INFLUENTIAL FACTORS OF CLIENTS’ BEHAVIOURAL INTENTION IN THE CONTEXT OF ISLAMIC MICROFINANCE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN BANGLADESH

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1. Introduction

Behavioural intention is becoming an important area of concern among business researchers as well as practitioners. Behavioural intention indicates the extent of how much a person is ready to participate in certain behaviour (Ajzen, 2002). Behavioural intentions serve as a yardstick for understanding whether an individual will perform a behaviour or not (Foroughi, Shah,

International Journal of Social Science Research (IJSSR) eISSN: 2710-6276 | Vol. 4 No. 4 [December 2022]

Journal website: http://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ijssr

INFLUENTIAL FACTORS OF CLIENTS’ BEHAVIOURAL INTENTION IN THE CONTEXT OF ISLAMIC

MICROFINANCE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN BANGLADESH

Mohammad Muhib Ullah^1*, Auwal Adam Sa’ad², Ashurov Sharofiddin³ and Romzie Rosman⁴

1 2 3 4 International Islamic University Malaysia, Gombak, MALAYSIA

*Corresponding author: [email protected]

Article Information:

Article history:

Received date : 23 October 2022 Revised date : 7 December 2022 Accepted date : 7 December 2022 Published date : 19 December 2022

To cite this document:

Muhib Ullah, M., Sa’ad, A.,

Sharofiddin, A., & Rosman, R. (2022).

INFLUENTIAL FACTORS OF CLIENTS’ BEHAVIOURAL

INTENTION IN THE CONTEXT OF ISLAMIC MICROFINANCE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN BANGLADESH. International Journal of Social Science Research, 4(4), 132-148.

Abstract: The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of awareness, knowledge, perceived behaviours, religiosity and subjective norms on clients’ behavioural intentions regarding Islamic microfinance products and services in Bangladesh. Following the quantitative approach, the probability multistage cluster sampling technique was applied to reach the clients of three Islamic Microfinance Institutions (RDS, SIBL and IBL) in Dhaka and Chittagong division for data collection.

The questionnaire was adapted from previous studies and distributed to the respondents online. The result found that awareness, knowledge, perceived behaviours, religiosity, and subjective norms have significant effects on client behavioural intention towards Islamic microfinance products and services in Bangladesh, while, all the influential factors have small effect on behavioural Intention. In the future, the moderating effect of the demographic profile of the respondents could be attached to the research framework or a mediator could be brought for detailing the study with a longitudinal time horizon.

Keywords: factors, Islamic, microfinance, products, services.

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http://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ijssr

Ramayah & Iranmanesh 2019). Microfinance was derived from experiments in Latin America and South Asia, but Bangladesh was far more famous after the widespread famine in 1974 (Abdul, 2007). In Bangladesh, thousands of Government and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) have financial institutions operating in rural areas to eradicate poverty, but interest- free Microfinance programs are not that famous compared to conventional microfinance programs, even though Islamic Microfinance institutions started operating in 1991. However, the patronage of Islamic Microfinance Institutions is estimated to be just two million members, while conventional microfinance institutions have received more than 30 million clients. And this is a country with 170 million inhabitants, approximately 90% of whom are Muslims.

Merely 17 years have elapsed between the establishment of traditional microfinance and Islamic microfinance. Consequently, it is not clear what causes too little privilege and less participation by Muslim clients in the subscription of Islamic Microfinance products and services in Bangladesh. Few researchers conducted in-depth studies of the variables that affect clients' perceptions. Previous research has done very little about client satisfaction. Again, very few research works have been conducted on aspects of consumer norms, religiosity, and awareness which are intimately connected to the acceptance of IMF products and services.

Though Bangladesh is becoming a leading player in interest-based conventional micro financial programs, Bangladesh has withheld exploration of the full potential of Islamic microfinance to promote financial inclusion within unbanked citizens aimed at reducing poverty and inequality. The Microfinance Industry has the largest share in Bangladesh despite the large Muslim population in the presence of Islamic Microfinance Institutions. Therefore, this study will investigate the behavioural intentions of Islamic Microfinance clients towards the goods and services of Islamic Microfinance institutions in Bangladesh.

