Enjoy chocolate without any bitter aftertaste

: creating a fairer value chain in the chocolate industry by shifting chocolate manufacturing to Ghana : the case of Fairafric

Abstract

This study examines the social enterprise Fairafric which generates social impact in thechocolate industry by shifting chocolate production to Africa. The two central questions of thepresent analysis are how the entrepreneurial structure of Fairafric contributes to Fairafric’ssuccess regarding social impact in the chocolate industry and commercial success on thechocolate market and how Fairafric acquires competitive advantages on the chocolate market.At first, a literature review on social enterprises and entrepreneurial structures, an overview ofthe global chocolate industry’s value chain, and a presentation of Fairafric are provided asfactual basis. The first part of the analysis focuses on how Fairafrics entrepreneurial structurecontributes to Fairafric’s social and commercial success. For that purpose the socialentrepreneurship process framework of Lumpkin et al. (2013) is applied. The second part of theanalysis focuses on how the business strategy of Fairafric enables Fairafric to acquirecompetitive advantages on the chocolate retail market. For this purpose, the differentiationstrategy analysis framework of Michael Porter is applied to Fairafric’s business strategy.The results of the analysis show that Fairafric has a strong entrepreneurial orientation thatpositively affects Fairafric’s social impact and business performance. Furthermore, the analysisshows that Fairafric has acquired significant competitive advantages because of a strong marketdifferentiation of the brand, brand purpose, the products and the communication. On a generallevel, the thesis shows how entrepreneurial tools are suitable and effective in order to achievesocial impact.

Date of Award	1 Feb 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Marta Bicho (Supervisor)