Assessing Halal Certification Compliance Through Entrepreneurial Search Patterns Within Indonesia’s Islamic Legal Framework

Abstract

Understanding how entrepreneurs engage with regulatory information is essential for improving the implementation of mandatory halal certification. While previous studies have predominantly relied on surveys and interviews, little attention has been paid to digital behavioural evidence generated through online search activities. This study addresses this gap by investigating entrepreneurial regulatory engagement using Google search behaviour related to Indonesia's halal certification system. A total of 559 search queries were extracted from Google Keyword Planner and refined into 392 analytical queries through lexical normalization and duplicate removal. The dataset was analysed using search-intent classification, thematic analysis, descriptive statistics, and Python-based data processing. The findings indicate that informational searches dominate entrepreneurial search behaviour, followed by navigational, transactional, and procedural searches, suggesting that entrepreneurs primarily seek regulatory knowledge and institutional guidance before engaging in certification procedures. Thematic analysis further reveals that certification processes, institutional information, and general halal knowledge represent the principal information needs. This study proposes a Behavioural Information-Seeking Framework for Halal Certification, demonstrating that digital search behaviour reflects successive stages of regulatory engagement from information acquisition to compliance action. The findings contribute to the literature by extending search-intent analytics to Islamic economic governance and provide practical insights for strengthening digital communication strategies and evidence-based halal governance.