Social Responsibility in the Global Market

Fair Trade of Cultural Products

Mary Ann Littrell, Marsha Ann Dickson

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 1999
• Print ISBN: 9780761914648, 9780761914631
• eBook ISBN: 9781452264615
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Business

This book unfolds rather like a good novel; it is compelling and convincing. The authors approach their topic with a great deal of background and superb organizational abilities. As the premise unwinds, readers are provided with excellent explanation and justification, as well as real-life accounts of people and their experiences. As a side benefit, the book also yields an admirable example of well-done qualitative case studies that are triangulated effectively with survey methods. --Sara U. Douglas, University of Illinois

Social Responsibility in the Global Market illuminates an alternative way of conducting business that bridges the consumer?s social concerns and the producer?s financial concern through a compatible, nonexploitive, and humanizing system of fair trade. In-depth case studies introduce past successes and failures for seven Alternative Trading Organizations (ATOs) as they foster artisan empowerment, cultural integrity, and business sustainability. An integrative model synthesizes business conditions, tasks, and skills imperative for effective functioning of a fair trade system in an increasingly competitive global market. Mary Ann Littrell and Marsha Ann Dickson?s treatment of ATOs provides useful insights for academics in marketing, international development, entrepreneurship, and anthropology. In addition, this book offers practical finance for practitioners in international development, socially responsible businesses, and consumers concerned about impacts of their marketplace decisions.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• PART I. INTRODUCTION TO FAIR TRADE IN THE GLOBAL MARKET
• Chapter 1 - Philosophy, Practices, and Organizational Culture
• Fair Trade: Why Now?
• How Do ATOs Conduct Business?
• ΑΤΟ Origin, Evolution, and Collaboration
• Fair Trade in a Culture of Social Responsibility
• Questions for Fair Trade Analysis
• Our Fair Trade Journey
• Chapter 2 - Scholarly Perspectives for Analysis of Fair Trade
• Business Organizational Culture
• Business Strategy
• Small Business Performance
• Artisanal Work and Development
• Cultural Product Meaning for Consumers
• Multidisciplinary and Systemic Analysis
• PART II. INCOME, JUSTICE, AND EMPOWERMENT THROUGH FAIR TRADE
• Chapter 3 - Ten Thousand Villages: A Mission-Driven Journey
• The Mission: Providing Vital, Fair Income
• The Business: Selling Handcrafts and Telling the Story
• Toward an Integrated, Mission-Driven, Viable Business
• Chapter 4 - SERRV: Alternative Distribution, Philosophical Considerations, and Hard Business Decisions
• Business Decision 1: Eliminating Staff Positions
• Business Decision 2: Focusing on Product Design
• Business Decision 3: Expanding Alternative Distribution
• Launching the Next 50 Years
• Chapter 5 - Pueblo to People: Balancing Politics and Business
• Pueblo to People's History
• Shared Politics, Shared Values
• Producer-Focused Business Operations
• An Unsustainable Business
• Conclusions
• Chapter 6 - Marketplace: Handwork of India "Soaring With Strong Wings''
• Marketplace: From Mumbai, India, to Evanston, Illinois
• Indigenous Skills and Aesthetics
• Organizational Decentralization
• Design and Product Development
• Global Dialogue
• Leadership Transition
• Conclusions
• Chapter 7 - Focused Players With Pragmatic Approaches
• Aid to Artisans: Linking Artisans to the Market
• PEOPLink: Using the Internet for Global Trade and Democracy
• Traditions Fair Trade: Independent Retailing
• Pragmatic Conclusions
• PART III. DIVERSE STAKEHOLDERS IN THE SYSTEM OF FAIR TRADE
• Chapter 8 - Artisan Producer Groups: 'Our Hands Are Our Future"
• Artisan Profile 1: UPAVIM
• Artisan Profile 2: Ruth and Nohemi
• Artisan Profile 3: Tejidos de Guadelupe
• Artisan Group Organizational Culture
• Chapter 9 - ΑΤΟ Consumers: Creative, Practical, and Concerned
• Who Are ΑΤΟ Consumers?
• What Are ΑΤΟ Consumers Looking for in a Product?
• Are ATOs Offering Products With the Desired Quality and Appearance?
• How Do ΑΤΟ Consumers Feel About the World, Its People, and the Contributions ATOs Are Making?
• What Will Influence ΑΤΟ Consumers' Future Purchasing?
• Conclusions
• Chapter 10 - Challenges in Product Development
• Focus on Tradition
• Diverse ΑΤΟ Approaches for Product Development
• Day-to-Day Factors Influencing Product Development
• Conclusions
• PART IV CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR MAXIMIZING SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THROUGH FAIR TRADE
• Chapter 11 - Strategic Appropriateness for the Global Market
• Question 1: Past Viability With an Artisan Focus
• Question 2: Accomplishing the Mission
• Chapter 12 - The Future for Alternative Trade Organizations
• Future Viability for ATOs
• Core Conditions for ΑΤΟ Performance
• Modeling the Fair Trade System
• Appendix A: Methods
• Establishing Rapport in the ΑΤΟ Community
• Artisan Research
• ΑΤΟ Research
• Consumer Research
• An Assessment of 6 Years of Research
• Appendix Β
• Contact Information for ATOs and Artisan Producers
• References
• Other Publications by the Authors on Alternative Trade Organizations
• Index
• About the Authors