Integrating fair trade with circular economy: Personality traits, consumer engagement, and ethically-minded behavior
File(s)
Journal
Journal of Business Research
Date Issued
May 2022
Abstract
With the concept of circular economy gaining increasing momentum, its connection to consumer behavior, particularly focusing on fair trade, has been relatively unexplored. Building on cognitive-affective personality system theory, we examine the role of consumer personality traits as drivers of fair trade engagement and its subsequent impact on ethically-minded behavior concerning circular economy issues. Adopting a mixed-method approach, comprising a quantitative survey among 323 consumers in the UK and India and a qualitative study among 18 British consumers, we found that extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness positively affect consumer fair trade engagement, whereas neuroticism has a negative effect, and openness has no significant impact. Consumer fair trade engagement was subsequently revealed to positively influence ethically-minded behavior related to circular economy. The association between consumer fair trade engagement and ethically-minded behavior was stronger in older, more educated, and high-income consumers, whereas gender had no moderating role.