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Diversified trading networks have recently drawn a great deal of attention. In the process, the importance of diversity has perhaps been overemphasized. Using the trade in port wine from Portugal to Britain as an example, this essay attempts to show how a market once dominated by general, diversified traders was taken over by dedicated specialists whose success might almost be measured by the degree to which they rejected diversification to form a dedicated “commodity chain.” The essay suggests that this strategy was better able to handle matters of quality and the specialized knowledge that port wine required. The essay also highlights the question of power in such a chain. Endemic commodity-chain struggles are clearest in the vertical brand war that broke out in the nineteenth century, which, by concentrating power, marked the final stage in the transformation of the trade from network to vertical integration.

Amelia Ceja is the president and CEO of Ceja Vineyards. Amelia grew Ceja Vineyards from a fledgling company producing only 750 cases annually to a well-respected winery, with wines that were served at the inauguration of President Barack Obama and wines that are served at top restaurants all over the world, including the three-Michelin-star restaurant French Laundry. The chapter presents a comprehensive overview of how one woman with a strong vision for success, motivated by perseverance and hard work, used familia, mentorship, customer knowledge, and flexibility as her go-to-market keys to success.

Previous research suggests that constructions of legitimacy play a central role in the development of markets, yet little attention has been given to how that legitimacy is constructed through the material practices of market actors. This paper aims to address this gap via an examination of cultural intermediaries in the fine wine market of Shanghai.

An interpretive thematic analysis was carried out on data from 13 semi-structured interviews with fine wine intermediaries based primarily in Shanghai (5 wine writers/educators; 5 sommeliers/retailers; 3 brand representatives).

The dimensions of the legitimation of wine were examined, identifying three key themes: the legitimacy of intermediaries as experts; the legitimacy of a particular mode of wine consumption; the legitimacy of the intermediaries as exemplars for not-yet-legitimate consumers. These findings suggest that cultural intermediaries’ personal, consuming preferences and practices are significant to the formation of a new market, and that they must negotiate potential tensions between interactions with legitimate, not-yet-legitimate and illegitimate consumers.

Limitations with regard to generalizability are discussed with regard to potential future research.

The focus on cultural intermediaries and dimensions of legitimation can be used to examine the case of other emerging markets to anticipate the pathways to institutionalizing new forms of taste and consumption practices.

The paper offers an empirical insight into the market dynamics of distinction in the Shanghai wine market and conceptual insight into the importance of cultural intermediaries as exemplar consumers.

Purpose: This paper adopts a practice-oriented approach to address gaps in existing knowledge of the significance of cultural producers’ and intermediaries’ practices of taste for the construction and organization of markets. Using the example of the cultural field of “natural” wine, I propose how taste operates as a logic of practice, generating market actions in relation to the aesthetic regime of provenance.

Methodology/approach: The paper sets out the conceptual relationship between aesthetic regimes and practices of taste. The discussion draws from interpretive research on natural wine producers and cultural intermediaries involving 40 interviews with natural wine makers, retailers, sommeliers, and writers based in New York, Western Australia, the Champagne region, and the Cape Winelands.

Findings: Three dimensions of how taste is translated into action are examined: as a device of division, which establishes a fuzzy logic of resemblance; as a device of operation, which provides an intuitive platform for shaping the means of production; and as a device of coordination, which enables an embedded experience of trust.

Originality/value: The paper’s discussion of dispositions, affect, intuition, and pattern identification provide new insights into the translation of taste into action, and the macro-organization of markets. I argue for attention to how cultural producers and cultural intermediaries are mobilized through their habitual sense of taste, shifting the focus away from consumers to those whose market actions are largely self- and peer-referential. This is important for understanding processes of market development and value construction.

In a fragmented tourism market and highly competitive industry, tourism providers aim to increase their appeal and attractiveness. Identifying opportunities and resources, which contribute to provide consumers with higher quality experiences and create added value, is challenging for entrepreneurs. This chapter aims to increase the awareness of entrepreneurs about flexible methods and tools, which are transforming the way work is performed and thus affecting management practices in the tourism industry.

Literature review was conducted on conceptual issues related to consumer experience and three case studies were analysed as best practices in the wine tourism industry

To deliver a specific consumer experience and create added value for customers, several opportunities are identified, related to authenticity and accommodation offering. Necessary resources to exploit those opportunities encompass existing (connected to the main product wine, historical buildings, family story and product characteristics) as well as newly acquired valuable resources related to the development of peripheral tourism activities.

This study is explorative in nature, based on a literature review. It takes more entrepreneurial than academic approach.

The balance between authenticity and attractiveness is a key factor of success for wineries as means to provide added value to customers.

