Morality or economic interest? The impact of moral motives and economic factors on the purchase of fair trade groceries

Abstract

In this article, we compare the impact of moral motives and economic factors on the purchase of fair trade groceries. Moral motives are measured by three different constructs, which are derived from different theoretical perspectives: one from the classical theory of attitude, one from the subjectively expected utility theory and one from the norm-activation model. The empirical results of the analysis show that moral motives as well as economic factors are important determinants for explaining the purchase of fair trade groceries. Furthermore, the study indicates that the impact of moral motives is greater than that of economic factors, and among the moral factors, the personal norm is especially explanatorily powerful.