Unit 11 Research Project Solution

Title

Ethics and Supply chain: Identifying the influence of the fair trade on groceries and sustainability in the business on the consumers.
The topic of the research has been chosen considering the influence of the fair trade on the consumers’ buying behavior.

Terms of Reference

The consumers are more loyal towards the organizations which practice fair trade and ethical standards in the operations and maintain a sustainable business. Ethical standards are performed by the companies in order to retain the loyal customers and to maintain sustainability in the business.

The aim of the research is: The main aim of the study of the ethics and the supply chain is to gather information regarding the influence that the fair trade and ethical standards in an organization has on the consumers and how the sustainable business environment can retain the customers’ loyalty towards the company.

The objectives of the study are;

• To understand the buying behavior of the consumers.
• To identify the ethical standards of the organizations to develop customer loyalty.
• To identify the impact of fair trade on consumers’ buying behavior.
• To understand the impact of sustainable business on consumers.

With the research work the importance of the ethics in the organization can be identified. The organizations which operate with the motive of maintaining sustainability in the organization can grow and build the position in the market and can gain the competitive advantage in today’s world. In the present scenario, companies are focusing on the interest of the societies and the protection of environment as consumers are the biggest factors of success of the business of the organization.

The research will help to know the impact of the ethical standards and for the purpose of this, data will be collected from the sources like primary sources and secondary sources. Through focus group and interviews methods, the perspectives of the consumers can be known (Asif, et., al., 2011).

Scope: The scope of the research study is very vast as the organizations are working in the environment where the customers are given the priority and the customers prefer those organizations which practice the fair trade and the ethical standards in the operations of the business.

The topics which are included in the research study are the impacts of the fair trade, sustainable business and ethics on the consumers. The factors that affect the buying behavior of the customers and the standards that the companies follow for establishing sustainability in the business are included.
Timeframe: The action plan is the plan prepared to allocate the timeframe to the tasks conducted for the purpose of the research study. The activities and its description along with the date of commencement, slot of time and the ending date is mentioned in the action plan for the research concerning.

S.No	Activity	Commencing date	Time slot	End date
1.	Selection of the topic of research	28 November, 2016	1 day	29 November, 2016
2.	Collection of data	30 November, 2016	3 days	02 December, 2016
3.	Analysis of data	03 December, 2016	4 days	06 December, 2016
4.	Recommendations on the basis of analysis of data	07 December, 2016	2 days	08 December, 2016

Gantt chart

Literature review the Gantt chart explains the timeframe chosen for the purpose of the time taken for completion of the particular tasks in the research project as it is necessary to complete the research on time and Gantt chart helps in completing the research on time as well in sequence manner.

According to Jochen Strähle, there is an increased demand of transparency and disclosure in today’s market where there is a great approach to sustainability in the market. Consumers are paying attention to the fair trade businesses and also there is a great impact of social and environmental threat so this threat affects the supply chain of the companies so in order to survive in long run and to overcome the social and environmental threats it is very important for the companies to implement sustainability in the business as this is a measure which helps the business survive in long run also to attract customers towards the business. The study shows that consumers are demanding eco friendly products as the green marketing is successful now a days and also there is a lack of information and knowledge in the business towards sustainability so business needs to understand the influence of sustainability in the business also they need to implement sustainability in the business as it is becoming more powerful factor for attracting customers towards the business now a days. It is very necessary for the companies to get aware of the environment and social factors that are affecting the growth of business as ignorance of these factors can cause great damage to the success of business.

According to Gunne Grankvist, value is a belief that the consumers are provided with the effective and efficient quality and all those products which are eco friendly which are not causing any harm to the environment. Consumer now a days are understanding the importance of eco friendly products as well as they are also showing their initiatives towards saving the environment through using eco friendly products so for this it is not easy to determine the conditions in which the products is manufactured to identify where the product is complying with all the ethical standards towards saving our environment so for this a new concept was involved that is fair trade certification which includes the certification of fair trade to all those products which are manufactured in fair trade conditions, products which are manufactured keeping in view the ethical standards and the products are complying with the sustainability through not harming our environment and this fair trade certification helps the consumers to identify the sustainable and eco friendly products also this concept is evaluated to benefit the poor farmers and other workers of developing countries so that they can use to fair trade certification products and other sustainability labelling products and through this they can also contribute their efforts towards saving the environment.

