Fair trade consumer behavior : explaining the gap between willingness to pay and intention to buy, by taking into account the role of the observability of the product being fair trade

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Fair trade consumer behavior: Explaining the gap between

willingness to pay and intention to buy, by taking into account

the role of the observability of the product being fair trade

Liselotte Kroeze

University of Amsterdam

Master Thesis

Author: Liselotte K.M. Kroeze, MSc (5601657)

Institution: University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics and Business Programme: MSc Business Studies – Marketing Track

Supervisor: Dr. Frederik B.I. Situmeang 2nd assessor: Dr. Ranjita M. Singh

Date: January 24th, 2014 Draft: Final version

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Preface

Second master’s program, second master thesis. Because of my first master thesis on Organizational Psychology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, I knew quite a bit what a master thesis should look like. It helped me through the whole thesis process. It was again very interesting to write a master thesis and to conduct my own research.

From the beginning, I knew I wanted to do some research on fair trade consumer behavior. Not because I am such an ethical consumer myself, but because I do am interested in why consumers buy or not buy fair trade products. I hope to give you all some insight in this topic by reading this thesis.

My thesis could not come to a good end without the help of some people. First, I want to thank my supervisor, Frederik Situmeang, for all his help during the thesis process. During the process, he was very busy with his PhD, but this did not have any negative impact on helping me. Second, I want to thank all the participants in my study. I do not know exactly who these are because my study was anonymous, but I do know that lots of friends and family filled out my questionnaire. I was very surprised to see the amount of respondents I had gathered after just one weekend. Thank you all! Finally, I want to thank my boyfriend, friends, and family for supporting me (again), when I was struggling during the whole thesis period.

To conclude, I hope you have a nice time reading my master thesis on fair trade consumer behavior.

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Abstract

Fair trade consumer behavior has gained scientific attention over the past decades. Prior research has proven consumer awareness and willingness to pay to be two important indicators of fair trade consumer behavior. However, in the existing literature, there is an important gap considering the difference between the amount of consumers claiming to be willing to pay for fair trade products, and the amount of consumers having actually the intention to buy fair trade products, where the former group is significantly bigger than the latter. This thesis tries to explain this gap by taking into account another possible indicator of fair trade consumer behavior; the observability of the product being fair trade, for example through the fair trade logo on the outside of the product, which can be of great importance because of a certain impression consumers want to leave behind to others. Online research was done, specified to fair trade bananas and fair trade T-shirts (N = 151). The results show, against expectations, that observability seems to have no positive relationship with intention to buy, and seems not to strengthen the relationship between the consumer’s willingness to pay for fair trade products, and their intention to buy these products. The gap between willingness to pay and intention to buy regarding fair trade products cannot be declared by the observability of a fair trade logo on a product. An explanation for this is aimed in the consumer’s implicit theories, by distinguishing ‘entity theories’ from ‘incremental theories’. At the end of this thesis, the results will be strengthened with an additional interview that was conducted. Besides, some limitations and implications will be discussed.

Key words: fair trade, consumer behavior, ethical consumerism, consumer awareness, willingness to pay, intention to buy, observability, implicit theories.

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“Fair trade. Would it not be more logical to label unfair products?” - Loesje

1 Introduction

For more than 40 years, people are thinking about ‘sweatshop-free’ products and ‘fair trade’ has been in existence. In the form in which it is recognizable today, it began to expand in the 1960s and 1970s (Moore, 2004). Fair trade is simply defined as ‘a philosophy that supports the marketing and sale of products at greater than free trade prices’ (LeClair, 2003). A more comprehensive definition of fair trade is: ‘a trading partnership, based on dialogue,

transparency, and respect, which seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers – especially in the South. Fair trade organizations (backed by consumers) are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade.’ (Moore, 2004, p. 73-74).

In April 2013, one hundred ‘sweatshop’ workers died as factories collapsed in Bangladesh. People called it ‘the price of cheap clothes’. The poor working conditions and low wages have put a spotlight on global retailers who source clothes from there, such as the high street brand Primark. A spokesman for Primark said that they were going to include building integrity on the long term. After what happened in Bangladesh, Primark’s ethical team had worked to assess which communities the workers came from and provided support where possible (Metro, 24 April 2013).

Because of examples like this, concerns about the conditions under which items were produced, in particular in the apparel (or fashion) industry increases, and ‘sweatshop’

working conditions have received much attention over the past and recent years.Government

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agencies have made various efforts to curb labour abuses and to ensure reasonable working conditions. Critics say that merchandise is often produced by labourers who are paid less than a living wage while being forced to work under inhumane conditions (Emmelhainz & Adams, 1999).

Fair trade consumer behavior is the basis of this thesis. Prior research is conducted regarding several important determinants of fair trade buying behavior. The consumer’s awareness of fair trade in general, for example, is proved to be a positive indicator of their intention to buy fair trade products (De Pelsmacker, Driesen & Rayp, 2003). The more the consumer is aware of fair trade, the higher their intention to buy fair trade products. Previous research has proven the quite obvious link between the consumer’s willingness to pay for fair trade products and their intention to buy fair trade products. In most cases, consumers who are quite willing to pay for fair trade products, also have a high intention to buy fair trade products. However, the existing literature also shows a gap here. The amount of consumers claiming to be willing to pay for fair trade products, is significantly higher than the amount of consumers who actually have the intention to buy fair trade products (De Pelsmacker,

Driesen & Rayp, 2003). Prior research paid attention to, for example, the price of fair trade products, being mostly higher than the price of non-fair trade products. This thesis tries to explain the gap by taking into account the extent to which consumers find the observability of the product being fair trade important, for example in order to leave a certain impression behind to others. Previous research have put a spotlight on so-called impression management (Mittal, 1988), but did not relate this to the ‘observability’ of a product being fair trade.

This research, which is specified to fair trade T-shirts and fair trade bananas, and which is done through an online survey, aims to describe whether the consumer’s fair trade buying behavior depends on the observability of the fair trade label or logo on the product. Do consumers want to impress others with buying fair trade products with a fair trade logo on

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the outside of the product, or do they have the same intention to buy the product when there is no fair trade logo on the outside? This thesis aims to shed light on this topic by answering two research questions:

Q1: What is the relationship between consumer awareness and the intention to buy fair trade products, and what is the role of willingness to pay in this relationship?

Q2: What is the relationship between the willingness to pay for fair trade products and the intention to buy these products and what is the role of the observability of the product being fair trade in this relationship?

