Motives for participation in halal food standard implementation: an empirical study in Malaysian halal food industry

Purpose - This study aims to identify the factor that could be able to motivate the food industry to take part in the standardization process and analyse which motive is the most influential one. This study also examines the relationship between the motive and the implementation itself. Design/methodology/approach - As one of Malaysian Standard, MS1500 is focused on halal food matters. This standard was established by the Malaysian Government to realize their dream of becoming the leader in the global halal market. However, there are still many food and beverage small and medium-sized entterprises owned by Indigenous Muslims in Malaysia who still take it for granted by claiming that their products are halal without ever signing up for the halal certificate or implementing MS1500. Findings - The findings of this study can be used as an input for the Malaysian Government, so they will be able to plan any suitable programme that can promote the implementation of this standard. Practical implications - The halal food industry has grown significantly around the world. By category of spending, the halal food and beverages industry holds the biggest share, with a value of about US$1,303bn in 2017 and is expected to reach US$1,863bn by 2023. These big opportunities have been captured by several countries in the world, including Malaysia. As a Moslem country, Malaysia aspires to be the halal hub and has aggressively worked towards becoming the key player in delivering halal food products. By understanding the motives behind the implementation of the halal standard by the food industry, we can develop strategies to expand the growth of the halal industry itself. Originality/value - To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind that has been conducted to explore the motives behind the implementation of halal food standards by the food industry, especially in Malaysia. From the review of the current literature, it is found that studies on halal food certification and halal logo mainly focused on the consumer side instead of the industry side. On top of that, it is also found that previous studies mostly adopted two notable theories, namely, theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behaviour. To elaborate on and use plenty of other theories in performing a halal standard research, the three isomorphism pressure from institutional theory of DiMaggio and Powell has been chosen as a pertinent theory in this study. As a result, the theoretical gap and the uneven scope of halal food standard and certification research, with particular attention on the industry or manufacturer side, are expected to be bridged. This theory is also used to identify the most dominant motive. Moreover, this study examined the relationship between the motive behind standardization and the standardization itself.