The Influence of Zakāt Management Institutions on Zakāt Compliance Intention During the COVID-19 Lockdown in Malaysia: A Multilevel Analysis

In Malaysia, zakāt institutions (ZIs) have experienced significant growth in serving the poorest and neediest. Presently, there exist three distinct categories of zakāt management institutions (ZMI) established in Malaysia: corporatized, semi-corporatized, and non-corporatized. This study raises the question of whether the types of ZMI influence the zakāt behavioral intention since the pandemic lockdown in Malaysia. By utilizing 322 observations, the data is organized into a multilevel structure where individual compliance intentions are nested within the ZMI units. The analysis indicates that the type of ZMI has an influential effect on the association of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control toward zakāt compliance intention. Besides that, the exogenous variables are also positive and significantly associated with the endogenous variables. The findings suggest that ZMI in Malaysia should build, maintain, and enhance trust that will positively modify the behavioral intentions of zakāt payers. The policies also must be tailored to improve the good governance of ZIs, which can influence compliance from low intention to high intention. This study provides new and current insight into zakāt compliance behavior and zakāt institutions in Malaysia during the crisis outbreak.