Subjective norm vs dogmatism: Christian consumer attitude towards Islamic TV advertising

Abstract

Purpose With concern on cross-religion research, this study aims to examine Christian consumer attitude towards Islamic TV advertising in Indonesia. This study includes together both subjective norm and dogmatism in an analysis as moderating variables. Design/methodology/approach An online survey for 186 sample respondents was conducted to test nine hypotheses. Multi-group moderation test was conducted to test the moderation effect of subjective norms and dogmatism on the model. Findings The results indicate that Christian intrinsic religiosity has a significant negative relationship with Islamic TV advertising credibility. Consumers’ attitudes towards Islamic TV advertising are proven to be the consequence of Islamic TV advertising credibility, even if the relationship is inverted. Moreover, this study concludes that subjective norms and dogmatism significantly moderate the relationship between Islamic TV advertising credibility and attitudes towards Islamic TV advertising differently. Subjective norms tend to weaken the relationship, while dogmatism strengthens it. Research limitations/implications During the process of this study, the authors uncovered three research limitations. First, too many measurement items for dogmatism eliminated from the analysis. Second, having balanced proportion for the high and low group has become the concern of this study, Third, a sample size of 186 is not adequate for such a complex model. Practical implications Managers should employ endorsers with multi-faceted images who can be accepted by all segments of society to combat the negative perception and attitudes of Christian consumers on Islamic attributes in TV advertising. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature on cross-religion marketing research, especially on the topic of advertising, by comparing the internal influence (dogmatism) and external influence (subjective norm) on attitude towards Islamic TV advertising.