Sixteen Editions of GIMAC: What the Research Archive Tells Us

Sixteen editions. Nine countries. More than six hundred peer-reviewed papers. As GIMAC prepares to convene its seventeenth conference in Alanya, it is worth pausing to ask what the accumulated archive of the previous sixteen actually shows.

The answer is both more coherent and more surprising than most practitioners in Islamic marketing realise.

The First Phase: Establishing Legitimacy (Editions 1–5)

The early editions of GIMAC were, in retrospect, primarily engaged in a legitimation project. Islamic marketing was not yet recognised as a distinct academic discipline. Papers from the first five conferences — held between 2009 and 2013 — were disproportionately concerned with definitional questions: What distinguishes Islamic marketing from conventional marketing? Is it a separate discipline or a subfield? How should Shariah principles be operationalised in marketing practice?

This phase produced the foundational frameworks that the field still draws on: Al-Buraey’s model of Islamic management, Sandikci and Ger’s work on Islamic consumption, and a cluster of papers on halal certification standards that anticipated the regulatory debates that would follow.

The Second Phase: Market Mapping (Editions 6–10)

By the sixth and seventh editions, the legitimation battles were largely won. Islamic marketing had established its presence in mainstream journals. The research agenda shifted toward market mapping: quantifying Muslim consumer markets, documenting consumer behaviour across different Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority contexts, and examining the halal economy as a distinct analytical object.

This phase was characterised by large-scale survey research. Sample sizes grew. Geographic diversity expanded. Papers presented at GIMAC during this period provided the empirical foundations for the now-standard figures on Islamic finance assets (approaching $4 trillion), halal food market size ($2 trillion+), and Muslim travel spending ($220 billion).

The weakness of this phase was its tendency toward description over explanation. Knowing the size of the halal food market does not, by itself, tell you how it works, who wins within it, or what forces are shaping it.

The Third Phase: Depth and Critique (Editions 11–16)

The most recent five editions show a field that has grown comfortable enough with its own foundations to interrogate them. Three developments are particularly notable:

Qualitative and ethnographic methods have gained ground. The dominance of survey-based quantitative research has been partially offset by a wave of papers using ethnographic observation, netnography, and depth interviews. This work has produced richer accounts of what halal consumption means in practice — how Muslims negotiate identity, community, and faith through their consumer choices.

Critical perspectives have emerged. Papers questioning whether “Islamic marketing” inadvertently reinforces consumerism, commodifies religion, or serves corporate interests more than Muslim community interests have appeared with increasing frequency. This critical turn mirrors a broader movement within marketing scholarship.

The geography has diversified. Early GIMAC research was disproportionately focused on Malaysia, the Gulf, and Turkey. Recent editions show growing representation from sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, and Muslim diaspora communities in Europe and North America — populations that are large, understudied, and commercially significant.

What the Archive Does Not Contain

Gaps in a research archive can be as revealing as its contents. GIMAC’s proceedings remain thin on:

• Supply-side analysis: How halal producers, certifiers, and retailers actually operate. Most research looks at consumers; far less examines the industries serving them.
• Longitudinal studies: The field’s methods are predominantly cross-sectional. We have many snapshots; we have few films.
• Policy impact research: Islamic marketing scholarship has influenced industry practice. Its influence on policy — regulation, standards, trade frameworks — is less documented.

What GIMAC 17 Can Add

Alanya in October 2026 arrives at a moment when the field is mature enough to be self-critical and energetic enough to be ambitious. The questions that the first sixteen editions opened — about identity, justice, technology, sustainability, and the relationship between faith and commerce — are not close to resolution. They have become more urgent.

The archive is not a conclusion. It is a foundation.