Exploring the Space and Practice of E-business in the Fair Trade Supply Chain

Fair Trade and e-business have been topics of growing academic literature. However, very little is known in terms of the utilization of e-business in Fair Trade. This paper aims to address this gap and explore the opportunities, current utilization as well as challenges of e-business in the Fair Trade Supply Chain (FTSC). The paper makes a unique contribution to the wider understanding of the social and developmental implications of e-business. It identifies some of the issues of implementing e-business in Fair Trade, a sector which has poverty alleviation and equitable development rather than profit and share holder value maximization as its key performance indicators. It offers some perspectives that organizations in the FTSC and others that support the Fair Trade scheme can use to make better use of e-business to improve the FTSC and the value it delivers to developing countries.