The thesis "Purchasing tendency of consumers buying fair-trade products" examines aspects that influence consumer behaviour when buying fair-trade products. The thesis is based on a combination of two research methods - secondary data analysis and semi-structured interview. Secondary research uses data from a survey focused on the purchase, preferences and attitudes of fair-trade that was carried out by the Institute of evaluations and social analysis (INESAN). The quantitative part consist of two texts. The first part concentrates on finding aspects that can play a role in consumers' preference in purchasing fair-trade products. The second part concentrates on the purchase itself. It focuses on the extent to which consumers' purchase of fair- trade products is planned or impulsive. The qualitative part is based on quantitative analysis and focuses on established facts in detail. The thesis concludes that buying fair-trade products is influenced by social aspects, quality, price, availability and awareness of fair-trade products and the level of planning depends on the situation.

<p>Tobacco kills 11,500 of its consumers every day, half of them living in developing countries. But there’s more to the picture, namely the producer perspective which show the consequences of tobacco growing for the small-scale farmer. In this paper I mean to investigate the labour conditions of tobacco growers in the world’s second largest tobacco producing country, Brazil. I also intend to examine the Fair Trade movement, with particular attention to FLO (Fairtrade Labelling Organisation). Finally I try to merge the difficulties of tobacco growing with the institution of Fair Trade, expressed by the FLO standards, as an alternative way out of the tobacco growing problems. The method for this investigation is to examine and compare secondary literature, reports and books, already written on the subject.</p><p>The first issue show a double-side situation, where Brazilian tobacco growers live under extremely crude labour conditions, but also a state where no other agricultural alternatives are available, since tobacco is a highly lucrative and beneficial crop to cultivate, especially for the small-scale farmer. Secondly this paper proposes, thorough the laws of institutional theory, that Fair Trade, especially the FLO standards, constitutes a highly stable and reliable institution, clearly benefiting international trade. Finally this paper concludes that Fairtrade labelled tobacco would not only reduce the problems of tobacco growing, but would also simplify the problematic transformation process, caused by tougher tobacco control policies, from tobacco growing to alternative crop cultivation. In addition, my paper states that Fair Trade as an institution could spread egalitarian principles to other parts of society, which in turn will create formal egalitarian institutions. However, as my interviews with FLO and tobacco companies show, all of this will not become a reality until there is a significant increase in the demand for Fairtrade labelled tobacco products.</p>

Tobacco kills 11,500 of its consumers every day, half of them living in developing countries. But there’s more to the picture, namely the producer perspective which show the consequences of tobacco growing for the small-scale farmer. In this paper I mean to investigate the labour conditions of tobacco growers in the world’s second largest tobacco producing country, Brazil. I also intend to examine the Fair Trade movement, with particular attention to FLO (Fairtrade Labelling Organisation). Finally I try to merge the difficulties of tobacco growing with the institution of Fair Trade, expressed by the FLO standards, as an alternative way out of the tobacco growing problems. The method for this investigation is to examine and compare secondary literature, reports and books, already written on the subject. The first issue show a double-side situation, where Brazilian tobacco growers live under extremely crude labour conditions, but also a state where no other agricultural alternatives are available, since tobacco is a highly lucrative and beneficial crop to cultivate, especially for the small-scale farmer. Secondly this paper proposes, thorough the laws of institutional theory, that Fair Trade, especially the FLO standards, constitutes a highly stable and reliable institution, clearly benefiting international trade. Finally this paper concludes that Fairtrade labelled tobacco would not only reduce the problems of tobacco growing, but would also simplify the problematic transformation process, caused by tougher tobacco control policies, from tobacco growing to alternative crop cultivation. In addition, my paper states that Fair Trade as an institution could spread egalitarian principles to other parts of society, which in turn will create formal egalitarian institutions. However, as my interviews with FLO and tobacco companies show, all of this will not become a reality until there is a significant increase in the demand for Fairtrade labelled tobacco products.