This thesis will be structured in different parts. The first part describes the current knowledge about consumer awareness, willingness to pay, intention to buy, and

observability, and presents the conceptual model regarding this research, including the stated hypotheses. The second part of this thesis describes the methodology in detail, while the third part sheds light on the results. The last part includes the conclusion and discussion. Besides several limitations, implications, and recommendations for future research, the discussion includes an additional small interview, that was conducted in order to confirm the results.

2 Theoretical framework

2.1 Fair trade consumer behavior

A lot has been written about ethical, fair trade marketing (Witkowski, 2005; Witkowski & Reddy, 2010). An important thing that has been noticed is that fair trade marketing gives consumers the option of paying more for imported goods so that developing world producers can have a proper standard of living (Witkowski, 2005). According to Witkowski (2005), the roots of fair trade are going back to 1860, when the ‘Max Havelaar’ novel was published. In this novel, the protagonist battles the corrupt colonial government of Dutch Indonesia

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because their policies toward the coffee trade were impoverishing local farmers. However, fair trade marketing in Europe did not begin until the late 1950s (Witkowski, 2005).

Nowadays, there is a growing market for ethical products (De Pelsmacker, Driesen & Rayp, 2005). But, what remains difficult, is how to determine what exactly makes a product ethical. The definition of ‘ethical’ is composed of ‘a whole set of issues and considerations that might impinge upon the purchase decision, such as product safety, environmental impacts, consumer privacy, employee welfare, discrimination, fair pricing, community action, charitable donations, etc.’ (Crane, 2001, p. 361). Fair trade products used to belong to a niche market, but this no longer seems to be the case. They are now also sold in retail outlets, for example (Davies & Crane, 2003). A lot of different kinds of fair trade products exist. Examples of the most commonly sold fair trade products, Doran (2009) describes, are coffee, chocolate, clothes, and bananas.

The inextricable link between consumption and ethical problems, such as

environmental degeneration and fairness in world trade, has resulted in the emergence of a group of consumers commonly referred to as ethical consumers (Shaw & Newholm, 2002). They consider a range of ethical issues in their consumer behavioral choices. Shaw and Newholm (2002) state that those who begin thinking of their consumer choices in ethical terms, are likely also to consider these practices in terms of sustainable futures. This, in turn, is engaging in different types of consumption practices, like seeking technological solutions, recycling, refilling and ‘boycotting’ preferred goods and companies.

Fair trade consumer behavior is a specific type of ethical consumer behavior (De Pelsmacker et al., 2005). Consumers can express their concern about the ethical behavior of companies by means of ethical buying and consumer behavior. De Ferran and Grunert (2005) describe the socially responsible (or ethical) consumer, as the consumer who is concerned

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with their own personal satisfactions, but also with the well-being of others, socially as well as environmentally. The ethical consumer is middle-aged, has an income higher than average, and is educated above average (Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006). However, Vermeir and Verbeke (2006) say, the ethical consumer cannot be defined only based on demographics, because ethical concern have become widespread. Besides demographics, variables such as relevant attitudes, behavioral, and personality characteristics can be important to identify the possible ethical consumer (Roberts, 1996).

Thus, the ethical consumer feels responsible towards society and expresses these feelings through his or her purchasing behavior (De Pelsmacker et al., 2005). De Pelsmacker and his colleagues (2005) distinguish several dimensions of ethical consumer behavior. According to them, ethical consumer behavior can benefit the natural environment (in terms of for example environmental friendly products, legally logged wood and animal well-being), people (in terms of for example products free from child labour and fair-trade products), people or the environment close to home (in terms of for example green products or organic food), or people in a faraway part of the world (in terms of for example fair-trade products or legally logged wood).

Now we know what is an ethical consumer, it is of great importance to know what drives consumers to be or to become ethical consumers, and what drives them to buy fair trade products. As mentioned in the introduction, consumer awareness of fair trade, and willingness to pay for fair trade, are important determinants of the consumer’s intention to buy fair trade products. In the next subchapters, consumer awareness, willingness to pay, and intention to buy will be described briefly.

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2.2 Consumer awareness

Consumer awareness in general, sometimes also referred to as brand awareness, is part of the term brand knowledge, or consumer knowledge. Brand knowledge can be separated in brand awareness and brand image (Keller, 1993). According to Keller (1993), brand awareness refers to the consumer’s ability to identify the brand under different conditions. Brand awareness plays a huge role in the consumer decision making process, but why? Three reasons for this can be distinguished (Keller, 1993).

First, consumers need to think of the brand when they think of the product category. Raising brand awareness increases the chance that the brand will receive serious

consideration for purchasing from consumers. Second, brand awareness can influence consumers’ decisions about brands that receive consideration for purchase. Keller (1993) describes that in low involvement decisions settings, the level of brand awareness can be at the minimum for product choice, even when the consumer did not have a well-formed attitude (Keller, 1993). This leads to the theory of Petty and Cacioppo (1986), who describe with the elaboration likelihood model that consumers base their choices on brand awareness considerations when they have low involvement. This can be the result of two things: a lack of consumer motivation, which means that consumers do not care about the product, or a lack of consumer ability, which means that consumers do not have any other knowledge about the brand (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). Finally, brand awareness plays a role in consumer decision making by influencing the formation and strength of brand associations in the brand image. A brand image can be created when there is a brand node established in the consumer’s

memory. The nature of that node should influence the difficultness of attachment of different kinds of information to the brand in the memory (Keller, 1993).

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In this thesis, consumer awareness refers to the consumer’s awareness of fair trade in general. Consumer awareness of fair trade issues like health, human and animal welfare and environmental damage, is not new. Concern for these things has been widespread among consumers for a long time (Strong, 1997). Vermeir and Verbeke (2006) notice that consumer awareness, and thus access to clear and reliable information about the product, is an

important factor in the purchasing process. However, it is shown that few consumers are highly aware of or highly comprehend sustainable, fair trade, and organic labels of products (Gordier, 2003).

Different theories about consumer awareness of fair trade exist. Vlosky, Ozanne and Fontenot (1999), for example, have distinguished five different environmental types of consumers with regard to the likelihood to purchase environmentally certified products. These five types vary in environmental consciousness. Some researchers, on the other hand, say that consumers are really aware of fair trade, when they meet eight fair trade criteria (Becchetti & Rosati, 2005). These eight criteria include amongst other things awareness of the definition of a fair price (which is, according to Becchetti and Rosati (2005), a price higher than the market price paid on primary products), awareness of interventions to improve working conditions and to remove factors leading to child labour, and awareness of attention to the environmental sustainability of productive processes (Becchetti & Rosati, 2005). Becchetti and Rosati (2005) mention some useful questions in their questionnaire about consumer awareness of fair trade. Later on in this thesis will be referred back to these.

