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The success of the Australian wine industry is well documented. However, there have been few comparative studies of the reasons for this success as compared to Australia's main competitors. Most of the anecdotal evidence and trade publications focus on “value for money” and fruit‐driven wines, without looking at how the Australian wine businesses operate. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the external environment in France and Australia as one of the drivers for Australian wine sector success.

In‐depth interviews with two French and two Australian wineries and a review of the literature led to a series of hypotheses about the role of market orientation, strategic orientation, innovative and entrepreneurial environment orientation, constraining legislation, industry infrastructure usage, industry plan support, and interorganizational collaboration as factors differentiating the two countries. An online survey of wineries in the two countries resulted in a sample of 82 French and 63 Australian responses. An analysis of variance revealed significant differences between Australian wineries as compared to the French.

Australian wineries rated themselves higher in market orientation, growth strategy, export proactiveness, perceived innovative environment, perceived entrepreneurial environment, more interorganizational collaboration, and less perceived constraining legislation.

These results not only provide some basis for Australia's success in wine exporting, but also add to the literature on the effect of the external environment on business performance.

Wine exporting countries can use the results to help shape policy for creating a more conducive environment for exporting wine.

The purpose of this paper is to trace the dispersed yet influential presence of the French in the Australian wine industry from the beginning of the industry until the present day. It looks at the physical presence of the French on Australian soil (e.g. winemakers, companies, vines) and the French cultural influence (e.g. publications, stereotypes, promotion). It aims to provide an historical context in which to place questions concerning contemporary Australian attitudes to French wine and to wine in general.

Historical review of French presence and influence on the Australian wine industry using historical and contemporary documents and records.

While the French presence in Australia has always been minimal, it exerts a powerful influence on the Australian wine industry. Throughout the history of the industry, French individuals and culture have maintained the image of “French expertise”, thus French wine is still the point of reference for the Australian wine industry and consumer. The high status enjoyed by French wine can be attributed in part to the historical influence of the French on Australian wine.

Further research into attitudes to French wine in Australia is needed to understand consumer preferences.

The paper represents one of the first attempts to investigate the presence and influence of French wines and winemaking in the Australian wine industry. It presents an historical account of the French in the Australian wine industry and the influence of French culture on Australian wine.

This paper aims to provide a strategic analysis of how globalization has enabled Australian companies to transform the wine industry.

The global wine industry is analyzed from two strategic management perspectives: Michael Porter's positioning concepts and the hypercompetitive framework of Richard D'Aveni with particular emphasis on the success of the Australian Yellow Tail brand.

The forces of globalization have caused significant changes in a historically stable industry. The success of the Yellow Tail brand demonstrates how a focused strategy with the right product, distribution and marketing can cause significant industry disruptions. Overall, the D'Aveni framework of hypercompetition seems to best describe the impact of Australian wine companies, although the generic strategies of Michael Porter may still be applicable when considering the French industry.

The focus is on using two strategic frameworks; there are others which could have been included. The example of Australian wine companies has been used to illustrate the changes in the overall market, but studying other “new world” wine producers such as Chile or Argentina may also add insight.

The paper provides an example of how the academic frameworks of strategic management can be applied to different industries and shows that dynamic forces of globalization can emerge from any corner of the world and cause dramatic economic change.

This paper will be of interest to those studying the global dimensions of strategic management and its practical implications.

To examines strategies that have locked the Australian wine industry into a price‐sensitive, commodity wine market. The paper seeks to explain the inherent weakness of these strategies and their inability to address current challenges and opportunities.

The paper uses empirical research data gathered from 100 SME wine firms. These firms were selected using a stratified random sampling technique. Four states were covered – New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia – with all major wine regions in these states equally represented. There was careful sampling according to size, so that boutique, and small‐ and medium‐sized firms were represented. Non‐exporting firms were excluded. In each case either the CEO or the marketing manager was interviewed.

The findings confirm the paper's hypothesis, that increasingly the Australian wine industry has become risk‐averse and locked into paradigms and organizational frameworks that are disconnecting from users and their requirements. The findings concur that greater differentiation of place, product, supply chains, and markets is required if the industry is to operate effectively within a multi‐dimensional landscape and continue to attract sustainable returns.

The paper was based largely upon user perceptions about current and future industry developments. It would be extremely valuable if future research could align these perceptions with performance data at industry and firm level to provide a more convincing map of R&D activity.

This paper has significant implications and policy advice for future industry organization. The most immediate and important of these is a strategy of emphasizing differentiated, regionally‐identified products that target higher price‐points in major markets. The industry has already indicated that it intends moving in this direction.

The original aspect of the paper is its organization ecology approach to the industry, in which national parameters are replaced by a perception of global operating landscapes. In this sense, users are not only participants, but also spectators and interpreters. The paper should be of value to researchers, policy‐makers and all industry stakeholders.