2. Literature Review

Clients’ Behavioral Intention

Behavioral intention is referred to as the likelihood of a person executing any particular action which is needed to ascertain the actual behavior for that action (Hameed & Qayyum, 2018).

Behavioral intention determines the extent to which an individual becomes capable to finalize the ultimate cognizant intent for accomplishing or not accomplishing a few specific forthcoming behaviors and thus it is viewed as an indicator of genuine behavior (Moorthy et al., 2019). Also, Behavioral intention signifies individuals’ anticipated behavior and upcoming prospects and it also shows evidence of the willingness of those individuals for performing the intended behavior (Muslim et al., 2020). When an individual makes a plan or set an expectation about any future behavior it is called behavioral intention which includes encouraging opinions from consumers, endorsements for other consumers, repeated purchase of the products and services and intention to pay more for procuring the expensive ones (Çelik & Dedeoğlu, 2019).

Mrtin, Fishbein and Icek Ajzen introduced the theory of reasoned action is considered as one of the highest persuasives and underlying human behavior theories which is the determinant to explain human behavior (Jamshidi & Kazemi, 2019). This theory implies the anticipation of peoples’ behavior according to their pre-determined attitudes and behavioural intentions and thus a person determines to occupy a specific behaviour that is grounded on the consequences of the expectations after the execution of that behaviour (Wahab & Zarunnaim, 2018). This theory of reasoned action (TRA) postulates behavioral intention as the subjective interpretation that indicates the eagerness of a person for engaging himself or herself in an intended behavior influenced by that person’s attitude and motivated by the social people (Chiu, Bool, & Chiu, 2017). Concerning Islamic microfinance, Muslim clients have purposive behaviour regarding

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the usage of microfinance products which is mostly correlated with the behavioural thoughts and their underlying attitude toward those products and people’s perception about the compliance of the banking scheme with the Islamic law helps them to have a greater level of curiosity and determination to go for the Islamic microfinance schemes (Mansori et al., 2020).

According to the general TPB framework, Muslim clients’ attitude toward Islamic microfinance is connected with their intention for involvement in Islamic microfinance and it is important to consider the beliefs of individuals about whether Islamic microfinance schemes provided are inexpensive, with good service, appropriate and well-matched with Islamic rules as well as beneficial for the poor, then their attitudes for Islamic microfinance have a favorable impact in adopting Islamic microfinance (Maulana et al., 2018).. In Addition, perceived behavioral control comes with our views about factors promoting or impeding an action and it strongly determines the interest of MSME entrepreneurs to accept Islamic financing tools (Putri et al., 2019).

Behavioral intention is a dependent variable in numerous researches for example, Boulding Kalra, Staelin, and Zeithaml 1993; Amin et al. 2011, Sabirzyanov, 2016, Lujja, Omar and Hassan 2016, Kaakeh et al. 2018 due to its robust ability to predict individual behaviour (Westaby, 2005; Gupta & Arora 2017). It was argued by previous scholars that for a person to execute a behaviour or not, the intention is the best predictor (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Fauziah, Ramayah & Abdul Razak, 2008; Van Hooft & De Jong, 2009). Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) argued that it is vital to predicting behavioural intention. In this study behavioural intention is defined as individual readiness to engage in Islamic micro-financial products and services.

The Predecessor of Islamic Microfinance Products and Services:

Behavioral intention is a widely researched topic, different variables have been used as its determinant, however, in this study Islamic Microfinance Products and Services has five antecedents namely, awareness, knowledge, religiosity, perceived behavior, the subjective norm.

