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Do Ethical Values Work? A Quantitative Study of the Impact of Fair Trade Coffee on Consumer Behavior

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Abstract

This study investigates the large French fair trade (FT) market and the importance of FT coffee within it, in an attempt to identify some general features of FT consumers. On the basis of 7,587 transactions, the authors also determine the impact of FT characteristics on customer behavior. The main result is somewhat surprising: FT coffee purchases seem to involve a temporary commitment as FT coffee consumers appear less loyal than traditional coffee consumers. The authors derive some business and academic implications.

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Acknowledgments

This article is a revised version of a presentation made during the B&ESI Conference, Acapulco, January 2009. We sincerely thank Pascal Poutet, Stephen Platt, and the JBE anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, as well as IRMAPE members for fruitful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Groupe ESC Pau, Pau, France

    Patrice Cailleba & Herbert Casteran

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  1. Patrice Cailleba
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  2. Herbert Casteran
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Correspondence to Patrice Cailleba.

Additional information

All computations were performed using R 2.8.0. (R Development Core Team, 2008).

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Cailleba, P., Casteran, H. Do Ethical Values Work? A Quantitative Study of the Impact of Fair Trade Coffee on Consumer Behavior. J Bus Ethics 97, 613–624 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0528-8

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