Halal food certification plays a pivotal role in both consumers food purchase and consumption, and food manufacturers business conducts. The growing trends of Halal food have encouraged firms to implement Halal food certification. Numerous studies have recognized the importance of Halal food certification to consumers rather than Halal food manufacturers. However, Halal food certificate motivations, implementation, and the impact on firm performance, particularly the Malaysia Standard on Halal Food (MS1500:2009) are hardly examined. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the motivations behind Halal food certification and its impact on food manufacturers operational, marketing, and financial performances. Resource-based view and institutional theory underpin the proposed conceptual framework of the study. Five hypotheses were proposed to determine the relationships between certification motivations and firm performances. A quantitative methodology was adopted and data were collected using self-administered questionnaires. A total of 210 Halal-certified food manufacturing companies in Peninsular Malaysia participated in the survey. A partial least square structural equation modeling was conducted for data analysis. A key finding is that both the external and internal motivations positively influence Halal food certificate implementation. Moreover, it was also found that implementing Halal food certification has a positive relationship with firm performance. Further findings indicated that government intervention, consumer demand, industry competition, employee commitment, operation improvement, and marketing return are significant motivators for Halal food certificate implementation. Results also revealed that Halal food certification has a significant impact on the respondents operation, marketing, and financial performances. Theoretically, this study offers insights to the significance of consumer pressure as a normative isomorphism in the institutional theory. Additionally, this study reinforces the understanding of Halal food certification as a significant and relevant strategic tool to remain competitive within the profoundly homogenous and saturated food industry. Practically, the information gained from this research could potentially be beneficial to encourage non-certified firms to become Halal-certified. Future research are encouraged to study the motives and impact of Halal food certification from various countries, as well as apply this research across other industries like pharmaceutical, tourism, or cosmetic.

Until now, books addressing Halal issues have focused on helping Muslim consumers decide what to eat and what to avoid among products currently on the marketplace. There was no resource that the food industry could refer to that provided the guidelines necessary to meet the Halal requirements of Muslim consumers in the U.S. and abroad. Halal

This book addresses Muslim business community members who have to deal with ethical situations on a day-to-day basis. It gives key principles of management from an Islamic point of view. Its goal is to help Muslims engaged in business to act in accordance with the Islamic system of ethics. The writer’s experience with different Islamic activities give him a practical background that supports and enlightens his academic knowledge in the vital fields of business management and administration.

Rethinking Halal reflects an anthropological revolution, that of the scientising, standardising, and normalising of social life through certification which is part of a process of ‘positivisation’ that directly affected Islam and Islamic normativity.