Comparative study on customers' perception toward Islamic hire-purchase between Islamic Bank of Thailand and Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam

Abstract

Islamic hire purchase is considered as one of the contemporary Islamic banking innovative products used widely in South-East Asia including Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam as well as Thailand. This research aims to examine the perception of Islamic banks’ customers towards Islamic hire purchase between Islamic bank of Thailand and Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam. The analysis of the research involves 400 respondents of whom are based in Brunei Darussalam and Thailand and followed by a quantitative research approach by distributing questionnaires to customers. The findings of this research present that “social and religious perspective” and “reputation and bank image” variables are at significant difference for consumers’ perception towards Islamic hire purchase between Islamic Bank of Thailand and Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam. Although, advertising and public variable has no significant difference, the mean value of advertising and public relation is equivalent to “neutral” in both countries. Therefore, the researcher opined that both countries should develop this field further for example advertising more on mass media such as radio, TV and also by creating promotions at universities for the benefit of their students. Last but not least, this research shows some effective and constructive solutions to tackle the problem of real practices of Islamic hire purchase in Thailand which could result in an increase of the income of Islamic hire purchase in Thailand. In the final part this study suggests some points on how to solve issues that have been identified to promote Islamic hire purchase to public effectively. This could be done in term of active advocacy in public awareness which eventually could help in raising their standards to obtain a good reputation and image to attract more customers.