The relationship between the consumer’s awareness of fair trade with their

willingness to pay for fair trade products, and their intention to buy fair trade products, will be considered in the next sections.

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2.3 Willingness to pay

The consumer’s willingness to pay for a certain product depends on different factors. The most common factor is the price one has to pay for a product. From the consumer’s perspective, price is what is given up or sacrificed to obtain a product (Zeithaml, 1988). Zeithaml (1988) states that price is a ‘give’ component rather than a ‘get’ component. In this thesis, willingness to pay refers to the consumer’s willingness to pay for fair trade products. This is an important concept because fair trade products often are more expensive than non-fair trade products. The question that raises here is: ‘What is a non-fair price?’. Before answering this question, the concept of willingness to pay will be described more briefly.

Different types of willingness to pay have been distinguished. Hofstetter and Miller (2009) for example, distinguished the ‘actual’ willingness to pay from the ‘hypothetical’ willingness to pay. The actual willingness to pay refers, according to them, to the maximum amount of money the consumer would spend for a product in a real purchase situation. The second type, the hypothetical willingness to pay, refers to the type where researches

commonly focus on, and which is widely used in market research practice. This type says that the consumer is aware of the fact that his or her ‘hypothetical willingness to pay statement’ will not have economic consequences (Hofstetter & Miller, 2009).

Concerning ethical products, not all consumers are equally likely to buy them. According to De Pelsmacker and his colleagues (2003), for example, the willingness to purchase ethical products is limited to a small minority of shoppers. Moreover, depending upon the characteristics and the preferences of individual consumers, different ethical dimensions may result in differences in their willingness (not) to buy products incorporating ethical values (De Pelsmacker et al., 2005). Results of different researches showed that almost half of all consumers are willing to pay for fair trade products. For example, De

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Ferran and Grunert (2005) claimed that 44% of all French consumers say they are ready to buy fair and sustainable products.

Back to the question ‘What is a fair price?’. A lot have been said about this.

Alternative trade organizations (ATOs) mentioned that in less developed countries, products should be sold at a price which is higher than the ‘free trade’ price, to be ensured of a

reasonable standard of living in those countries. This depends of course on the fact whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for products (LeClair, 2003). LeClair (2003) distinguishes also two views to look at a ‘fair price’. The first view asserts that the price received by producers in developing nations must provide for a subsistence standard of living. The second view focuses on terms of trade between the industrialized and developing worlds, and argues that prevailing relative prices are fundamentally unfair (LeClair, 2003). De Pelsmacker, Janssens, Sterckx and Mielants (2006), on the other hand, describe a ‘fair price’ as a price that is higher than would be the case in a free-market situation, and one that enables local producers to develop sustainable business and produce in environmentally and socially better conditions.

As mentioned, a lot of different things have been said about the willingness of consumers to pay more, or ‘to pay a price premium’ for fair trade products (De Pelsmacker, Driesen & Rayp, 2003). De Pelsmacker et al. (2003) showed us for example that almost half of all European consumers say they are willing to pay substantially more for ethical products. American consumers also seem to agree with a price increase for green products.

Even though there are different views on willingness to pay, Vlosky et al. (1999) claimed that the consumers’ awareness of the environment and products’ environmental certification may be a positive indicator of their willingness to pay for environmental friendly products. I expect this to be not only the case with environmental friendly products, but also

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with fair trade products. Therefore, I expect that there is a positive relationship between the consumer’s awareness of fair trade, and their willingness to pay for fair trade products.

H1: There is a positive relationship between consumer awareness and willingness to pay.

2.4 Intention to buy

The consumer’s intention to buy refers to the actual behavior consumers are showing. Intention to buy is however difficult to measure. People differ, and they do not behave identically in all situations (Aaker & Day, 1974). So, people who buy fair trade products at a certain moment, do not surely buy fair trade the next time. However, there are some

interesting findings about the intention to buy fair trade products.

One important explanation for the consumer’s intention to buy sustainable products can be the experienced social pressure from others, mostly peers (Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006). But, there are a lot more reasons for consumers to have the intention to buy certain products. Jager (2000), for example, came with a conceptual framework to investigate consumers’ behavioral intentions towards sustainable food products. He distinguished three main determinants of behavioral intentions with relevance to sustainable consumptions, namely values, needs, and motivations, information and knowledge, and behavioral control.

Another important theory about consumer behavior is Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (1991). This ‘TPB’ predicts the purchase intention of environmental friendly products (Kalafatis, Pollard, East & Tsogas, 1999). The TPB describes the links between consumers’ attitudes and consumers’ behaviors. Ajzen (1991) says that the consumer’s behaviors are formed by their behavioral intentions, which are indicators of the performance of a certain behavior. According to him, three factors play a role in the behavioral intention of consumers. The first, attitudes towards behavior, are determined by the sum of expected

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outcomes of the consumer, which can be measured by using the likelihood of these outcomes. The second, subjective norms, are formed normative beliefs, or the perception about certain behavior. This perception is influenced by the judgment of significant others, for example parents or friends. The third and last factor, perceived behavioral control (PBC), is

determined by the control beliefs of consumers. These are the individual beliefs about the presence of factors that may influence the behavior (Ajzen, 1991).

Shaw, Shui, and Clarke (2000), on the other hand, tried to explain belief formation and fair trade product buying intentions using a modification of Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (1991). They added two variables to the original model, namely ethical obligation and self-identity. They grouped these into two second order latent constructs: behavioral control (consisting of perceived behavioral control and control-related elements of attitude) and internal reflection (consisting of subjective norms, ethical obligation, self-identity and attitudes towards fair trade). Results show that both two constructs have about the same role in explaining the intention to buy fair trade products (Shaw et al., 2000).

Most researchers believe there is a positive relationship between consumer awareness and intention to buy. Aaker and Day (1974) describe that awareness does influence behavior, because an important determinant of purchasing a certain product, is the consumer’s

awareness of that product. This information, together with the conclusion of De Pelsmacker et al. (2003), that lack of information can be a reason for not buying ethical products, leads to the prediction that consumer awareness of fair trade is expected to relate positive to the intention to buy fair trade products. Vermeir and Verbeke (2006) also found evidence for this. They say, that high knowledge of sustainable food consumption, tends to be related with a high behavioral intention. Therefore, hypothesis 2 predicts a positive relationship between consumer awareness of fair trade, and the intention to actually buy fair trade.