Religiosity

Religiosity denotes the capacity of a person the commitment to religion driven values by maintaining the forbidden and not forbidden, perceptions and practices in his or her worldly life (Johan, Hussain, Mohd, & Kamaruddin, 2020). In the same way, Religiosity refers to as the determination of a certain level which is accepted and maintained by individuals with the principles of the religion in their lives and it covers the degree of dedication and the level of engagement in a certain religion in the people’s lives (Zaid, 2019). Religiosity explains the religious commitments adopted by the followers which show the alteration of the choices, assessments and squandering process of people according to religious demands (Charag et al., 2019). Religiosity shows a substantial direct impact on attitudes toward Islamic banking schemes selection and Islamic banks need to estimate the level of religiosity behavior in terms of Islam so that they can assume the pattern of consumers’ attitudes toward Islamic banks and eventually their forthcoming behavioral intentions (Abou-Youssef et al., 2015). In line with the previous explanation another study disclosed that there is a favorable connection between consumers’ religiosity and customers’ intention to select Islamic banking among Malaysian people (Selvanathan et al., 2018). Furthermore, it has been exposed that religiosity positively affects both consumer attitude and behavioral intention to embrace Islamic banking and specifically, religious values significantly motivate Muslim consumers to accept Islamic banking services in Kashmir, India (Charag et al., 2019). Similarly, another empirical finding claimed that religiosity is assumed as a vital factor for the fixation of adoption intention for Islamic financing in Uganda (Bananuka et al., 2020).

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H1: There is a positive effect of clients’ religiosity towards the behavioral intention of Islamic Microfinance Products and Services in Bangladesh.

Knowledge

Knowledge denotes a set of perception which is approved by rational evidence and this is how knowledge is generated with the improved capacity of demonstration and showing the accessibility of information extracted either from social environment or organizational settings (Adrutdin, Gadar, Rahim, & Hasim, 2020). Generally, a consumer gets knowledge of a product through a subjective component which means the consumer’s idea of his knowledge and an objective component which means the consumer’s real knowledge (Mariadas & Murthy, 2017).

Consumers’ attitudes and behavioral intentions for any product or service are affected by knowledge acquired by consumers and it is suggested that consumers grow their attitude toward a product by considering the features of the product and the people’s evaluation of its features which ensures that knowledge as feature information contributes in attitude formation (Park &

Sohn, 2018). So, it has been revealed that product knowledge is significantly responsible for developing the attitude and purchase intention for any product (Khairunnisa & Hendratmi, 2019). In case of the financing sector, investors need to examine the correlation between financial knowledge and equivalent financial behaviour since financial knowledge has a significant influence on constructive financial decision-making; in fact, a higher level of financial knowledge contributes to progress and more successful behavioral intention (Al Balushi, Locke, & Boulanouar, 2019). Another research in the context of Tunisia identified the positive and vital connection between the amount of information of consumers about the characteristics and advantages of Islamic financing and consumers’ behavioral intention to embrace Islamic financing (Obeid & Kaabachi, 2016).

H2: There is a positive effect of clients’ level of knowledge towards the behavioral intention of Islamic Microfinance Products and Services in Bangladesh.

Awareness

Awareness is defined as the learning and understanding of people about any location, person, product and service and it attempts to encourage people in decision-making about any matter depending on their favorable or unfavorable attitude for that matter (Rasheed, Siddiqui, &

Rahman, 2018). Awareness plays an important role in establishing the intention to select any particular object because It involves the notion of knowledge and finally utilizing it in a particular behaviour (Bashir et al., 2019). Maulana et al. (2018) focused on consumers’

awareness of Islamic microfinance tools and found that most of the people have poor understanding of Islamic financing tools and processes as well as consumers’ attitude towards Islamic microfinance is shaped by consumers’ awareness since positive attitude towards Islamic microfinance has a better positive impact to adopt Islamic microfinance. Alfin & Md Saad (2018) specified that promotion and service quality can determine the level of awareness of Islamic microfinance among Muslims in Cambodia as well as more than 90% of respondents have positive support for more Islamic microfinance institutions to be founded in Cambodia to assist the poor micro-entrepreneurs.

H3: There is a positive effect of clients’ level of awareness towards the behavioral intention of Islamic Microfinance Products and Services in Bangladesh.

