The Influence of Communication Channels and Promotional Efforts on Consumer Adoption of Islamic Banking Services in Malaysia: An Empirical Analysis

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of communication channels and financial institution's promotional efforts on adoption of Islamic banking services in Malaysia. Islamic banking refers to the system of banking or banking operations that is in consonance with Shari'ah law and guided by Islamic economics. Possibly the crucial factors affecting consumer adoption of Islamic banking services in Malaysia are: (i) communication channels, and (ii) promotional efforts by financial institutions. The effect of communication channels and financial institution's promotional efforts are deemed to be important and appropriate to be investigated in this study mainly because, Islamic banking in Malaysia is in its development stage and many Malaysian banking consumers are still not well informed about Islamic banking services and its benefits (Aziz, 2005). A set of survey questionnaires will be developed and distributed to 300 randomly selected participants. Multiple analytical techniques including factor analysis (SPSS), t-test, Friedman test, multiple regression analysis will be used to analyze the data and test the model. By understanding these effects, financial institutions can find a persuasive combination of communication channels and promotional tools to facilitate consumers' adoption of Islamic banking services. This study will provide strategic guidance to the financial institutions to develop effective communication strategies to accelerate the adoption of Islamic banking services among the banking consumers of Malaysia.