According to Pieter VLAEMINCK and Liesbet VRANKEN, the interest of consumer is increasing towards the ethical characteristics of the products also now a days consumer are willing to pay more prices for such ethical products so this can be seen that the demand

For ethical products is increasing in the consumers. Market study shows that the consumers are ready to pay more prices for the products which are labeled as fair trade and such other labels which prove the products to be ethical. The rise in the demand of these labeled products shows the increased interest of the consumers towards ethical, sustainable and environmental products. Research shows that consumers are valuing the fair trade characteristics of products so business now can improve their revenues towards going for the fair trade labeling as this is an ethical proof that the product of the company is ethical and its is manufactured keeping in view the values of the society also the product if eco friendly, is not harming the environment in any ways so this will help the business to attract consumer also this shows the increased interest of the consumers towards fair trade and sustainability.

According to Marta Geremia, sustainability plays a major role in influencing the behavior of consumers. Sustainability issues are becoming a major concern for consumers as well as business as the consumer are willing for the sustainability products and so the organisations are bound to provide sustainability products to its customers in order to run its business. The demand for the products which organisations are offering which is related to sustainability is increasing as the consumers are getting aware of the sustainability and they are increasing their interest towards social and environment products. In past years through sustainable production companies are able to address their sustainability issues in the business strategy, they are able to establish customer satisfaction level along with this the sustainability production has helped the organisation in increasing their revenues through production of sustainability products. Consumers are shifting to sustainable and ethical offerings by the companies in the market as they are understanding the importance of sustainability and also they want to contribute their efforts towards saving their environment so the sustainability policies of any company influences the behavior of buyers and also this leads to establish better customer loyalty in the business.

According to Wong FuiYeng & Rashad Yazdanifard, environmental issue is such a topic which is being faced by all the countries and also all the countries are adopting their strategies for resolving these issues. Green market is the most attracting and emerging issued which is influencing the behavior of buyers now a days. The American Marketing Association defines the Green marketing as the marketing of the products where the products are manufactured through the processes which are completely environment friendly also there is no issue in the products which can cause harm to the environment. Environment issues are tending to affect the society that most of the organisations have started to manufacture green products which are environment friendly as to increase the customer satisfaction. Environment issues are tend to affect the activities of consumers and the society is also so much concern regarding the environmental and sustainability issues so most of the organisations have started acknowledging green and eco friendly products also they have started using sustainable development framework to increase the marketing of their products and they are using green marketing as a competitive tool for meet the expectations of the consumers.

Methodology

There are various methods which are used to gather data in the research study, the methodology used in the research about the ethics and supply chain will be the collection of data from the primary sources as well as secondary sources. The primary source of the data will be collected in the form of focus group, where the information will be collected from the focused group of the customers as they will be divided as the target customers. In this research study, questionnaire will be distributed among them to know their perspectives about the importance of the fair trade and ethics in the business. The primary sources are the first hand data, collected in the form of interviews, face to face communication, telephonic interview and through mails and considered as relevant data can be gathered as the information is collected directly from the customers (Miah & Genemo, 2016).

Secondary sources will also be used in the research study to collect the data from the already published articles. The information will be taken from the articles, journals, newspapers and magazines. This information will help to know the buying trends of the customers and their preferences towards the fair trade and sustainable business over the non ethical practices. These secondary sources will also include the financial statements and sales records of the company through which the customer’s interest can be identified (Zottnick, 2015).

The study will include both the qualitative as well as quantitative data for the purpose of the research. Structured and semi structured techniques are used in qualitative method and in quantitative method, the data is collected which is measurable, based on the facts and in depth information is gathered. The qualitative method of the research study will include the techniques like focus group and the quantitative techniques will include the surveys. The sample method will be used in which the simple sampling will be used in which equal probability will be given to the chosen sample of the customers.

For the purpose of the research both the primary and secondary sources are used along with the qualitative and quantitative techniques are used based on the simple sampling method for the collection of the data. After the collection of the information, the data will be analysed and it will be presented in the forms of charts and graphs for the better understanding of the results and analysis. The recommendations can be prepared with the results of these analyses (Polit & Beck, 2010).

Research Report

Introduction

In the present scenario, where the customers play an important role in the development and growth of the business of the organization, the companies are focusing more on the needs and preferences of the customers. The customers expect the fair trade and the ethical standards from the organizations and those organizations are preferred which practice the ethics and sustainability in the business. These organizations are capable of maintaining the customer loyalty towards their organizations and attract new customers from their fair practices. In the research report, the importance and the impact of the fair trade and ethics on the consumers has been studied and explained with the help of the use of data collection from primary as well secondary sources. The quantitative and qualitative, both the methods has been used to gather information regarding the perception of the customers about the sustainable business. The customers were divided in the focus group and were interviewed in the form of questionnaire (Jetnikoff, 2015).

