Back to the future

Abstract

Spain during the time period 711 to 1492 was one of the most brilliantly creative and affluent nations in the Western Europe. During this epoch, Spain was populated by Muslims, Christians, and Jews who served as rulers, military leaders, scientists, philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers, and merchants, as well as consumers. The highest levels of cultural creativity and affluence are traceable to those rulers who encouraged religious tolerance, regardless of their own religious affiliation. I propose that this historical pattern is a valid one for marketing systems in contemporary Muslim-Christian-Jewish societies. Enforcement of religious orthodoxy by the government appears to discourage cooperative entrepreneurial activities and to reduce affluence, whereas government support of interfaith endeavors is linked to advances in science, business, and the arts.The editors of this special issue of Marketing Theory on Islamic marketing have asked me to write a commentary on the current state of affairs in marketing theory as it relates to Muslim countries and to Muslim consumers. My perspective on these topics is probably a bit different from most academicians currently writing on them. A glance at the references and authors in this issue reveals that most fall into two groups: (1) Muslim academicians who are very knowledgeable about Islam as a religion and about Islamic culture, but who are perhaps less exposed to western-style marketing and consumer behavior theories and (2) western-educated and acculturated marketing and consumer behavior researchers who have had little exposure to or knowledge of Islam as a religion or culture. Then there are those few unique and ambidextrous individuals who grew up in Muslim countries, have Muslim religious identities, but are graduates of western marketing PhD programs.

Name order effects on cobrand perceptions: the impacts of product similarity and language structure

“…As marketers are increasingly paying attention to the Islamic market, so too are marketing scholars paying attention to this important segment, as evidenced by the emergence of scholarly journals such as the Journal of Islamic Marketing and papers published in other leading journals (e.g. Al-Mutawa, 2013; Damit et al , 2019; Ger, 2013; Hirschman, 2013; Izberk-Bilgin, 2012; Sandikci and Ger, 2010). Much of this research has focused on the marketing of explicitly Islamic products (halal foods and ingredients, including in pharmaceuticals, halal fashion and halal financial products).…”