From conventional to Islamic banks: Factors affecting customer interests and decision making in selecting banks

The phenomenon of increasing customers of take-over financing from conventional banks to Islamic banks is an interesting trend to study. This research purpose is to investigate the influence of murabahah financing margins, customer religiosity to customer interest and decision making. The method used is a sequential mixed method. The instrument quantitative is a questionnaire, and the qualitative method is an interview. 199 pensioner customers participated in the survey. Internal consistency is measured by Cronbach’s alpha value. The accuracy of the structural equation modeling (SEM) and hypothesis testing was evaluated using AMOS version 23. The research findings indicate, there was a significant influence between customer religiosity on customer interest and customer interest on decision making. Meanwhile, the murabahah financing margin has no significant influence on customer interest and decision making, as well as between customer religiosity and decision making. Murabahah financing margins and customer religiosity have an influence of significance when mediated by the variable of customer interest. In conclusion, Murabahah financing margin, and customer religiosity does not have a direct significant influence on decision making without being mediated by the variable of customer interest. These results indicate that Islamic bank managers can take advantage of this research variable to increase customer interest so that customer decision making also increases. This study has practical implications for conventional banks and sharia banks. Sharia banks are an opportunity to attract customers from conventional banks, while conventional banks are a challenge because their customers have the potential to take over Islamic banks. AcknowledgmentsThe authors are grateful to the Rector of the State Islamic Institute of Sultan Amai Gorontalo, and the State Islamic University of Alauddin Makassar for funding this research collaboratively, and to the respondents who have taken the time to fill out the research questionnaire so that research data can be collected.