Fairtrade Consumers and “Global South” Producers Supply Chain Management

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Fred Yamoah, ‘Fairtrade Consumers and “Global South” Producers Supply Chain Management’, African Journal of Business and Economic Research, Vol. 11 (2-3): 35-52, November 2016. The final, published version is available online at http://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC197613. © Publisher: Adonis & Abbey PublishersFairtrade supply chains lack information linking commodity producers with Fairtrade shopper behaviour. This paper aims to show how supermarket loyalty card data of over 1.7 million shoppers can be analysed using paired-samples t-test analysis to objectively profile the Fairtrade shopper and address its supply chain management implications. The paper demonstrates the huge marketing potential that segmentation based on actual behaviour brings to supply chain management. The results show that global South producers – including those in Africa – have more incentive to adopt a supply chain orientation by understanding the characteristics of Fairtrade shoppers that drive consumer satisfaction and repeat buying behaviour.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Using supermarket loyalty card data to explore exported yam marketing performance and prospects in the UK

Fred Yamoah and Robert Aidoo, 'Using Supermarket Loyalty card data to explore exported yam marketing performance and prospects in the UK', African Journal of Agricultural Marketing, Vol. 2(3): 77-81, May 2014. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars JournalsStakeholders operating within the yam export market lack shopper insights to formulate effective marketing and supply chain management strategies. This paper aims to show how supermarket loyalty card data on yam shoppers in the UK can be analysed to objectively assess marketing performance and prospects through year-on-year comparison of key marketing measures and regression. The results demonstrate the huge marketing potential that actual supermarket yam shopper behaviour brings to inform current marketing performance of exported yam and future export marketing strategies. Evidence from the study suggest that sales value of supermarket yam over 104 weeks ending 16th December 2013, increased by 15.27%, but sales volume and number of customers buying yam declined by 5.54% and 8.97% respectively. Whilst the results of the regression suggest that the number of customers buying yam is the key factor contributing to the volume of sales of yam, average price per tuber and number of distribution outlets were not salient factors. However, the value of yam sales was positively influenced by average retail price of yam at 1% level. The results of this study are of interest to both global south yam export market academics, yam supply chain stakeholders and managers tasked with promoting exports of food products to international markets in Europe and Northern America.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Marketing Factors Influencing Fairtrade Food Buying Behaviour in the UK

This Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This licence allows authors to use all articles, data sets, graphics and appendices in data mining applications, search engines, web sites, blogs and other platforms by providing appropriate reference. The journal allows the author(s) to hold the copyright without restrictions and will retain publishing rights without restrictions. Fred A. Yamoah, 'An Exploratory Study of Marketing Factors Influencing Fairtrade Food Buying Behaviour in the UK', International Review of Management and Marketing, Vol. 4 (1), pp. 13-23, 2014, https://www.econjournals.com/index.php/irmm/article/view/630/pdfThe phenomenal growth of the fairtrade industry has attracted increased research interest but little is known as to what marketing factors drive fairtrade retail sales. This gap has profound implications for fairtrade marketing research and the future of the fairtrade industry. To provide a more robust and objective insight this paper draws on the analysis of supermarket loyalty card dataset of 1.7 million fairtrade shoppers to establish the influence of price, promotion and distribution on fairtrade retail sales. Insights from the results show the lack of cross shopping pattern among fairtrade food product shoppers. The results also indicate that the increasing fairtrade retail sales growth is not shopper demand driven but predominately attributable to widened distribution and price increases. The findings of the study offer insights to fairtrade marketing researchers and strategic direction for managers working to ensure that fairtrade thrives as an ethical consumer driven industry.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Consumer motivation and willingness to pay for “safer” vegetables in Ghana

