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The purpose of this paper is to examine the historical position of the ethical consumer as a driver of change within the Fair Trade movement. Fair Trade was originally envisaged as a model of South-North trade; however, with Fair Trade labels now available to consumers in India, Brazil, South Africa and Kenya, the geographies of production and consumption appear increasingly fluid and dynamic.

Using a historical comparative case study approach this paper draws on the records and archives from eight leading Fair Trade organisations based in the UK.

The paper develops an exploratory framework based on an assessment of Fair Trade’s theory(ies) of change and the role of the ethical consumer as an agent of change. Four consumer narratives are identified: simpler living and moral action; co-operation and solidarity; consumer demand and choice; and citizen-consumers. The paper concludes by considering the implications for globalising the concept of the “citizen-consumer” and the (re)politicisation of Fair Trade consumption.

Primary data collection was mainly based on UK organisations. Additional comparative studies could develop an understanding of the context and geographies of Fair Trade practices.

New and emerging Fair Trade markets may offer valuable areas of further study.

Increased understanding of the drivers of social change may lead to improved decision-making by Fair Trade organisations and policy-makers.

The paper contributes to the development and understanding of Fair Trade’s theory of change model by offering an historical dimension that is absent from the majority of existing studies.

This paper examines the ethics of marketing both fair trade products and the movement's message of change, as fair trade shifts from a distribution system that relied on alternative distribution channels to one that is increasingly reliant on the commercial mainstream. The marketing of fair trade through mainstream commercial distribution channels has been the major success and the major challenge for the fair trade movement over the past decade.

A conceptual approach and discussion are taken.

First, we introduce the term “Clean‐wash” to describe a range of ways in which marketing fair trade through mainstream distribution channels creates opportunities for commercial businesses to appropriate and regulate the terrain. Second, the paper illustrates how mainstream marketing of fair trade has shifted the message of fair trade from participation in an international programme of trade reform to one about “shopping for a better world”. Finally, the paper explores a number of innovations the movement is using that protects the integrity of the principles of fair trade and sells both products and the message of change.

Innovations discussed in the paper termed “the Alternative High Street”, see the merging of consumption with social action, and counter‐pose them with the mainstream idea of ethical consumerism. The concept of an Alternative High Street describes the fair trade movement's attempts to address the challenges and dangers of mainstreaming, and presents a way of thinking about the co‐creation of value between producers, retailers and consumers.

This paper will be of interest to marketing professionals and “values‐driven organisations”, providing a case study of how a seemingly highly successful brand marketing strategy may actually undermine the original ethical interest of a venture.

Social entrepreneurship will play a big role in bringing the growth to the rural masses in India and so it becomes important to study the factors, like fair trade, that will shape the social entrepreneurship philosophy.

Primary information has been collected from National Level bodies like Fair Trade Forum – India (FTF‐I) by means of discussions and debates. Current state of fair trade penetration has been discussed with the help of a case study of an India NGO, International Resources for Fairer Trade (IRFT) which is a pioneer in this field in India.

Discussions with FTF‐I and study of IRFT revealed some surprising facts about fair trade in India – one of them being the expected size of the fair trade market in the near future. Fair trade is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years and it has the potential be an inspiration for many to enter into the social entrepreneurship world.

With this study as basis, many Non Government Organizations and other bodies may find that their business models can be slightly modified to make them eligible for entering the lucrative market of fair trade.

This is the first study that focuses on attempting to find a link between social entrepreneurship and fair trade in India. This study will not only help current and future social entrepreneurs understand the need for fair trade and its benefits but it will also help them understand how they could become fair trade compliant if they wanted to and thus contribute to all inclusive growth.

Looks at the so‐called 7Ps of the retail market in the United Kingdom: product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence, along with customer service. Looks to address the issues of produce, placement, ethics and parasocial relationships, via a study of Fair Trade products in the UK retail marketplace. Defines what Fair Trade products are and how they are marketed in the UK. Sums up that it is in both retailers’ and consumers’ interests to build relationships with the growing Fair Trade ranges.

The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers’ preference for responsible labels in the specific case of well-known brands. The research examines the propensity of consumers to consider self-declarations carried out by the company itself in comparison with independent certifications organised by an external third party.

An empirical study involving 134 French consumers by means of a conjoint analysis method was conducted, and the case of Nespresso coffee was tested.

The results show that self-declaration (Nespresso AAA Sustainable Quality) positively influences consumer preference. Moreover, this positive effect is equivalent to that of independent certification (Fair Trade Max Havelaar).

This study’s contribution gives a better insight into the consumers’ response to eco-labelling. It suggests the existence of an interaction effect between the brand and the responsible label. But, a future research needs to be conducted to gain better understanding of this interaction effect.

The results suggest that a strategy of promoting a well-known branded product based on self-declaration would be effective. They offer additional insights to managers on the eco-labels’ efficiency.

Contrary to the literature which suggests the superiority of the effect of certifications organised by a third party, this research shows that this finding is not valuable in the case of a well-known brand. Self-declaration may be preferred by consumers in the same way as independent certification. This research is one of the rare research to stress the need to consider brand when exploring eco-labelling issue.

