Semi Structured Interviews (Phase 1)

The first objective of the research is to identify the factors affecting customer satisfaction for ICC users in Malaysia. In this case, the researcher has speculated that one of the factors affecting ICC users’ satisfaction is the users’ religiosity factor despite other antecedents being possible, as highlighted by Parasuraman et al. (1988) and Gro¨nroos (1982).

Therefore, in this phase, the aim was to explore the possible factors affecting ICC users' satisfaction, especially the religion factor. There are 10 open-ended questions in the interviews. The interviews were conducted online using Skype and recorded with digital recorder software (Pamela).

The rationale for using the semi-structured form in this phase, apart from answering the research objective and being exploratory, is that it also permits detailed answers and

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clarifications regarding an issue rather than the respondents answering predefined answers as in surveys. In addition, it also allows unanticipated answers and the emergence of new insights regarding a phenomenon. Furthermore, it could reveal the logic behind a respondent’s response.

In an exploratory study, semi-structured interviews may be used in order to understand the relationships between variables. It is the best way to capture how a person thinks or feels about whether religion has a significant impact on ICCs users’ satisfaction. The respondents can speak freely and their facial and bodily expression can be recorded too.

In addition, it allows the interviewees to go into as much depth as they feel they want to, whereas surveys would not allow this type of freedom. The interviewers may have questions they want to ask, which will be answered over time, but the semi-structured method allows them to ask additional questions that have not been prepared in advance or written down if the opportunity arises and they are deemed appropriate.

The interviews were initiated with a question asking the respondents an easy question on why they choose an ICC. Then, the respondents were asked about whether there are any differences between the ICC and the CCC. Then the respondents were asked which service quality dimensions are important to them. The respondents were asked whether they were satisfied with the services provided by the ICC issuers. After that, the respondents were asked whether their religion has an impact on their satisfaction and they were also asked on the reason for their answer.

The questions were asked in the sequence from easy to more complicated questions, which deal with their religion. This is to prevent the respondents from being very defensive, as they might be if the questions were put forward at the beginning of the interview.

The questions were also worded to imply the respondents' own experiences rather than the experiences of other people or what the respondents perceived others or the researcher to believe (see Appendix 13, p. 372, for the semi-structured interview guide).

The transcribed conversations from the semi-structured interviews were analysed to identify key themes emerging from qualitative data. These can come from direct quotes or from

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paraphrasing the common ideas arising from the respondents (Blanchard and Galloway 1994).

However, there are drawbacks to this method, the main being that it is so time-consuming; not just the collecting of the data, but the time needed to spend in transcribing and analysing the data consumes most of the available research time. In addition, it is very easy to digress and become diverted with irrelevant answers and generally inappropriate information. Alternatively, a focus group interview could be conducted as Parasuraman et al. (1988) did, however, the limitation of the focus group interview is that the researcher has to allow more time in getting all the respondents together at one time and place. A semi-structured interview is more appropriate when taking into consideration the researcher’s time, labour and budget constraints.

Another drawback of the semi-structured interview is that it may not be generalised and comparisons are difficult to make. Therefore, surveys were conducted in the second and third phase to overcome all of the problems mentioned here. The results from the semi-structured interviews are presented in the following section.

A selection criterion was developed to give a representation of the credit-card users who were highly religious people. Firstly, all the respondents were highly educated. Secondly, the respondents must either have an existing credit card (Islamic, conventional or both) or have owned a credit card in the past. Respondents who had terminated their credit cards were also included in the sample in order to avoid a bias of positive answers from satisfied credit-card users.

The inclusion would provide a clue to the reasons why he/she had done so. Lastly, all the respondents were in the same religious denomination (i.e. Muslims). The researcher emailed online semi-structured interviews followed up by a telephone interview via Skype. The telephone interviews were recorded using Pamela for Skype software and the interview findings are presented in the following section.

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5.2.1.1 Interviews Findings

Seven respondents were interviewed for this research, and their demographic profiles are presented in Appendix 17, p. 388. Their age range is in between 29-37 years. Four respondents were male and three respondents were female. Three respondents had two credit cards; one had three credit cards and one respondent each had one and four credit cards. Lastly, one used to have two credit cards before terminating both credit cards. Six major questions were asked of the respondents (see Appendix 13, p. 372).

In this preliminary study, we were interested in the reasons why the customers choose ICCs, to see if there are any differences between ICCs and CCCs from their perspectives, the most important being service quality, to find out whether their religiosity had any effect on overall satisfaction level with their ICC. The discussion of the findings is given below.

5.2.1.2 The Impact of Religion towards Selecting ICCs

The interview results of the seven respondents show that religion has a vital role in the selection of an ICC. For example, the respondents in the interviews specifically mentioned the words Shari’ah compliance, Islamic, Islamic teaching and Shari’ah principles. The respondents selected their ICCs because they wanted to comply with Shari’ah principles in relation to the prohibition of riba47. The finding is in tandem with researchers who conducted banking selection studies such as Gerard and Cunningham (1997), Robson (1993), Metawa and Al-Mossawi, (1998), Naser et al. (1999), Othman and Owen (1999) and Abbas et al. (2002).