This contribution helps to identify valuable and existing resources in order to exploit opportunities and deliver high-quality experiences to tourists. The uniqueness of this experience is crucial on building added value for customers.

We define diffusion as the spread of something within a social system. Diffusion is the most general and abstract term, and it embraces such processes as contagion, mimicry, social learning, organized dissemination, etc. (Strang & Soule, 1998). While the home territory of diffusion is innovation (see Rogers, 2003 for an authoritative review), more recent macro-diffusion research has developed, based on social movement and institutionalization arguments (Ansari, Fiss, & Zajac, 2010; Wejnert, 2002).

Purpose: This paper uses performance theory to explore how wine-tourism experiences are orchestrated by wine tour guides to encourage engagement of consumers. It describes how such orchestration is built on material elements such as landscapes, architecture, vineyards, production facilities, and wine tastings.

Design/methodology/approach: A multi-layer ethnographic research on wine-tourism was employed. The interviews, observations, and field notes were analyzed through the lens of performance theory. A constant comparative method was used to identify emergent patterns, and a hermeneutic method was used to interpret the data.

Findings: The paper builds on performance theory and delineates the ways in which guides co-create intense experiences with participants. It portrays how tour guides often adjust their theatrical scripts to consumers’ unique needs through creative variations: surprise treats, activities, and personal stories. When guides take pleasure in tours, participants do as well, resulting in memorable co-created experiences. The tours feature processes such as pitching and relation-building techniques that call upon identity, morality, and materiality scripts, which ultimately build a sense of social obligation among participants toward tour guides and winery staff.

Originality/value: From a theoretical perspective, the paper adds value to the discussion of performance in tourism by suggesting that the service blueprint, architecture, and employee training are only part of the story. This paper shows how consumer engagement and interactions between participants, guides, architecture, and landscapes are essential elements of memorable experiences.

Research limitations: Like other studies, there are limitations to our study as well. Our study only included one-day wine tours. A broader investigation of strategic alliances between tour companies and wineries, and how wine tourists experience and sustain a sense of social obligations to the wineries they visit, will provide further insights into how wine-tourism functions as a co-creative emergent form of consumption involving individuals, products, and processes.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to describe the current situation regarding alcohol use and consumption in relation with sport in France.

Design/methodology/approach – Based on a literature review, the authors describe the particular regulatory French context regarding alcohol sales, publicity and consumption around sport and analyze the relationships between alcohol and sport participation, and sporting events.

Findings – Despite an apparent strict legal frame, exemptions, margins of manoeuvre and non-applications of the law portray the situation as more complex than it appears. As for sport participation, if the myth of ascetic sportsmen and sportswomen is not supported, the use and consumption profiles are not clear-cut depending on numerous factors such as age, gender, socio-economic status, intensity and level of sport participation, club membership and more importantly sport subcultures. However, in many cases, strong links with masculinity, as found in the literature, were observed. As for sporting events, the current situation regarding the bans on alcohol sales and sport sponsorship seems again more complex than the law suggests and appears to be continuously contested by stakeholders with different, but often convergent expectations.

Research limitations/implications – The results demonstrate a need to go deeper than visible and official appearances to properly understand the complex relationships between sport and alcohol in France. Particularly, and considering the lack of specific research and evidence regarding the situation, the current public debates regarding the situation cannot be properly informed and are thus strongly influenced by various stakeholders and lobbies, constituting an unsettled field.

Are radically novel practices more likely to attract recognition when the evaluating audience is composed of external evaluators? Our baseline argument asserts that radical novelty is more likely to be positively evaluated by an external audience and that peripheral (rather than core) producers have higher incentives to adopt novel practices that depart from tradition. Yet, because peripheral producers often lack the necessary support and legitimacy to promote novelty, audiences play a critical role in recognizing their innovative efforts. How can peripheral producers mitigate the challenges associated with novelty recognition? To answer this question, we explore how peripheral producers’ collaboration with acclaimed consultants affects the process of external audience recognition in the context of the Italian wine field from 1997 to 2006. Our findings suggest that radical novelty is positively received by an external audience composed of critics, although we do not find a significant difference between core and peripheral producers. However, external audiences are more open to recognizing peripheral producers’ use of novel practices when they collaborate with well-connected consultants. We find that the use of central consultants produces a “boosting” effect that accentuates the differences between evaluations of peripheral producers who embrace novelty and evaluations of those that follow the tradition. Our study thus advances theory by providing empirical evidence of the value of considering third-party actors such as consultants, who sit at the nexus between the agency required for innovation and external audiences’ recognition of novelty, when studying novelty evaluation and recognition.