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Subjective Norms

Subjective norms can be defined as the individual's thoughts regarding social influences in order to decide about executing or not executing a targeted behavior and it is ascertained by the normative belief for assessing social persuasion on the specific behavior (Ibrahim, Fisol, &

Haji-Othman, 2017). Subjective norms encompass the perceived views from social people’s pressure which compromise family members, friends, coworkers, relatives, or other similar important groups (Bashir et al., 2019). Subjective norm is related to an individual’s observation regarding his or her family members and people around him or her about the ratification or refusal of the decision for participating in a particular behaviour (Ganesan, Allah Pitchay, &

Mohd Nasser, 2020). Similarly, Subjective norm holds a significant effect on the behavioral intention for investment among individual investors in Pakistan (Ibrahim & Arshad, 2017).

Another study showed that there is a significant relationship between subjective norms and the behavioral intention regarding the usage of open-access journals among researchers from Agricultural Research Institutes (ARI) in Tanzania (Massoro & Adewale, 2019). A study in Libya exposed that subjective norm has been considered as the highest influential issue to predict the behavioral intention for the investment in Islamic Bonds (Sukuk) so, Bonds (Sukuk) issuers have to consider the direct effect of attitude and subjective norm on the intentions to go for Islamic Bonds (Sukuk) among the Libyan investors (Awn & Azam, 2020). Also, in Indonesia, Subjective norm has been identified as completely correlated to the clients’

behavioral intention to utilize the Islamic rural banks’ financial services (Effendi et al., 2020).

H4: There is a positive effect of clients’ subjective norms towards the behavioral intention of Islamic Microfinance Products and Services in Bangladesh.

Perceived Behavior

Perceived behavior control can be described as the consciousness of a person regarding his or her skills or abilities to participate in a certain behavior, as well as the assurance of available assets to conduct that behavior (Mannan et al., 2016). Perceived behavioural control explains the perceived understanding of an individual about the ease or hurdle of performing a behaviour and thus an individual perceives a particular level of control to accomplish the intended behaviour for the presented consequence (Albashir et al., 2018). According to the TPB model, perceived behavioral control holds positive and outstanding connection with the behavioral intention which indicates that when people perceive any behavior with control over it and make their intentions for that behavior, then they are expected to perform that behavior (Mafabi et al., 2017). In Bangladesh, peoples’ positive thoughts about perceived behavioral control have favorable impact on intention to purchase organic food products among consumers (Ashraf, 2019). In the case of consuming green products, there is a positive impact of perceived behavioral control on consumer attitude along with straight positive influences on buying intention of green products in India (Sreen et al., 2018). In the context of entrepreneurship, perceived behavioral control (PBC) holds pragmatic control over entrepreneurial intention (EI) among foreign students of Turkish universities (Usman & Yennita, 2019). Similarly, the positive and crucial association has been found between perceived behaviour control and behavioral intention for accepting Islamic financing tools among Malaysian banking customers (Hudi et al., 2019). Putri et al. (2019) exposed that the stimulating impact of perceived behavior has been found on the intention to pursue Islamic microfinance among Indonesian Islamic microfinance customers.

H5: There is a positive effect of clients’ perceived behavior towards the behavioral intention of Islamic Microfinance Products and Services in Bangladesh.

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Figure 1: Research Framework