These studies found that the religion factor is significant for consumers in choosing their financial services products. Three of the respondents mentioned that no compound interest charge was one of the reasons why the ICC was preferable to them. The respondents perceived that with the ICC, the risk of uncertainty in terms of the interest getting higher due to compound interest, as with a conventional credit card, could be avoided.

The ICC issuers seem to have succeeded in portraying that an ICC is more certain in terms of the total profit that will be charged by the bank (sometimes referred to as a ceiling by the

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customers). One of the respondents even mentioned that their choice of conversion from the conventional credit card towards an ICC was a symbol of purifying oneself.

5.2.1.3 The Differences between ICCs and CCCs as Perceived by the Respondents

The respondents are in a consensus in their views regarding whether there are any differences between the ICCs and conventional credit cards. Some of the examples brought up by the respondents included the ceiling price or the maximum amount that the ICC issuers can charge, the akad48 for ICC issuance and the control mechanism that prevents the card users from purchasing or using prohibited products and services such as alcohol.

For example, the CCC will charge interest from the remaining outstanding balance, and this will be compounded until the total outstanding balance is fully paid. In contrast, the ICC will have a ceiling amount that the bank can charge as profit. This is because the ICC contracts are based on a Kafalah49 _{guarantee contract or on bay’ al `inah}50 _{instantaneous}

two parties’ sales and purchase, or on Tawarruq51 three parties’ sales and purchase. The Islamic contracts might be complicated, but these contracts are used by the banks issuing ICCs in order to avoid problems regarding interest prohibition.

5.2.1.4 The Credit Card Facilities Perceived as Important

In terms of credit card facilities, which are deemed to be important by customers, the important factors are minimum service charges for cash withdrawals, the ceiling profit charged and the control mechanism in the usage of the ICCs for buying prohibited products and services. In addition, other service quality dimensions, as offered by conventional cards, are also deemed to be important.

The findings support the Servqual functional quality dimensions developed by Parasuraman et al. (1988) and the technical service quality measure developed by Gro¨nroos (1982; 1990). In addition, the religious and ethical service quality dimension that is related to complying

48 _Contracts

49 _{Normally referred as Kafalah bi al-dayn, is a guarantee for a debt owed by a party.}

50 _{Refers to a contract which involves selling and buying back transactions of an asset by a seller to the customer.}

The seller will sell the asset on a cash basis but the customer will buy back the asset on deferred payment at a price higher than the cash price.

51 _{Buying a commodity with deferred payment and selling it to a person other than the buyer for a lower price with}

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with Shari’ah principles, as expressed by the respondents above, is incongruent with Othman and Owen (2002). The findings supported that the service quality dimensions have a positive impact on Islamic credit users’ satisfaction.

5.2.1.5 The Impact of Religion towards Satisfaction

In assessing the levels of impact of religion towards the respondents’ satisfaction, the respondents have been asked whether their religion had an impact on their level of satisfaction. All seven respondents answered that religion has an impact on their satisfaction, something that is not captured in the service quality models developed by Parasuraman et al., (1988) and Gro¨nroos (1982; 1990).

However, Othman and Owen (2002) added the religion factor and named the variable compliance with Shari’ah as an additional service quality dimension in the Servqual model developed by Parasuraman et al. (1988). Even though Othman and Owen (2002) have identified religion as one of the antecedents, their model did not include a technical quality dimension (Gro¨nroos model) as one of the antecedents to customer satisfaction. Therefore, there is a gap in the model improvement whereby all the three models could be integrated to become a parsimonious comprehensive model.

In addition, the analysis of the interview also noted that one of the respondents had different opinions regarding credit cards issuers which he wanted to use due to the level of religiosity as mentioned by Assadi (2003) which influences on the consumers’ cognition and behaviour. He believes that the fully-fledged IB is better at implementing Shari’ah contracts than Islamic bank subsidiaries whose parent companies are conventional banks.

The results support the claims that religion has a positive impact on ICC satisfaction. These results show that the level of commitment in the respondents' attitudes is very high and can be categorised as internalisation,which means that deep-seated attitudes are internalised and become part of the respondents’ value system. These attitudes are very difficult to change because they are so important to the respondents (Abbas et al. 2003). However, their impact would decrease, as the level of religiosity is higher, as explained by one of the respondents. In summary, the findings from the analysis revealed that the ICC users, as consumers of financial services, choose Islamic cards as a symbolic consumption in adhering to Islamic

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rules and regulations. They preferred the ICC because they perceived that there are differences between the ICC and the CCC. The ICC issuers (in this case the IBs) have managed to differentiate their credit cards services from the CCC issuers. The IBs target Muslims who see taking and giving interest as a sin.

Even though the ICC issuers differentiated their products by creating awareness of the prohibition of interest in the Muslim society and the need to embrace ICC, the Islamic banks must still ensure that they can bring in new customers while maintaining their existing customers and increasing their brand equity by offering high service quality, which leads to satisfaction. The ICC users’ satisfaction has been identified as similar to those with conventional credit cards, however, the religion factor is deemed very important for ICC users. The preliminary findings in the semi-structured interviews will be facilitated from the main findings of the survey in phase 2 and 3.