The role of Halalness, perceived authenticity and food quality for Muslims to revisit international chain restaurants

Purpose The current study aims to explore factors influencing Muslim customers’ revisit intention toward non-Halal-certified international restaurant outlets by considering the mediating roles of restaurant image and price fairness and the moderating roles of service quality. Design/methodology/approach A purposive sampling method was used. Self-administered survey questionnaires were distributed around shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, the Northern region and the East Coast of Malaysia. Only 603 questionnaires were fully completed among 626 collected questionnaires. The SMART-PLS version 4 software was used to analyze the collected via structural equation modeling. Findings The findings demonstrated that food quality, authenticity and Halalness positively impacted price fairness, restaurant image and revisit intention. The restaurant image also positively mediated the relationship between authenticity, Halalness and revisit intention while the restaurant image sequentially mediated the association between food quality, price fairness and revisit intention. Furthermore, the service quality was discovered to positively moderate the relationship between the restaurant image and revisit intention. Practical implications The findings contributed to food premise organizations, particularly non-Halal-certified international food outlets, in attracting Muslim customers. Originality/value The stimulus–organism–response theory application was incorporated with food quality, authenticity and Halalness, price fairness and restaurant image to identify the contributing factors to revisit intention for non-Halal-certified restaurants among Muslim consumers in Malaysia.