The aim of the research report is;

The main aim of the study of the ethics and the supply chain is to gather information regarding the influence that the fair trade and ethical standards in an organization has on the consumers and how the sustainable business can retain the customers’ loyalty towards the company.

The objectives of the study are;

• To understand the buying behavior of the consumers.
• To identify the ethical standards of the organizations to develop customer loyalty.
• To identify the impact of fair trade on consumers’ buying behavior.
• To understand the impact of sustainable business on consumers.

The research topic was chosen keeping in view the increased demand of the customers for the fair trade for the products they are buying in. The scope of the selected topic is also vast considering the importance of sustainability in today’s world. The scope of the research study is very vast as the organizations are working in the environment where the customers are given the priority and the customers prefer those organizations which practice the fair trade and the ethical standards in the operations of the business.

The topics which are included in the research study are the impacts of the fair trade, sustainable business and ethics on the consumers. The factors that affect the buying behavior of the customers and the standards that the companies follow for establishing sustainability in the business are included.

The action plan has been prepared for the research project in which the activities conducted in the completion of the project has been identified and time frame is allocated for each activity in order to complete the tasks in the timely manner. For the purpose of better understanding of the action plan, a Gantt chart is prepared in which the time slot for the activities has been depicted in the graphical form (Araújo, 2012).

Factors that are contributed for the selection of the research topic are;

• Human resource: For the research on the influence of the sustainability on the customers, human resource has been an important factor as the study has been conducted to know the perceptions of the customers. The research can be conducted with ease as the human resource for the conduct of research is available in the form of the customers. The research has been conducted while gathering the information from the customers.
• Time: Timeframe has been allotted to each and every task in order to conduct the research on time. The research can be conducted in no time as the data is collected from the customers who are widely available.
• Cost: The cost include the expenses for the collection of data from sources like primary and secondary sources. The cost will be less as the data can be collected from the primary sources such as interviews with the customers, questionnaire presented to them and references can be gathered from the secondary sources consisting publications of the companies.
• Risk: There is no risk involved in choosing this project as the main objective of this research is to identify the impact of sustainable and ethical business of consumer behavior so the data for this research can be collected from my college students only as all the students from my college are also consumers and they must also be using grocery products also they have preferences regarding the eco friendly products so that data collection for this project is easy because the data will be easily available.
• Scope: The scope of this topic in regard to consumer behavior is very wide as there are various secondary data resources from which data will be easily available also the topic regarding the sustainability and ethical behavior is such a crucial topic that now consumers are understanding the importance of green products and they are attracted towards those organization which follows good governance practice and contributes their efforts towards saving the environment (Farnia, 2016).

Literature review

According to Jochen Strähle, there is an increased demand of transparency and disclosure in today’s market where there is a great approach to sustainability in the market. Consumers are paying attention to the fair trade businesses and also there is a great impact of social and environmental threat so this threat affects the supply chain of the companies so in order to survive in long run and to overcome the social and environmental threats it is very important for the companies to implement sustainability in the business as this is a measure which helps the business survive in long run also to attract customers towards the business. The study shows that consumers are demanding eco friendly products as the green marketing is successful now a days and also there is a lack of information and knowledge in the business towards sustainability so business needs to understand the influence of sustainability in the business also they need to implement sustainability in the business as it is becoming more powerful factor for attracting customers towards the business now a days. It is very necessary for the companies to get aware of the environment and social factors that are affecting the growth of business as ignorance of these factors can cause great damage to the success of business.

According to Gunne Grankvist, value is a belief that the consumers are provided with the effective and efficient quality and all those products which are eco friendly which are not causing any harm to the environment. Consumer now a days are understanding the importance of eco friendly products as well as they are also showing their initiatives towards saving the environment through using eco friendly products so for this it is not easy to determine the conditions in which the products is manufactured to identify where the product is complying with all the ethical standards towards saving our environment so for this a new concept was involved that is fair trade certification which includes the certification of fair trade to all those products which are manufactured in fair trade conditions, products which are manufactured keeping in view the ethical standards and the products are complying with the sustainability through not harming our environment and this fair trade certification helps the consumers to identify the sustainable and eco friendly products also this concept is evaluated to benefit the poor farmers and other workers of developing countries so that they can use to fair trade certification products and other sustainability labeling products and through this they can also contribute their efforts towards saving the environment.