3. Methodology

The present research adopted the quantitative approach, mainly due to the need to test the proposed hypotheses on the large population being studied. In terms of data collection, the probability multistage cluster sampling technique was applied to reach the clients of three Islamic Microfinance Institutions (RDS, SIBL and IBL) in Dhaka and Chittagong divisions. A questionnaire was distributed to suitable clients online. This survey was divided into four sections. Section A captured respondents’ demographic information (9 items), In section B, construct measurement is consisted of five independent variables which are religiosity, knowledge, and awareness (14 items) adapted from Shafi & Reddy (2019), Huma et. al (2019), perceived behavior (7 items) adapted from Conner and Sparks (1996), Bonne et. al. (2007) and subjective norms (4 items) adapted from Selim et. al. (2021), Juma et. al. (2019). A total of 25 questions for independent variables. Section C is about moderating variable (Gender) that consists of 4 items, adapted from Shahbaz et al (2020). Section D is for the customers behaviors intention (4 items) adapted from Selim et. Al (2021), and Amanda et. al. (2018). A pilot test was conducted on 30 clients of an Islamic Microfinance Institution situated in Dhaka before actual data collection as a way to ensure the selected items were effective, well-understood, and reliable. The feedback from the pilot test was considered, and alterations were made accordingly to improve the quality of the instruments. Upon data collection and data screening, data analysis of the 400 responses was performed using SPSS software for descriptive statistics and Smart PLS for hypothesis testing. The total questionnaire was distributed to 600 and the response rate was 66.67%.

H1

H5

H

H3 H2

Perceived Behaviour Religiosity

Behavioural Intention

Subjective Norms Knowledge

Awareness

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4. Data Analysis

The female participation (67.500%) was higher than the male (32.500%) participants in this study. The height participants’ age (39.250%) was between 35 to 44 years, followed by 25 to 34 age of 26.50% of respondents, then 45 to 54 age of 15.0%, then 15 to 24 years age of 13.00%

and 6.250% respondents age was above 54 years. Most of the participants (92.75%) had 1 to 2 bank accounts, 6.50% of respondents had 3 to 4 and 0.750% had 5 and more bank accounts.

Around 3.00% of clients never make transactions in a month, 37.750% and 49.00% of clients make transactions 1 to 2, 3 to 4 times in a month, 5 and or more times transactions conducted by 0.750% of clients. 1 to 2 and 3 to 4 microfinance products were used by 7.750% and 4.00%

of respondents while 88.30% of participants used 5 and more microfinance products.

Hypothesis Testing

The outcome of the measurement model analysis in Figure 2, shows that the outer loadings range from 0.644 to 0.888, which is higher than the minimum threshold condition (Churchill, 1979; Chin, 1998; Henseler et al., 2009; Hair et al., 2006). Convergent validity is investigated in this study using the widely used "Average Variance Extracted" (AVE) approach (Hair et al., 2006; Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007; Henseler et al., 2009). Figure 2 demonstrates that the AVE for each latent variable is greater than 0.5 (50%) on average, indicating that each construct can explain more than half of the variance in its measuring items (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

Figure 2: AVE and Factor Loadings Calculated Through PLS-Algorithm

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The R² for the endogenous variable behavioral Intention was 0.201, indicating that the exogenous variables explained 20 percent of the variation, which is moderate. The f square indicates that the effect of awareness, knowledge, Perceived behavior, religiosity, and Subjective norms have a small effect on behavioral Intention (see Table 1).

Table 1: f Square and R Square Exogenous Variables f Square R

Square

R Square Adjusted B. Intention

Awareness 0.049

Knowledge 0.022

Perceived Behaviour 0.054

Religiosity 0.032

Subjective Norms 0.089

Behavioural Intention 0.201 0.191

Table 2 showed the path coefficient calculation outcome. All five hypotheses were positively significant because the value of beta is positive ranging from 0.133 to 0.267 and the p-value is less than 0.05. The hypotheses were statistically significant at the significance level of 0.05.

Table 2: Path-Coefficient

Hypotheses Beta T P Decision

Knowledge -> Behavioural Intention 0.133 2.784 0.006 Supported Religiosity -> Behavioural Intention 0.160 2.442 0.015 Supported Awareness -> Behavioural Intention 0.197 4.110 0.000 Supported Perceived Behaviour -> Behavioural

