Islamic products and services among non-Muslims segments, which make another big segment to be pursued. Firstly, this chapter establishes the importance of non-Muslim segment for Strategic Islamic Marketing. Secondly, it gives a brief account of main studies which have used major marketing theories and constructs while studying this segment. Thirdly, it highlights the need of using other latest marketing theories and constructs which should be used in this context to develop the theoretical foundations  which will further open new horizons for future marketing researchers for conceptualizing and developing theories in multiculturism and related consumer behavior with respect to major minority ethnic groups (MMEG) in multicultural societies. Thus, this chapter will cover these dimensions to enlighten our readers about the latest marketing trends of Islamic marketing among non-Muslims segment of multicultural societies and the extent of literary inquiries about it. It is further claimed that during the conceptualization of strategic Islamic marketing, this chapter will shed necessary light on this very important dimension.

Any organization wishing to implement Islamic strategic marketing must first create a corporate culture that supports such an initiative. This may seem daunting at first. This chapter summarizes 12 years of research in developing an Islamic corporate culture inside organizations. The process is quite straightforward as it is based on the tried and tested principles of training and development. The key is to focus on groups of employees to reflect on the Qur’an to develop a shared understanding. One workshop alone will have little impact. A series of workshops on a regular basis (maybe once a month) will have a tremendous long-term impact. Facilitators need not be experts in the Qur’an. These workshops are not lectures where an expert explains the Qur’an to the audience. These workshops are exercises in reflections so that groups of employees relate the Qur’an to their everyday challenges at work. The facilitator simply manages the sessions. An example of a 1-day workshop is given so that readers may visualize what would happen in practice.

This chapter aims to elaborate and discuss the development of SMEs in Indonesia, an emerging Muslim majority country. There are important practices that are adopted by SMEs in other countries such as in education, training, policies and financial supports, marketing and promotion of SMEs’ products and services, the role of SMEs and studies of SMEs. This explorative approach is expected to give insights for improvement of SMEs and can be used as a benchmark to analyse its progresses.

The main idea of many studies in the field of social sciences is human needs and consumption behaviours to meet these needs. The most important reasons why needs and consumption issues are frequently researched can be expressed as the importance of consumption in human life and the change in human needs due to changing living conditions. The phenomenon of consumption, which can be explained by social classes or work roles in the modern period, has become a concept that is examined from different perspectives in the postmodern period. Because the behaviours of the postmodern people are not similar to the behaviours of people living in previous periods, postmodern conditions cause daily life to be different from previous periods. Consumption products of the postmodern period have started to carry symbolic value rather than functional value for consumers, and products have now become communication tools. People are now consuming the products to show their personalities and lifestyles to other people and to be liked by other people. As a result of the desire to show his personality and lifestyle to other people and to be liked by them, the man himself has become an object of consumption. In this study, which was prepared to explain this change and transformation in the meaning of the concept of consumption, firstly the relationship between needs and consumption was revealed, then the way the concept of need was handled in the West and the Islamic world was examined, and finally, the meanings that postmodern consumers attributed to products and consumption were explained.

The study explored the usefulness of Islamic work ethics within the context of public sector information technology projects. Using social learning theory and social exchange theory, we examined the trickle-down impact of leader’s Islamic work ethics on project performance via teamwork quality. Data were collected from 188 project managers leading information technology teams. Discriminant validity of constructs was established using confirmatory factor analysis, while hypotheses were tested using SPSS process macro. Statistical analysis showed that Islamic work ethics positively and significantly impacted project performance. Teamwork quality partially mediates the relationship between Islamic work ethics and project performance. Public organizations should develop training programs to enlighten employees about the fundamentals of work practices from the Islamic perspective.

During the previous decade, there have been several innovations and improvements in the world of marketing. Parallelly, Muslims around the world are showing a growing readiness to apply Islamic principles to their business transactions. They want to know whether Internet marketing strategies are Shari’ah compliant or not. The Holy Quran contains rules and principles which are applicable to all parts of human life, including business and marketing. E-marketing is a relatively young academic and research topic that mixes marketing theories. E-marketing acts as a vital link between consumer perspectives, which are often “connected” to the digital world, and digital conversation interfaces when companies want to convey relevant information to clients. Companies and marketers who are interested in learning more about the Islamic cultural environment and want to participate in it must carefully plan and implement marketing strategies that align marketing best practices with Islamic social and cultural norms. Despite the fact that e-marketing has spread around the world, many Muslims are still uninformed of its position from an Islamic perspective and in terms of Islamic business principles and practices. This chapter provides much-needed guidance to e-marketers who want to target this lucrative and fast-rising client demographic on what to expect and avoid.

