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Purpose – This aim of this paper is to investigate the impact that religious factors have on a consumer's perception of brand loyalty in the context of the services industry. Specifically, the study focuses on the attitudinal/affective form of brand loyalty. An empirical investigation was conducted to test whether the religiosity and religious centrism of Muslim consumers can instill attitudinal brand loyalty towards an insurer selling a religiously-conforming high-involvement indemnity service. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was conducted with 208 Muslim consumers, and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was used to test the relationships between the exogenous and endogenous variables. Findings – The results shows that there is a positive relationship between the exogenous religiosity and religious centrism constructs, and the endogenous attitudinal brand loyalty, price tolerance and word-of-mouth constructs. Practical implications – The findings of this research study suggest that religion can have a significant impact on consumers' choice when purchasing an indemnity service such as a car insurance service. Given the fact that religious values are persistent over time, there are some potential long-term benefits for companies that can identify the lucrative religious consumer segments that are present in the local and global markets. Originality/value – This study provides valuable insight into the UK Muslim consumer behavior by exploring the religious factors that can influence consumers' brand loyalty toward buying high-involvement religiously-compliant products and services. The findings of this study also indicate that the existing TRA and TRB models in the social sciences literature may need to incorporate a new ritualistic/religious dimension to the existing attitude-intention relationship saga.

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There is currently a growing literature on the role that trust plays in encouraging consumers to engage in e-commerce transactions. Various models have been proposed which aim to identify both the antecedents and outcomes of trust displayed towards e-commerce web sites.Increased trust is generally shown to increase positive user attitude which in turn is linked to increased willingness to buy. Studies have shown the antecedents of trust include variables such as the perceived reputation and size of the vendor organisation. The current paper explores the role of cultural variables as antecedents of trust with the main emphasis being on religious affiliation. Participants recruited from Christian, Muslim and other faiths were asked to interact with online bookstores identified as Christian, Muslim or Neutral. Trust and attitudes towards the web sites were measured and this data was used to test the hypothesis that same-religion sites would be trusted and liked more than other religion or neutral sites.This hypothesis was partially supported, but only for the Muslim participants. It was found that the Muslim group expressed significantly more trust in the Muslim site compared to the Christian site. They also expressed significantly more positive attitudes towards the Muslim online bookstore than the other two sites. The implications of these result for theories of web based trust and attitude are discussed along with the practical implications of the findings.