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H2: There is a positive relationship between consumer awareness and intention to buy.

Almost three-quarters of the European consumers who say about themselves that they are very willing to buy fair trade products, say that they would actually buy these products if they were available at the same price (and quality) as the products they would buy normally (European Commission Directorate-General for Agriculture (DGVI)). Because of the information regarding hypothesis 1 and 2, I expect that the consumer’s willingness to pay mediates the positive relationship between their awareness of fair trade and their intention to actually buy fair trade products. The findings of the European Commission make my

argument even stronger.

H3: The positive relationship between consumer awareness and intention to buy is mediated by willingness to pay.

Overall, there is a growing market segment for ethical products and the amount of consumers who buy these ethical products is increasing (De Pelsmacker, Driesen & Rayp, 2003). With this in mind, together with the facts about the willingness to pay for ethical products, one could expect a high demand for ethical products. This however not seems to be the truth. De Pelsmacker and his colleagues (2003) wrote that researchers showed earlier that fair trade products, together with other ethical products like organic food, often have market shares of less than 1%. This brings us to the gap mentioned in the introduction. Several authors tried to find an explanation for this gap. According to De Pelsmacker et al. (2003), the explanation can be that the ethical criterion is not taken into account already, and that the chance that respondents give socially desirable answers, is rather high. Thus, consumers may claim they are willing to pay for fair trade products, because this is socially desirable. De Pelsmacker and his colleagues (2003) conclude that the most important decision factors to

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buy or not to buy a certain product are still price, quality, convenience, and brand familiarity. However, Vermeir and Verbeke (2006) found another explanation. According to them, an explanation for the combination of low buying intentions of sustainable products and a high willingness to pay for, and together with positive attitudes towards these products, may be the consumers’ perception of low availability of these sustainable products.

In this thesis, I will try to find another explanation for the gap between willingness to pay and intention to buy, concerning fair trade products. A new factor will be taken into account, namely the extent to which consumers find it important that it is observable from the outside of a product that it is fair trade. Do consumers have a higher intention to buy fair trade products, when outsiders can observe that they are ethical consumers? In the next chapter, the ‘observability’ of the product being fair trade will be briefly discussed.

2.5 Observability of the product being fair trade

In this thesis, it is expected that the fair trade buying behavior of consumers depends on the extent to which they find it important that it is observable from the outside of a product that the product is fair trade. There are different ways in which it can be observable for consumers that a product is fair trade. The most common way in which consumers can observe this is through a fair trade label or logo on the outside of the product, which will be discussed in the next subchapter.

2.5.1 Fair trade label

Fair trade products often have the fair trade label on it, but it is also possible that it is not observable from the outside that the product is fair trade. Besides, other labels and logos exist than only the fair trade label. For example, products can also have the ‘No Sweat’ label, which indicates that the product is sweatshop-free. Labels can be observable or not observable, or in other words, can or cannot be seen by outsiders. When the label is

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observable, it can possibly confront consumers with environmental issues, where they would otherwise not think about when they see the product. Because of the confrontation,

consumer’s intention to buy this fair trade product can possibly increase. There are several authors who say the fair trade label is important for other reasons. De Pelsmacker et al. (2004) say about the fair trade label that it is, after the brand, the most important attribute regarding consumers who have the intention to buy fair trade products. There also exists a group of consumers who just buy fair trade products because of the fair trade label. They seem to be more idealistic than other consumers (de Ferran & Grunert, 2005). It also seems to depend on the frequency of the product being purchased and on the level of product

involvement, whether consumers value environmental attributes of the product, like the fair trade logo. Consumers seem to highly value such an attribute when the product is frequently purchased and seem to value less when they purchase a product with low involvement (Sriram & Forman, 1993).

The question remains, for what reason consumers could find it important that it is observable for outsiders that the product is fair trade or not. Why, and how, could this have influence on fair trade consumer behavior? The next subchapter tries to answer this question, based on prior findings regarding ‘impression management’ and ‘expressiveness’.

2.5.2 Impression management and expressiveness

The consumption of a certain product or brand may be highly associated with the consumer’s self-image (Solomon, 1983). The social meaning of a product may be more important for consumers than the functional utility of the product. Such products, which are after psycho-social goals (such as impression management) rather than utilitarian goals, are called expressive products (Mittal, 1988).

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Solomon (1983) and many others mentioned the role of products in impression formation and self-image. One of the first researchers that wrote about impression

management was Goffman (1959). According to him, impression management has to do with the impression a person (the ‘sender’) wants to leave behind to others (the ‘receivers’).

Where Mittal (1988) talked about expressive products, Thorbjørnsen, Pedersen and Nysveen (2007) talked about the concept expressiveness. Expressiveness, they say, is ‘the consumer’s perception of a given product’s or service’s ability to express both social and personal identity dimensions’ (Thorbjørnsen et al., 2007, p.765). According to them, (self-)identity expressiveness is a strong predictor of the consumer’s intention and behavior to use products.

Most of people’s impressions are based on the possessions of the person that is being evaluated (Solomon, 1983). Products are used to induce, for example, the social class

someone belongs. Because of all the above information about this topic, one could expect that in this case, it might be possible that consumers buy fair trade products to impress others.

2.5.3 The moderating role of observability

As mentioned, I predict that the observability of a product being fair trade has a positive relationship with the consumer’s intention to buy fair trade products. I expect that the extent to which consumers find it important that it is observable from the outside that it concerns a fair trade product, has a positive relationship with fair trade consumer behavior. Several reasons can declare this prediction. For example, based on previous information, the fact that consumers want to leave a certain impression to others; the impression of being an ethical consumer. Besides, as mentioned before, the fair trade label or logo is an important attribute regarding the consumers’ fair trade buying behavior. Another example refers to the fact that a fair trade label or logo on the outside of a product, might confront consumers with ethical

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issues, where they would not be confronted with when there is no observable fair trade label or logo on the product. Thus, I expect that when it is indeed observable that the product is fair trade, for example through the fair trade logo, consumers will have a higher intention to buy the product, than when it is not observable for outsiders.

H4: There is a positive relationship between observability and intention to buy.

