Ismah Osman

Corporate Image and Brand Identification of Islamic Banks: The Perspective of Customers

The development of Islamic banks in Malaysia is increasingly challenging with more banks offering products and services based on Islamic principles. This study explores customers’ perception towards corporate image and its impact on self-expressive value, brand distinctiveness, brand attractiveness and brand identification towards their most preferred Islamic bank in Malaysia. Institutional theory and social identification theory were exploited as the underpinning theories for developing the conceptual model. Accordingly, data was collected through firstly interviews with customers, Shari’ah supervisors, practitioners and lecturers of Islamic banking. Next, self-administered questionnaires were distributed among 400 customers of Islamic banks through purposive sampling. Analysis of data was then conducted through descriptive, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Subsequently, structural equation modelling with 308 respondents was then conducted to test the hypothesised relationships among the constructs, as postulated in the model. Nine hypothesis links are supported, while eight are rejected. Expectantly, this study facilitates the development of corporate image in Islamic banks, particularly with intense competition from many players of the industry.

Impact of Mindful Consumption (MC) on Investment Decision: A Study Within Malaysian Individual Investors

Mindful consumption is considered to be a new wave of consumer behaviour. Moreover, as an increasingly educated and financially sophisticated society, Malaysia has the potential to further the trend of mindful consumption in everyday living while, at the same time, contributing towards sustainable future. This paper was designed to extend the line of discussion between the trends of mindful consumption in Malaysian society according to the mindful consumption model by Sheth et al. (J Acad Mark Sci 39:21–39, 2011). This model was adopted in this study as the guiding principle where mindful consumption is premised on a consumer mindset of caring for self, caring for community and lastly caring for nature that reflect behaviourally into temperance with acquisitive, repetitive and aspirational consumption. Correspondingly, this paper focuses on mindful consumption of investors towards investment decision making. In addition, this allows them to tell their own perspective on how mindful consumption impacted their investment decision-making. It is anticipated that by adopting mindful consumption in this study, the reasons towards investor’s investment decision can be identified through their consumption behaviour.

Financial Behavior of Credit Cardholders on the Implementation of Tiered Interest Rate

It is crucial for any individual, families, and other aggregate well-being to have knowledge, information, and education on financial literacy to facilitate them to make a significant financial decision that may affect their lives as well as the financial health of the country. In July 2008, Bank Negara Malaysia has implemented a tiered pricing on credit card as a measure to promote and educate the card users to be financially disciplined. The research indicates that the implementation creates dissatisfaction among cardholders especially those who make partial or minimum repayment monthly where a tiered finance fee on the 13th month is charged depending on the tracking repayment record for the past 12 months and the 20-day interest-free period is no longer applicable to them.

A Qualitative Study on the Determinants of Islamic Credit Card Ownership and Usage

This qualitative study explores the factors influencing the ownership and usage of Islamic credit cards. Data were gathered based on semi-structured interviews that were conducted with seven lecturers of Business Management faculty of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). Two themes have been identified as the main factors influencing the respondents to own an Islamic credit card—respondents’ religious awareness as well as shariah compliance attributes of the Islamic credit cards. On the other hand, a total of five themes have been identified as the prominent factors influencing the usage of Islamic credit card that include convenience, sense of security, online payment or internet shopping, promotional factors and impulsive buying. The results of this study offer certain important managerial implications for the policy makers, finance institutions and the authorities that issue and take controls of the credit card activities.