Cooperatives' performance relative to investor-owned firms: a non-distorted approach for the wine sector

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether significant performance differences between cooperatives and investor-owned firms (IOFs) may exist.Design/methodology/approach Based on data from a sample of Italian wine firms for the period from 2009 to 2018, an adjusted measure of performance called earnings before interests, taxes, depreciations and amortizations gross the raw materials cost was adopted to consider the different objectives of cooperatives relative to those of IOFs.Findings Empirical evidence shows that in the context under analysis, cooperatives have performed better than IOFs.Originality/value Despite the theoretical literature suggesting that the cooperative form of organizations suffers from many weaknesses, these results highlight that cooperatives operating in the wine sector are at least as economically efficient as other organizations, and more specifically, they perform better than for-profit firms. Consequent implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Technological regimes or “perceived” technological regimes? Evidence from the Italian wine industry

PurposeTechnological regimes define the environment in which innovative and learning activities take place in each sector of the economy. In this paper, the authors argue that technological regimes must be interpreted and elaborated by each organisation operating within a sector in order to be implemented rationally, which leads us to the concept of perceived technological regimes.Design/methodology/approachThe authors tested the relevance of firms' perceptions of different technological regimes on a sample of wine companies in Italy. The authors run a questionnaire survey and obtained 334 clean responses. Data drawn from questionnaires were analysed via econometric analysis.FindingsThe authors present empirical evidence that this perception tends to vary across different wine technologies. Additionally, the authors find evidence that firms' technology adoption, absorptive capacity and external knowledge sourcing have a strong impact on their perceptions of the relevance of a given wine-making technology.Originality/valueWhile individual technological regimes are characterised by systematic differences in the distribution of heterogeneous firm types, previous empirical studies have not explored whether the technological environment defining a given industry is differently interpreted and elaborated by each firm operating in it.

Impact of Environmental Conditions and Management on Soil Arthropod Communities in Vineyard Ecosystems

The importance of soil biodiversity and soil-based ecosystem services in the context of viticulture has recently been emphasized. Over 85% of soil fauna species richness is represented by edaphic arthropod communities. Edaphic arthropod responses to soil characteristics and management practices can be considered as good bioindicators of soil quality. Here, 168 soil samples that were collected from 2014 to 2019 in several vineyards of different Italian wine-growing areas were analyzed to explore how arthropod communities respond to several factors that are characteristic of vineyard ecosystems. The analysis of the combined effects of the primary abiotic variables (the chemical and physical characteristics of soil) and management practices (organic vs. conventional, soil inter-row management) on soil biological quality (assessed by QBS-ar index) identified soil temperature and soil texture as the abiotic factors exerting the most significant effect on the QBS-ar values. Organic vineyards exhibited higher QBS-ar values compared to those of conventionally managed vineyards, and subsoiling negatively influenced the soil biological quality.

The Workers Behind Sweden's Italian Wine: An illustrative Human Rights Impact Assessment of Systembolaget's Italian wine supply chains

This paper reports on an illustrative human rights impact assessment (HRIA) of the Italian wine supply chains of Systembolaget, the Swedish monopoly alcohol retailer. The HRIA aimed to evaluate the actual and potential human rights impacts at the production stage of the value chain in Italy, to identify their root causes, and to provide recommendations to relevant stakeholders concerning their prevention, mitigation and/or remediation. The assessment took just over a year and consisted of five phases of analysis using a methodology aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). However, the onset of Italy’s severe first wave of coronavirus in 2020 meant that the assessment team was unable to conduct the field study phase with the full rigour required of an HRIA. The field phase started in September 2019, with an initial assessment phase based on a literature review and a round of stakeholder interviews from September 2019 to March 2020. Further, limited, worker interviews were conducted from October 2020 to January 2021. The result is an illustration of the human rights risks that are present in the areas of Italy from which Systembolaget sources its wine.

