Editorial

Citation

Bruwer, J. (2015), "Editorial", International Journal of Wine Business Research, Vol. 27 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWBR-06-2015-0021

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Wine Business Research, Volume 27, Issue 3

Welcome to the third issue of 2015.

In this “bumper” issue IJWBR presents five interesting articles focusing on a three wine countries, namely the USA, Australia (three articles) and South Korea. These articles make theoretical and applied contributions and fit nicely together to contribute to the greater understanding of wine business management, wine marketing and consumer behaviour in general.

The first with Newton, Gilinsky, Atkin, Santini, Cavicchi, Casas and Huertas as authors, representative of researchers from three countries (USA, Italy and Spain), exemplifies the extent of international research collaboration in the wine business research field and IJWBR’s important role in disseminating this information. The study compared the perceptions of competitive advantage through cost leadership and differentiation with sustainable practices of wineries from the USA, Italy and Spain. The implementation (or not) of an Environmental Management System (EMS) was a key focus of this research. A consistent commitment to sustainability was found among wineries from the three countries. There were similarities in implementing sustainability in practice – more than 50 per cent of the respondents from the each country either had been sustainable from the start or had recently adopted sustainable practices. Wineries in all three countries perceived a competitive advantage through the implementation of EMS and commitment to sustainable practices. Top perceived benefits for wineries in the USA and Italy were cost-reduction strategies, while in the case of Spain, the focus was squarely on differentiation strategies.

The Australian wine industry has been focusing increasingly on fine wine production. Hence, the next article, by Bastian and Johnson, makes a timely and methodological contribution in the form of a fine wine measurement instrument (FWI). Their study was conducted on 1,106 wine consumers in Australia.

Using the FWI as the segmentation base, cluster analysis identified three segments of consumers, denoted as “Wine Enthusiasts”, “Aspirants” and “No Frills” wine drinkers. The Wine Enthusiasts’ segment consumed more wine, spent more money on and were more knowledgeable about wine than the other two segments. Detailed knowledge of the Wine Enthusiasts consumer segment might provide the industry with intelligence that would allow more targeted marketing communications with that segment. The importance of younger consumers in this segment was also highlighted, and it was suggested that this demographic might benefit from targeted marketing approaches.

In the third article, Lewis, Byrom and Grimmer discuss why small wine producers in Tasmania, one of Australia’s premium wine regions, engage in horizontal networking within both their sub-regions and at a state-wide level. The study found that producers join social networks for commercial, social and strategic reasons and that these motivations evolve over time as the owner/managers gain experience and presence in the region. Horizontal networks assist regions to build goodwill and industry norms, and share knowledge. Such social capital encourages collaboration among wineries and enables networks to effectively pursue shared objectives. Horizontal networks at a sub-regional level also play a key role in establishing and promoting wine tourism. The study also found that networks, which are governed by actual members and involve frequent social activity, provide a stronger foundation for mutual benefits and collaborative arrangements.

Next is the article by Galbreath which is the third in this issue to explore issues in the Australian wine industry; in this instance climate change. The study collected data from 557 firms across three wine regions in Australia by examining the nature of the cooperation-competition nexus in regional clusters by investigating how wine firms in Australia engage in knowledge exchanges about the “common” strategic issue that climate change has become. The findings suggest that after accounting for all knowledge exchanges, firms across the regions appear to be generally engaging in knowledge exchanges about climate change within their own geographic wine sub-regions. However, paradoxically, firms in “elite” wine sub-regions appear to be demonstrating more of a cooperative posture via a greater level of external knowledge exchanges. The results also suggest that implementation rates differ for adaptive climate change innovations only (as opposed to mitigative innovations) to the apparent advantage of firms in elite wine sub-regions.

The final article by Kunc and Hwang gives us a “rare” glimpse of the wine market of South Korea. The study provides the first exploratory research on the business dynamics of South Korean on-premise wine trade businesses. It was found that customer satisfaction and number of customers are key performance factors for on-premise wine trade businesses. Customer satisfaction is driven by servicescape, wine menus/lists and front-line employees. However, the length of wine menu/list impacts directly on inventory costs and staff knowledge, while the number of service staff in the business has a non-linear effect on profits as service staff do not grow linearly with the number of customers. Two business implications were identified. First, in terms of the on-premise wine trade the alignment of service space, front-line employees, wine menus/lists and pricing strategy are keys to shape customers’ expectations and confirm the market positioning of the business. Second, for wineries understanding the dynamics of the on-premise wine trade can help them to strategically position their wines.

Johan Bruwer

Editor-in-Chief