A comparative analysis of the purchase motivations of Fair Trade products: the impact of social capital

Objective of this paper is to analyse themotivations in the purchase of Fair Trade (FT) foodproducts sold in the World Shops (WS) in order tocharacterize WS consumer profiles according to theethical content of their motivations. A questionnaire hasbeen distributed, at this end, to a sample of consumers inEmilia Romagna, Puglia and in Campania. A principalcomponent analysis has been performed in order toidentify the main motivations in the purchase. On thebasis of these results, consumers have been classified, byapplying a cluster analysis, in homogenous segments.The cluster analysis reveals that 76% of consumers inEmilia Romagna buy FT products for an ethicalmotivation, 56% of consumers in Puglia and 43% ofconsumers in Campania buy these products for anethical motivation. These percentages reflect the rank ofsocial capital, intended as the civicness component a laPutnam, of the regions analysed. These results show aclear relationship between the civicness component ofsocial capital a la Putnam and the diffusion of consumersocial responsibility, even in the niche market of WSsconsumers.