Besides, I expect that the relationship between the consumer’s willingness to pay for fair trade products and the intention to buy these products is moderated by the observability of the product being fair trade. When it is observable for others that a product is fair trade, the relationship between the consumers’ willingness to pay for this fair trade product, and their intention to buy this product, might become stronger. A reason for this can be, for example, that consumers want others to see that they are buying fair trade products, which are, eventually, mostly more expensive than non-fair trade products. This can be referred to the concept of impression management, which is described before. By showing others their fair trade buying behavior, consumers can demonstrate their perceived higher-than-average social status, ‘because they can afford fair trade’.

Thus, I expect observability to partly declare the gap between the consumer’s willingness to pay for fair trade products and their actual intention to buy these products.

H5: The positive relationship between willingness to pay and intention to buy is moderated positively by observability.

Figure 1 provides an overview of the conceptual model regarding this research, including all the hypotheses that were formulated.

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2.6 Conceptual model with hypotheses

Figure 1. Conceptual model with hypotheses. Note. All relationships are positive.

3 Research method

3.1 Procedure

Data collection for this research was done through an online survey. Participants for the survey were gathered through social network sites as Facebook and Linked-In, wherefore hundreds of people were reached. Besides using social media, several emails were sent to friends and family, who forwarded it to their colleagues and friends. Participation was on a voluntary basis. Participants did not know about the goal of the research before filling in the survey. Participants was shown an introduction where they were being thanked for

participating. Besides, they were told that filling out the survey took not more than ten minutes, that they were being forced to fill out every question, and that their questions could not be wrong in any case.

Data collection went very prosperous. After two weeks, the survey was being closed and data collection was finished. However, the response rate regarding this research is

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unknown, because of gathering most participants through Facebook. It is unknown how many people have been reached and how many of them actually filled out the survey. However, it might be possible that many people did not feel responsible to fill out the questionnaire. I have tried to achieve the most possible participants by including an introduction, sending multiple reminders, and making a relevant and interesting questionnaire with a reasonable length.

3.2 Respondents

My respondents are people of different ages. I divided them in different age categories: 24 years old or younger, 25 until 34 years old, 35 until 49 years old and 50 years old or older. Respondents could choose to which category they were belonging: ‘students’, ‘starters’ (working for a maximum of five years or searching for their first job), ‘stable working people’ (working for a minimum of five years and a maximum of thirty years), ‘working longer than thirty years or retired’, ‘voluntary unemployed’ and ‘involuntary unemployed’. Respondents are friends, family, friends from friends and friends from family.

In total, I have collected 151 respondents, of which 116 are female (76.8%) and 35 are male (23.2%). Of all respondents, 58 are in the age category 24 years or younger (38.4%), 66 are in the age category 25 until 34 years old (43.7%), 8 are in the age category 35 until 49 years old (5.3%) and 19 are in the age category 50 years or older (12.6%). Of the 151

respondents, 58 participants are ‘students’ (38.4%), 50 participants are ‘starters’ (33.1%), 28 participants are ‘stable working people’ (18.5), 11 participants are ‘working longer or retired’ (7.3%), two respondents are ‘voluntary unemployed’ (1.3%) and two are ‘involuntary

unemployed’ (1.3%).

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As seen in figure 2, the civil status of the respondents is quite varied. Figure 3and 4 show respectively that most of the participants are highly educated, and that most participants earn between €1000 and €2500 net salary per month.

Figure 2. Civil status of respondents (N = 151).

Note. Meaning definitions from up to down: ‘married’, ‘in a relationship, living together’, ‘in

a relationship, living apart’, ‘single’.

Figure 3. Level of education of respondents (N = 151).

Note. Meaning definitions from up to down: ‘secondary/high school’, ‘lowest level of applied

education’, ‘higher professional education’, ‘university/scientific education’.

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Figure 4. Net salary per month of respondents (N = 151).

Note. Meaning ‘minder dan’: ‘less than’, ‘meer dan’: ‘more than’, ‘ik ontvang geen salaris’:

‘I do not receive any salary’.

3.3 Instrument

I have conducted a survey in Dutch, which participants could fill out online. The survey consists of 42 questions in total, with, amongst other things, questions about the consumer’s awareness of fair trade, the consumer’s willingness to pay for fair trade products, the

importance of the observability of the product, and the consumer’s intention to buy fair trade products. I also added some demographical questions about gender, age, level of education, and current situation (student, working, etc.), and a question about the consumer’s most important reason to buy fair trade products.

Table 1 provides an overview of the different variables with belonging descriptions, where the next subchapters describe their measurement and reliability.

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Table 1

Overview of the different variables.

Variable name Description

Fair trade A trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency, and respect, which seeks greater equity in international trade, and contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of,

marginalized producers and workers.

Ethical consumerism An inextricable link between consumption and ethical problems, such as environmental degeneration and fairness in world trade.

Consumer awareness The consumer’s ability to identify the brand ‘fair trade’ under different conditions.

Willingness to pay The consumer’s willingness to pay for fair trade products. Intention to buy The consumer’s intention to buy fair trade products. Refers

to the actual buying behavior consumers are showing regarding fair trade products.

Observability The extent to which it is observable from the outside of a product, that the product is fair trade, for example through the fair trade logo.

Entity theory People who believe that personal attributes are fixed and non-malleable trait-like.

Incremental theory People who believe that personal attributes are malleable and can be changed and developed.

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3.3.1 Measurement scales

Consumer awareness. In order to measure the consumer’s awareness of fair trade in general, I

have used seven questions regarding this topic, from the questionnaire of Becchetti and Rosati (2007). My seven questions consisted of two questions that could be answered on a 5-point Likert-scale (from ‘helemaal niet bekend’ to ‘helemaal bekend’ and from ‘helemaal niet

van op de hoogte’ to ‘helemaal van op de hoogte’), two questions where participants could

choose more than one of the answering options, one open question, and two multiple choice questions. I have translated these questions in Dutch. An example of a question about consumer awareness is: ‘In hoeverre bent u bekend met het begrip fair trade?’.

Willingness to pay. In most cases, willingness to pay is measured with the contingent

valuation method or by doing a conjoint analysis. In this thesis, however, is chosen for another option. To measure the consumer’s willingness to pay for fair trade products, I showed the participants two different pictures. First, I showed them a picture of five ‘normal’ bananas and five fair trade bananas. Second, I showed hem a picture of a ‘normal’ white T-shirt and a fair trade white T-T-shirt. With both pictures, I asked them the same seven

questions: two open questions about the price they were willing to pay for the products, and five questions with two answering options: whether they would choose for the ‘normal’ or for the fair trade product, when the price of both is given.

