Determinants of halal awareness: The roles of Qana’ah and locus of control among Indonesian Muslim students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12928/jhsr.v7i2.17500Abstract
Indonesia made halal certification compulsory for food and beverage products in stages between October 2024 and October 2026, yet the psychological dispositions that lead Muslim consumers to attend to certification remain poorly understood. This study examined whether qana'ah, the disposition to feel sufficient with what God has provided, and locus of control predict halal awareness among Indonesian Muslim university students. We used a cross-sectional convergent mixed-methods design with a dominant quantitative strand (QUAN + qual). Seven hundred students at Islamic State University Sultan Syarif Kasim Riau were recruited through purposive sampling and completed a questionnaire containing the Halal Awareness Scale, a 36-item qana'ah instrument, the Locus of Control of Behaviour scale, and four open-ended questions. We analysed the data with multiple regression and directed content analysis. The Halal Awareness Scale and the qana'ah instrument met the reliability criterion of α ≥ .70 (α = .957 and α = .911), whereas the Locus of Control of Behaviour scale did not (α = .623). Qana'ah (β = .173, p < .001) and internality (β = .169, p < .001) each predicted halal awareness, F(2, 697) = 16.41, p < .001, R² = .045, and neither age nor sex contributed. Open-ended responses showed that students describe qana'ah mainly through gratitude rather than restraint, and that 13.4 per cent attribute their halal decisions to God, a position the internal-external distinction cannot represent. Qana'ah contributes to halal awareness, but modestly, and agency measures developed in Western settings need conceptual revision before use with Muslim samples.
Keywords: Consumer psychology, Halal awareness, Islamic psychology, Locus of control, Qana’ah.
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