Search results

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of strategic orientations and managerial characteristics on the performance of wine businesses in the US wine industry. Also considered is the power of firm size as measured by production and firm age since founding, as moderating variables that could attenuate or heighten their impact.

Data were gathered via an online survey, where 306 representatives of the US wineries responded. Data are analyzed using descriptive statistics, multinomial logistic regression, cross-tabulations and Pearson chi-square (χ²) analysis.

Wine businesses that reported increased sales and profits over the previous three years made significant changes to organizational structure and staffing levels. Wineries that reported flat or decreasing sales and profits were less apt to make changes in organizational structure or staffing levels. Firm age was found to mediate performance in terms of incremental sales and profit growth; firm size was found to mediate only incremental profit growth.

Developing skills in marketing, strategic planning and entrepreneurial thinking to build a defensible industry position and to create the staffing and structure to support that position appear to be of great importance to wine businesses.

This study develops and tests a model investigating how firm size and age impact strategic orientations and managerial characteristics on the performance of the US wine businesses. This study investigates which strategic orientations and managerial characteristics wine businesses need to be successful in the future.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the range of explanations for why wine club members defect and move on.

This quantitative research study uses data from US wine consumers, gathered through an online survey of 399 former wine club members who had quit their membership in the recent past. Consistent with literature on customer churn rates in subscription markets, data are analyzed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, hierarchical multiple regression and analysis of variance.

The results reported by respondents indicate that higher levels of perceived product quality, fair value in pricing, variety seeking and commitment to customer service at the beginning and at the end of a wine club membership lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction and a desire to recommend the club to others even after quitting. Though variety seeking is more commonplace among experienced wine drinkers, the good news for wineries is that consumers are more likely to recommend a wine club to others if at least a year has passed after they decided to quit.

The results provide implications for wine club managers seeking to improve wine club retention with suggested means for mitigating the rate of customer attrition.

This paper presents original research addressing a variety of reasons why wine club members quit. The extant research has found that factors such as product quality, fair pricing, service commitments and variety-seeking behavior affect members’ satisfaction with their wine club, as well as their desire to recommend it to others. The authors have attempted to combine all these factors into a single study to gain insight into wine club members’ switching behavior, and to find out what the wineries can do to improve customer loyalty.

The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes of Millennial wine consumers and determine if positive evaluations of the winery's web site lead to increased trust in the winery and perceptions of product quality, higher levels of brand equity, and increased purchase intentions. The tasting room experience will be evaluated for consistency with the image created by the web site and the meeting of Millennial expectations during the web site visit.

In total, 122 young people (Millennials) with an average age of 23 were asked to visit winery web sites and then evaluate the web sites for quality and perceptions formed relating to the overall image of the winery and its products. The participants were then asked to visit the winery and evaluate their winery experience and its products.

Web site quality was a significant predictor of increased trust in the winery and perceptions of the quality of the wine. Web site evaluations of brand equity carried over to influence evaluations of brand equity after the tasting room experience. When visiting the winery, the more the customers' expectations were exceeded, the higher the level of customer satisfaction with the tasting room experience.

The research findings were based on a small convenience sample of 122 undergraduate US business students from Northern California. Future research should study larger and more diverse samples of the Millennial consumer.

Wine brands attempting to attract the Millennial customer should consider paying close attention to the design, development, and maintenance of a web site that appeals to the savvy Millennial consumer.

The potential for web sites to impact young adults' perceptions of the winery's image, trust in the winery, perceptions of wine quality, and intentions to visit the winery based on these perceptions has not previously been examined.

The purpose of this research is to determine if positive affect, in combination with product quality, fair pricing, and customer‐focused operations leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions.

A total of 89 undergraduate and graduate business students, ages 23 to 59, each visited a winery they had never visited before. Afterward they filled out a questionnaire evaluating the winery on product quality, fair pricing, feelings of commitment towards the winery, positive emotions felt, preference for wine, overall customer satisfaction, and repurchase intentions. Data were analyzed using multiple regression. Repurchase behavior was the dependent variable.

Product quality, positive emotions felt, preference for wine, customer commitment, and fair pricing were all significant predictors of repurchase intentions.

The findings are based on a small sample of 89 business students. Future research could replicate this study with larger samples of both marginal and core wine drinkers.

The results of this research empirically support the anecdotal evidence that through positive tasting room experiences, wineries can cultivate relationships with customers that build commitment and loyalty. The quality of the wine is not everything. Customers have many choices. The total experience at the winery, one in which the customer feels a sense of belonging and camaraderie and in which the experience is fun or exciting, contributes to repurchase intentions.

This is the first time that customer emotions have been measured after a tasting room visit and then tested for their relationship with repurchase intentions.

This purpose of this investigation is to compare the perceptions of competitive advantage through cost leadership and differentiation with sustainable practices of wineries from the USA, Italy and Spain.

