Determinants of Bottled Water Continuance-Use Intention in High-Inequality and Low Access Contexts

Abstract

Nigeria is a country where access to municipal supply is among the lowest in the world, thus its population depends very much on continuance-use of bottled water (BW) for access to safe drinking water. This study investigates the intention for continuance-use behaviour of BW consumers in the country based on inequality brought by their high demographic- and socio-economic background. The need to study this issue arises because it is unclear as to how the inequalities, BW consumption habits and risk exposures affect consumers’ continuance-use intention (CUI). Analyses of self-reported data from 365 consumers from Middle Belt Region of Nigeria, using the binary logistic model show that the most likely respondents who belonged to the CUI group will be those respondents who have their postgraduate qualifications compared to those who were older, those within the highest income group, those who reported using BW for less than ten times a month or more than five years, and those who were exposed to BW quality information. Respondents’ gender was found to show no relationship with BW CUI.