Verify Halal Certification Using Mobile Applications: Intention to Use Among Malaysian Muslim Consumers

As the issues of misuse and false halal certificates have been raised recently, the authenticity of the halal certificate labelled on the products has been a primary concern among consumers, especially for Muslim consumers to meet their religious requirements.Therefore, in line with the advancements in mobile technology, numerous verification applications have been developed, which could make validating the authenticity of these halal certificates more convenient.However, very few studies have been exclusively focused on the adoption of these mobile applications.With that, this study investigates the factors that significantly affect the intention to use (IU) mobile applications in verifying the halal certificate among Malaysian Muslim consumers.A research framework based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) is developed by incorporating three additional factors, namely halal knowledge (HAK), halal awareness (HAA), and religiosity (RE).The partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) has been used to analyse the 206 collected responses through purposive sampling.The study's result first showed that, except for subjective norms, all factors played a crucial role in determining consumers' IU, directly based on consumers' attitudes (AT) or indirectly through AT.Specifically, AT and perceived behavioural control (PBC) significantly influenced IU, while HAK, HAA, and RE significantly affected consumers' AT.Additionally, IU is indirectly affected by HAK and HAA through AT.The study's findings provided essential theoretical and practical implications and could benefit the literature and stakeholders by helping them better understand the subject matter.