Understanding the role of trust and risk perception in the water purchasing intention from a small-scale independent provider: The case of sachet water at the markets in Cotonou, Benin

The interest of governments and the international community in small-scale private service providers (SPSPs) in drinking water supply is increasing as 75% of the urban population get drinking water from these operators. However, they are confronted with the common stereotype of being exploiters of the poor by providing overpriced and low-quality water due to a lack of regulation. Limited literature is exploring how privatized, packaged water is changing the behaviour of drinking water in urban cities in Africa. This master thesis addresses this gap i) by assessing consumers’ perceived risk as well as its role in the purchase decision from an independent water vendor, ii) by exploring the role of trust in the vendor as a strategy of dealing with the risk of water- related diseases, and iii) its factors of consistency. To answer these questions, I i) apply and integrate a trust model in a holistic model describing the trust-based decision-making process a consumer uses when making a sachet water purchase from a given vendor, and ii) test the proposed model with quantitative data collected during eight weeks of field research on the markets of Cotonou, Benin. On the empirical level, the relevance of familiarity, perceived hygiene measures, and consumer’s disposition to trust and of perceived benefit to purchase intention is, along with the null relationship between consumer trust, perceived risk and intentions, the most important contribution of this study to the knowledge of everyday purchase behaviour. The discussion of the conceptualisation of the trust in a different cultural context reveals important issues for the study of trust