Country of Origin, Religiosity and Halal Awareness: A Case Study of Purchase Intention of Korean Food

This research empirically analyzed whether the foods which came from a non-Muslim majority country, such as South Korea, could play an important role in affecting the consumer intention in a predominantly Muslim country. Online survey methods were used to investigate the proposed hypothesis. 318 responses were used for further analysis. Forty-six reflective constructs were adapted from literature and designed by using a five-point Likert scale to facilitate measurement. Estimation models and structural models were examined through SEM-PLS analysis techniques using SmartPLS 3.0 application as the data processing tool. The results showed that religiosity and halal awareness had a positive and significant effect on attitude toward halal labels, including the mediating effect from consumer attitudes towards halal labels which had a positive but insignificant effect on purchase intention. Halal awareness plays an important role for Muslims in the decisionmaking process for purchasing food. In contrast to the initial hypothesis, the country of origin actually did not have a positive effect on attitudes towards the halal label. In a Muslim-majority country like Indonesia, findings halal food is not difficult, so this research basically is a reminder to marketers to follow those halal principles in implementing their marketing strategies.