This MA Report explains the impact coffee cooperatives are having on the Ethiopian coffee industry. It analyses how the current multi-billion dollar global coffee industry began in what remains one of the world’s poorest countries, where arabica coffee was discovered sometime before the sixth century. It explains the emergence of coffee cooperatives historically, as well as their present role offering an alternative to the country’s previous reliance on the assistance of Western nongovernmental organizations with their possible negative impact, including arguments they enforced a dependency on Ethiopia that impeded the country’s development. In discussing coffee buyers and coffee consumption, the report focuses on America, although the same points made apply to the vast majority of Western countries. The report investigates whether cooperatives offer a business model sufficient to achieve self-sustainability for Ethiopian coffee farmers, and discusses how the interaction between and among cooperatives, unions, the Ethiopian government, and specialty coffee buyers in America is enabling Ethiopian coffee to increase its leverage on the international coffee market, generating essential income for the struggling Ethiopian economy. The report focuses on the following areas: the connection between poverty and linkage to markets; how coffee travels from smallholding farmers in Ethiopia to be sold in American cities like Austin, Texas; the emergence of certification systems like Fair Trade to protect farmers and ensure they receive a fair price for their produce, as well as the chain of commerce that Fair Trade is part of; the quality and characteristics of Ethiopian coffee; and whether cooperatives and unions can remain true to the original goals of serving their farmer members—not turning into purely profit-orientated businesses. While this report focuses on Ethiopia, it dissects and debates economic trends that usually affect developing nations producing coffee. It explores the logistics and ethics of prices paid in the West for coffee from developing countries like Ethiopia. The report ultimately aims to enlighten readers so they’re able to make an ethical purchase of a good quality coffee, while aware of the myriad factors and trends affecting the international coffee market. / text

Submitted by Thiago Ferreira Prediger (thiagoprediger@gmail.com) on 2015-04-24T15:28:34Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Thiago Prediger - Exploring Attitudes and Behavioral Intention of Brazilian consumers towards Fair Trade and Fair Trade products.pdf: 1053923 bytes, checksum: aa7aeb5347c8b1046a0294506593cce5 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luana Rodrigues (luana.rodrigues@fgv.br) on 2015-04-24T15:54:40Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Thiago Prediger - Exploring Attitudes and Behavioral Intention of Brazilian consumers towards Fair Trade and Fair Trade products.pdf: 1053923 bytes, checksum: aa7aeb5347c8b1046a0294506593cce5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-24T16:10:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Thiago Prediger - Exploring Attitudes and Behavioral Intention of Brazilian consumers towards Fair Trade and Fair Trade products.pdf: 1053923 bytes, checksum: aa7aeb5347c8b1046a0294506593cce5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Global sales of FT products have been growing consistently in the last years. According to the FLO, they jumped from less than €1 billion in 2004 to around €5,5 billion in 2013. Although the movement is still beginning in Brazil, some efforts aiming the institutionalization of FT are already being done. For instance, Schneider (2012) shows that there is a potential market for the FT products in Brazil, however the it is still not well developed. Therefore, there is a need to better understand the variables affecting purchase intention of these product. Past studies have identified factors that are considered predictors of Intention to Buy FT products. Considering these factors, this study aims to determine the variables that are most related to the consumers’ intention to buy and willingness to pay for FT products in Brazil. Based on the answers of 124 respondents, results show that intention to buy FT products in Brazil is linked to the consumers’ ethical consumption attitudes, product interest and quality, low skepticism and positive interest regarding the FT concept. The results also showed two antagonistic clusters of consumers regarding their attitudes. The group 'Activists' have positive attitudes, high intention to buy and willingness to pay. On the other hand, the 'Unbelievers' have negative attitudes, low intention to buy and are not willing to pay more. Based on the results of this study, organizations and individuals who aim to foster the FT market in Brazil can better understand the consumer and take more assertive marketing decisions, considering the relevance of factors affecting Intention to Buy, and differences between consumers. / As vendas globais de produtos FT cresceram de forma consistente nos últimos anos. De acordo com a FLO, as vendas cresceram de menos de € 1 bilhão em 2004 para cerca de € 5,5 bilhões em 2013. Apesar do movimento ainda estar engatinhando no Brasil, alguns esforços visando a institucionalização da FT estão sendo tomados. Por exemplo, o Schneider (2012) mostrou que existe um mercado potencial para os produtos FT no Brasil. Entretanto, ele ainda não é bem desenvolvido. Portanto, há uma necessidade de compreender melhor as variáveis que afetam a intenção de compra destes produtos. Estudos anteriores identificaram fatores que são considerados previsores de intenção de comprar produtos FT. Considerando esses fatores, o presente estudo tem como objetivo determinar as variáveis que estão mais relacionadas com a intenção de compra e disposição para pagar por produtos FT no Brasil. Com base nas respostas de 124 entrevistados, os resultados mostram que a intenção de compra de produtos FT no Brasil está ligada a atitudes de consumo éticas dos consumidores, o interesse e qualidade dos produtos, baixo ceticismo e percepção de relevância acerca do conceito FT. Os resultados também mostraram dois grupos antagônicos de consumidores a respeito de suas atitudes. O grupo dos 'ativistas' tem atitudes positivas, de alta intenção de compra e disposição a pagar mais. Por outro lado, os 'incrédulos' têm atitudes negativas, baixa intenção de compra e não estão dispostos a pagar mais. Com base nos resultados deste estudo, organizações e indivíduos que visam fomentar o mercado FT no Brasil podem entender melhor o consumidor e tomar decisões de marketing mais assertivas, considerando a relevância dos fatores que afetam a intenção de comprar, como também as diferenças entre os consumidores.

