Bewertung des Arabian Journal of Business and Management

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of demographic factors on the awareness level of microfinance institutions’ facilities in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Random sampling technique was used and a total of 147 responses were collected electronically using Google form among different groups of peoples in Zanzibar. Using SPSS software, the descriptive analysis was conducted to examine general characteristics of the variables used and correlation analysis was used to test significant relationship between demographic factors and MFIs facilities. The results revealed that, there are significant negative relationships between demographics against MFIs mobile and general services with p ≤ 0.05 and p ≤ 0.01 respectively. Therefore, whenever more MFIs services are added in a given category, the influence of demographic factors on awareness level is decreasing. However, the strength of the correlation in both cases i.e. correlation between demographic against general services and correlation between demographic against mobile services are not strong. Therefore, it is recommended for MFIs to conduct public awareness program for the available financial services. Perhaps, a well-organised awareness campaign in both rural and urban areas will make people aware the availability of financial services and other opportunities rendered by MFIs so as to attract more customers. It is also recommended for the government to revisit the legal framework and operation costs of the MFIs.

Philippines is a non-Muslim dominant country where Halal industry is still emerging. Considering such environment, Halal food consumption becomes one of the Muslim consumers’ vital concern and an interesting subject for behavior study. This research is to address the gap in the literature pertaining to Filipino Muslim minority’s purchase consumption. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is utilized to ascertain the influence of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control as well as Islamic religiosity among Muslim consumers of processed food products in the country’s largest urban area- Metro Manila. This work also attempted to identify the most influential among the four determinant factors.

The study employed a quantitative survey and used responses obtained from 444 Muslims who are grocery buyers of their respective households in top three cities with high concentration of Muslim residents in Metro Manila-Taguig, Manila and Quezon cities. The data collection was through a structured questionnaire using the purposive and the snowball sampling methods. Data gathered from the survey were then explored and analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the frequency of the respondents’ demographic characteristics. Multiple regression analysis using SPSS was done to test the hypotheses of the study. Regression results reveal that the identified independent variables (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and Islamic religiosity) in this study exhibited a positive and significant influence towards the dependent variable (Halal food purchase intention). This indicates that as these four determinant factors increase positively, the purchase intention towards Halal food products would also increase. Results also show that the subjective norm is the most important predictor and is followed by Islamic religiosity. This study gives important implications to the food manufacturers, marketers, policy-makers, Halal consumers, and academic community. Stated findings recommend to understand more the current phenomenon, respond to consumer's necessities, and encourage businessmen in providing Halal products to capture the growing Muslim community’s preference and maximize profit as well.