Looking into the Islamic banking sector in Palestine: do religious values influence active social media engagement behavior?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the religious values of Islamic banking users
influence their active social media engagement behavior (SMEB), when exposed to online brand-related content.
Design/methodology/approach – The method used for data collection was an online self-administered
questionnaire. A total of 448 valid responses were obtained from Islamic banks customers, who are members
of at least one online brand community (OBC) on Facebook. Responses were analyzed and processed by
means of structural equation modeling.
Findings – The results of the online survey reveal that religious values have a positive influence on the
active SMEB in terms of contributing (like and/or sharing) and creating (posting positive comments) of brand
related-contents via Facebook OBC. Religious values play a key role in encouraging Islamic banks’ customers
to share and forward posts, advertisements, and/or content. Furthermore, religious values encourage
customers to forward contents that comply with their religious values and beliefs and are also compatible
with the Islamic rules of Shari’ah.
Originality/value – The findings of this study suggest that religious values are likely to impact customer
behavior when consuming, liking, sharing, and commenting on the online contents generated by Islamic
banks. Given the fact that Islamic religious values are universal and persistent, there is a potential for longterm
benefits for those Islamic banks that identify profitable religious consumer segments within the
domestic and global markets as well as to promote and enhance active SMEB in terms of the number of positive
comments, likes, and shares of brand-related content.