Intention to buy. After asking about the participants’ willingness to pay for the shown

products, I have asked them about their intention to buy these products, by using the method of Vermeir and Verbeke (2006). The question was ‘Hoe groot is de kans dat u fair trade

voedingsmiddelen (vs. kleding) zult kopen?’. Participants had to give three answers on a

7-point Likert-scale, from ‘grote kans’ to ‘kleine kans’, from ‘onwaarschijnlijk’ to

‘waarschijnlijk’, and from ‘zeker niet’ to ‘zeker wel’. The question and answering options were in Dutch already.

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Observability. In order to measure whether the level of the observability of the

product being fair trade matters to the participants, I asked them to indicate their agreement with four statements. I conducted these statements myself. Participants could indicate their agreement with the four statements on a 6-point Likert-scale from 1 (‘helemaal mee eens’) to 6 (‘helemaal niet mee eens’). An example is: ‘Ik laat graag aan de buitenwereld zien dat ik

een ethisch consument ben.’.

3.3.2 Reliability

Before starting with the analyses, the counter indicative items were recoded and all scores were standardized because all items were answered on different scales. There were no missing values, because all participants were forced to answer each question. In order to be sure that all constructs were reliable, a Cronbach’s alpha test is conducted. Table 2 shows the results. The Cronbach’s alpha’s of the constructs need to be above .60 to be reliable.

Unfortunately, the consumer awareness construct did not seem to be reliable. Therefore, I chose consumer awareness to consist of only one item, wherefore the reliability could not be measured.

Table 2

Cronbach’s alpha’s of the different constructs.

Construct Alpha value

Consumer awareness -

Willingness to pay .77

Observability .82

Intention to buy .92

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3.4 Analyses

The study in this thesis is based on the quantitative research method. With the program SPSS, regression analyses will be conducted to estimate several effects, which are presented below. To review the regression results, also a path analyses will be conducted in the program AMOS.

1. Main effects:

a. Independent influence of consumer awareness on willingness to pay. b. Independent influence of consumer awareness on intention to buy. c. Independent influence of observability on intention to buy.

2. Mediating effect of willingness to pay on the relationship between consumer awareness and intention to buy.

3. Moderating effect of observability on the relationship between willingness to pay and intention to buy.

4 Results

4.1 Descriptive statistics

First, I will look at the coherence between the different variables by conducting correlation analyses. Means and standard deviations from and correlations between consumer

awareness, willingness to pay, observability and intention to buy are shown in table 3.

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Table 3

Descriptive statistics and correlation matrix.

M SD 1 2 3 4 1 Consumer awareness .00 1.00 - 2 Willingness to pay .00 .53 .168* - 3 Observability .00 .92 -.021 -.268** - 4 Intention to buy .00 1.27 .298** .501** -.214** - Note. N = 151, (Observability: N =148),* p < .05, ** p < .01 4.2 Regression analyses

4.2.1 Results main effects

First, I predicted that consumer awareness has a positive relationship with willingness to pay. Results show a positive (β = .168) and significant (p < .05) relationship between consumer awareness and willingness to pay. Therefore, hypothesis 1 can be supported. The consumer’s awareness of fair trade seems to be positively related with the consumer’s willingness to pay for fair trade products.

The second hypothesis predicts that consumer awareness also has a positive relationship with intention to buy. Here, results show a positive (β = .298) and highly significant (p < .01) relationship between consumer awareness and intention to buy.

Therefore, I can conclude that my prediction is right and hypothesis 2 can be supported. The consumer’s awareness of fair trade seems to have a positive relationship with the consumer’s intention to buy fair trade products.

The last main effect, regarding hypothesis 4, predicts that the observability of the product being fair trade has a positive relationship with intention to buy. Results for hypothesis 4 show a negative (β = -.214) and significant (p < .01) relationship between observability and intention to buy. Thus, observability has indeed a relationship with

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intention to buy. However, this relationship seems to be negative. Hypothesis 4 cannot be supported. The fact that it is observable from the outside of a product that it is fair trade, seems not to have a positive, but a negative relationship with the consumer’s intention to buy this fair trade product.

4.2.2 Results mediator willingness to pay

The third hypothesis predicts that willingness to pay acts as a mediator in the relationship between consumer awareness and intention to buy. To examine the mediating effect of willingness to pay, a direct effect of consumer awareness on intention to buy, and of willingness to pay on intention to buy, are required. The first effect is proved earlier, by supporting hypothesis 2. The second effect, between willingness to pay and intention to buy is not proven already. Results show a positive (β = .501) and highly significant (p < .01) relationship between willingness to pay and intention to buy. Therefore, the required effects are proven.

Now, the mediating effect of willingness to pay can be examined. The regression results show that there is a positive (β = .220) and highly significant (p < .01) association between consumer awareness and intention to buy. This means, willingness to pay does not fully, but partially mediates the relationship between consumer awareness and intention to buy. Hypothesis 3 can be supported. The positive relationship between the consumer’s awareness of fair trade and their intention to buy fair trade products, can be partially declared by their willingness to pay for these products. Figure 5 illustrates the mediation results.

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Figure 5. Regression results of the mediation effect.

Note. N = 151, (Observability: N=148),* p < .05, ** p < .01

4.2.3 Results moderator observability

Lastly, I will examine whether the observability of product being fair trade acts as a moderator in the relationship between willingness to pay and intention to buy. In this regression analysis, block 1 contains the control variables age and salary, block 2 contains willingness to pay, block 3 contains observability, and block 4 contains the interaction effect between willingness to pay and observability. For the results, only the interaction effect is important.

The results show that there is a slightly negative (β = -.046) but insignificant (p > .05) relationship between the interaction effect between willingness to pay and observability, and intention to buy. The observability of the product being fair trade does not moderate the relationship between willingness to pay and intention to buy. This is illustrated by figure 6. The last prediction, hypothesis 5, cannot be supported. The positive relationship between the consumer’s willingness to pay for fair trade products and their intention to buy these

products, will not be stronger when it is observable from the outside that the product is fair trade.

To be sure that about the regression results, a path analysis was conducted.

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Figure 6. Regression results of the complete model.

Note. N = 151, (Observability: N=148),* p < .05, ** p < .01

4.3 Path analysis AMOS

The path analysis results are slightly different from the regression results. As with the regression analysis, the path analysis shows also significant direct effects between consumer awareness and willingness to pay (β = .18, p < .01), consumer awareness and intention to buy (β = .21, p < .01) and willingness to pay and intention to buy (β = .43, p < .01), however with different beta coefficients than the regressions showed. Here, willingness to pay also partially mediates the relationship between consumer awareness and intention to buy. The path

analysis also shows a non-significant moderation effect of observability on the relationship between willingness to pay and intention to buy (β = -.01, p > .05). Other than the regression results, the path analysis results show that the direct effect of observability on intention to buy is not significant (β = -.10, p > .05). Figure 7 illustrates the path analysis results.