Intention 0.208 4.648 0.000 Supported

Subjective Norms -> Behavioural Intention 0.267 4.484 0.000 Supported

The first hypothesis (H1) was related to knowledge and behavioural intention where the relationship was found statistically significant as the p-value (0.006) was less than 0.05 and the t-value (2.784) was higher than 1.96 revealing significant relationships. In addition, the relationship is in the positive direction as the value of β=0.133 showed a positive value. The second hypothesis (H2) revealed a statistically also significant relationship as the p-value (0.015) is less than 0.05 and the t-value (2.442) is higher than 1.96 confirming a significant effect. Thus, according to the result, it can interpret that religiosity has a significant influence on behavioural intention. The third hypothesis (H3) related between awareness and behavioural intention where the result revealed a statistically significant relationship between them as the value of p (0.000) is less than 0.05 and the value of t (4.110) is higher than 1.96. Furthermore, the relationship is in the positive direction as the value of beta (β=0.197) is positive. Similarly, the fourth hypothesis (H4) also revealed statistically significant due to the p-value (0.000) being less than 0.05. The relationship was also found positive as the beta (β=0.208) is revealed positive. Meaning that perceived behaviour has a substantial positive influence on behavioural intention. Furthermore, the fifth hypothesis (H5) was also revealed statistically significant due to the p-value (0.000) being less than 0.05. The relationship was also found positive as the beta (β=0.267) is revealed positive. Consequently, behavioural intention is significantly positively impacted by subjective norms.

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Figure 3: Structural Model With t-Values (Bootstrapping Result)

5. Discussion

Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) argues about the linkage of the levels of attitude and behavoir, the higher level of a person’s positive attitude towards a particular behaviour ensures the higher possibility of that person’s intent for involving in that behavior (S. H. Raza, Abu Bakar, & Mohamad, 2019). Three types of beliefs have been identified by the Theory of Planned Behavior namely behavioral belief, normative belief, and control belief and these are associated with the creation of individuals’ attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (Pardana et al., 2019).

Attitudes include three types of components which are cognitive components such as views or knowledge, affective components such as thoughts or emotions and behavioral components such as a prior setting of humor predicting the possibility and procedure to act (Marcinkowski

& Reid, 2019). The clients’ religiosity affects the behavioral intention of Islamic Microfinance Products and Services in Bangladesh. Because, hypothesis H1 has been accepted based on the data analysis of this study. Awareness and knowledge also act as prominent factors to inspire consumer attitude and also both show a favorable correlation with attitude (Permana, 2019a).

Consumer attitude and perception are persuaded by product knowledge and consciousness towards Islamic banks which means that when people become well familiar and knowledgeable of the products available in Islamic banks, they tend to show more attention and positive attitude towards Islamic banking and their intention becomes higher to accept Islamic banking products (Permana, 2019b). Hypothesis H2 has been accepted that there is a positive effect of clients’ level of knowledge towards the behavioral intention of Islamic Microfinance Products and Services in Bangladesh. Consumer awareness has a positive effect on customers’ intention to adopt Islamic financing products and for this reason, the management of Islamic banks needs to investigate and find out customers’ perceptions and attitudes towards the Islamic banking products and services (Albaity & Rahman, 2019). Hypothesis H3 has been accepted that revealed the positive effect of clients’ level of awareness on the behavioral intention of Islamic Microfinance Products and Services in Bangladesh. Ghani et al. (2018), Kazaure (2019),

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Farhat, Aslam and Sanuri (2019) and Aziz et al. (2019) also confirmed that attitude (knowledge, awareness, religiosity) toward Islamic Microfinance Products and Services has a direct positive association with behavioral intention. In particular, it argues that behavioural intention is highly influenced by individual attitudes to use of Islamic Microfinance Products and Services. The substantial result between attitude (knowledge, awareness, religiosity) and behavioural intention to use Islamic Microfinance products and Services supported by Pitchay et al. (2019), Bananuka et al. (2019), Kaakeh et al. (2019), Aziz and Afaq (2018) and Kaakeh et al. (2018) that attitude (knowledge, awareness, religiosity) is an important variable when examining the behavioral intention towards Islamic micro financial products and services.