Fair Trade is an international movement which aims to strengthen the livelihoods of producers in the South, and to give the opportunity for conscious customers in the North to buy socially and environmentally friendly products. The conventional trade system is criticised, as well as the efficiency of aid to support developing countries. The core idea of Fair Trade is therefore “Trade not Aid”, where marginalised producers are given the chance to improve their living conditions by fair wages, market access and improved working conditions. The aim of the thesis is to investigate the potential of Fair Trade to contribute to sustainable development and empowerment, which therefore also act as the theoretical frameworks for this thesis. Sustainable development is investigated by its division into economic, social and environmental sustainable development. Fair Trade is furthermore investigated through specific key elements connected to these theories, by performing interviews with managers and producers within five separate Fair Trade organisations in India and Sri Lanka.  The main findings within this study reveal how Fair Trade does have the potential to contribute to sustainable development and empowerment to a certain degree. It is specifically prominent regarding social development and empowerment, while economic development occurs mainly on an individual level. The contribution to environmental development is also possible to detect, even though it remains clear how the initiative to do so might not always be fully related to environmental causes. / Fair Trade är en internationell rörelse som fokuserar på att förbättra livssituationen för producenter i Syd, och att ge medvetna konsumenter i Nord möjligheten att köpa produkter med miljöhänsyn och socialt ansvar. Det konventionella handelssystemet kritiseras, såväl som effektiviteten för bistånd att stödja utvecklingsländer. Grundtanken med Fair Trade är därmed “Trade not Aid”, då marginaliserade producenter får möjligheten att förbättra sina livssituationer genom rättvisa löner, tillgång till en marknad och förbättrade arbetsförhållanden. Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka Fair Trades potential att bidra till hållbar utveckling och empowerment, vilket därmed är det teoretiska ramverket för den här studien. Hållbar utveckling undersöks även genom att dela upp det i ekonomisk, social och miljömässig hållbar utveckling. Fair Trade utreds även utifrån specifika indikatorer kopplade till dessa teorier, genom intervjuer med managers och producenter inom fem separata Fair Trade-organisationer i Indien och Sri Lanka. De huvudsakliga upptäckterna inom denna studie visar hur Fair Trade har potentialen att bidra till hållbar utveckling och empowerment i viss utsträckning. Det är speciellt framträdande vad gäller social utveckling och empowerment, medan ekonomisk utveckling främst sker på individnivå. Det är även möjligt att observera hur rörelsen kan bidra till miljömässig utveckling, även om det är tydligt att initiativet till att göra så inte alltid är av en miljörelaterad anledning.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the antecedents and reinforcements of fairtrade purchase intention and to examine the effect of reporting good fairtrade practices on consumers’ punishment behavior. A stratified sample of 240 English-speaking, American, adult subjects was collected online. First, the Behavioral Perspective Model (BPM) (Foxall, G., 2007) was modified and four manipulations varying luxury/commodity product type and open/closed purchase settings were presented. The results of paired-sample t-tests demonstrated closed purchase settings did not increase luxury purchase intention by itself. A split-plot ANOVA combining closed setting and the participant’s fairtrade learning history did not produce significant results, but post-hoc testing revealed a significant effect of positive learning history on purchase intention. Two separate, repeated-measures ANOVA found that utilitarian reinforcement was not affected by purchase setting, but informational reinforcement was significantly increased by the presence of others. Second, four manipulations of good/bad press events were presented without/without the firm’s fairtrade performance history mentioned in a news article. A two-way, between-subjects ANOVA produced insignificant results for the effect of information on willingness to pay. Importantly, the type of event significantly affected willingness to pay, accounting for 18% of the variation, with positive events generating higher willingness to pay than negative, regardless of whether fairtrade performance information was included. This study suggested firms would benefit from including cues for the social reward aspect of luxury fairtrade purchasing in marketing efforts and from preventing missteps rather than bragging about past practices. Future research suggestions included further analyzing the effect of information on punishment of bad corporate actors, investigating the credibility of self-declaration of fairtrade certification versus independent certification labels, and incorporating the effect of culture into the BPM.

