From Consumer Motives to Ethical Choices: The Mediating Role of Tabṣirah in Muslim Fashion Consumption

Abstract

This study examines the mediating role of tabṣirah in fashion purchase decisions among middle-class Muslim housewives in Bone Regency, South Sulawesi. Drawing on the Engel–Blackwell–Miniard (EBM) Consumer Behavior Model and Mediation Theory, the study investigates how consumer motivation, information search, and attitudes toward fashion products shape purchase decisions through religious–spiritual reflection. A quantitative explanatory design was employed using data from 151 respondents selected through cluster sampling. The data were analyzed using PLS-SEM to assess the measurement and structural models. The findings show that consumer motivation, information search, and fashion product attitudes significantly influence tabṣirah, while tabṣirah strongly affects fashion purchase decisions. Mediation analysis demonstrates that tabṣirah fully mediates the relationships between these psychological factors and purchase decisions, indicating that their effects on purchasing behavior operate through moral and spiritual evaluation. These findings position tabṣirah as an important internal mechanism linking cognitive and affective consumer processes with ethical and Shariah-oriented purchasing behavior. The study extends Islamic consumer behavior theory by integrating spiritual awareness into the EBM framework and offers practical implications for promoting more reflective, responsible, and Shariah-compliant fashion consumption.