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While much is known generally about predictions of customer‐perceived service quality, their application to health services is rarer. No attempt has been made to examine the impact of social support and patient education on overall service quality perception. Together with six quality dimensions identified from the literature, this study seeks to provide a more holistic comprehension of hospital service quality prediction. Although 79 percent of variation is explained, other than technical quality the impact of the remaining factors on quality perception is far from constant, and socio‐economic variables further complicate unpredictability. Contrary to established beliefs, the cost factor was found to be insignificant. Hence, to manage service quality effectively, the test lies in how well healthcare providers know the customers they serve. It is not only crucial in a globalized environment, where trans‐national patient mobility is increasingly the norm, but also within homogeneous societies that appear to converge culturally.

Within the religious context, purchase and consumption decisions of halal food is different significantly. The purpose of this study is to emphasize the investigation of causation of halal food consumption (HFC) within China. Being a Muslim, the importance of habit, religious self-identity, moral attitude and individualism to the consumption of halal food in the host-culture is examined.

A questionnaire survey was placed and cross-sectional data consisted of 199 Muslim participants were collected, primarily from Beijing current capital of China. Data were examined by SPSS and PLS-3 to assess the model and moderating effects of individualism on HFC.

The results of the research show that moral attitude, habit and religious self-identity in the presence of individualism as a moderator have a significant and positive attitude toward HFC.

The halal food industry can communicate the Muslim community through tag (Halal), which may help Muslims with different individualism and inspire them to make their choices.

The research can be valued by the strategy makers of the food company, as well as the food industry that might pursue individualism in the communication and supply process while targeting the halal food sector in China and worldwide.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between tax arrears and socio-psychological demographic factors on individual taxpayers as well as macroeconomic factors in Malaysia.

In this study, using proprietary data from Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia on individual income tax returns for the year of 2004 through 2012, the authors run a panel data fixed effect model analysis to examine the impact of socio-psychological demographic factors such as age, gender, marital status, income level, occupational sector, place of residence of individual tax payers as well macroeconomic factors such as real GDP, inflation and economic growth on tax arrears in Malaysia.

We find that, by and large, older male taxpayers in big towns, with high incomes, tend to accumulate tax arrears. Tax arrears are also significantly affected by real GDP, but not by marital status or occupational sector.

To the best of our knowledge, this is one the few studies that uses individual tax returns data to study determinants of tax arrears.

Muslim consumers’ tendency to patronize stores with Halal images and purchase genuine Halal products is closely related to their effort to maintain Islamic identity, and this is further supported by many empirical data. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the relationships between attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and Halal principle knowledge and their effect on Muslim consumers’ behavioral intention to patronize retail stores. On top of that, the mediating effect of Halal image on these relationships is also investigated.

Data were analyzed using multiple and hierarchical regression analysis to test the model via the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software among 480 valid samples of Muslim consumers.

Empirical results of the hierarchical regression analysis and the Sobel test revealed that there is a significant mediating effect of Halal image on the relationship between consumers’ attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control of consumers’ behavioral intention to patronize retail stores. Consumers with high attentiveness of the stores’ Halal image have a positive impression of the stores, a high motivation to patronize and, without any conditions, may follow through their intention to patronize the retail stores.

This research study offers guidelines to the retailers, marketers and the authorities in enhancing marketing strategies and the implementation of stricter Halal consumption laws. Hence, this research puts forward the following strategies: adopting Halal marketing strategy, promoting Halal images in retail stores and reinforcing Halal principle knowledge in the mind of consumers.

The main theoretical contribution relates to the insertion of the Halal image as a mediating variable in the matter of Muslim consumers’ behavioral intention to patronize Halal stores in Malaysia. An inspection of the effect of Halal principle knowledge on Muslim consumers’ behavioral intention to patronize retail stores is also rewarding.

This study aims to examine attitude, perceived behavioral and religiosity that influence Muslim consumers’ intention in patronizing at food premises with halal logo.

The data were collected from 450 respondents on random sampling basis. Quantitative analysis was conducted using SEM SMARTPLS version 3.3.

Based on the findings gathered using PLS analysis with n = 450, it was indicated that attitude, perceived behavioral control and religiosity significantly influence Muslim consumers’ intention on patronizing at food premise with halal logo.

The data collection for the present study was limited to the respondents in Kuala Lumpur among Muslim consumers, and limited to 450 sample sizes.

The presence of halal logo should be crucial in attracting consumers due to the comprehensive meaning it brings.

In the context of food premises, the results of the research suggest that the halal logo shown by the food premise seems to operate significantly in attracting Muslim consumers toward the food premises. Muslim consumers need to be nourished by proper Islamic teachings and have a good understanding of halal principle.

The halal logo of food premise concerns the Muslims. Muslim consumers are relying on surrogates in selecting the alternatives for packaged goods in Islamic marketing literature. However, it is little known how Muslims use indicators to select food premises when there is no halal logo.

Food businesses provide Halal food to cater to the dietary requirements of Muslims, especially in communities with a growing number of the ethnic minority and at public institutions such as higher education establishments. A large and growing body of literature has investigated the purchasing and consumption behaviour of Halal food, and there are also studies that revealed consumers who do not support Halal food products on the grounds of animal welfare where animals were slaughtered without stunning. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the predictors of purchasing intention of Halal food products and perceptions of animal welfare among Muslims and non-Muslim consumers of a public higher education institution.

An online questionnaire collected information on sociodemographic profiles and importance of Halal food. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the frequency of distribution of all sociodemographic characteristics. Multiple regression analyses were used to describe the theory of planned behaviour relationship and purchasing intention.

The regression model for all the respondents explained about 73 per cent of the variance of the intent to purchase Halal foods where R² = 0.724 (adjusted R² = 0.72). This was significantly different from zero F(3, 185) = 162.130, p < 0.001. Both Muslim and non-Muslim consumers’ attitudes were significant predictors of their purchasing intention of Halal foods (β = 0.87, p < 0.001). The implications of subjective norms and perceived behavioural control and the lack of influence from these predictors are discussed.

This study revealed that both Muslim and non-Muslim consumers agreed on the importance of animal welfare, but there exist differences in perceptions of animal welfare in Halal meat production. This research is of value to those working in regulatory and food service settings in understanding the differences and needs of consumers, and it contributes to a better understanding of the customers within a university setting.