Values an Willingness-To-Pay for Fairtrade- and Eco Labelled Mobile Phones Gunne Grankvist, Svein Åge Kjös Johnsen, Daniel Hanss

Environmentally and socially sustainable behavior Sustainable development is defined in the Brundtland Report asBrundtland Report “development that meets the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.developmentfuture generations Butlin, John ( ). "Our common future. By World commission on environment and development. (London, Oxford University Press, 1987, pp.383 £5.95.)". Journal of International Development 1 (2): 284– 287.doi: /jid ISSN "Our common future. By World commission on environment and development. (London, Oxford University Press, 1987, pp.383 £5.95.)"doi /jid ISSN

Environmentally and socially sustainable behavior

One way to support sustainable development is - presumably – by choosing products with environmental or social labels E.g.

Fairtrade Is abouts socially sustainable development Fairtrade is about “better prices, decent working conditions and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in developing countries”

Environmentally sustainable behavior There are a number of product labels… E.g.

The present study: Production of mobile phones and sustainable development The production of mobile phones includes e.g. mining and manufacturing It is questionable whether basic environmental aspects are taken into account And how about decent working conditions?

And finally A mobile phone!

Our study Willingness-to-pay extra for mobile phones with an eco- or Fairtrade label Suppose that a mobile phone cost 4000 Swedish or Norwegian Crowns, or 365 Euro. How much would you be willing to pay for the mobile phone - if it was Eco labelled? - if it was Fairtrade labelled?

Participants were students at University West in Sweden (n = 246), Lillehammer University College in Norway (n = 196) and Hochschule Darmstadt – University of Applied Sciences in Germany (n = 325). That is, in total 767 students Mean age was 22.4 years (18 – 48 years) 62 % were women, and 38 % were men

A result In Sweden and Norway participants were willing to pay, on average, 18% extra for an Eco- or Fairtrade labelled mobile phone. In the German sample the corresponding number was 12%.

A gender difference In Norway and in Sweden: Women were willing to pay more than men for both Eco- and Fairtrade labelled mobile phones

Eco vs Fairtrade? In Norway and in Sweden: A slighty higher WTP for Fairtrade compared to Eco labelled mobile phones

In the next step we used psychology and…

Values Values refer to what people consider important A value is “a desirable guiding principle” E.g. to strive for Power (social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources) Or, to strive to preserve Traditions, or Conformity (restraint of action and impulses likely to upset or harm others and violate social expectations or norms)

Schwartz´s value model

We found A negative correlation between WTP for Eco- and Fairtrade labelled alternatives and importance attached to the Power value

That is; If you strive less for the Power value (that is; social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources) you probably will indicate a higher Willingness-To-Pay (WTP) for an Eco- or Fairtrade-alternative

Conclusions In Norway and Sweden; if you are a women In all three countries; If you dont strive (that much) for social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources You are more likely to be willing-to-pay extra for an Eco- or Fairtrade labelled mobile phone. That is support sustainable product of mobile phones And, your values are of more importance than your gender

For more detailes about our study, and more results A paper ”Values an Willingness-To-Pay for Fairtrade- and Eco Labelled Mobile Phones” with authors Gunne Grankvist, Svein Åge Kjös Johnsen and Daniel Hanss will – hopefully – soon be published in the journal Human Affairs