7 research outputs found

    Problems faced by Independent Financial Advisers in the further enhancement of the market for Ethical Investments

    Get PDF
    Ethical investment is a small but growing market, particularly for retail Ethical Investment products. Within this sector of the UK financial market, Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) hold a key position placed as they are between consumers and suppliers, and have the potential to expand the market for Ethical Investment. It is suspected that several problems inside the market for Ethical Investment and the UK financial service sector are hindering the IFAs to do so. Hence, the purpose of this study was to discover the difficulties of Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) to develop further growth of the Ethical Investment market in the UK. The specific concern was to look at the challenges, but also the opportunities Ethical Investments have to offer for IFAs. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews with ten experienced professional IFAs, with an average of 15 years each of advising on Ethical Investments. All the IFAs were based within UK advisory companies, representing a cross-section of sizes between 2 to 8000 people. The participants were each interviewed by telephone with a semi-structured questionnaire. The results revealed several problems IFAs face in their work, whereby the lack of demand from clients for Ethical Investments products is considered to be the biggest impediment to growth in the sector. Additional problems include a lack of transparency about what lies behind products, a limited choice of funds, and a lack of collaboration amongst partners in the investment chain. The provision of adequate training in Ethical Investments is considered as crucial to encouraging interest and development of this area amongst IFAs. A number of actions were suggested which could be undertaken by the actors inside the financial market to eliminate some of the barriers to Ethical Investment. These include the offer of a wider range of funds, a better service including information flow and communication from fund and service providers, and more marketing and promotion for Ethical Funds to raise awareness. Perhaps the most significant suggestion to help raise demand was to provide every customer with the option of investing in Ethical Investments, rather than only those who ask for it

    Investments that make a difference- understanding impediments to growth in the Ethical Investment market

    Get PDF
    Ethical investment is a small but growing market, particularly for retail Ethical Investment products. Within this sector of the UK financial market, Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) hold a key position placed as they are between consumers and suppliers, and have the potential to expand the market for Ethical Investment. It is suspected that several problems inside the market for Ethical Investment and the UK financial service sector are hindering the IFAs to do so. Hence, the purpose of this study was to discover the difficulties of Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) to develop further growth of the Ethical Investment market in the UK. The specific concern was to look at the challenges, but also the opportunities Ethical Investments have to offer for IFAs. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews with ten experienced professional IFAs, with an average of 15 years each of advising on Ethical Investments. All the IFAs were based within UK advisory companies, representing a cross-section of sizes between 2 to 8000 people. The participants were each interviewed by telephone with a semi-structured questionnaire. The results revealed several problems IFAs face in their work, whereby the lack of demand from clients for Ethical Investments products is considered to be the biggest impediment to growth in the sector. Additional problems include a lack of transparency about what lies behind products, a limited choice of funds, and a lack of collaboration amongst partners in the investment chain. The provision of adequate training in Ethical Investments is considered as crucial to encouraging interest and development of this area amongst IFAs. A number of actions were suggested which could be undertaken by the actors inside the financial market to eliminate some of the barriers to Ethical Investment. These include the offer of a wider range of funds, a better service including information flow and communication from fund and service providers, and more marketing and promotion for Ethical Funds to raise awareness. Perhaps the most significant suggestion to help raise demand was to provide every customer with the option of investing in Ethical Investments, rather than only those who ask for it

    Ermittlung von derzeitigen und absehbaren Vermarktungsproblemen entlang der Wertschöpfungskette differenziert nach Produktgruppen (Probleme hinsichtlich z.B. Mengen, Preise, Qualitäten, Logistik etc.) Teilbereich: Produktgruppe Rindfleisch