For more than two decades there has been a growing niche for ethically sourced coffees, at the same time as a revitalisation and development of sourcing models focused on indicators of coffee quality and measures of taste. Small independent and multinational buyers and roasters have become progressively interested in sourcing coffee in a way that privileges sustainable and/or high quality indicators, and are increasingly engaged in debates about solidarity versus mainstreaming, quantity versus quality, and provider of caffeine versus taste. Research on one coffee producing country, Guatemala, suggests how these debates have affected the historical evolution of the coffee market. This ethnographic study traces the qualifications of Guatemalan coffee and argues that responses to both the enactment of the technologies, as well as the perceived limitations of sourcing models have produced new articulations of ethics and taste. Producers and small entrepreneurs located in Guatemala reconfigure the practices of cultivation, processing, and selling/buying in relation to circulating market indicators. They create locally situated attachments to the coffee through skill transfer and knowledge exchange and in this way they imitate and also transform international valuations of taste, ethics and quality. This thesis works to make visible the range and diversity of processes and agencies involved in the production of markets for ethical coffee and considers coffee as vital and mobile; an active producer of public effects rather than a passive object moved through a commodity network. This view enables a more open, relational and mobile account of both coffee and of ethics, one which is capable of making clear the important and emerging role of taste. This thesis extends the qualifications of coffee to the daily enactments of cultivation and the skills and techniques that work to reveal taste. On this view, taste mediates the agency of the materials in both high quality and sustainable coffees and this expands and extends ethics to interpersonal, material and bodily relations that link producers and consumers in multiple ways.

<p>Background: In the 1970’s, the first concerns regarding manufacturing pollu-tion headed off in Sweden and an enormous demand was cre-ated. The result came to be an enhanced consumption of ingredi-ent branded products such as KRAV, Bra Miljöval and The Swan to mention a few. Fair Trade entered the Swedish shelves in 1996 which gave the consumers the possibility to buy products and contribute to better conditions for farmers and employees in de-veloping countries.</p><p>Problem: In 1995 a research was performed, which showed that 50 percent of the respondents did not buy products with for instance an en-vironmental concerned label due to the significantly higher price. Some argue against this and believe that it is more of a marketing issue. Customers have become more aware in their shopping and, in order to keep them, companies must meet their demands by paying more attention to how they run their business.</p><p>Purpose: The aim with this thesis is to investigate why managers make decisions to purchase ingredient branded products, particulary Fair Trade.</p><p>Method: To accomplish this thesis a qualitative approach has been applied with the intention to describe the result from performed tele-phone and personal interviews with companies within chain res-taurants, hotels, grocery stores, and textile retail stores.</p><p>Conclusion: The study demonstrated that the decision to introduce Fair Trade labelled products depended on factors such as; the introduction year of these products, the history of the company and core values. Managers at the selected companies decided to purchase products with the ingredient brand Fair Trade for different rea-sons. Either since they had a long history of concern for fair production and rooted values or due to that the introduction of these products contributed to a good business image or to clean the company’s history.</p>

What started as a grassroots effort to aid tradespeople in developing nations, Fair Trade and similar certification models have, over the last sixty years, successfully established themselves as a viable alternative to conventional international trade; the ongoing growth of their market share and volume emphasize the increasing market demand for these alternatives. For coffee, Fair Trade's oldest and most established commodity, over two billion pounds was sold as certified in 2012 alone and the percentage of certified coffee continues to grow in share each year (Volcafe, 2012, Fair Trade USA 2012). As Fair Trade continues to grow, so does the variety of participants in the program and with this shift, Fair Trade is challenged to continuously evaluate how it can support both its producer base and the customers driving demand. This is, at its core, a challenge of maintaining its mission while appealing to new customers and channels. Fair Trade's expanding customer base, particularly with larger and more conventional businesses, has driven increased pressure for Fair Trade to prove and improve its impact and value. The research presented in this thesis explores Fair Trade's history, its current state and its future with a focus on impact and value creation. While Fair Trade is ultimately only a third party certification scheme with a mission singularly focused on improving producer livelihoods, its certification has inadvertently developed a global value chain network. This research focuses not on the mission, but on the supply chain of Fair Trade. This thesis reviews two existing bodies of literature; the first, the past and present of Fair Trade and its current challenges, the second sustainable supply chain management and supply chain governance. Following this review, we also explore the work of Keurig Green Mountain, the largest US procurer of Fair Trade coffee (Fair Trade USA, 2013). From here, we develop a conceptual model and framework by which to view the current supply chain actors within Fair Trade. Finally, through our research and a series of semi-structured interviews with key industry players, we explore the future of Fair Trade and the opportunities within the supply chain to optimize operations and explore the potential benefits. Based on the results of our qualitative research, our study seeks to highlight a gap in the existing literature of Fair Trade by exploring its opportunities from a business and supply chain management perspective.