Fair trade food products: Insights about motivations for consumption behaviour in Italy

This paper aims to provide insights into consumer motivational systems and their relations with fair trade product purchasing behaviour in Italy. In order to pursue this goal, the effectiveness of two alternative approaches were formally assessed and validated by using a sample of Italian consumers. One approach is based on two attitudinal scales, namely i) attitude to fair trade in general and ii) attitude to fair trade products. It involves a complex theoretical model, firstly validated in Belgium to assess the importance of the knowledge, information and attitude toward fair trade. The other approach considers intention and buying behaviour as determined by a synthetic indicator of action tendency, called Consciousness for Fair Consumption, resulting from personal experiences, norms, values and attitudes. Although both sets of scales showed good internal reliability and statistical evidence of behavioural predictive validity, one of the two sets is able to depict actual behaviour in much greater depth than the other.