According to Pieter VLAEMINCK and Liesbet VRANKEN, the interest of consumer is increasing towards the ethical characteristics of the products also now a day consumers are willing to pay more prices for such ethical products so this can be seen that the demand for ethical products is increasing in the consumers. Market study shows that the consumers are ready to pay more prices for the products which are labelled as fair trade and such other labels which prove the products to be ethical. The rise in the demand of these labeled products shows the increased interest of the consumers towards ethical, sustainable and environmental products. Research shows that consumers are valuing the fair trade characteristics of products so business now can improve their revenues towards going for the fair trade labeling as this is an ethical proof that the product of the company is ethical and its is manufactured keeping in view the values of the society also the product if eco friendly, is not harming the environment in any ways so this will help the business to attract consumer also this shows the increased interest of the consumers towards fair trade and sustainability.

According to Marta Geremia, sustainability plays a major role in influencing the behavior of consumers. Sustainability issues are becoming a major concern for consumers as well as business as the consumer are willing for the sustainability products and so the organisations are bound to provide sustainability products to its customers in order to run its business. The demand for the products which organisations are offering which is related to sustainability is increasing as the consumers are getting aware of the sustainability and they are increasing their interest towards social and environment products. In past years through sustainable production companies are able to address their sustainability issues in the business, they are able to establish customer satisfaction level along with this the sustainability production has helped the organisation in increasing their revenues through production of sustainability products. Consumers are shifting to sustainable and ethical offerings by the companies in the market as they are understanding the importance of sustainability and also they want to contribute their efforts towards saving their environment so the sustainability policies of any company influences the behavior of buyers and also this leads to establish better customer loyalty in the business.

According to Wong FuiYeng & Rashad Yazdanifard, environmental issue is such a topic which is being faced by all the countries and also all the countries are adopting their strategies for resolving these issues. Green market is the most attracting and emerging issued which is influencing the behavior of buyers now a days. The American Marketing Association defines the Green marketing as the marketing of the products where the products are manufactured through the processes which are completely environment friendly also there is no issue in the products which can cause harm to the environment. Environment issues are tending to affect the society that most of the organisations have started to manufacture green products which are environment friendly as to increase the customer satisfaction. Environment issues are tend to affect the activities of consumers and the society is also so much concern regarding the environmental and sustainability issues so most of the organisations have started acknowledging green and eco friendly products also they have started using sustainable development framework to increase the marketing of their products and they are using green marketing as a competitive tool for meet the expectations of the consumers.

According to Aindrila Biswas, consumer’s behavior is the impact of consumers on their buying power which is influenced by their personal preferences. Due to the effect of globalization the consumer market has grown with a rapid growth and in this the behavior of consumers is also rapidly changing due to variety of competitors. Conducting a consumer research helps the business to identify various factors in the environment which can affect the preferences of customers, their taste, behavior and certain other things which are related to their behavior. The environment sustainability refers to the use of green products which are eco friendly or can be said as those products which does not harm environment and these type of products contains a list of benefits to the environment as well as organizations as the research shows that consumers are so aware of sustainability and ethics that they are willing to pay higher prices for green products in comparison to the same product which is non green

Sustainability has changed the buying behavior of the consumers and this has influenced the buying power of the consumers that they are going for the eco friendly products. This shows their interest in saving the environment and the emphasis of consumers on go green concept. The research shows that the turnover of all those companies that are using green products and along with using green products they are serving the society with quality products have increased. The result shows that now a days to establish customer satisfaction and customer loyalty it is very essential for organisations to consider its sustainability and ethical growth.

According to Dara O’Rourke and Abraham Ringer, sustainability informations impacts the purchase intentions of consumers also the behavior of consumer is affected by various things such as health, social responsibility and other such factors which are relating to the external environment. The decisions of the consumers are affected by the sustainability as the consumers are attracted to all those organisations and they are willing to use the products of those organisation which are following good governance practices also the main focus of those organisation is on manufacturing of the products considering the environment that process which are used in manufacturing are not harming the environments and are purely eco friendly.

Sustainability impacts the intentions of the consumers, changes their buying power. Even many researches has been conducted in order to change the buying behavior of the customers expect the sustainability and ethical behavior of the organizations but the research shows that the major thing that affects the behavior of consumers is the sustainability policies and ethical behavior and all those organizations which are following these policies in their normal course of business are tend to have higher turnovers, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Process

Methodologies

There are various methods which are used to gather data in the research study, the methodology used in the research about the ethics and supply chain will be the collection of data from the primary sources as well as secondary sources. The primary source of the data will be collected in the form of focus group, where the information will be collected from the focused group of the customers as they will be divided as the target customers. In this research study, questionnaire will be distributed among them to know their perspectives about the importance of the fair trade and ethics in the business. The primary sources are the first hand data, collected in the form of interviews, face to face communication, telephonic interview and through mails and considered as relevant data can be gathered as the information is collected directly from the customers (Miah & Genemo, 2016).

