| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 公共事務管理研究所 === 100 === The objective of this study is to explore possible factors affecting college students’ preference for fair trade coffee. The investigated factors included four of the values listed in Sheth, Newman and Gross''s (1991a) theory of consumption values, as well as price, convenience (of buying fair trade coffee), and demographic variables. The values were functional value, social value, emotional value, and epistemic value. This study further divided emotional value into caring value and mood value; the formal reflected caring about farmers, child labor and the environment/ecology, and the latter focused on the possibility of having a good mood from consuming fair trade coffee. A convenience sample of 198 college students studying in Kaohsiung who often drank coffee were interviewed. Results from regression analysis suggest that college students would be more intended to buy fair trade coffee if they believed it had high caring value or high mood value. Furthermore, respondents spending less than 200 NTD per month on coffee were less intended to buy fair trade coffee than those spending between 200 NTD and 499 NTD per month on coffee were. Finally, functional value, social value, epistemic value, prices, and convenience—all assessed by respondents'' perceptions—did not have significant impact on the respondents’ preference for fair trade coffee. Based on these findings, several recommendations were made to the government, schools, and organizations interested in promoting fair trade coffee.
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