The chapter discusses the knowledge of halal food invention, the concept of innovation, firms’ innovation, and performance. In practice, halal food invention is for the benefit of stakeholders, firm innovation, and profitability. It provides more knowledge regarding the halal value creation effects on halal food consumption of consumers or consumers’ halal food purchasing behaviour. Further, it enables marketers to develop strategies to promote halal-certified food products and increase their engagement with consumers.

In this article, we try to assess, compared to traditional measures such us return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE), whether economic value added (EVA) can be considered as the most “faithful” indicator of the performance of Islamic banks. Based on panel data for a sample of 43 Islamic banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council member countries during the 2008–2017 period, our methodology comprises identifying the main determinants of bank profitability indicators and comparing the usefulness of EVA as a performance measure. Our results show that the capital and liquidity structures in addition to the interest rate are statistically significant in explaining banks’ performance. However, while asset quality and concentration index affect positively and significantly the creation of shareholders’ wealth, they are not significant determinant of bank’s ROA and ROE. The EVA is the most accurate indicator of banking sector profitability.

Halal travel market appears to be at crossroads. On one hand, it is being shaped by the demands of Muslim consumer who is now younger and educated and with a larger disposable income. While on the other, innovative technologies are enabling and redefining the Muslim travel experience, from planning and purchasing to living the experience and sharing the adventures with others. The challenge for service providers is to innovate and integrate these technologies into their offerings, in order to catalyze the next level of growth in halal travel. Just when the stage seems to be perfectly set for a transition from halal travel 1.0 into halal travel 2.0, the world is hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The present research tries to look into the changes taking place in halal travel market based on the evolution of GMTI over the years and the key trends in halal travel segment. Based on GMTI report 2021, Travel Readiness Report 2020, and some of the recent researches, an attempt is made to systematically look at the crisis precipitated by COVID-19 and outline a road map for recovery.

Entrepreneurship under the Islamic prescription refers to Islamic entrepreneurship that might include five crucial issues including right motivation, sustainable business ideas, human resource management, finance, and marketing. Adhering to the Islamic principles along with practicing the conventional business strategies denotes strategic aspects of Islamic entrepreneurship and marketing. However, paucity of Islamic wisdom on entrepreneurship and marketing and perceived divergence of Islamic entrepreneurship have to be addressed to root in the foundation of strategic entrepreneurship and marketing. Also, problems encountered by the Islamic entrepreneurs, understanding of the traditional experts on Islamic entrepreneurship, and the reluctance of the Muslims toward Islamic business must be known. Hence, Islamic entrepreneurship and marketing are worth being the separate disciplines for the business school provided that their theories and practices are adequately documented.

This chapter elaborates the perspectives of Islam on entrepreneurial orientation, practices, and performance which need to be understood by various groups of people including the academia and practitioners. It is expected that Islam can be seen not only as a religion focusing on praying or other kind of worships, but beyond that, it governs business activities, while Muslims are being asked to attain the success in this world and the hereafter. Some results using bibliometric analysis are presented to see the chronologies of entrepreneurship studies and Islam including the three elements of entrepreneurial orientation.

The objective of the present study is to examine entrepreneurial fear of failure during COVID-19 in a highly collectivist culture. The present study uses a mixed-methods approach in which a quantitative phase was used to investigate the effect of the pandemic and pandemic preparedness on entrepreneurial fear of failure and how the latter affected entrepreneurial well-being. The data were taken online surveying 72 creative industries and small business owners in Minangkabau, which is a totally Muslim ethnic group in Indonesia. The qualitative phase that used phone interviews of 34 interviewees focuses on how they perceived and experienced fear of failure during the pandemic. This paper contributes to the literature with empirical results that confirm the fear of failure can capture the essence of entrepreneurial behavior during crises/pandemics in the context of opportunity-driven entrepreneurship and collectivist culture.

This study explores the emerging modest fashion industry worldwide, and Muslim women are the basic unit of the study, and it draws whether culture or religion has a greater influence on modest dressing of women. By a deep study of existing literature on modest dressing, we tried to understand whether today’s women’s modest dressing falls under the Islamic ethical framework. This study is theoretical in nature, apart from thorough study of research papers and different books, and it has deep analysis of interviews taken by other researchers, and conclusions are drawn based on those interviews and respondents’ personal views. This study also shares stories of Muslim women from all over the world, and some documentaries have been shared for the vast knowledge of the topic. Most importantly, personal observations are mostly used to come up with a result. This research includes only critical analysis of existing literature and does not include any empirical work. Lastly, among all factors, we come up with the result that culture has a huge impact in transforming the modesty. Ultimately, Muslim women, a huge market segment for modest fashion, desire to keep both faith and fashion sense.

This chapter presents information about the halal BCT application and its antecedents and consequences in the halal logistics and supply chains. Later, it provides the hybrid and innovative model of the halal BCT application that makes firms gain more positive impact.