Middlesex University Research Repository An open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Yousef, Waleed (2018) An examination of the influence of religious beliefs and brand love on brand loyalty, word-of-mouth and purchase intention in the Islamic market: A study of consumers’ perceptions in the context of the retailing sector in Saudi Arabia. PhD thesis, Middlesex University. [Thesis] Final accepted version (with author’s formatting) This version is available at: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/25781/ Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this work are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners unless otherwise stated. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. 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See also repository copyright: re-use policy: http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/policies.html#copy An examination of the influence of religious beliefs and brand love on brand loyalty, word-of-mouth and purchase intention in the Islamic market: A study of consumers’ perceptions in the context of the retailing sector in Saudi Arabia WALEED YOUSEF A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Marketing Middlesex University 2017 i DEDICATION This doctoral research is dedicated to my father, Professor Yhaya Yousef, my mother, my beloved wife, my daughter Haya, my son Khalid and my six siblings, who gave the highest support during this research. I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My first thanks are to Almighty Allah, who has directed and guided me to make the right choices. Only with God’s support have I completed this doctoral research. I would like to express my special thanks and deep gratitude to all the people who have motivated and supported me during my studies at Middlesex University. Firstly, I would like to thank my director of studies, Professor T.C. Melewar, who has guided me to complete this project with generous supervision. Professor Melewar believed in my research project and directed me with endless kindness. I am also grateful to my second supervisor, Professor Charles Dennis, for his valuable recommendations. I would like to give special thanks to Dr Pantea Foroudi, as a valuable member of my great supervisory team, who provided me with insightful recommendations for my research. I would like to thank the whole of Middlesex Business School, with special thanks to my colleagues in the department of marketing, branding and tourism. Finally, I would like to register special thanks for my country, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for supporting me financially and emotionally, by providing me with a full scholarship that covers both the tuition fees and living expenses. II VITA October 14, 1984…………….…………….. Born in Liverpool- UK MSc. Marketing Communication, The Manchester Metropolitan University, 2010 ……………………….………………. UK B.A. Marketing Management, King Faisal University, AL-Hasa, Saudi 2007 ……………………….………………. Arabia III PUBLICATIONS Contributions to Conference Journal Article Yousef, W., Melewar, TC., Dennic, C., and Foroudi, P. (2018). Impact of the Strength of Religious Beliefs on Brand Love in the Islamic Market. Journal of Qualitative Market Research. (under review). Yousef, W., Melewar, TC., Dennic, C., and Foroudi, P. (2018). An examination of the influence of religious beliefs and brand love on brand loyalty, word-of-mouth and purchase intention in the Islamic market: A study of consumers’ perceptions in the context of the retailing sector in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Business Research. (submitted). Contributions to Conference Proceedings – Refereed “The Impact of Strong Religious Beliefs on Halal Products towards Brand Love”, 6th Global Islamic Marketing Conference, May 2015, Istanbul, Turkey (with T.C. Melewar, Charles Dennis). “Religious Beliefs as a New Antecedent towards Brand Love in the Islamic Market”, 21st International Conference on Corporate and Marketing Communications, May 2016, London, UK (with T.C. Melewar, Charles Dennis and Pantea Foroudi). “Adopting TPB on Muslim Consumers towards Brand Love and Religious Beliefs”, Research Students Summer Conference, June 2016, Middlesex University, London, UK (with T.C. Melewar, Charles Dennis and Pantea Foroudi). IV “The Main Antecedents and Consequences of Islamic Brand Love”, Academy of Marketing Conference, July 2016, Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK (with T.C. Melewar, Charles Dennis and Pantea Foroudi). “An Examination of the Influence of Islamic Brand Love on Brand Loyalty, Word-of-mouth and Purchase Intention: An Empirical Study in Saudi Arabia”, September 2016, University of Rome Sapiena, Rome, Italy (with T.C. Melewar, Charles Dennis and Pantea Foroudi). “The Impact of Islamic Branding on Business Sustainability”, 3rd International Conference on Marketing, Strategy and Policy, April 2018, Newcastle University, London, UK (with T.C. Melewar, Charles Dennis and Pantea Foroudi) (abstract submitted). V AUTHOR’S DECLARATION I, Waleed Yousef, declare that the ideas of this research, analyses and findings reported in my PhD thesis An examination of the influence of religious beliefs and brand love on brand loyalty, word-of-mouth and purchase intention in the Islamic market: A study of consumers’ perceptions in the context of the retailing sector in Saudi Arabia are entirely my work, except where otherwise admitted. Also, I certify that this thesis encompasses no material that has been submitted previously, in whole or in part, for the award of any other academic degree or diploma. Except where otherwise indicated, this thesis is my own work. VI ABSTRACT This research examines religious beliefs as a new antecedent to brand love, and proposes a new construct, that of Islamic brand love. Brand love as a construct has been linked with different constructs such as brand loyalty, brand trust, brand likeability, brand commitment and word-of- mouth (Albert and Merunka, 2013; Batra et al., 2012; Cengiz and Yayla, 2007; Nguyen et al., 2013). In addition, brand love can be influenced by other psychological factors such as cultural identity, religiosity or strongly held values (Batra et al., 2012). Therefore, it is suggested that religious beliefs as a cultural component can be one of the antecedents of brand love. To address the research objectives, a conceptual model was developed with 19 hypotheses to assess Islamic brand love as a focal construct, considering its antecedents (religious beliefs, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control) and consequences (word-of-mouth, brand loyalty and purchase intention). This study employed mixed-method research following a positivist research philosophy (Malhotra and Birks, 2003). From the positivist perspective, qualitative methods can be applied in the initial stages of research in order to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of the research problem and also to improve the primary research model and hypotheses (Malhotra and Birks, 2003). Since this study proposes a new construct, Churchill’s (1979) paradigm is adopted to develop a new scale that measures Islamic brand love and its related constructs. The data collection process was conducted in two stages. The first stage included an assessment of the conceptual model on the basis of the qualitative study (semi-structured interviews and focus groups), while the second stage included a quantitative assessment of the model. The quantitative assessment included 539 self-administered questionnaires, which were collected to examine Muslim consumers’ perceptions of Islamic brand love in Saudi Arabia. In order to make sure that the data collected was valid and reliable, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were employed. All the research hypotheses were tested VII using structural equation modelling (SEM). The model indicated an acceptable fit with the data and a good level of validity (discriminant, nomological and convergent). The outcomes of the empirical tests indicated that religious beliefs are a key factor of the Islamic brand love construct, as the proposed correlation between the two constructs was confirmed by both the qualitative findings and the empirical results. Additionally, the results of the hypothesis testing revealed that religious beliefs have a direct effect on brand loyalty and purchase intention. However, the