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Description
This research explores the factors that influence the decision of Muslim consumers in Sri Lanka
to purchase halal food. The Theory of Planned Behavior was applied to us as we established a
framework which considers the factors such as Religious Commitment, Halal Certification, and
perceived quality of the product and impact by the social Influence system. This work is relatively
relevant because the global halal market is expanding and there is a knowledge gap in this field.
We administered a cross sectional, quantitative survey and received answers on 300 Muslim
consumers using an online survey. Descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, Pearson correlation,
and multiple linear regression were applied to crunch the data. We have scored high in reliability
with a Cronbach alpha of over 0.70 and overall alpha of 0.912. The regression model accounted
58 percent of the variation in the halal food consumption behaviour. The strongest predictors
were Religious Commitment ( 0.351, p 0.001) and Trust in Halal Certification ( 0.285, p 0.001).
Perceived Quality was also important ( β =0.152, p=0.013). Social Influence did not become
significant ( 0.105 = 0.083). Overall, the results suggest that the primary factors of halal
purchasing choices are religious commitment, confidence in the certifying authorities, and the
quality of the products. The paper concludes by mentioning that buying habits are majorly
dependent on religion and faith to halal certifiers in Sri Lanka. What this implies to manufacturers
and certifiers is that they need to match religious compliance and concentrate on producing best
quality products under the Tayyib concept through clear digital verification systems to increase
the level of trust. In the future, longitudinal research would be interesting to determine whether
Perceived Behavioral Control or age variations alter how individuals purchase halal food.
