Salesforce product knowledge in Islamic financial institutions; development and validation of measurement scale

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to develop and validate scale to measure the “product knowledge of salesforce in Islamic financial institutions”. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 371 responses were collected from the salesforce of Islamic financial institutions in the United Arab Emirates. Study adopted both exploratory and confirmatory approach with fundamental principles of Islamic finance. Content validity test and factor analysis are employed to refine measurement items and define as well as validate the scale, respectively. Findings: Total three dimensions were extracted, i.e. “System”, “Features” and “Contracts” through “exploratory factor analysis” (EFA), and evidence of validation of measurement scale/construct was reported through “confirmatory factor analysis” (CFA). Research limitations/implications: The span of the study is limited to a single country. Future studies are suggested to employ the newly developed scale/construct in the research frameworks and obtain the overall model fit. Practical implications: The scope of developed and validated measurement scale is broad and can be applied in any kind of Islamic financial institutions in which the study requires capturing product knowledge of salesforce with special reference to peculiar characteristics of Islamic financial institutions. Originality/value: While there is ample literature addressing the issues of competence and need for capacity building among Islamic banking practitioners in general, little has been explored with special reference to the salesforce, their degree of knowledge about the product they offer to the customers and a scale to measure their knowledge that envelopes the specific features of Islamic finance. These gaps serve as justification for undertaking this study.