Alliances Between Corporate and Fair Trade Brands: Examining the Antecedents of Overall Evaluation of the Co-branded Product

This research investigates the potential for a “fair” co-branding operation. A major corporate brand is fictitiously allied with a Fair Trade labelling organization brand. The sample for the study is composed of 540 respondents, representative of the French population. By considering commercial brands and Fair Trade labels as dissimilar in terms of customers’ perceived Fair Trade orientations, this article studies (1) how this lack of similarity impacts perceived congruence between both entities (i.e. perceived relevancy and expectancy of the alliance) and (2) how prior brand attitudes and congruence influence customers’ evaluation of the co-branded product. The results of this research demonstrate that: (1) Consumer prior brand attitudes toward the partner brands influence very little customers’ evaluation. (2) Perceived similarity of the partner brands has a strong influence toward congruence of the co-branding operation. Results also indicate that congruence (measured as relevancy and expectancy) has a strong influence upon customers’ evaluation. (3) An inverted U-shaped relationship exists between perceived similarity and relevancy of the alliance, and between expectancy and customers’ evaluation. The results obtained through the test of a partial least square model, and inverted U-shaped hypothesis, represent a new insight into co-branding theory. The high discursive power of fair co-branding is a key issue: the corporate brand provides the alliance with its leading position, while the Fair Trade brand provides the ethical attribute.     

The Dynamics of Fair Trade as a Mixed-form Market

This article analyses the Fair Trade sector as a “mixed-form market,” i.e., a market in which different types of players (in this case, nonprofit, co-operative and for-profit organizations) coexist and compete. The purposes of this article are (1) to understand the factors that have led Fair Trade to become a mixed-form market and (2) to propose some trails to understand the market dynamics that result from the interactions between the different types of players. We start by defining briefly Fair Trade, its different dimensions (including the “fair” quality of the products) and its organizational landscape, focusing on the distinction between the pioneer “Alternative Trading Organizations” and the second-mover companies. Then, we recall the theoretical emergence factors for each type of organization (nonprofit, co-operative and for-profit) and apply these emergence factors to the context of Fair Trade. This analysis allows us to capture the specificities of each type of operator with regard to Fair Trade and, thus, to have a better understanding of the dynamics in the sector. Such dynamics includes competition, but also conflict and partnership. Our analysis includes elements on ethical imitation, consumers’ behaviors, effects on welfare and the role of the government.     

The Urgency and Necessity of a Different Type of Market: The Perspective of Producers Organized Within the Fair Trade Market

The development of the certified Fair Trade market was initiated by a group of indigenous communities in Mexico. Over time, their vision of Fair Trade as a different type of market has become increasingly marginalized by an emphasis on poverty reduction. This article presents their understanding of what Fair Trade should and should not be. It presents the key principles of the Fair Trade market as effectiveness, ecological sustainability, social sustainability, and more direct producer–consumer relationships. The key challenges that confront Fair Trade in living up to these principles are the need to democratize the formal structures of Fair Trade so as to give a greater voice to small producers and to link with other social movements to confront the dominant neo-liberal trade regime.     

国际公平贸易运动:一个南北贸易的新潮流

公平贸易作为南北贸易的一种新型贸易形式,走过了70多年的发展历程,并取得了瞩目的成绩。公平贸易促进了南方国家的可持续发展,其产品成为南方国家小生产者和劳动工人开辟北方国家市场的主要工具。本文从公平贸易的发展历程、公平贸易网络和成员组织、公平贸易的参与者和运作机制三个方面展现出公平贸易的全貌,并对公平贸易在原则、标签、消费市场、发展中国家长期比较优势方面所面临的挑战进行分析。     

Interfirm Alliances in the Small Business: The Role of Social Networks

In light of the increasing importance of strategic alliances in shaping competition, this study explored whether the social network of small firm executives can be leveraged to facilitate the establishment of interfirm alliances. Analyses are based on a mail survey of 149 small manufacturing firms in the northeast United States. Results indicate that the social networks of senior executives account for 11–22 percent of the variance in the degree to which firms engage in alliances, depending on the type of alliance. Results also show that the number of interfirm alliances is positively related to several networking properties (propensity to network, strength of ties, and network prestige). Findings are discussed in the context of network theory, social embeddedness, and the overall implications for management researchers and practitioners.     

Ethical Entrepreneurship and Fair Trade

Due to several recent scandals, Business Ethics is now firmly embraced. Whereas in the 1980s and early 1990s there were serious doubts expressed about combining ethics and business, the link now seems to have become self-evident. Fundamental questions about the tensions between business and ethics however continue to receive little attention. In this paper, based upon a debate concerning the Fair Trade company, the strains between business and ethics are analyzed. The article shows how several great thinkers have already considered this tension. Three ways to conceptualize the tension between business and ethics have been distinguished, and these are outlined in the paper. In one approach, ethical entrepreneurship, value tensions are perceived as a source for entrepreneurship. However, this approach presupposes pluralistic ethics. Thinking only in terms of black and white is seen as blocking the ability to adequately handle the tension between business and ethics. Opting for ‘‘ethical entrepreneurship’’, as by Fair Trade, has fundamental and important consequences for the company’s communication policy.     

