Barriers to the adoption of Islamic banking: a bibliometric analysis

Purpose: The adoption of Islamic banking (AIB) among customers has remained in the limelight due to its significance in the strategic marketing of Islamic banking (IB) services. Although researchers have devoted a significant effort to investigating the drivers of AIB, little is known about the exclusive barriers hampering AIB. Accordingly, this paper aims to examine the underlying barriers to the adoption of Islamic banking (BAIB) and categorize them into different research clusters using bibliometric analysis. Design/methodology/approach: The data was collected from 132 articles published in Scopus database between 2007 and 2022 and analyzed using VOSviewer to explore BAIB. Findings: The findings clustered the barriers to AIB into three groups, namely, efficiency of IB products and services (service quality, Shariah compliance level, availability of services), behavioral (knowledge and awareness, religiosity, trust and intention) and personal attributes (innovativeness, understanding of mobile/internet banking and technology acceptance) factors of Islamic bank customers. Research limitations/implications: The sample size of this study is relatively small, as the data was imported from Scopus database only to perform Bibliometric analysis. Future studies may use larger sample size by retrieving data from other databases such as Web of Science and PubMed to develop better research clusters of BAIB. Practical implications: The dynamic business environment and unprecedented changes in consumer behavior require managers creating suitable conditions to foster adoption of their services and capture a better market share. Originality/value: Following the findings of this research, future research avenues are identified for strategic embeddedness and global development of IB by overcoming BAIB.