Secondary sources will also be used in the research study to collect the data from the already published articles. The information will be taken from the articles, journals, newspapers and magazines. This information will help to know the buying trends of the customers and their preferences towards the fair trade and sustainable business over the non ethical practices. These secondary sources will also include the financial statements and sales records of the company through which the customer’s interest can be identified (Zottnick, 2015).

Method chosen for research

The study includes both the qualitative as well as quantitative data for the purpose of the research. Structured and semi structured techniques are used in qualitative method and in quantitative method, the data is collected which is measurable, based on the facts and in depth information is gathered. The qualitative method of the research study will include the techniques like focus group and the quantitative techniques will include the surveys. The sample method will be used in which the simple sampling will be used in which equal probability will be given to the chosen sample of the customers.

For the purpose of the research both the primary and secondary sources are used along with the qualitative and quantitative techniques are used based on the simple sampling method for the collection of the data. After the collection of the information, the data will be analysed and it will be presented in the forms of charts and graphs for the better understanding of the results and analysis. The recommendations can be prepared with the results of these analyses (Polit & Beck, 2010).

Methodology adopted

There are two approaches which are used for carrying out a particular research which are as follows.

• Deductive approach: This approach of research is also known as top down approach where the flow of research goes from top to down. The flow of this research goes from general to specific as it is started from theory and goes till confirmation. This approach is a step by step process which follows a particular approach for concluding any research from beginning to end. The flow of this theory starts from theory and then hypothesis and then observation and then confirmation of data so this approach is used in where the step by step process is followed to conclude a research.
• Inductive approach: This approach of research is also known as bottom up approach where the flow of research goes from bottom to top. In this research the flow of research goes from bottom to top. In other words it can be said that in this approach the flow of research goes from specific to general. In this research observation are collected rather than theory and the flow of this research goes observations and then patterns and then hypothesis and then theory. This approach is just opposite to induction approach and this approach is used where the process of the research goes from opposite (DeGracia, et., al., 2014).

In this research I have used inductive approach of research as the research in this project is to be done in a sequence manner as the main aim of this research is to identify the influence of sustainable business and ethical policies on consumers so for concluding this research the process will go in a flow that first of all topic for the research is to be selected and then an action plan is to be prepared which will include the activities which are to be performed in completion of the research also the time involved in completion of those activities will be included so that the research can be completed on time and then the data from the primary and secondary sources will be collected and then data will be recorded and analysis and this process will go in a flow from general to specific hence deductive theory is to be used in this research.

Carrying the project

The research will be carried out through preparation of an action plan as the action plan provides a systematic way for completion of a research through following all the activities which are to be included to complete the research timely. Action plan for this research is as follows.

S.No	Activity	Commencing date	Time slot	End date
1.	Selection of the topic of research	28 November, 2016	1 day	29 November, 2016
2.	Collection of data	30 November, 2016	3 days	02 December, 2016
3.	Analysis of data	03 December, 2016	4 days	06 December, 2016
4.	Recommendations on the basis of analysis of data	07 December, 2016	2 days	08 December, 2016

Gantt chart for the above action plan is as follows.

Gantt chart

Choosing the deductive approachThis action plan helps in timely completion of the project along with completing the activities in a proper sequence so that the research can be completed in proper ways.

I have used the deductive approach in my research as the topic for my research is identification of influence of sustainable business, ethical and supply chain on behavior of consumers. For this research a proper literature review is to be conducted so that the past research on this topic can be identified so as the deductive approach focuses on theories first of all the research will go in the same flow. In this research after the literature review, the data will be collected which is included in the observations and then the research will be concluded so the purpose of this research is to follow the sequence from general to specific hence according to me deductive approach is the best approach for completion of this research.

Approach differentiation

My approach is not differ from the proposal as the approach which I have used is deductive approach in this research which is the best suitable approach for this research as the main aim of the research is to identify the influence on consumers so the flow of this research must go from general to specific as the specific content will show the actual result that whether it influences or not so deductive approach also focuses on this concluding the research to a specific content and also in this research a proper sequence for completion of this research is to be followed so deductive approach also focuses on top down approach which provides a step by step process for completing the research.

