Analysis of factors affecting for Tea buyers’ level of trust on Tea brokers
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Date
2015
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
The tea industry in Sri Lanka has paramount importance to country’s economy. In Sri Lanka, out of
total quantity of bulk packaged tea, more than 95% is sold through public auction annually. The main
participants of auction system are buyers and brokers. The most important concept, to carry out the
business relationship between buyers and brokers is TRUST. All the transactions between buyers and
brokers will confirm with the trust before complete the transaction by using monetary terms. In
economic terms, trust can be defined as "the belief or perception by one party (e.g. a principal) that
the other party (e.g. an agent) to a particular transaction will not cheat" (Paul J. Zak and Knack, 2001).
In the case of buyer-broker relationship in the tea industry (relevant to buyers), trust can be defined
as a belief of the buyer that the broker will efficiently provide good quality teas without any
deceptions, while maintaining the goodwill. Therefore this research was carried out to identify major
factors affecting for tea buyers’ trust on tea brokers.
Methodology
The selected population for the study was all the tea buyers who are weekly buying tea at the Colombo
Tea Auction. The data were collected from a sample of 70 tea buyers selected using Simple Random
Sampling technique and ranked according to their export quantity (Sri Lanka Custom Data, 2012).
Data were collected through a questionnaire by individually giving it to the selected sample. The trust
was measured by using ten point likertscales. Data were analyzed using Descriptive Statisticsmanner
andbased on Ordinal Logistic Regression analysis techniques.Ordinal Logistic Regression is used to
independent
variables(ChristensenR.H.B.,2011). The SPSS statistical software, Minitab 16 software and
Microsoft Excel were used for both descriptive and ordinal logistic regression analysis.
Description
Keywords
Agriculture, Export Agriculture, Crop Production, Tea Industrials, Tea Technology