Data are collected via self-report web-based surveys in California, Tuscany and Catalonia in 2010-2011 during a severe economic downturn in the wine industry.

Of the 260 respondents among the three country samples, over 75 per cent are family-owned and family-managed. Respondents indicate who has implemented a clear business case for an Environmental Management System (EMS) and who has not. Benefits and challenges of implementing sustainability practices are also addressed.

A comparable percentage of respondents across the three countries indicated a “clear business case for EMS”. Wineries in all three countries perceive that they have competitive advantage through implementation of EMS and commitment to sustainable practices. Top perceived benefits for respondents from the USA and Italy are focused on cost reduction strategies, while top perceived benefits for Spanish respondents are focused on differentiation strategies.

Activities that create competitive advantages for wine businesses in different countries are understudied; this research bridges that gap.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare the perceptions of competitive advantage (cost leadership, differentiation, and performance) of those wineries which have implemented a clear business case for an environmental management system (EMS) and those which have not. Benefits and challenges of sustainability practices are also addressed.

Data were collected via self‐report web‐based survey. Of the 98 respondents, over 80 per cent were family‐owned, family‐managed.

Those respondents with a clear business case for EMS exhibited significant differences in cost leadership and differentiation advantages over those without a clear business case for EMS. Those with a clear EMS derived significantly greater supply chain optimization and operational efficiencies than those without a clear EMS. Those with a clear EMS also felt that they gained an enhanced ability to enter new markets to a much greater extent than those without a clear EMS. Results of this study demonstrate a significantly higher level of commitment by those respondents with a clear EMS when addressing sustainability initiatives during a current economic down turn over those who did not. Those respondents who had a clear EMS indicated that they had somewhat increased their sustainability commitments, rather than conducting business as usual with no change or somewhat decreasing sustainability commitments as those who did not have a clear EMS.

Activities that create competitive advantages for wine businesses are understudied; this research bridges that gap.

Being unemployed made me more than usually aware of Mrs Thatcher looking over my shoulder. She was saying, ‘Don't just sit there filling in application forms, do something — voluntary work for instance’. So, a few months out of library school, I took on a voluntary project, organising the photograph collection of a community publisher in Hackney, ‘Centerprise’. Mrs Thatcher aside, I thought doing this project would be a good way of finding out what freelance librarianship might be like. But before I tell my story, I must say something about Centerprise.

Employers in the UK are under a legal obligation to ensure that their recruitment procedures conform with the Sex Discrimination Act (1975), which states that employers must not discriminate or indicate any hidden intention to discriminate against a potential employee on the grounds of their sex. Yet the very fact that many jobs are still viewed as ‘male’ or ‘female’ is often sufficient to prevent the non‐dominant gender group from applying for those positions (Ray, 1990). Managerial jobs have traditionally been male dominated and organisations are under a legal obligation to ensure that their recruitment procedures do not indicate any intention to discriminate, either overtly or covertly. Therefore, organisations need not only to demonstrate that they have no intention to discriminate, especially in traditionally male dominated occupations such as management, but they also need to ensure that their intention not to discriminate is clearly and explicitly communicated to potential job applicants (Ray, 1990). The aim of this article is to address the similarities and differences between the job search experiences of unemployed female and male managers, and to present the research findings from an in‐depth study of unemployed British managers.

Gastronomy has become one of the key factors in the development and promotion of tourism, and offers the opportunity for certain locations to become specialised in culinary tourism. This paper aims to analyse the kind of tourist whose reason for travelling to a certain destination is to enjoy the local cuisine. In this case, the destination is Córdoba (Spain).

A list of restaurants and eating establishments offering dishes typical of Córdoba was compiled. A questionnaire was designed with the aim of analysing and defining tourists' opinions of Córdoba's cuisine. This questionnaire was filled out by a random sample of tourists in one of ten different restaurants. Of these ten establishments, four were classified as restaurants, three as tabernas, and three as a mixture of both restaurant and taberna. In each restaurant, the questionnaire was distributed randomly among Spanish and foreign tourists in the city on a daily basis. A total of 213 questionnaires was obtained. The fieldwork was carried out in October and November 2009. The tabling and analysis of the data obtained was carried out through the development of an appropriate database. The results were obtained using uni‐variant and bi‐variant analysis techniques (contingency tables, chi‐square contrasts and correlations).

The results of the study reflect the high level of education of the tourists surveyed, the length of their stay, the high percentage of foreign tourists, and the high level of satisfaction with both the local cuisine and with other tourist attractions Córdoba has to offer.

The results imply that there is scope for developing food tourism products which would attract such tourists and could be used to promote Córdoba as a centre for culinary tourism.

This paper is one of the first studies on culinary tourism to be carried out in an important destination for cultural tourism in Europe, namely the city of Córdoba. This paper also tries to create a profile of the “food tourist”, a tourist whose primary motivation for visiting a given location is to explore the local cuisine.