Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report on the results of a study carried out to examine the mediating effect of attitude in the relationship between subjective norm, religiosity and intention to adopt Islamic banking in a developing secular state like Uganda. Design/methodology/approach This study’ research design was cross sectional. Closed ended questionnaires were distributed to 258 managers of micro businesses in Uganda. Data were analyzed with the help of SPSS v22 and MedGraph program (Excel version). Findings Attitude is a significant mediator in the relationship between subjective norm and intention to adopt Islamic banking. Also, attitude significantly mediates the relationship between religiosity and intention to adopt Islamic banking. Research limitations/implications The study used only a single research methodological approach; therefore, future research could be undertaken using a mixed-methods approach. Practical implications Emphasis should be put on improving the mindsets of Ugandans toward Islamic banking. Originality/value While there has been a number of studies on Islamic banking, this study provides an initial empirical evidence on the mediation effect of attitude in the relationship between subjective norm, religiosity and intention to adopt Islamic banking in a single study in an African developing secular state like Uganda.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the contribution of attitude, subjective norm and religiosity on the intention to adopt Islamic banking in an emerging economy like Uganda, which is a secular state that is in the early stages of adopting Islamic banking. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a cross-sectional and correlational research design. Usable questionnaires were received from 258 managers of their own micro businesses. A hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Findings Results indicate that attitude and religiosity are significant determinants of the intention to adopt Islamic banking, unlike subjective norm whose predictive power is subsumed in attitude. In the absence of attitude, subjective norm is a significant determinant of intention to adopt Islamic banking. Overall, attitude, subjective norm and religiosity explain 44 per cent of the variance in the intention to adopt Islamic banking in Uganda. Research limitations/implications This study is cross-sectional, excluding the monitoring of changes in behavior over time. Further, the study used evidence from owner-managed micro businesses in Uganda. It is possible that these results are only applicable to Uganda’s micro businesses. Originality/value Islamic banking is an emerging phenomenon on the African continent, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, where most countries are secular states. As such, there are largely no empirical studies exploring the combined contributions of attitude, subjective norm and religiosity on the intention to adopt Islamic banking in an emerging economy after the national adoption of an enabling legal framework. To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, this is the first study that carries out this task.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to establish whether there is a relationship between religiosity, religious preferences, firm age and intention to adopt Islamic financing in an emerging economy like Uganda which is a secular state and adopting Islamic financing for the first time. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a cross-sectional and mixed-methods design. The authors administered closed-ended questionnaires and these were supplemented by semi-structured interviews. Findings Results indicate that religiosity is significantly associated with intention to adopt Islamic financing. Further, religious experience as a dimension of religiosity is significantly associated with intention to adopt Islamic financing unlike ideology. Religious preferences and firm age are also significantly associated with intention to adopt Islamic financing. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) reveals that there are significant differences in between religions whereby Muslims are more ready for Islamic financing than the Christians are. Research limitations/implications This study’s main limitation is that it uses evidence from Uganda’s micro businesses which account for 70 per cent of Uganda’s total businesses. It is unclear on whether this study results can be generalized to the remaining 30 per cent of the businesses and if results of this study can be generalized to other national settings. Originality/value Islamic financing being an emerging phenomenon on the African continent especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa where most countries are secular states, there are few empirical studies exploring religiosity, religious preferences, firm age and intention to adopt Islamic financing in an emerging economy perspective. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that provides some insights into religiosity, religious preference, firm age and intention to adopt Islamic financing from a Ugandan perspective using a mixed methods research design.