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Iddrisu Yahaya, and Fred A. Yamoah, (2015) "Consumer motivation and willingness to pay for “safer” vegetables in Ghana", British Food Journal, Vol. 117 Issue: 3, pp.1043-1065, the version of record is available online at doi: 10.1108/BFJ-10-2013-0296. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited 2015 Published by Emerald Group Publishing Limited.Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess consumer motivation and willingness to pay (WTP) for “safer” vegetables from the use of non-treatment options of wastewater use in urban/peri-urban vegetable production. Design/methodology/approach – As a theoretical basis, consumer theory of maximizing utility being an indicator of individual preference was examined through choice experiment (CE) method to measure the WTP for value of safety within the context of health reduced risk (pathogen reduction) of illness. WTP was tested empirically using survey data from 650 households in the two largest cities in Ghana (Accra and Kumasi) that are characterized by a number of well-established vegetable producers who use wastewater in their production and a large urban and peri-urban vegetable consumer market. Findings – Experience of vegetable borne diseases drives the need for safer vegetables and income and gender are key demographic factors influencing WTP. It was further found that consumers are willing to pay an average amount of GH¢ 4.7 ($2.40) per month for a technology change that would result in the production of “safer” vegetables. Research limitations/implications – Understanding WTP offers insight into consumer concerns, behaviour and their readiness to pay for safer vegetable options. However, a further consideration of the impact of the combinations of the various non-treatment options on pathogen reduction and the assessment of the financial viability of each option will collectively ensure an efficient and cost-effective implementation of the technologies. Practical implications – WTP insight gained has implications for vegetable production, marketing and public health policy. The understanding from the findings forms a solid basis to canvass for certification system for urban/peri urban vegetables. The information provided also helps to formulate effective public education on the safety of vegetables. Originality/value – Measuring WTP for safer vegetables by Ghanaian urban/peri-urban consumers is novel. The CE approach is robust and the findings can inform vegetable production and marketing decisions as well as public health policy formulation.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Assessing Supermarket Food Shopper Reaction to Horsemeat Scandal in the UK

Fred Yamoah, David E. Yawson, ‘Assessing Supermarket Food Shopper Reaction to Horsemeat Scandal in the UK’, International Review of Management and Marketing, Vol. 4(2): 98-107, 2014. The version of record is available online at: http://www.acarindex.com/dosyalar/makale/acarindex-1423904526.pdf IRMM adopts an Open Access policy complying with the definition laid out by the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI). Terms and conditions of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License apply to all published manuscripts. This Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This licence allows authors to use all articles, data sets, graphics and appendices in data mining applications, search engines, web sites, blogs and other platforms by providing appropriate reference. The journal allows the author(s) to hold the copyright without restrictions and will retain publishing rights without restrictions.Consumer reaction to food scares has been given considerable research attention but insights into specific shopper segments’ reactions to food scares, especially those that do not pose direct health risk to the public is limited. This paper examines how different life-stage shopper segments reacted to the horsemeat scandal in the UK. This paper draws on the analysis of supermarket loyalty card dataset of 1.7 million beef burger shoppers to establish the effect of the horsemeat scandal on retail sales value and volume as well as the rate of withdrawal of life-stage shopper segments from the affected products. The results show consistent weekly decline in retail sales value and volume across all life-stage segments over six consecutive weeks after the first horsemeat scandal announcement. Young families, pensioners and young adults segments withdrew from affected products in accordance with their typical perception and attitudes to risk. Contrary to expectation older adults withdrew faster than young families from the affected products. The findings of the study offer useful insights and strategic direction for managers working to ensure that food scares are managed to the benefit of the public and the food industry.Peer reviewe

Exploring Supermarket Loyalty Card Analysis to Identify Who Buys Fairtrade

The aim of this paper is to show how supermarket loyalty card data from a panel of over 1.7 million shoppers can be analysed to provide behavioural segmentation insights to profile the fairtrade shopper in order to enhance making targeted marketing decisions. The paper demonstrates the huge marketing potential that loyalty card based shopper segmentation can bring to objectively describe who buys fairtrade products, compared to profiling shoppers with claimed/reported behaviour dataset. A pairedsamples t-test is used to test the degree of appeal of fairtrade tea, coffee, chocolate, drinking chocolates, banana and sugar categories in Tesco to life-stage and lifestyle shopper segments in terms of their retail sales values over 104 weeks. The results show that analysing loyalty cards based on actual behaviour provides a more detailed picture of how specific fairtrade food product categories appeal to the various life-stage and lifestyle shopper segments

Weighted Marking, Clique Structure and Node- Weighted Centrality to Predict Distribution Centre’s Location in a Supply Chain Management

