title: How do institutional tensions on online shopping in Saudi Arabia produce moral emotions that shape consumption practices?
Creators: name: Alrefay, Adel
Publisher: name: University of Reading
Year: 2023

description: Significant changes in consumer behaviour have occurred over the last several years as a direct 
consequence of the growing prevalence of Internet usage in people’s everyday lives (Eroglu, 
2014). The Muslim consumer markets are progressively embracing e-commerce; hence, that 
statement is especially accurate for those markets (Kamarulzaman et al., 2016). Despite this, 
whilst given sudden and easy access to a wide range of consumer goods, traditional religious 
and family values may be challenged and/or may reassert themselves (Kebah et al., 2019b). 
The need to reflect on online consumption as right or wrong makes it a moral endeavour.
However, there is a paucity of research on moral emotions and behavioural tendencies (Haidt, 
2003a) shaped by social institutional logics (Thornton and Ocasio, 2008) that play a role in 
Muslim online shoppers’ shopping choices and practices. This is particularly problematic when 
considering the institutional logics of the market, Islam, and the family and their unique 
complexity (Ghaffari et al., 2019; Jafari and Süerdem, 2012; Husain et al., 2019). They might 
generate and work to understand them through studies done in other markets. Thus, the primary 
objective of this line of study is to investigate the ways in which religious beliefs, market 
conditions, and family dynamics all interact to influence the emotions and action tendencies of 
Muslim online buyers. Hence, to get this information, interviews with 34 Muslim online 
consumers, more particularly Saudi online consumers, were conducted using a 
phenomenological methodology (Thompson et al., 1989). The institutional logic perspective 
(as an enabling theory), the discourse theory (Phillips et al., 2004; Jørgensen and Phillips, 
2002), and the moral emotions theory were used to interpret the interviews’ most prominent
topics, which were moral emotions.
The findings of this research provided evidence that moral emotions, including 
embarrassment, guilt, and fear, strongly influence Muslims’ Internet buying behaviour. 
Because of the linkages that these feelings have to the institutional logics of the market, Islam, 
and the family (Friedland, 2018; Thornton et al., 2012; Corciolani, 2023), the cultural values 
and norms of Muslim societies have a deep and profound influence on the emotions that people 
feel and the way they deal with them. For instance, despite the fact that the institutional logics 
of the market structure Muslim online shoppers’ decisions to a certain level (they determine 
what actions are legitimate under that institution) (Husain et al., 2019), such as a desire to save 
money, be a part of the group, and self-expression, yet the concern about breaching the Islamic
logics that represent their Islamic identity, such as obeying their parents and not practising
polytheism, conflicts with this line of thinking. Furthermore, when purchasing expensive items 
or clothes seen as immodest, members of one’s own family may try to discourage or criticise 
Internet purchases altogether (Wong, 2007; Wilson and Liu, 2011b; Wilson and Liu, 2011a). 
This is especially the case if the items in question are seen as religiously and culturally 
inappropriate, which can lead to undesirable consequences such as damaging the family’s 
image and reputation (Bowen, 2014). This results in tension between the institutional logic
(Greenwood et al., 2011) of the market and the institutional logic of the family, which puts a 
larger premium on social and cultural norms.
In addition, the interpretation of the data reveals that the action tendencies (Haidt, 
2003a) of Muslim Internet customers tend to be more focused on dealing with the moral 
feelings of embarrassment, guilt, and fear than the respective logics. This is shown by the fact 
that their online behaviour is centred around these emotions. In other words, Muslim online 
consumers do not deliberately try to solve institutional complexity via logics (Ghaffari et al., 
2019); they negotiate it via their emotions. For instance, they made use of the embedded 
agencies (Hwang et al., 2019; Lawrence et al., 2009; Thornton et al., 2012) to buy and consume 
products in secret in order to deal with feelings of guilt for purchasing items that are in conflict 
with their religious or cultural values (such as clothing that is considered immodest or culturally 
inappropriate products), the emotion of shame that resulted from the fear of being judged or 
criticised by other people, especially members of their family or members of their community, 
and finally the feeling of fear that was produced as a result of their deep-seated concern that 
Allah would punish them for disobeying one of their religious obligations. These action 
tendencies (Haidt, 2003a) are demonstrative of the complicated interaction between the market, 
the logics of Islam, and/or the logics of the family, as well as the influence of the moral 
emotions caused by those institutional conflicts on their consumer practices (Graham et al., 
2018; Haidt, 2003a; Thornton et al., 2012; Thornton and Ocasio, 2008; Corciolani, 2023; 
Husain et al., 2019; Greenwood et al., 2011). 
Furthermore, as this study looked at how the market, Islam, and the family influence 
Muslim Internet shoppers’ moral emotions and behavioural actions, it underscored that both 
the emotions of customers and the logic of institutions are socially produced and are not 
universal (Von Scheve, 2017; Thornton et al., 2012). In other words, Muslim Internet
consumers’ cultural background, social environment, and personal experiences all play a role
in their interpretation of and response to these institutional logics, the tension between them, 
and the emotions they elicit (Husain et al., 2019; Sandıkcı and Jafari, 2013; Jafari and Süerdem, 
2012). This research not only adds to the existing body of knowledge on Muslim consumption 
but also provides an important contribution to the existing body of research on consumer 
emotions, institutional logic, and digital marketing. Specifically, it demonstrates how 
competing logics in a particular society can affect the emotions and behavioural tendencies of 
customers operating within the context of online consumption practices.