This introduction provides an overview of the discourse on alternative agrifood movements (AAMs) to (1) ascertain the degree of convergence and divergence around a common ethos of alterity and (2) context the chapters of the book. AAMs have increased in recent years in response to the growing legitimation crisis of the conventional agrifood system. Some agrifood researchers argue that AAMs represent the vanguard movement of our time, a formidable counter movement to global capitalism. Other authors note a pattern of blunting of the transformative qualities of AAMs due to conventionalization and mainstreaming in the market. The literature on AAMs is organized following a Four Questions in Agrifood Studies (Constance, 2008) framework. The section for each Question ends with a case study to better illustrate the historical dynamics of an AAM. The literature review ends with a summary of the discourse applied to the research question of the book: Are AAMs the vanguard social movement of our time? The last section of this introduction provides a short description of each contributing chapter of the book, which is divided into five sections: Introduction; Theoretical and Conceptual Framings; Food Sovereignty Movements; Alternative Movements in the Global North; and Conclusions.

Initiated by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) over half a century ago, fair trade has successfully evolved from a regional business discourse to a global social movement within international trade. In the matter of fair trade coffee, this global social movement has transformed the traditional coffee trade structure of inequality and unfairness into a conglomerate of international institutions that embrace equity and inclusivity – a metamorphosis that can be attributed to NGOs’ institutional entrepreneurship.

In this exploratory study, the authors examine the fair trade coffee industry and trace the actions of NGOs along with other stakeholders at the organizational field level, in moving toward an inclusive model of globalization.

Departing from exploitative globalization, fair trade practices advocate inclusive growth through the promotion and establishment of greater equity for all as well as higher environmental standards in global value chains.

This study contributes to nascent research on inclusive growth by analyzing how fair trade promotes inclusive growth and trade in GVCs. This study also contributes to research on institutional entrepreneurship by examining two enabling conditions – the shift in institutional logics and the peripheral social position of NGOs – that enabled NGOs to serve as institutional entrepreneurs in the initiation phase of institutional entrepreneurship.

Policymakers may encourage collaboration between profit organizations and nonprofit organizations to provide entrepreneurial opportunities for trials, errors, and revisions. The evolution of fair trade coffee provides such an example.

The coevolution of NGOs and MNEs has made the globalization of fair trade practices possible. The collaboration between NGOs as institutional entrepreneurs (operating on the community logic) and MNEs as institutional followers (operating on the financial logic) support inclusive globalization and sustain fair trade practices.

Drawing on the process model of institutional entrepreneurship, the authors seek to understand the role of NGOs as institutional entrepreneurs in the dynamics of initiating, diffusing and sustaining fair trade coffee practices.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the consumers’ preferences in middle- and high-income districts in Lima for three organic and Fairtrade certification attributes: environmental protection, production without pesticides, and improvement in the quality of life of farmers. Yellow chili pepper was used as case study.

A survey of 183 households was conducted among the population located in middle and high income districts in Lima, because of their higher ability to pay. Choice experiment data were analysed using random parameter logit models (RPM) with and without interaction effects.

The results suggest that there is a statistically significant willingness to pay for organic and Fairtrade certification attributes (ranging from S/4.4 to 9.3). The results also indicate that the higher the income the higher the willingness to pay for yellow chili peppers grown without pesticides.

The results provide support that willingness to pay values for particular food certification attributes are statistically significantly associated with the ability to pay even among the middle and high income population in Lima. This positive association between willingness to pay and income is not always present among the general population in developed countries. As such, the demand for certified products would be especially associated with the overall economic growth of the emerging and developing country under consideration.

Fair trade commonly focuses on the figure of the smallholding peasant producer. The effectiveness of this as a strategy lies in the widespread appeal of an economy based upon independent family producers trying to secure livelihoods in impersonal and exploitative global commodity markets. But the attempt by fair trade to personalise economic relationships between coffee producers and consumers diverts attention away from aspects of the political economy of production for the market. This chapter examines a rural Costa Rican coffee economy that has supplied fair trade markets since the 1980s. Documenting differences in landholdings, the range of activities farmers engage in, and the relationship between landowners and landless labourers, women, and migrant harvesters from Nicaragua reveals differentiation and tensions that are obscured in the “smallholder” model invoked by fair trade.

The main pedagogical objectives of the case are: illustrate how Latin American companies dedicated to the production and harvesting of commodities can be vertically integrated to gain a larger share of the value created throughout the production chain. Understand how futures and options contracts in commodities can be used to hedge price risk on long and short positions in the underlying products. Understand how option contracts add value by hedging risk in those contexts where the counterparty has optionality. Discuss the implications of Fair Trade for commodity traders and producers.

In the case, Hernan Arosamena, CFO of The Specialty Coffee Trading Co. (TSCT), faces the challenge of designing an effective strategy to hedge the price risk caused by the increasing demand of the so-called Fair Trade coffee. Hernan Arosamena decides to review how the company has typically managed the price risk in its business transactions using future contracts to then incorporate the additional elements that trading Fair Trade coffee may entail. The typical price risk hedging strategy involves the use of coffee future contracts in long and short positions to ensure that the company obtains the desired margin in its coffee trading negotiations. To hedge the exposure to the risk of fluctuations in the price of coffee when the company sells Fair Trade coffee requires the additional use of put options.

The case is appropriate for students enrolled in courses or specialization programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 5: International Business.