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits unrestricted non-commerical use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Despite the importance attached to the weights or strengths on the edges of a graph, a graph is only complete if it has both the combinations of nodes and edges. As such, this paper brings to bare the fact that the node-weight of a graph is also a critical factor to consider in any graph/network’s evaluation, rather than the link-weight alone as commonly considered. In fact, the combination of the weights on both the nodes and edges as well as the number of ties together contribute effectively to the measure of centrality for an entire graph or network, thereby clearly showing more information. Two methods which take into consideration both the link-weights and node-weights of graphs (the Weighted Marking method of prediction of location and the Clique/Node-Weighted centrality measures) are considered, and the result from the case studies shows that the clique/node-weighted centrality measures give an accuracy of 18% more than the weighted marking method, in the prediction of Distribution Centre location of the Supply Chain ManagementPeer reviewe

Understanding the role of environmental quality attributes in food-related rural enterprise competitiveness

This paper examines the role of environmental quality attributes in food-related rural enterprise competitiveness in Denmark, using qualitative interviews. The results of the analysis demonstrate that in the quest to minimize small-market and location limitations, food-related rural enterprises are increasingly offering products with labels such as ‘quality’, ‘green’, or ‘ethical’ and ‘sustainability’ to justify high premiums for their products. Thus, environmental quality attributes are becoming prevalent and important business strategy for rural food-related enterprises in the selected communities. The results also establish that undertaking sustainable activities has been influenced by institutional policies that reward environmental conservation with subsidies and other resources. These findings contribute to our understanding of the growing relevance of environmental quality attributes in food-related rural enterprise performance

Special issue: sustainable food supply chain research

The persistent advocacy for a sustainable food supply chain is to enable stakeholders to configure, promote, and maintain food supply systems that deliver value in terms of profit and the well-being of people and the planet. Despite efforts to ensure more efficient food production and distribution globally, achieving sustainable food supply chains remains a critical global challenge. The extant scholarship on sustainable food supply chains has evolved in different directions as a response to different food industry dynamics, environmental variability, and incidences that manifest as extreme climatic changes and natural hazards in various geographical areas. The multidimensional nature of the field has proven to be a complex terrain for research. Therefore, research in sustainable food supply chains has received attention from a multidimensional scholarship. In the sustainable supply chain literature, studies provided indicators, drivers, and barriers based on the stakeholder theory towards the attainment of a sustainable food supply chain, whereas others highlighted the persistent social and environmental challenges and the essence of stakeholder collaboration to develop a sustainable food supply chain. Other strands of sustainable food supply chain research employed the resource-based view, systems theory for modelling sustainable food systems, actor-network theory, co-creation and collaboration on platforms for collaboration and co-creation, justice and fairness theory for food retailer–supplier relationships, and attitude–behaviour gap on sustainable food consumption. This Special Issue “Sustainable Food Supply Chain Research” in Sustainability, therefore, received interesting articles with multidimensional theoretical perspectives such as logistics services quality, governance and power relationships, food quality, production and environmental challenges of the food supply chain, actor-network theory, co-creation, and collaboration on platforms for collaboration and co-creation, digitisation of sustainable food supply chains, and systems theory for modelling sustainable food systems

Review of strategic agility: a holistic framework for fresh produce supply chain disruptions

The influence of the rapidly changing business environment due to the COVID-19 global pandemic presents an important organizational challenge to fresh produce export supply chains in developing countries such as Ghana. Such an inimical supply chain problem highlights the relevance of supply chain agility as a potent methodological framework to measure, monitor and evaluate these challenges in stable as well as turbulent times. This review paper focuses on the applicability of a framework for Supply Chain Agility as a methodological framework in stable (pre-COVID-19) versus turbulent (COVID-19) business environments. We argue and propose that Supply Chain Agility Framework is a holistic framework which is efficacious in both stable and unstable supply chain environments. This is amply supported by the central plank of our proposition that the Supply Chain Agility Framework offers an adaptable tool that can serve as a panacea to fresh produce supply chain challenges not only in a stable (pre-COVID-19) business environment but also effective and applicable in a turbulent business environment, such as experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The implications of this proposition for the fresh produce export supply chain industry and relevant stakeholders are duly presented