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Figure 7. AMOS path analysis results. Note. N = 148,* p < .05, ** p < .01

4.4 Additional research

In this section, I will try to find an explanation for the counterintuitive results. What factors could cause these results? In order to answer this question, I will have a look at differences between consumers, regarding their ‘implicit theories’.

4.4.1 Implicit theories

Individuals can differ in their judgments and reactions, and thus in their behavior. Dweck, Chiu and Hong (1995) presented a new model for these individual differences, a model of ‘implicit theories’. With the identification of these implicit theories, Dweck et al. (1995) have set up a framework for analyzing and interpreting human actions. They tried to describe how implicit beliefs can influence, for example, people’s reactions. According to them, implicit theories can be distinguished on the basis of the two different assumptions that people make about the malleability of personal attributes. Namely, people can believe that personal attributes are fixed and non-malleable trait-like or people can believe that personal attributes are malleable and can be changed and developed. In the first case, Dweck et al. (1995) say that people are called ‘entity theories’. In the second case, they say that people are called ‘incremental theories’.

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Can the results be declared by the consumer being an entity or incremental theory? As said earlier, entity theories believe that personal attributes are fixed, their future behavior is very predictable. Therefore, I expect that the observability of the fair trade logo will be of influence regarding their buying behavior of fair trade products. Because their personal attributes are fixed, they need, for example, a logo, to impress others. But, with incremental theories, there is a possibility of change in their behavior over time. They find that personal attributes can be changed and developed. I expect that, to them, the observability of the logo of fair trade products will probably not be of great importance. They do not appreciate a logo on a product, but believe that their selves indicate their intention to buy products.

For this reason, I estimated whether it made a difference regarding the results if a person is more an entity theory or an incremental theory. I measured this by adding three statements to the questionnaire (Dweck et al., 1995). I translated the statements in Dutch. An example is: ‘De persoonlijkheid van iemand, is zijn of haar basis en kan niet erg worden

veranderd.’. Respondents could indicate their agreement with the three statements on a

6-point Likert-scale from 1 (‘helemaal mee eens’) to 6 (‘helemaal niet mee eens’). The

Cronbach’s alpha of this construct is .80. Incremental theories score above average on these three items, where entity theories, on the other hand, score below average on these items.

4.4.2 Results incremental theories

By taking into account only the incremental theories, of which is expected that observability will not play a role, the moderation shows again a negative (β = -.20), and significant effect (p < .10). This indicates that, for incremental theories, the relationship between willingness to pay and intention to buy is negatively moderated, and thus weakened, by the observability of the product being fair trade. When it is observable that the product is fair trade, the

relationship between an incremental theories’ willingness to pay for fair trade products, and

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their intention to buy these product, will become weaker. This is in line with the predictions about incremental theories.

However, for incremental theories, the direct effect of observability on intention to buy is positive but insignificant (β = .11, p > .10). It seems not to be important for the incremental theories’ intention to buy fair trade products, whether it is observable from the outside that the product is fair trade. Figure 8 illustrates the results for incremental theories.

Figure 8. Observability results for incremental theories.

Note. N = 151, (Observability: N=148),* < .10, ** p < .05, *** p < .01

4.4.3 Results entity theories

I expected that for entity theories observability will play a role. For entity theories, the results show a positive (β = .06) but insignificant (p > .10) moderation effect of observability on the relationship between willingness to pay and intention to buy. My prediction does not seem to be correct. For entity theories, the observability of the product being fair trade does not have a strengthening effect on the relationship between their willingness to pay for fair trade products and their intention to buy these products. But, for entity theories, observability has a negative (β = -.19) and significant (p < .10) effect on intention to buy. Thus, for entity

theories, the observability of the product being fair trade does not have a positive effect on their intention to buy fair trade products. The effect is actually negative. When it is

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observable that the product is fair trade, entity theories will be less intended to buy the fair trade product. Figure 9 illustrates the results for entity theories.

Figure 9. Observability results for entity theories.

Note. N = 151, (Observability: N=148), * < .10, ** p < .05, *** p < .01

5 Discussion

5.1 Additional research; interview

To be able to confirm the results, and to discover something more about fair trade in practice, a small interview has been conducted with someone who has founded a small company named ‘Chocolate & Friends’. Chocolate & Friends aims to bring consumers in touch with the ‘better’ chocolate (which is fair trade), in combination with wine, beer, and whisky. Chocolate & Friends organizes several activities to enlighten information about different kinds of fair trade chocolate. Besides, Chocolate & Friends is directing a process to secure an ISO norm (International Organization for Standardization) for sustainable cacao.

The founder of Chocolate & Friends (further called ‘C&F’) was asked several things regarding the most important issues of this thesis. His answers showed that the target group for fair trade chocolate is limited, and for this reason, the consumer’s awareness of fair trade chocolate has a limited influence on their willingness to pay for fair trade chocolate.

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According to C&F, the quality of the offered product must play an important role more and more. Consumers value quality in the first place, and find it kind of a bonus that the product is fair trade as well. Besides, C&F does not think that consumers are simply willing to pay more for fair trade chocolate than for ‘normal’ chocolate. The offered chocolate also has to be of good quality. Some brands like ‘Mars’ and ‘Albert Heijn’ offer fair trade chocolate for almost the same price as the ‘normal’ chocolate.

C&F also notices the fact that the amount of consumers who say to be willing to pay (more) for fair trade chocolate is bigger than the amount of consumers who actually buy fair trade chocolate. C&F thinks that this is the result of consumers giving ‘socially desirable’ or ‘politically correct’ answers to questions about this topic, and that consumers choose in real life more for the familiar and easy way.

C&F thinks that the gap between the willingness to pay for and the intention to buy fair trade chocolate plays also a role in consumer behavior regarding fair trade chocolate. Reasons for this can be the offered places where fair trade is available, the fact that fair trade products are often not so pleasant to see, and the mostly minimized commitment of

consumers with the production of cacao. In the field of chocolate, consumers care a lot about brands. They first buy something from ‘Mars’ or ‘Lindt’, and after that they maybe look at the way of production of the product, but that is something not everyone does.

