Ethical consumerism : a view from the food industry in Morocco

Dissertant

Binhari, Yaminah

Thesis advisor

Hamelin, Nicolas

University

Al Akhawayn University

Faculty

The School of Business Administration

University Country

Morocco

Degree

Master

English Abstract

Attention paid to social responsibility and business ethics has increased in the last decades.

Both consumers and firms are now more concerned about ethics as a way to make business transactions a win-win deal.

As consumers ensure profitability to businesses, they expect fair practices and honest behaviors toward society.

The study reported here attempts to investigate Moroccans’ perceptions and attitudes towards ethical consumerism of food.

Consumers’ willingness to buy those products, motives for such purchases as well as factors preventing ethical purchases is investigated.

The reason behind this investigation is to explore marketing instruments that firms can use to intrigue consumers toward “ethical” consumption.

The study shows that the population is generally “conscious” about the importance of ethics.

Besides price that mostly drive their decision to buy a food or not, Moroccans are driven by ethical claims such as “healthy”, “no fat”, “pasteurized”, etc.

It was shown that consumers trust information on the labels of products besides information provided by consumer authorities.

Concerning ethical aspects, Moroccans are mostly concerned about the environment and religion.

Being aware of the importance of ethics does not always translate to actual buying.

This is mainly due to premium prices of ethical food and lack of information about this product.

In other cases the unwillingness to make ethical purchases stem simply from lack of concern toward ethics.

Older men with high income are shown to be a good target for ethical food market.

Main Subjects

Business Administration

Topics

• Social responsibility
• Professional ethics
• Morocco
• Corporations

No. of Pages

47

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-625385