Investment decisions in digital sukuk in the time of COVID-19: do tax incentives matter?

ABSTRACT Although the sukuk market has maintained remarkable growth momentum over the recent years, the optimism has been significantly moderated by the abrupt shock due to the pervasive COVID-19 pandemic. However, sukuk can be used as an effective financing option by governments to overcome a fiscal deficit and to support those adversely affected by the pandemic. Sukuk Prihatin (SP), the first-ever digital sukuk issued by the Government of Malaysia, has launched to engage citizens to contribute to the country's recovery efforts in the wake of COVID-19. Therefore, this study aims to probe the motivation that influences retail investors’ inclination to invest in such innovative sukuk. Based on an integrated model of planned behavior (TPB) and social cognitive theories (SCT) and data gathered from 279 retail investors, this research found that attitude towards SP investment (SPI), social norms, perceived control regarding SPI, sukuk features and digitization are significant determinants of investors’ willingness to invest in SP. It also revealed that tax incentives-moderated interactions of social norms, perceived control and sukuk features on SPI intention are significant.