Indonesian Millennials’ Halal food purchasing: merely a habit?

Abstract

PurposeTo investigate the determinants of Muslim Millennials’ purchasing behavior of Halal food in a Muslim-majority country under the reflective and reflexive systems.Design/methodology/approachThrough 339 responds collected from the survey, this study uses 319 responds from Muslim Millennial consumers in Indonesia for further analysis. Data analysis is conducted using a partial least square (PLS) to verify the relationships between the variables herein.FindingsThough purchasing Halal food is familiar to Muslim Millennial consumers in a religious society, this study demonstrated that purchase intention and habit can independently affect their purchasing behavior. In forming the purchase intention, attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and religiosity are all necessary determinants on this phenomenon.Practical implicationsThis study enlightens the food providers to continuously intervene in the purchase intention of Muslim Millennials as a consumer group as purchasing of Halal food is also a matter of habit for such consumers in the religious community. To strengthen Muslim Millennials’ purchase intention of Halal food, governments should harmonize their actions with the various stakeholders involved in this purchase intention.Originality/valueThis study focuses on the Muslim Millennial consumer group regarding their Halal food purchasing behavior by integrating two behavioral theories (theory of planned behavior and theory of interpersonal behavior) to obtain a more comprehensive explanation of their purchasing behavior.