Factors Influencing People’s Perception towards Islamic Banking Products and Services

Abstract

To examine the relationship of product knowledge, social influence and understanding of Arabic terminologies used in field of Islamic banking with perception about products offered by the Islamic banks. This research targets citizens of Pakistan as they belong to an Islamic state, and it is important to measure their perception because it is curious that why majority of the population of an Islamic states are opting for conventional banks. An online survey questionnaire was filled by 114 people spread all over Pakistan. The data from these questionnaires was analyzed through “Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM)” with the help of Smart PLS software. The analysis was done and we came to realize that Product Knowledge and Social Influence are found to be in a positive relationship with perception of Islamic banking products, whereas understanding of Arabic terminologies has no relationship with perception of Islamic banking products. The time span was extremely short to get a larger sample size. The analysis leads to a managerial implication that the marketing teams of Islamic Banks should create awareness either through social media or by organizing campaigns. Furthermore, we came to know that majority of people think that there is hardly any difference between conventional banking system and Islamic banking system. So, Islamic Banks should change their operations in a way that customers can differentiate the products of Islamic and conventional banks easily.