Analysis of Intention to Use Islamic Crowdfunding among Muslim Entrepreneurs in Malaysia: A Conceptual Framework extending UTAUT

Crowdfunding has emerged as an alternative digital financing mechanism that connects entrepreneurs with potential sources of funding beyond conventional financial institutions. In Malaysia, the development of Islamic crowdfunding has created opportunities for Muslim entrepreneurs to explore financing through platforms that incorporate Islamic financing principles. However, the availability of Islamic crowdfunding does not necessarily translate into entrepreneurs’ willingness to use it. Understanding the determinants of behavioural intention is therefore important for explaining the adoption of Islamic crowdfunding particularly from the perspective of financing seekers rather than funders or investors, who have received comparatively more research attention to date. This conceptual paper proposes an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework to examine the behavioural intention to use Islamic crowdfunding among Muslim entrepreneurs in Malaysia. The framework incorporates performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and technology readiness with the latter represented by optimism, innovativeness, discomfort and insecurity. By integrating technology readiness with UTAUT, this study seeks to provide a more comprehensive explanation of entrepreneurs’ intention to adopt Islamic crowdfunding. The proposed framework contributes to the literature by incorporating an individual-level technology predisposition into the UTAUT perspective within the emerging context of Islamic crowdfunding.

Islamic Crowdfunding; Behavioural Intention; UTAUT; Technology Readiness; Muslim Entrepreneurs; Malaysia

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