Discussion and Analysis

S.no	Questions	respondents
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1	What is your gender?	A	A	A	A	B	B	B	B	B	B
2	What is your monthly income?	A	A	A	A	A	B	B	B	C	C
3	What % of your income do you spend in supermarkets?	A	A	B	B	B	B	B	C	C	C
4	Which supermarket do you go most often?	A	A	A	A	A	A	B	B	B	B
5	Do fair trade practices influence your buying decision?	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	B	B
6	Do you think People’s Super market follow sustainability in its business?	A	A	A	A	A	B	B	C	C	C
7	Do you prefer People Supermarket’s products over other supermarkets?	A	A	A	A	A	A	B	B	B	B
8	Do you believe that ethical standards are important for organizations?	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	B	B	B
9	Are you a loyal customer of People’s Super market?	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	B	B	B
10	Why you think fair trade is beneficial?	A	A	A	A	B	B	B	C	C	C

Q.1 What is your gender?

Options	Responses in %
Male	40%
Female	60%

 

Analysis: The question regarding the gender was asked to the customers and the result showed that there are 40% of the males who shop from the supermarket and 60% of the customers are the females.

Q.2 What is your monthly income?

Options	Responses in %
Below $5000	45%
$5000- $10000	30%
Above $ 10000	20%

Analysis: The question was asked to the customers about their monthly income and the results showed that there are 45% of the customers of the super market are in the income bracket of below $ 5000, 30 % of the customers are earning between $5000 to $ 10000 and 20% of the customers earn above $ 10000.

Q.3 What % of your income do you spend in supermarkets?

Options	Responses in %
Below 20 %	20%
20- 40%	50%
Above 40%	30%

Analysis: The question was asked to the customers about the percentage of the income they spend on the super markets and the results were found that 20% of the customers spend below 20% of their income on the purchases in the super market, 50% of the customers spend their income between 20% to 40% and 30% of the customers spend above 40% part of their income on the supermarket.

Q.4 Which supermarket does you goes most often?

Options	Responses in %
People’s Supermarket	60%
Some other please specify	40%

Analysis: The question regarding the preference of the super markets among the customers was asked and they responses were received reflected that 60% of the customers go to the people’s super market for the shopping and 40% of the customers named other super market to which they prefer for shopping.

Q. 5 Does fair trade practices influence your buying decision?

Options	Responses in %
Yes	75%
No	25%

Analysis: The question was asked to the customers about the influence of the fair trade practices adopted by the organizations on the customers and as per the responses, 75% of the customers accepted the fact that fair trade influence their buying behavior and 25% of the customers denied with the fact of the impact of the fair trade on their buying preference.

Q.6 Do you think People’s Super market follow sustainability in its business?

Options	Responses in %
Highly	50%
Neutral	20%
Disagree	30%

Analysis: The question regarding the sustainability policies which are practiced in the People’s super market, has been asked to the customers and they responded in a way that 50% of the customers highly agreed that the organization do practice the sustainable business, 20% of the customers were having the neutral opinion about the sustainability of People’s super market and around 30% of the customers disagreed with the fact that People’s super market follows sustainability in its business.

Q.7 Do you prefer People Supermarket’s products over other supermarkets?

Options	Responses in %
Yes	60%
No	40%

Analysis: On the question of the preference of the customers for the products of the People’s super market, 60% customers responded that they prefer the products of the People’s super market over the products offered by other super markets and on the other hand 40% of the customers reported that they prefer other super markets over the People’s super market.

Q.8 Do you believe that ethical standards are important for organizations?

Options	Responses in %
Agree	65%
Disagree	35%

Analysis: When the question was put before the customers asking them the importance of the ethical standards in the organization, 65% of the customers agreed that ethical standards should be followed in the organizations and it is an important part of the sustainable business, and 35% of the customers disagreed with the importance of ethical standards in the organization.

Q.9 Are you a loyal customer of People’s Super market?

Options	Responses in %
Yes	70%
No	30%

Analysis: The question was asked from the customer, that whether they are the loyal customers of People’s super market and 70 % of the customers were found to the loyal customers as they were the satisfied customers with the services of the People super market and 30% of the customers were not loyal to the super market as they were the customers who also keep on purchasing from other super markets too.

Q.10 Why you think fair trade is beneficial?

Options	Responses in %
Good for environment	40%
Stable prices	30%
High quality in goods	30%

Analysis: The question about the benefits of the fair trade in the market was asked to the customers to know their perception about the importance of the fair trade. In which 40 % of the customers said that fair trade is good for the environment, 30% of the customers were of the opinion that fair trade stable the prices of the commodities in the market, and 30% of the customers said that fair trade increases the quality of the products and which establishes high quality goods in the market.

