Abstract:

In providing the assurance to Muslim consumers on the halal quality of products and services, halal suppliers and manufacturers must abide to the halal quality regulation enforced by either the public or semi-public or private regulatory bodies offering halal certification. These regulatory bodies play an important role within the halal supply chain as their operational efficiency may affect the efficiency and the competitiveness of the halal industry. As the issuance of halal certificates is dependent on the practices of the certifying regulatory bodies a strategic approach to halal industry competiveness should attempt to have a holistic view of the halal certification system. This research seeks to uncover the practices of halal certification (HC) using the work systems method as the framework for inquiry to give a holistic perspective of the contextual situation in the halal certification landscape.  Here, the HC system is treated as a special case of a supply chain work system using the Malaysian HC system as the case study. For the inquiry process a multi-stakeholder perspective of the supply and demand side of HC was undertaken where face-to-face interviews with both of the supply side and demand side of halal certificates were conducted in addition to document reviews. A qualitative analysis of the problems, opportunities and constraints vetted from the findings with stakeholders is mapped into a halal value chain and halal work systems snapshots to give a comprehensive view of the operational efficiency of the HC system.