Religious Orientation and Alcohol Purchase Intention: an Empirical Investigation of Sri Lankan Male Consumers

Abstract

Increasing level of alcohol consumption around the world has been continuing for many years and Sri Lanka is also facing the same terrible situation. Evidently, liquor consumption in Sri Lanka was approximately 73 million liters in 2016 and the total liquor consumption among Sri Lankans has also been increasing in recent past. Though alcohol consumption raises many health and social issues, prevalence of alcohol consumption among the Sri Lankan male consumers (age between 17-64) has grown from 26% to 39.6% during the time period of 2008 – 2014. Therefore, examining the predictors of alcohol usage appears important and timely. Among various predictors, religious orientation seems to be much important, yet, less examined in extant literature. Therefore, this study aims at investigating the impact of religious orientation on alcohol purchase intention of Sri Lankan male consumers. The independent variables of the study were Intrinsic Religiosity, Extrinsic (Social) Religiosity and Extrinsic (Personal) Religiosity while Alcohol Purchase Intention was the dependent variable. The study was primarily quantitative in nature whereas the study design was single cross-sectional survey. The sample size of the study was 250 which was selected based on purposive sampling technique. The unit of analysis was individual male alcohol consumers in Sri Lanka and the data collection instrument was a self-administered questionnaire. Data was analyzed using structural equation modeling and findings revealed that all three independent variables have a significant impact on alcohol purchase intention. Findings of the study make sense to policy makers in using religious orientations to restrain alcohol consumption. Especially the education system and religious organizations are urged to use these religious orientations to design communication campaigns aiming people in Sri Lanka as a way of discouraging alcohol consumption.