Exploring Corporate Social Responsibility in the Italian wine sector through websites

PurposeThis paper aims to explore how the Italian wine industry discloses corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and quality certifications and the corresponding determinants via websites. The study also aims to investigate the relationship between CSR practices and financial performance. The information consistency between the quality certificates reported on corporate websites and official database statements is also explored. Lastly, the paper investigates how the relationship between the size of wineries and CSR disclosure changes according to firms' geographic location.Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyses CSR corporate communication via the websites of a sample of Italian wineries by adjusting the theoretical framework developed by Amran (2012) to the wine sector's peculiarities. Moreover, a cross-certification analysis and a moderation analysis were performed to fulfil the purpose of the research.FindingsThe analysis revealed the extensive use of CSR disclosure via websites. It was found that company size positively affects CSR disclosure and Quality Certification Disclosure (QCD), while geographic location slightly moderates the relationship between the two variables. In addition, a negative relationship between CSR disclosure and corporate financial performance and its reverse causality emerged. Moreover, for most wineries, information consistency between the quality certificates reported on corporate websites and official database statements was observed.Research limitations/implicationsThe study's main limitation is that the search process was performed during lockdown. Therefore, the examined issues could change in the near future due to the shift in priorities that the COVID-19 pandemic is determining.Practical implicationsThe results can help managers implement CSR disclosure and QCD practices to enhance stakeholder legitimacy and enable their companies to compete in strongly competitive international markets.Originality/valueThe paper represents the first study investigating online QCD and its consistency in the Italian wine sector.

Sustainability and Natural Wines: An Exploratory Analysis on Consumers

Wine production and consumption in Italy have a long tradition strongly linked to conventional products. Because of these market dynamics, the Italian wine industry has strongly increased the production of organic wines, as well as that of biodynamic and natural wines. Based on a qualitative survey of 210 wine consumers, this study explores the motivations which move the interests of consumers for the consumption of natural wine. The aim of the study is to verify if and how sustainability inspires demand. Considering the scarcity of studies on “natural wines” this research aims to provide a cognitive framework capable of giving a social representation of natural wine from the consumers’ side, although not reaching a generalizable result.

The Italian Wine Sector: Evolution, Structure, Competitiveness and Future Challenges of an Enduring Leader

The Italian wine supply chain has performed well in recent decades both in terms of profitability and success on the domestic and international markets. This is despite the fact that it is fragmented in terms of products, prices and consumption context, and, in particular, despite the fact that it is characterised by an organisation that hinders the full exploitation of economies of scale. This paradox has not been investigated in literature. We propose several elements in support of the hypothesis that the Italian wine sector’s success is linked to favourable elements of the Porter Diamond Model (5 out of 6) but also to the “district” nature of a large part of the sector. The presence of numerous networks, some of which are formal and others informal, gives most Italian local production systems specialising in grapes and wine the characteristics of industrial districts, due to the local social capital that is stratified there. These networks include operators such as Cooperatives and Consorzi di Tutela, upstream and downstream industries and services, tourism, research and educational bodies. Such networks can overcome the weakness represented by the low concentration and small average size of the operators. To support this hypothesis, we analyse the historical evolution of the sector and its drivers, the structural features of the different phases of the wine chain (grape growing, winemaking, bottling and distribution), the market relationships within the chain and the national and European policies favouring the sector. This analysis also underlines the differences between the Italian sector and its competitors from the Old and New World.

Insights into organic wine consumption: behaviour, segmentation and attribute non-attendance

Several studies have focused on the behaviour of consumers towards organic wine, finding varying and sometimes conflicting results. Some scholars have noted that consumers may perceive wine labelled as organic to be of a lower quality, whereas others have found that consumers are willing to pay a premium price for it. Starting from these discrepancies found in the literature, this study seeks to investigate how the organic certification influences consumers when purchasing a bottle of red wine, evaluating the possible presence of attribute non-attendance (ANA) behaviour. A choice experiment was carried out on a sample of Italian wine consumers. Findings highlight that although, on average, consumers do not prefer organic wine, there is a relevant niche in the market consisting of consumers who benefit from purchasing it. Moreover, we have found that the majority of the sample ignores the organic attribute when choosing a bottle of wine, which reveals ANA behaviour.