Wine tourism is an area of growing interest because of its potential to contribute to regional development and employment at times of rural restructuring, particularly through the development of inter and intra industry networks. This paper provides a review of wine tourism, briefly discusses networks and their value, then analyses the development of wine tourism networks in Australia and New Zealand. The research indicates that although wine tourism network development is being actively encouraged, substantial difficulties exist because of the perception by many in the wine industry that they are not part of tourism. The paper concludes that while the development of new organisational structures to encourage wine tourism development are useful, they must be complimented by research on linkages, education of potential network members in order to close information gaps; and the development of network structures which maximise the overlap and linkages mat exists between the wine and tourism industries.

Recent research has focused on identifying the role of technology in strategic manufacturing decision making in a particular industry, in this case the Australian wine industry. This industry was chosen because it has a major focus on the use of advanced process technology as part of its manufacturing competitive positioning. In particular, technology is used to maximise product quality and reduce production costs. Technology was identified as the most important area of manufacturing process decision making, followed by quality assurance and control. It was also found that quality is the most important competitive priority for wine producers, followed by product cost. Both of these were found to be directly influenced by process technology. The competitive priority of rate of innovation, although also likely to be influenced by technology, was found to be much less important. Integration of technology with the process was also identified as being a much less important decision area. An ANOVA determined that there were 32 categories of wine producers for which there were significant differences in the importance of technology.

There are many factors which may influence the ability of wineries to build and maintain long‐term relationships (LTR) with their suppliers of grapes. The aim of this paper is to identify the most important factors which enhance LTR between Australian wineries and grape growers.

A qualitative in‐depth interview technique was employed with 13 Australian grape growers.

The relational dimensions of communication, goal compatibility and use of power were found to influence the relationship quality dimensions of trust and satisfaction, which are also linked to the level of commitment and hence long‐term relationship.

The Australian wine industry is currently suffering economic instability which has resulted in the demise of some relationships between grape growers and winemakers. However, economic misfortunes will no doubt change and inefficiencies will result if LTR are not maintained. These inefficiencies could prove detrimental as the Australian wine industry strives to produce regionally branded and higher quality wine products which are both grape grower derived element. Furthermore, issues related to communication frequency and reduction in trust have implications for communication strategies which may result in the reduction of winery grower liaison staff.

This paper offers a grape/grower‐winery perspective on buyer‐seller relationships. It moderates the theory on communication and its effect on trust and commitment. Furthermore it posits the issue of buyer size on relational dimension and outcomes, which has had little attention in the literature.

This paper aims to discuss a study that investigated the relationship between grape growers and wineries in Australia. The results of the study led to the formulation of market segments which provided a better understanding of the relationship.

Quantitative data were collected through an online survey, distributed to grape growers in all states of Australia. A total of 396 valid responses were obtained.

Cluster analysis highlighted three segments based on relational variables such as relationship quality and power and details of the grape growers' business and trading relationships. The paper showed that grape growers attained higher levels of relationship quality and power if they resided in cool climate wine regions, had short-term relationships with wineries and were in relationships with small and medium enterprise (SME) wineries. The paper also highlighted the interaction of relational variables and the price that a grower received for their grapes.

The research was limited in terms of its geographic context. Future research could involve a wider geographic study based on the constructs used in this research and also focus on the winery perspective of the relationship in order to gain a dyadic perspective.

The Australian wine industry is experiencing difficult economic conditions. The paper has highlighted relationships that may not be sustainable and certain growers that may require assistance from government and wine industry peak bodies.

This paper presents a quantitative exposition of Australian grape grower and winery relationships that takes into account relational variables and trading and business details.

The wine industry has been criticised in the past for adopting a mass‐marketing approach but in the current ultra‐competitive wine market the inevitable outcome of a production rather than marketing orientation is almost certain failure. Whereas the Australian domestic wine market is currently experiencing a low growth rate, a precursor to any future growth strategy is a clear understanding of the market. Acceptance of market segmentation as a strategy to target consumers more effectively enhances the focus and differentiation essential to achieve growth in the wine market. Recently a new segmentation approach of lifestyle based on a cognitive deductive perspective that makes lifestyle specific to the area of wine consumption was developed by Bruwer et al. (2001). This process included the development of a wine‐related lifestyle (WRL) measurement research instrument and the identification of five wine‐related lifestyle market segments. In this paper, a study conducted in the Australian wine market on 363 consumers to empirically confirm or disconfirm the previously identified five wine‐related lifestyle segments is reported on. The further theoretically‐driven development and improvement of the WRL research instrument is also described.

This study explores the impact of institutions, policies, and regulations at the global, national, and sectoral levels on digitalisation within the Italian and Australian wine industries.

Drawing on qualitative research data collected from interviews with key personnel in the wine industry, this study shows that both jurisdictions are at a similar stage of emergent digital development despite very different settings.

Accordingly, the authors find that digitalisation is constrained by common policy and regulatory issues emanating at the global and national levels, such as a lack of data infrastructure and data governance, and the need for institutions at the local and regional levels to spur innovation, especially with SMEs.

This is the first study to analyse the role of policy, regulation, and institutional arrangements in digital diffusion using a cross-country comparison of the wine sector.