Comparative analysis of Fair trade buying attitudes of Hungarian consumers

The conscious consumerism is less widespread within Hungarian society comparing to Western-European countries, however the ratio of conscious consumers is continuously increasing and people spend more and more on different ethical goods. Since fair trade as a market phenomenon is poorly researched in Hungary (which causes the biggest research limitation today) this study tends to highlight the decision making process and buying behavior of these consumers. The examination relies on three focus groups took place in major country-seats of the country (Pécs, Budapest, Debrecen) in order to avoid regional disparities. Afterwards a representative market research was run to measure the volume of fair trade knowledge and analyze buying behavior among Hungarian consumers based on 500 answers. The ‘Model for Fair trade buying Behavior’ (DE PELSMACKER-JANSSENS, 2007) was used as a framework of the questionnaire which unites the Theory of Planned Behavior (AJZEN, 1991) with fair trade consumption. As a methodological approach we have used principal component analysis with polychoric correlations. The data were analyzed with R programming environment. As a main result we are able to identify the main dimensions explaining consuming habits in Hungary and compare these to the Belgian results. The results could be assistance of the researchers understanding Hungarian fair trade buying behavior in the future