Financial market segmantation / anapplication on Islamic market

The world has witnessed during the last decades important changes, which represented by the information revolution and globalization. Those changes have followed by competition between markets and product differentiation factors, which have developed and become the issue of the age. The method of segmentation of the islamic financial markets in modern world has become the cornerstone of any strategy formulated to be performed in a modern way. This method will fulfil the aims of manufacturers and marketers on the one hand, and consumers or users on the other hand. This process is useful for consumers because it meets their needs and satisfying their purchasing desire according to their financial abilities. The study handles the dimensions of financial variables such as bank capital assets, inflation rate, interest rate borrowing, broad money growth, deposit interest rate, lending interest rate, domestic credit private sector, and economic variables such as GDP per capita, GDP growth, tax revenue, exports of goods and services, imports of goods and services, and the segmentation of those dimensions to the Islamic financial markets and finally advantages of markets segmentation together with their weak points.In order to apply the study and tests its hypotheses, were selected Islamic countries markets all over the world, as well as it is most important markets in the life of Islamic community, also has very strong relation with the new development in modern islamic world.The objective of this thesis is to contribute to the literature by examining the above mentioned issues with respect to the islamic financial markets. In particular the thesis seeks to address the following questions: • Can the Islamic markets be segmented by financial indicators comparing with the world marktes, if so. to what degree? • If the financial Islamic market can be segmented by financial indicators, which economecial indicators can discriminantes the segments. According to above mentioned, the study puts a hypothetical model which reflects the nature of the influential relationship between dimensions of financial variables and segmentation of the islamic financial markets. Additionally, hypothetical model has been interpreted through a number of hypotheses which have been tested by two analysis means for SPSS, such as cluster analysis and discriminant analysis. The SPSS statistical package program was used for clustering Islamic countries according to those financial indicators which are selected from World Bank Site. Variables which are adequately available from different sources are exchange rate, stock traded, bank capital to assets ratio, inflation rate, real interest rate, broad money growth, deposit interest rate, lending interest rate and domestic credit. By this we would understand whether the financial markets of Islamic countries could be segmented or not. After segmenting the İslamic countries according to their financial indicators into two different clusters, it is useful to learn which economical indicators discriminate these two segments perfectly. Thus, the differences between two segments will appear clearly and repeating this research after a reasonable period will show the changing trends of these segments. Discriminant analysis is used to this purpose. Also the analysis will present an equation which can be used to understand the affiliation of each country between two segments. The results of the statisical analysis indicate that bank capital assets, inflation rate, interest rate borrowing, broad money growth, deposit interest rate, lending interest rate and domestic credit private sector can segment the islamic financial market significantly, while economic variables could not segment the islamic financial markets.On the other hand, some economic indicators can discriminate the two different clusters such as (GDP per capita, GDP growth, tax revenue, exports of goods and services and imports of goods and services ). Keywords: Market Segmentation, Dimensions of Financial and Economic variables, Concept of Market segmentation, the Market Segmentation of the Customer.