An Exploration of Opportunities for the Growth of the Fair Trade Market: Three Cases of Craft Organisations

Businesses that maintain ethical standards have an advantage in the marketplace based on the increasing interest of consumers in products that have a social and ethical component. Fair trade organisations that adopt environmental, social and ethical principles in trading are in a good position to make the most of this growing interest in the market. However, it is unclear whether fair trade organisations are taking full advantage of emerging market opportunities for ethically traded products. This research explores this issue by describing the business strategies of three fair trade organisations that import and sell craft goods into Western countries and evaluates them in the context of this growing market. The research findings indicate that in order to remain in business, fair trade craft organisations have had to adopt better business practices in recent years, improving quality, customer service and product offerings to customers. However, growth appears to be limited, as distribution remains focused on a small, niche market. This paper explores the distribution strategies of two fair trade commodity organisations that are successfully reaching a wider customer base, demonstrating that fair trade products have a unique selling advantage in the mainstream marketplace. In conclusion, fair trade craft organisations are not exploiting this market opportunity to the degree they should and will need to explore wider distribution and alternative business strategies to expand their market share.Debora Randall completed her Masters of Management at Massey University, in Auckland, New Zealand. She is currently using her interests in business and community development to work towards practical economic solutions to poverty. She is living in Vancouver, Canada where she is working on a number of community economic development initiatives.     

Fair Trade Consumption: In Support of the Out-Group

Two sets of self-transcendence values – universalism and benevolence – act as a source of motivation for the promotion of the welfare of the other rather than the self. This article sought to determine the exact nature of the interaction between these sets of values and the consumption of fair trade products. In an earlier study, universalism values were found to have a significant influence on fair trade consumption whereas benevolence values did not, despite their shared goal and values theory. Additionally, there was supporting evidence in the extant literature that benevolence values should influence fair trade consumption behavior. This study took a closer look at the individual values that make up the value categories universalism and benevolence to better understand and describe this universalism–benevolence distinction in fair trade consumption. It was established that perhaps group membership has an influence on the decision to buy fair trade products. Specifically, it seems that an overriding sense of responsibility to one’s own group – the in-group – prevents some consumers from identifying with, empathizing with, and subsequently sharing resources with fair trade producers; members of out-groups in far-flung corners of the globe. It appears that the universalism–benevolence distinction in fair trade consumption might also be described as an in-group–out-group distinction.     

Strategic Implications of Alliances and Networks of Horizontal Portals in Brazil

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to recent research on strategic networks by making evident the relevance of identifying network implications for the conduct and performance of firms that are embedded in alliance networks and other strategic relationships in a typical industry of the new economy. Through a study of horizontal portals in Brazil from 2000 to 2002, it shows that an assessment of the implications for these firms' networks can provide relational insights for corporate decision-making that could not be found through traditional strategic analyses, such as those of the positioning school or the Resource-Based View.

RESUMEN. Este estudio ofrece una contribución para un análisis realizado recientemente sobre las redes estratégicas, haciendo hincapié en la importancia que se debe dar a la identificación de las implicancias inherentes a estas redes, cuanto al comportamiento y desempeño de las empresas arraigadas en la alianza de redes y otras relaciones estratégicas, en una industria típica de la nueva economía. A través del estudio de los portales horizontales en el Brasil entre los años 2000 y 2002, se demuestra que una evaluación de las implicancias para las redes de dichas empresas puede suministrar una visión relacional para la toma de decisiones corporativas, inexistentes en los análisis estratégicos tradiciones, tales como los elaborados por las escuelas de posicionamiento o bajo la perspectiva denominada Resource-Based View.

RESUMO. O presente estudo contribui para pesquisas recentes sobre redes estratégicas, evidenciando a relevância da identificação das implicaç[otilde]es da rede para a conduta e desempenho das empresas envolvidas de redes e outros relacionamentos estratégicos em um setor típico da nova economia. Por meio da análise dos portais horizontais no Brasil de 2000 a 2002, o estudo mostra que uma avaliação das implicaç[otilde]es para essas redes de empresas pode gerar insights para processos decisórios corporativos que não são encontrados por meio de análises estratégicas tradicionais, como as da escola de posicionamento ou a visão baseada em recursos.     

