Purchase intention of "Halal" brands in India: the mediating effect of attitude

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to review the existing state of research on "Halal" branding and to propose and empirically test the framework for understanding the purchase intention for "Halal" branded products in Indian context. Design/methodology/approach - The research design is cross-sectional in nature; convenience sampling and snowball sampling is done, and completely filled 288 questionnaires are considered for testing the conceptual framework. Structural equation modeling is used to assess the fit of framework. The study has incorporated attitude as a mediating variable in relation to purchase intention for "Halal" branded products. The originality of the research is based on responses collected from the respondents in the form of online and offline questionnaires. Findings - Findings of the direct and indirect effects in the study show that attitude has a full mediation effect on purchase intention, i.e. in the presence of attitude as a mediation variable the direct effect of subjective norm and religiosity is insignificant and the effect caused through attitude is significant. Practical implications - In a country like India, which enjoys a sufficiently good percentage of Muslim population (14.2 per cent), an understanding of attitude provides enough scope for marketers to strategize techniques to reduce dissonance of non-availability of "Halal" brands. Originality/value - Research is atypical, as it has focused on the mediation effects of attitude toward "Halal" branded products with the help of cosmetic range of products.