Conclusion and recommendations

Findings

The research was conducted focusing on the influence and impact of the ethical standards and sustainability in the business on the choices of the customers. The questionnaire was prepared consisting of the questions which were focused on the gathering of the information from the customers about their perception on the preferences of the People’s super market over other super markets. The data was collected in the form of questionnaire and was the responses of the customers were presented in the form of charts and graphs for better understandings. The analysis of the data shows the findings from the collection of the data, which shows that the customers prefer People’s super market over other super markets available in the market because of the fact that People’s super market follow the ethical standards and maintains sustainability in its business. Majority of the customers were of the opinion that following the sustainability practices in the operations of the organizations forms an important part in the success of the business and benefits the society in several ways. With the research it was found that the customers believe that their buying decisions are influenced by the sustainability in the business and they were of the opinion that there are various benefits of fair trade for the society in the market which consist of good environment, stability in the prices of the commodities and high quality in the products.

Limitations of the project

Information based on personal preferences: This research is based upon identification of consumer behavior through sustainability policies, ethical standards and supply chain of the business and for this research data was collected from the customers through survey method where random sampling was used and data was collected from the customers through questionnaire and the research is based upon the conclusions that are drawn from the results of the questionnaires as the questionnaire were distributed to certain number of people as a sample so the conclusions of the research is based upon preferences of certain number of people so the preferences of the customers can be biased which can lead the research to unfair ways.
Time involved in the research: Action plan was prepared for the research for timely completion of the research as action plan helps in completing the project timely along with following all the activities which are to be completed for completion of the research also the days were also involved for completion of the activities so this restricted the time for me for completing those activities and sometimes I faced problem whole completing the activities as per the time mentioned in the action plan.
Restricted sources of data: There were restricted sources of data collection as the primary data was collected through sample method and the secondary sources of data which are available on internet, journals, articles and magazines are very limited.

Recommendations

The findings of the analysis of the data collected from the customers to know how the ethical standards and sustainable business practices influence the buying preferences of the customers in the super markets. The research was conducted considering the study on the People’s super market and the questionnaire included the questions which depicted the customers perception about the People’s super market and how important are the policies that are practiced in the organization regarding sustainability. On the basis of the findings of the analysis of the data, it is recommended that the organization should follow the ethical standards in the business so that the customers remain loyal to the super market and they prefer this super market over the products of the other super market. People super market should focus on the maintenance of sustainability and focus on the needs of the customers as well as creating better environment for the society. According to the findings, there are several benefits of the fair trade and People’s super market should indulge in the activities of fair trade so that they can satisfy their customers and retain the loyal customers by providing them the stability in the prices along with the high quality goods (Angel, 2013).

Conclusion

In this research project, study has been concluded about the importance of sustainability in business, ethical issues as well as supply chain on consumer behavior. The main aim of this research was to identify the impact of these factors on buying behavior of the consumer as the previous researches shows that the all these factors have a great impact on the behavior of the consumers as the consumers now a days are getting aware towards saving our environment and through this they are preferring to the eco friendly products as well as towards the organisations whose main focus in to maintain sustainability in the organisation. For this research primary data was collected to conclude this research as for to understand the impact of these factors data for this research was collected through questionnaires to know the preferences of the customers and the research shows that customers also prefer the green products as well as their personal interest is to go with those products which are eco friendly. The research has concluded that sustainable policies and ethical behavior of the business impacts its customers as the positive outcomes of the research shows that good sustainability policies and ethical behavior of the business helps in providing satisfaction to the customers and establishing greater customer loyalty.