Lastly, C&F thinks that the observability of the product being fair trade does not play a major role, because when the consumer really has the intention to buy fair trade chocolate, he is able to find the product and does not need to see, for example, the fair trade logo. However, C&F thinks that fair trade chocolate needs better marketing, to convince the consumer, because: “There is no better way to convince the consumer than with quality.”.

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5.2 Conclusion

Based on the results, I can answer the research questions mentioned in the introduction. Regarding the first part of the research question, there is indeed a positive relationship between consumer awareness of fair trade and the intention to buy fair trade products, and this positive relationship is partially mediated (or partially declared) by the consumer’s willingness to pay for fair trade products.

Regarding the second part of the research question, there is indeed a positive relationship between the consumer’s willingness to pay for fair trade products and their intention to buy these products. But, there is no positive relationship between the

observability of the product being fair trade and the consumer’s intention to buy fair trade products, but a negative relationship. When it is observable from the outside of a product that it is fair trade, consumers seem to be less intended to buy this fair trade products. The

observability of the product being fair trade also does not act as a moderator in the positive relationship between willingness to pay and intention to buy. This means, that the positive relationship between the consumer’s willingness to pay for fair trade products and their intention to buy fair trade products will not be stronger when it is observable for others that the product is fair trade.

Because of the counterintuitive results, additional research was done regarding the consumers being either entity or incremental theories. These results did not provide any relevant information in explaining the gap between the consumer’s willingness to pay for fair trade products and their intention to buy fair trade either. The expectation that incremental theories would not find it important in their decision to buy fair trade products, that it is observable for others that the product is fair trade, was proven. However, the expectation that

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entity theories would likely find an observable fair trade logo or label important in their fair trade buying decisions, could not be confirmed.

To be able to confirm the results that were found, an interview with ‘Chocolate & Friends’ was conducted. These results indeed did show some evidence for the results

regarding this thesis. The interviewee declared that the observability of the product being fair trade would probably not be that important, because consumers who buy fair trade products, are able to find them, also without (for example) the fair trade logo on it. This may be a clarification for observability being not very important in the consumer’s fair trade buying behavior, as this thesis can conclude.

5.3 Limitations and future research

Even though the limitations are reduced as far as possible, some limitations regarding this research can be mentioned. The first, and main limitation, refers to the sample. All

participants are friends, friends from friends, or family of the researcher. This means, all participants are Dutch, and most participants are highly educated people, aged between 20 and 35 years. Besides, few men participated in this research. All these facts regarding the sample could bias the results. For example, elder people, who are working for many years and earn more money than, for example, students, could be more willing to pay for fair trade products, simply because they have got more money to spend. Besides, elder people mostly have more life experience than younger people, so they are possibly more concerned about the environment and sustainability over all. Thus, future research should include a sample more varied, with participants of all ages, several education levels, variable salaries, and preferably different nationalities. In that case, the results could differ from the results in this thesis.

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The second limitation refers to the type of fair trade products that were used in this research. This research specified fair trade products only to fair trade T-shirts and fair trade bananas. Other types of fair trade products, for example fair trade coffee, were left out. It could be possible that, for some reason, some consumers are willing to pay for, or have the intention to buy fair trade coffee, but are not willing to pay for, or do not have the intention to buy fair trade bananas. Thus, the results regarding fair trade products could differ for

different categories of products. For this reason, this research cannot truly draw conclusions about fair trade products in general but only about fair trade T-shirts and fair trade bananas. Therefore, for future research, it is recommended to include all kinds of fair trade products, to be able to draw correct conclusions about fair trade products in general.

As mentioned in the theoretical framework, people who buy fair trade products at a certain moment, do not surely buy fair trade the next time. Thus, it might be that participants, at the moment the research was conducted, were willing to pay for, or did have the intention to buy fair trade products, but decide different at another point in time. The moment of time when the research was conducted, can therefore be seen as a third limitation. To exclude this limitation, future research should be longitudinal and thus conducted at different moments in time, preferably over several years.

Another recommendation for future research refers to the concept ‘observability’. This variable, which referred in this research to the observability of the product being fair trade, for example through the fair trade logo, and the extent to which consumers found this important in their buying decision, was invented by the researcher. It became clear that impression management has a lot to do with this. For this reason, future research should focus more on impression management, and on the consumer’s fair trade buying behavior in order to impress others.

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The last recommendation for future research, is based on the interview that was conducted, in which the interviewee noticed that that a possible explanation for the gap between willingness to pay and intention to buy could be the quality of the offered product. Consumers value the quality of the product over the fact whether the product is fair trade. Future research could focus more on the quality-aspect of fair trade products.

5.4 Practical implications

Nowadays, the extent to which consumer’s say they are intended to buy fair trade products, is nowadays lower than the extent to which they are willing to pay these products. This research tried to find the explanation for this gap in the observability of the product being fair trade. However, This research has proven that the fact that it is observable that the product is fair trade, has no positive influence on the relationship between the consumer’s willingness to pay and their intention to buy. To be able to find an explanation for this gap, it must become clear how the consumer’s intention to buy fair trade products can be raised. Some possible ways to increase the consumer’s fair trade buying behavior will be described in this subchapter.

Because the consumer’s awareness of fair trade has a positive effect on their intention to buy fair trade products, the consumer’s awareness needs to be raised in other to raise the consumer’s fair trade buying behavior. This can be done through more advertisement of fair trade, so that consumers get a lot of information about fair trade, and sales will increase.

Another option to stimulate ethical and fair trade consumption, is through raising the perceived availability of fair trade products. It might be that there are a lot of places where fair trade products are available, but that consumers are not able to perceive this. When it becomes perceivable for consumers that fair trade products can be bought somewhere, consumption of fair trade products is also likely to increase.

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Social norms also have a lot to do with ethical consumption. When social norms regarding fair trade consumer behavior will be raised, consumers will think more and more that they should behave in that kind of way, and thus should buy fair trade, ‘because everyone buys fair trade’. The question here is, however, how to raise social norms. This could be important for future research about fair trade consumer behavior.

Lastly, it seems obvious that can be expected that the gap between willingness to pay and intention to buy regarding fair trade products, has a lot to do with the price of these products, which is mostly higher than the price of comparable non-fair trade products. Consumers saying they are willing to pay fair trade products, may therefore possibly decide in the end not to buy the products. Therefore, it is important to keep the price of fair trade products as low as possible, so that the likelihood that consumers will buy these products increases.

Fair trade consumer behavior : explaining the gap between willingness to pay and intention to buy, by taking into account the role of the observability of the product being fair trade