Determining the role of moral and global-local framing on the anti-consumption of halal endorsed products

Colmekcioglu, Nazan

Abstract

Increasingly pluralistic, multi-ethnic and diverse marketplaces have become an important and characteristic trend of globalised and developed economic marketplaces, the world over. Despite the obvious advantages of this marketplace multi-culturalism, the secularized West has recently witnessed a disturbing growth in marketplace stigmatization, in terms of growing animosity and rejection, of Halal endorsed products in particular. This anti-consumption trend is paradoxically characterised by a growing acceptance of Halal product ranges and service offerings by non-Muslim consumer segments. This study aims to investigate this paradoxical marketplace phenomenon by determining whether leveraging anti-consumption towards Halal is possible. It specifically does this by seeking to understand the negative or marketplace stigmatization side towards Halal. A multi-theoretical perspective is adopted to understand the development of marketplace stigamization towards Halal comprising of social dominance theory, and using a novel application of Terror Management Theory (TMT), Hauntology and Stereotype formation theories as underlying facilitating processes.
The study contributes towards the burgeoning domain of investigating attitude development towards controversial Religiously Labelled Products (RLPs) and specifically focuses on anti-consumption psychology towards Halal labelled products. Whereas, previous studies have adopted a consumption lens, this study is the first to adopt a dedicated anti-consumption perspective. In doing so, it determines the key drivers of anti-consumption towards Halal offerings and seeks to understand if by strategically leveraging against these drivers, anti-consumption attitude development can be reversed. As such, it also represents the first study to empirically demonstrate the reversal of anti-consumption attitudes, providing some assurance to brand managers facing marketplace stigmatization that anti-consumption is not a stable attitude but open to reversal and change.
The study adopts post-positivist critical realist ontology to guide its structure. It therefore embraces a mixed methods approach rooted in the logic of data triangulation to guide the facilitation of hypotheses construction. An initial qualitative phase comprising exploratory interviews with industry experts (n = 12), and a word association based survey of non-Muslim self-declared anti-consumers (n = 231) of Halal helped to shape the study’s main conceptual framework and its accompanying hypotheses. This phase revealed that animal welfare concerns, Islamophobia and cultural incongruence were the main drivers of anti-consumption towards Halal. The main study comprised an experimental survey phase (n = 957), comprising of a 2 x 2 x 2 quasi experimental structure to test the effects of counter animal welfare, Islamophobia and global-local positioning framing treatments on attitude to the ad, ad believability, anti-consumption attitude and reluctance to purchase Halal. The findings suggest that local, animal welfare and pro-Islamic identity framing can increase attitude to ad and ad believability and moreover reduce anti-consumption attitudes and reluctance to purchase to Halal. The study discusses these findings in light of the marketplace place stigmatization, and provides managerial and public policy level implications. It concludes with a discussion on limitations and recommendations for further research. In summary, the study provides some hope for not only Halal brand managers, but any marketing manager, that marketplace stigmatization induced anti-consumption is not a stable and irreversible attitude but can be strategically leveraged.

Citation

Colmekcioglu, N. Determining the role of moral and global-local framing on the anti-consumption of halal endorsed products. (Thesis). University of Hull. https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4266540

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Apr 18, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 18, 2023
• Keywords: Marketing ; Business
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4266540
• Additional Information: Business School, The University of Hull
• Award Date: 2017