The Engineering of Islamic Cooperative Products and Services in Southern Thailand

Abstract

Today, more than 7000 cooperatives exist in Thailand and offer many different products. By the existence of Islamic cooperatives, particularly in the southern region, which offers Islamic cooperative products and services based on Shari'ah principles which are completely different from the conventional ones. This research aims to investigate the relationship between attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, level of knowledge, and religiosity with the Muslim's intention to use Islamic cooperative products and services. In addition, this study also hopes to identify the most influential factors that affect Muslim's intention to use Islamic cooperative products and services. The theory of Plan Behavior model (TPB) has been used as a baseline th eory, with a set of questionnaires were distributed to the respective respondents among Muslims in Southern Thailand. The results of this study reveal that there is a significant relationship between attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, level of knowledge, and religiosity with the Muslim's intention to use Islamic cooperative products and services. This research also verifies that attitude is the most determinant factor that affects Muslim's intention to use Islamic cooperative products and services in southern Thailand.