    Get PDF
    Die Studie zur Ermittlung von derzeitigen und absehbaren Vermarktungsproblemen im Markt für ökologisch erzeugtes Rindfleisch wurde mit der Forschungsmethode einer „mehrstufigen Befragung nach dem Delphi-Prinzip“ bearbeitet. Den Befragungen war eine umfassende Analyse der Veröffentlichungen über den Markt für ökologisch erzeugtes Rindfleisch vorausgegangen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Branche sich in einem strukturellen Engpass befindet. Das individualistische Agieren zahlreicher kleiner Akteure stößt im größer werdenden Markt und angesichts zunehmender Komplexität an Grenzen. Es gibt Ansätze von verstärkter Kooperation, die auch mit Erfolg am Markt belohnt werden. Die Darstellung der Probleme im Ergebnisteil hat gezeigt, dass viele Probleme wie uneinheitliche Verbraucheransprache und fehlende Qualifikationen durch die Struktur des Ökomarktes allgemein entstanden sind. Andere Probleme wie Marktrisiken und Richtlinien liegen außerhalb des Einflussbereichs der Marktteilnehmer. Als ein zentrales Ergebnis, das sich wie ein roter Faden durch die Studie zieht, ist der Mangel an Kommunikation innerhalb der Branche und damit verbunden eine genereller Informationsmangel. Die vorgeschlagene Lösung, die als Schlüssel für einige angesprochene Schwierigkeiten gelten kann, ist der horizontale und vertikale Zusammenschluss von Partnern mit ähnlichen Interessen. Ein weiteres zentrales Problem könnte mit dem Begriff „Rechtsunsicherheit“ umrissen werden. Die Marktteilnehmer fühlen sich angesichts der Mängel der so genannten „EU-Öko-Verordnung“ (abweichende Produktions- und Kontrollstandards innerhalb benachbarter Märkte) stark verunsichert. Die Schwächen des bestehenden Kontrollsystems, das als zu schwerfällig, als zu ineffizient, als zu uneinheitlich innerhalb Europas aber auch innerhalb Deutschlands betrachtet wird, verstärken diese Unsicherheit

    Problems faced by Independent Financial Advisers in the further enhancement of the market for Ethical Investments

    No full text
    Ethical investment is a small but growing market, particularly for retail Ethical Investment products. Within this sector of the UK financial market, Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) hold a key position placed as they are between consumers and suppliers, and have the potential to expand the market for Ethical Investment. It is suspected that several problems inside the market for Ethical Investment and the UK financial service sector are hindering the IFAs to do so. Hence, the purpose of this study was to discover the difficulties of Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) to develop further growth of the Ethical Investment market in the UK. The specific concern was to look at the challenges, but also the opportunities Ethical Investments have to offer for IFAs. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews with ten experienced professional IFAs, with an average of 15 years each of advising on Ethical Investments. All the IFAs were based within UK advisory companies, representing a cross-section of sizes between 2 to 8000 people. The participants were each interviewed by telephone with a semi-structured questionnaire. The results revealed several problems IFAs face in their work, whereby the lack of demand from clients for Ethical Investments products is considered to be the biggest impediment to growth in the sector. Additional problems include a lack of transparency about what lies behind products, a limited choice of funds, and a lack of collaboration amongst partners in the investment chain. The provision of adequate training in Ethical Investments is considered as crucial to encouraging interest and development of this area amongst IFAs. A number of actions were suggested which could be undertaken by the actors inside the financial market to eliminate some of the barriers to Ethical Investment. These include the offer of a wider range of funds, a better service including information flow and communication from fund and service providers, and more marketing and promotion for Ethical Funds to raise awareness. Perhaps the most significant suggestion to help raise demand was to provide every customer with the option of investing in Ethical Investments, rather than only those who ask for it

    Investments that make a difference- understanding impediments to growth in the Ethical Investment market

