Christian Prayer Practices and Beverage Consumption in Burkina Faso: Implications for Market Innovation, Social Behavior, and Sustainable Development

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether prayer practice in the African context can explain previously Christian consumption behavior variation in the particular sector of industrial beverages. This exploratory research is focused on the postpositivist epistemological posture. It is a mixed method combining a qualitative approach and a quantitative approach. The research results indicate that prayer practice is strongly associated to consumption behavior. In addition, it is found that social class is a moderator of the relationship between prayer practice and consumption behavior. The findings imply that there should be a rigorous innovative segmentation of the beverage market following some psychosocial criteria and contextual cultural criteria in order to meet consumers’ core needs and real expectations. Using an exploratory approach, this research shows the relationship between prayer practices, social class and consumption behavior in a context where some specific psychosocial and cultural factors affect consumer’s choices and decisions.