Wine consumers in their roles as members of the society, buyers, and tourists

Citation

Orth, U.R. (2009), "Wine consumers in their roles as members of the society, buyers, and tourists", International Journal of Wine Business Research, Vol. 21 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijwbr.2009.04321caa.001

Wine consumers in their roles as members of the society, buyers, and tourists

Wine consumers in their roles as members of the society, buyers, and tourists

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Wine Business Research, Volume 21, Issue 3.

This year's third issue presents five timely and highly interesting articles focusing on so vastly different countries such as the UK, Australia, South Africa, Korea, and Spain but all centering on consumer and visitor behavior.

The first article, written by Cardiff-based Caroline Ritchie, sheds additional light on the social interaction involving wine purchase and consumption in the UK market. The study complements previous work conducted in different cultural contexts through a more in-depth qualitative perspective by further detailing the social and cultural drivers of wine buying behavior. The findings specifically challenge the conventional wisdom that segmenting markets according to consumer involvement with wine provides a superior approach with high explanatory power. Instead, the author concludes that a more integrative approach which relates buying behavior to social and lifestyle characteristics is both theoretically grounded and practically useful.

The second article, authored by Adelaide-based researchers Emily McCutcheon, Johan Bruwer, and Elton Li, tackles the multi-dimensional nature of region-of-origin in an Australian setting. With little doubt the place-of-origin issue is among the most frequently investigated topics in wine business research. This article contributes beyond past studies by examining what consumer characteristics relate to higher or lower importance of region-of-origin in the buying decision. Especially highlighted is the personal experience a consumer has with visiting the wine region in question. Managers may benefit from the findings as they devise place-based branding strategies and by better integrating regional tourism with wine brand management.

One of the second article's authors, Johan Bruwer, is also co-author (with Karin Alant) to the third article in this issue, an investigation of the motivational drivers of tourist visits to South Africa's Paarl Wine Region. Given its authors, it comes as no surprise that the article represents a logical and cross-country extension of some of the important relations between visitors' experience in a region and their wine preferences established in the preceding article. Readers may find particular value in the detailed identification of motivational drivers that bring visitors to a wine region, and the implications outlined by the authors for differentially and successfully marketing wine regions.

Asian countries such as Japan, Hong Kong, China, Korea, and Thailand are receiving increased attention as potential markets for wines produced from around the world. This issue's fourth article by American author Kyuho Lee introduces a framework that starts to explain how the driving forces of globalization impact wine consumption in Asia. Representing one of the rare (but much sought-after) conceptual rather than an empirical contributions, the author reviews economic, socio-cultural, and technological factors which underlie globalization in general and the wine business specifically, and relates them to specific changes in Asian markets. Managers may find the framework useful for better understanding how a specific force can affect their market of interest, whereas researchers may identify several beneficial areas for their future research outlined in this article.

The last article by Joel Espejel and Carmina Fandos (both with the University of Zaragoza in Spain) revisits the region-of-origin theme illuminated in the second article. Different than the previous article, their research examines effects in a consumer satisfaction and loyalty framework by developing and testing a structural equation model. While much past research has focused on consumer loyalty to stores or brands applying the concepts to protected designations of origin for wine has been neglected. Filling this gap constitutes a significant contribution by this work. The integration of intrinsic attributes of perceived quality (e.g. color, scent, and flavor) with extrinsic attributes (e.g. region-of-origin, price, and brand) is also notable as the findings assist wine marketers in developing and communicating offerings that are more consistent, ultimately leading to more satisfied and loyal customers.

In conclusion I would like to direct readers' attention to the call for papers for a special issue on case studies listed at the end of this issue. Business educators frequently utilize much of the research presented in this journal in their classes to facilitate students' understanding of concepts, methods, and mechanisms. The organizers of the Fifth International Conference of the Academy of Wine Business Research (8-10 February 2010 at the University of Auckland, New Zealand) take the opportunity to compile a list of quality case studies to further this unique instrument. As high quality case studies link insights obtained from current research with the knowledge base provided to future researchers they take on special significance for growing both the readership and the base of contributors to the International Journal of Wine Business Research. Please consider submitting to this special issue. Details on procedures, contacts, and deadlines are provided towards the end of this issue.

Ulrich R. OrthChristian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Kiel, Germany