References

Amran, A. & Keat Ooi, S. 2014, "Sustainability reporting: meeting stakeholder demands", Strategic Direction, vol. 30, no. 7, pp. 38-41.
Angel, J.J. & McCabe, D. 2013, "Ethical Standards for Stockbrokers: Fiduciary or Suitability?", Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 115, no. 1, pp. 183-193.
Araújo, U. 2012, "Promoting ethical and environmental awareness in vulnerable communities: a research action plan", Journal of Moral Education, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 389.
Asif, M., Searcy, C., Garvare, R., Ahmad, N., Luleå tekniska universitet, Industriell Ekonomi & Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik och samhälle 2011, "Including sustainability in business excellence models", Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, vol. 22, no. 7, pp. 773-14.
Biswas, A., 2016, “A Study of Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Green Products”, Journal of Advanced Management Science, vol. 4, no. 3, pp 211-215.
Buykx, P. 2016, "Commentary on Chalmerset al. (2016): A thoughtful integration of routine data sources and primary research findings", Addiction, vol. 111, no. 11, pp. 2050-2051.
DeGracia, D.J., Anggraini, F.T., Doaa Taha Metwally Taha & Huang, Z. 2014, "Inductive and Deductive Approaches to Acute Cell Injury", International Scholarly Research Notices, vol. 2014, pp. 1-15.
DiMarcello, N., Marconi, N. & Hooker, N.H. 2014, "Global Fair Trade Markets and Product Innovations", EuroChoices, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 12-18.
Doherty, B., Smith, A. & Parker, S. 2015, "Fair Trade market creation and marketing in the Global South", Geoforum, vol. 67, pp. 158-171.
Dolinsky, H.R. & Helbig, N. 2015, "Risky Business: Applying Ethical Standards to Social Media Use with Vulnerable Populations", Advances in Social Work, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 55-66.
Dorling, H., White, D., Turner, S., Campbell, K. & Lamont, T. 2014, "Developing a checklist for research proposals to help describe health service interventions in UK research programmes: a mixed methods study", Health research policy and systems / BioMed Central, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 12-12.
Farnia, F. & Nafukho, F.M. 2016, "Emotional intelligence research within human resource development scholarship", European Journal of Training and Development, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 90-110.
FuiYeng, W. & Yazdanifard, R., 2015, “Green Marketing: A Study of Consumers’ Buying Behavior in Relation to Green Products”, Global Journal of Management and Business Research: E Marketing, Volume 15 issue 5, pp 16-23.
GEREMIA, M., SEBASTIANI, R., 2015, “Sustainable business models impacting consumers’ attitudes”, Proceedings International Marketing Trends Conference 2015. ISBN: 978-2- 9532811-2-5 9782953281125.
Grankvist, G., 2015, “Attitudes towards Fairtrade Principles and Environmental Views among the Inhabitants of a Rural Swedish Town”, Psychology, pp 1661-1665.
HAMMERSHØY, L. & MADSEN, T.U. 2012, "ETHICS IN BUSINESS ANTHROPOLOGY", Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings, vol. 2012, no. 1, pp. 67-73.
Herremans, I.M., Nazari, J.A. & Mahmoudian, F. 2016, "Stakeholder Relationships, Engagement, and Sustainability Reporting", Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 138, no. 3, pp. 417-435.
Jetnikoff, A. 2015, "Design based research methodology for yeaching with technology in English", English in Australia, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 56-60.
Miah, S.J. & Genemo, H. 2016, "A Design Science Research Methodology for Expert Systems Development", Australasian Journal of Information Systems, vol. 20.
Polit, D.F. & Beck, C.T. 2010, "Generalization in quantitative and qualitative research: Myths and strategies", International Journal of Nursing Studies, vol. 47, no. 11, pp. 1451-1458.
Prezioso, M. & Coronato, M. 2013, "Sustainability in business practice: how competitiveness is changing in Europe", Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 57.
Proctor, E.K., Powell, B.J., Baumann, A.A., Hamilton, A.M. & Santens, R.L. 2012, "Writing implementation research grant proposals: ten key ingredients", Implementation science : IS,vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 96-96.
Rourke, D., & Ringer, A.,  2015, “The Impact of Sustainability Information on Consumer Decision Making”, Journal of Industrial Ecology, pp 1-11.
 migielska, G., D?browska, A. & Radziukiewicz, M. 2015, "Fair Trade in Sustainable Development. The Potential for Fair Trade Market Growth in Poland", Amfiteatru Economic,vol. 17, pp. 1244-1258.
Strähle, J., Köksal, D., 2015, “IMPACT OF BRAND- AND COUNTRY IMAGE ON THE PERCEPTION OF SUSTAINABILITY IN THE FASHION BUSINESS”, International Journal of Business and Commerce, vol. 5, no.01, pp 25-58.
Toledo-Pereyra, L.H. 2012, "Research Design", Journal of Investigative Surgery, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 279-280.
VLAEMINCK, P. & VRANKEN L., 2015, “Do labels capture consumers’ actual willingness to pay for Fair Trade characteristics?” Bioeconomics Working Paper Series, pp 1-8.
Wagman, P., Hälsohögskolan, HHJ. ADULT, HHJ, A.f.r. & Högskolan i Jönköping 2014, "How to contribute occupationally to ecological sustainability: A literature review", Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 161-165.
Wagner, B., Svensson, G., Centrum för innovations-, entreprenörskaps- och lärandeforskning (CIEL), Akademin för ekonomi, teknik och naturvetenskap, Centre for International Marketing and Entrepreneurship Research (CIMER) & Högskolan i Halmstad 2014, "A framework to navigate sustainability in business networks: The transformative business sustainability (TBS) model", European Business Review, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 340-367.
Zottnick, K.L. 2015, "Secondary data: a primary concern", Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 193.