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This study aims to analyze the wine industry’s response to changing societal attitudes towards the environment. Environmental considerations are now an increasingly important factor in both production and purchasing behavior. While many eco-certifications exist, there is still consumer confusion between the multitude of eco wine certifications, lack of clarity about what consumers think about the wines, and not enough data about their willingness to pay (WTP) for these environmental characteristics.

This study clarifies what the various wine eco certifications are, quantifies consumer knowledge and ascertains their WTP for five environmental or sustainable wine certifications, namely, biodynamic, fair trade, organic, natural and sustainable. The authors surveyed 456 wine drinkers in the USA.

The authors found that millennials, women, unmarried individuals, those purchasing eco-certified foods, low-income individuals and those looking to celebrate a special occasion have a higher WTP for eco-certified wines compared to respondents who are older, male, married, do not buy eco-certified goods, have higher incomes and are purchasing the wine for a regular occasion. They recommend marketing and targeting those in the former group for environmental or sustainable wines.

The study is the only research project, of this kind, to evaluate five types of eco-certifications for wine in a single WTP analysis.

This paper is about data, information, knowledge and judgment; their definitions and their parallel cognitive dimensionalities; and it is about their implications in innovation. This paper aims to discuss and illustrate the implications of this cognitive framework on innovation science and on the ability to innovate. To that end, the authors use a progression of examples and cases to identify and discuss new challenges and predicaments in innovation.

The authors discuss how the development of Chemistry, as a science, inspires this work. But the authors have purposely eschewed examples from mathematics or the natural sciences. Instead, the authors study business examples because they are more readily understood. However, the implications they reveal, on innovation, are no less significant. The explosive volume, complexity and requirements – for data, information, knowledge and intelligence in business – are arguably more messy, demanding and difficult. They are sociotechnical problems of unprecedented scale and qualitative change.

The authors frame their conclusion as the mega-nano hypothesis, which asserts that problems, at this new scale and qualitative difference, cannot be solved with conventional thinking and tired mental models. They obstruct the ability to innovate and impede creative thinking about theory.

The mega-nano hypothesis is consistent with historical trajectories in scientific development. Namely, when there are mega or nano changes of scale and frame-breaking phenomena, a new science is required to address the new and unprecedented problems that emerge.

There has been increasing consumer interest in recent times in the environmental providence of what they eat and drink. A number of different environmental wine certifications have been created and these include biodynamic, fairtrade, organic, natural and sustainable. The purpose of this study is to survey wine consumers in Australia about their interest in these eco-certifications and their willingness to pay (WTP) a price premium for wine with one of these eco-certifications.

An online survey was developed to capture the knowledge and attitudes of consumers and their socio-demographic characteristics about their WTP for eco-certified wine. Data from 454 wine consumers in Australia were collected and analysed. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s chi-squared test analysed the significant factors which determine consumers’ attitudes towards eco-certified wines. Ordinal logistic regression with marginal effects was used to examine whether the WTP a premium for different certified wines differs significantly based on wine knowledge, attitudes and socio-demographic characteristics.

The findings of this study indicate that consumers often buy pro-environmental goods. The majority have a positive (greater than 0) WTP a premium for biodynamic, fairtrade, organic, natural and sustainable-labelled wines. The main factors influencing eco-certified wine purchase decisions by Australian consumers are previously bought eco-certified goods, previously bought eco-certified wine and respondent age. Income, education or previous wine knowledge did not positively influence WTP a price premium for eco-certified wines. Gender was not significant in the ordinal logistic regression.

Most studies in the literature use stated preference experiments to elicit WTP and these are valuable exercises, as they can provide an indication of consumer preferences for potential certifications, before they have been introduced to the market. In this study, we used an ordinal dependent variable in the logistic regression instead of a continuous variable (because of data limitations). Using ordinal dependent variables provides information on the probability or likelihood of occurring an event.

The study results provide the first price premium indications that Australian consumers are willing to pay for eco-certified wines (other than organic).

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to a void in the literature on enterprise flexibility: The Management Control Systems’ (MCS) role in the enterprise flexibility and stability discussion. MCS can be instrumental in securing an organization’s strategic performance objectives, far beyond the mere managerial control and accounting perspectives of traditional MCS’ roles.

This study is qualitative in nature, and presents a theoretical approach with a conceptual model to address enterprise flexibility and stability jointly; arguing that both should be part of the MCS’ design and implementation with a distinct strategic outlook. Several theoretical and practical arguments are presented which reinforce this thesis.

To operate optimally, enterprises must be able to manage their limited resources in efficient and effective manner. This is especially so when dealing with uncertainty and contingencies on an ongoing basis, while following a defined strategic choice. Such choices are expected to mirror enterprise flexibility types and measures without neglecting enterprise stability requirements, linking both to strategic performance measurement indicators.

Further work is needed to explore not only how different types of enterprise flexibility and stability measures can bring additional benefits to the firm but also how best to apply such types in accordance with business and operations strategies, organizational stability requirements and management control strategies.

MCS can and should take part of an organization’s strategic performance measures but these are to be understood from a systemic design perspective of the enterprise system’s metacontrollability, addressing flexibility and stability jointly.

There is a need to reevaluate the role of MCS and their strategic potential. The approach presented can have valuable potential ramifications and insights for management and information sciences as well as for the enterprise management practitioners as a whole.

This paper provides original research on enterprise flexibility and stability analysis, covering all aspects of MC and its role on the enterprise’s metacontrollability. Design and coordination of the seven basic elements which comprise MCS are analyzed, as well as how they influence one another. The paper includes two tables to illustrate the approach being proposed. Table I presents a classification of the literature reviewed in the paper while Table AI presents the choice of the theoretical lens on enterprise flexibility from other authors which contrasts with the model proposed. The role of MCS in the enterprise is also included.