    No full text
    Ethical investment is a small but growing market, particularly for retail Ethical Investment products. Within this sector of the UK financial market, Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) hold a key position placed as they are between consumers and suppliers, and have the potential to expand the market for Ethical Investment. It is suspected that several problems inside the market for Ethical Investment and the UK financial service sector are hindering the IFAs to do so. Hence, the purpose of this study was to discover the difficulties of Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) to develop further growth of the Ethical Investment market in the UK. The specific concern was to look at the challenges, but also the opportunities Ethical Investments have to offer for IFAs. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews with ten experienced professional IFAs, with an average of 15 years each of advising on Ethical Investments. All the IFAs were based within UK advisory companies, representing a cross-section of sizes between 2 to 8000 people. The participants were each interviewed by telephone with a semi-structured questionnaire. The results revealed several problems IFAs face in their work, whereby the lack of demand from clients for Ethical Investments products is considered to be the biggest impediment to growth in the sector. Additional problems include a lack of transparency about what lies behind products, a limited choice of funds, and a lack of collaboration amongst partners in the investment chain. The provision of adequate training in Ethical Investments is considered as crucial to encouraging interest and development of this area amongst IFAs. A number of actions were suggested which could be undertaken by the actors inside the financial market to eliminate some of the barriers to Ethical Investment. These include the offer of a wider range of funds, a better service including information flow and communication from fund and service providers, and more marketing and promotion for Ethical Funds to raise awareness. Perhaps the most significant suggestion to help raise demand was to provide every customer with the option of investing in Ethical Investments, rather than only those who ask for it

    Wo Biofleisch am Markt zulegen könnte

    No full text
    Herkunft und Qualität des Produkts, Verfügbarkeit und Präsentation in den Läden sowie die Kommunikation entscheiden über den Markterfolg von Biofleisch. Eine FiBL-Studie hat untersucht, was besser gemacht werden könnte

    National status-quo reports on Collective Farmers Marketing Initatives in Switzerland

    No full text
    In general, data and scientific information on farmers’ cooperatives are very rare in Switzerland. There is no official statistic that collects the number and types of existing cooperatives in Switzerland. In view of the little information interviews with experts and an internet search has additionally been conducted. Collective actions of farmers have a long tradition in Switzerland. The earliest forms of collective actions in agricultural can be traced back to the management of common land and forest areas in early Germanic times. Like in most other European countries, the cooperative movement emerged in the second half of the 19 th century in Switzerland and experienced a rapid diffusion. Due to the protectionistic agricultural policy and guaranteed prices and incomes after the Second World War, only few farmers put much effort in building up / developing further selfhelp structures. The recent policy changes provide a new basis for cooperative actions. However, new collective initiatives are to a lesser extent a selfhelp measure, but rather a business strategy to improve the competitiveness of individual farms. Nowadays, there are a wide range of different collective farmers’ marketing initiatives. The importance of these initiatives various greatly and depends highly on the commodity. They play for example a very dominant role in the milk, cereal and oilseed sector. In contrast to this, collective farmers’ marketing initiatives are less dominant in the meat, vegetable and fruit sector. In total, five different forms have been identified as the main ones in Switzerland. These are: independent producer cooperatives, united cooperatives / federations of producer cooperatives, producer pools, producer interest groups, regional marketing initiatives. Each form was described by a case example. From the Swiss perspective, the following key criteria seem to be appropriate for a classification of collective actions of farmers: actors involved in the initiative (are nonfarmers also members/shareholders/partners), degree of involvement/collectivity, relationship to other supply chain actors, aims and activities of the initiatives. Collective initiatives are particularly a suitable approach for the Swiss mountain area, which are characterised by their natural and cultural heritage. Since consumers are willing to pay higher prices for authentic quality food, such products produced by COFAMIs may successfully compete on the market against cheap products from agroindustrial companies. However, in order to increase the production of high quality food (organic products, PDG/PGI, etc.) in Switzerland, it would be necessary that more agricultural products are exported. Currently, there are two programmes which offer funds for specific collective actions. The future direct payment policy, however, could have a strong impact on the attractiveness of collective actions of farmers. If the production of food becomes economically less important than the provision of public goods and services, the necessity for collective action will rather be reduced
    corecore