Fair Trade Coffee and Human Rights in Guatemala

This paper explores how the fair trade coffee market translates consumer action and shopping habits into the promotion of human rights in distant locales. This process does not occur through direct producer–consumer contact. Instead, it is channeled through two interrelated avenues. First, the fair trade certification system which requires producer groups to be democratic, transparent, and accountable and second, the relationships between producers and coffee roasters and importers, who, in this specific commodity chain, act as conduits for consumer actions and intentions. These two facets of the fair trade consumer market promote and protect the secure organizational space that is necessary for producer initiated community development. This freedom to identify and fulfill economic and social development goals through cooperation also reaffirms existing cultural traditions of service and mutual aid among producers. These key components of human rights compliance are critically important in countries such as Guatemala with its history of violent repression, structural inequality, and cultural discrimination against indigenous populations and community organizers. The analysis emerges from ongoing ethnographic research on a group of indigenous, fair trade coffee producers in Guatemala and their relationships with outside buyers and certifiers.

UK Sports Sponsorship: Fair Play or Foul?

Sport sponsorship is a growth area which is under-researched yet which displays opportunities and threats for both sponsor and sport, as well as having important ethical implications. If sponsorship funding is to be attracted, sports need to supply evidence of the opportunities for sponsors; yet "sport also needs to ensure that the negative aspects of sponsorship are reduced and the positive encouraged." Marylyn Carrigan has a background in banking and export marketing and is currently Lecturer in Marketing and International Marketing at the Business School, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, England, where she also researches the areas of Corporate Philanthropy and Sport and Leisure Marketing. Her husband worked in industry before graduating in Sports Studies and Business, and currently works as a Youth Worker for the City of Birmingham Department of Leisure and Community Services with research interests in Sport and the 50+ leisure market.     

In the Name of Conservation: CAFE Practices and Fair Trade in Mexico

Consumers’ concerns for the environment have led to the creation of niche markets, quality certifications and labelling systems. Built by activists and NGOs, these systems were adopted by agribusiness. Such firms try to capture consumers and react to opinion campaigns, whilst appropriating the conservation (or ‘fair’) discourse. This leads to the rise of new forms of third-party certifications of food production based on private standards and, hence, to new forms of contract relations between producers and buyers. The nature of these relationships is not always evident in these new labels or in the discourse built to justify them. This is particularly so in the case of goods produced in the South to be traded and sold in the North, as the case of Starbucks illustrates. By the end of the 1990s, Starbucks, operating through an NGO called Conservation International (CI), arrived at the region of El Triunfo, in Chiapas, and contacted the producers’ cooperatives that were trying to find a market for their product. CI promoted Starbucks standards to raise the coffee quality and won the control over the production system. Meanwhile, the producers forced to sell their coffee through the largest trade company (AMSA) against whom the cooperatives were created, lost the control over their own organization. When some cooperatives refused the deal, they suffered divisions but could survive thanks the Fair Trade (FT) network in Chiapas.     

Fair Trade Managerial Practices: Strategy,Organisation and Engagement

The number of distributors selling Fair Trade products is constantly increasing. What are their motivations to distribute Fair Trade products? How do they organise this distribution? Do they apply and communicate the Fair Trade values? This research, based on five case studies in Switzerland, aims at understanding and structuring the strategies and the managerial practices related to Fair Trade product distribution, as well as analysing if they denote an engagement with Fair Trade principles. The results show a high heterogeneity of strategies and engagement. In general, strategies implemented by mainstream actors contribute to increase Fair Trade global sales but do not convey the transformative message of Fair Trade through their engagement. The latter is rather communicated through alternative channels. Problems and potential solutions to this issue are discussed.     

Fair Trade: Three Key Challenges for Reaching the Mainstream

After nearly 20 years of work by activists, fair trade, a movement establishing alternative trading organizations to ensure minimal returns, safe working conditions, and environmentally sustainable production, is now gaining steam, with increasing awareness and availability across a variety of products. However, this article addresses several major remaining challenges: (a) a lack of agreement about what fair trade really means and how it should be certified; (b) uneven awareness and availability across different areas, with marked differences between some parts of Europe and North America that reflect more fundamental debates about distribution; (c) larger questions about the extent of the potential contribution of fair trade to development under the current system, including limitations on the number and types of workers affected and the fair trade focus on commodity goods.     

Credit Indebtedness and the UK Retail Trade

Prior to the end of 1989, most sectors of the UK retail trade had for some time been benefiting from a boom in sales. Many reasons may be forwarded to explain the high level of sales that had devéloped. This paper focuses attention on the greatly increased levels of consumer credit indebtedness associated with high retail sales. Examination is made of the possibility that a fundamental change in UK patterns of saving and spending has taken place. It is suggested that the retail trade must pay attention to the implications of rising credit and of any restrictions on consumer credit that may be introduced at some future date.     

我国会展经济的完善与发展

本文认为,会展经济是由展览组办活动而引发的一种综合经济效应.我国会展经济起步较晚,但发展迅速,潜力巨大.文章分析了我国展览业的发展现状及存在的问题,认为中国会展经济在探索展览市场经济发展的同时,要迅速向现代化、专业化和品牌化方向发展,以增强会展经济的竞争力和效益,使之成为我国经济的新的增长点.