The clients’ subjective norms affect the behavioral intention of Islamic Microfinance Products and Services in Bangladesh. Hypothesis H4 has been accepted. The higher the effect of the reference group on Islamic microfinance products and services, the higher the interest in Islamic Microfinance Products and Services. The presence of normative beliefs and the desire to adhere to those determine subjective norms. Depending on the conduct in question, normative beliefs include expectations from referents or powerful persons and organizations for certain people (significant others), such as a partner's parents, close friends, coworkers, or others. Therefore, an individual's impression of the social pressure that exists to display behavior or not leads to the formation of subjective norms. People think that specific people or organizations will approve of or disapprove of their activities. People will conform and adopt behaviors consistent with the group if they think what is the norm of the group. Subjective norms are influenced by incentives to comply with rules as well as by referents. People will typically feel under pressure to behave in a specific way if they believe that most referents will approve of their doing so and that doing so will drive them to do so. Contrarily, those who lack the incentive to engage in particular activities due to their perception that most referents will not approve of them doing so will have a subjective norm that compels them to refrain from engaging in these actions (Ajzen, 2008).

The social pressure to participate in a behavior by expectations is a predictor of social elements known as subjective norms, and it must affect a person's desire to engage in or refrain from engaging in a behaviour. People should be more likely to engage in the conduct in issue if it is socially expected that they do so. On the other hand, if there is a societal expectation that one should not exhibit a behaviour, then the person should be motivated to do so. In this situation, people are more inclined to employ Islamic Microfinance Products and Services if they believe that doing so, is a socially acceptable conduct based on the opinions of other influential people.

Hypothesis H5 stated that there is a positive effect of clients’ perceived behavior towards the behavioral intention of Islamic Microfinance Products and Services in Bangladesh. Therefore, hypothesis H5 has been accepted. This is consistent with other earlier research conducted in Islamic financial services environments (e.g., Pitchay, et al., 2019; Al Balushi et al., 2018), An important relationship between behavioural intention and perceived behaviour was discovered.

This study's findings support the results of prior investigations by Ashraf, 2019, Vanany, et al., 2019 and Dasuki, et al. (2021) on the significant relationship of perceived behavioural control and behavioural intention to use Islamic financial services. The significance and importance of perceived behavioural control have also been emphasized by Khan & Azam (2016). However, the result of this study was in line with (Bananuka, et al., 2019). Similarly, these results were in the same direction with the studies where perceived behavioural control is a significant factor for Islamic financial products and services (for example Bashir et al., 2018; Aziz and Afaq 2018, and Iranmanesh, et al., 2019). The outcome is in line with the theory that perceived behavioral control is a determinant factor of behavioral intention (Ajzen, 1991).

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6. Limitation and Future Research

However, as in many investigative studies, there are some limitations that need to be addressed.

These flaws may also open up new areas for future research. Despite the fact that the research offers insightful findings and has contributed to theoretical and practical evidence as well as methodological aspects, there are still some limitations. First, the fact that the data for this study were obtained from respondents over a single time period, giving just a snapshot of the population under investigation, was one of its major limitations. So, while inferring causal relationships, attention should be used. As a result, future research may overcome this limitation by undertaking longitudinal studies that gather data spanning two or more periods in time, allowing for acceptable cause-and-effect interference interpretations to be made by comparing and contrasting the results with those of the current study. Second, this research was conducted in Bangladesh. The findings might be not be the same with in another countries and cultures. Hence, future research should be carried out in order to compare the finding of this research with other countries. People from various nations may have distinct behavioral intentions and take into account additional crucial variables that affect behavioral intentions toward Islamic Microfinance Products and Services. The study provided for a single technique, namely, quantitative without employing the qualitative technique to better understand other factors that might affect consumers’ behavioral intention. The qualitative part can be carried out by conducting interviews with practitioners, and regulators. Similarly, future researchers might carry out similar studies utilizing secondary data, enabling the development of strong cause-and-effect correlations. This study has investigated the direct effect of the influential factors of clients’ behavioral intention towards the acceptance of Islamic microfinance products and services in Bangladesh. In the future, the moderating effect of the demographic profile of the respondents (such as, age, gender etc.) could be attached to the research framework or a mediator could be brought for detailing the study.

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