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The purpose of this paper is to compare different approaches to the evaluation of the economic performance of wineries.

This paper simultaneously applies traditional profitability and productivity measures and a non‐parametric technique to estimate efficiency, and compares the results obtained. A cluster analysis has been applied to identify different groups of firms. The empirical application is carried out on a sample of 1,222 Spanish wineries in 2007.

The results reveal important differences depending on the methodology employed. Overall, none of the methodologies can be said to be better than the rest.

This paper has only considered the economic performance of wineries and its findings are not substitutes for other subjective measures directed at the assessment of aspects such as the quality of the wines produced.

Managers should be aware of their own performance in order to guarantee the competitiveness and future investments of their wineries.

For the first time, this paper analyses the economic performance of Spanish wineries, simultaneously using different approaches widely employed in the management literature.

One of the main difficulties for wine managers is understanding and interpreting how some strategies and company behaviours could affect firms’ performance. This study aims to contribute to improve these concerns by examining the evolution of the competitive wine industry structure over time using the strategic group membership dynamics approach.

This study empirically analyses a data set spanning the period 2004–2014 to identify the strategic groups in the Spanish wine industry and to model their evolution over time. A time inhomogeneous hidden Markov model (HMM) is used for this purpose.

Three strategic groups are identified: Young Makers, Quality Lovers and Major Players. Young Makers are small wineries that produce low-quality wines. They are not part of a collective brand – Protected Designation of Origin – and do not invest in marketing campaigns. Quality Lovers produce the highest quality wines but offer a narrow assortment. They invest modestly in advertising, and most of them belong to a Protected Designation of Origin. Major Players produce medium-quality wines, offer a wide assortment and invest heavily in advertising. The groups seem stable over time.

The results show that strategic group analysis can be used to identify and compare patterns of strategic activity within the wine industry, providing a better understanding of the competitive environment.

No previous studies have analysed the competitive structure of the Spanish wine industry. This study delineates the structure of this industry using strategic groups, which is supported by a valid econometric model. Therefore, from a theory base perspective, this study adds new evidence to the stream of research on strategic groups by investigating their evolution over time in the wine industry and the effect of strategic group membership on performance.

Using the behavioural perspective as a theoretical complement of rational models, this paper examines factors that influence the decision of producing organic wines.

Based on a quantitative analysis of 687 wineries belonging to Denomination of Origin in Spain, the authors empirically examine the sequential relationships between manager's personality and winery and institutional level factors, on organic wine production activity and winery export performance.

This paper investigates the direct and indirect sequential relationships between wineries' factors including an organic production activity and two dimensions of export performance, namely: volume-based and value-based performance. The results of a sequential model provide evidence that openness to experience, a manager's personality trait, has a positive causal relationship with organic wine production.

This paper offers richer insights into the factors leading wine production managers to change from conventional to organic production methods. Specifically, the study shows that wine production managers are susceptible to make decisions to whether produce organic wine or not that may not be consistent with the current theoretical models based on economic efficiency (i.e. comparing costs and benefits). Instead, these decisions are, in part, based on their personality traits. Future research could study how the functional attribute affects the willingness to produce organic wines.

This study contributes to a new strategic implication of organic wine production activity and export performance linkage in behavioural and traditional theoretical perspectives. These findings are valuable for policy makers in the wine sector, as they can better inform and guide policies directed to identify organic production support programs.

The purpose of this paper is to gain insights of the use of social media (SM) in the wine industry. The theoretical viewpoint is to analyse wineries’ SM segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) to help the wine industry to improve the effectiveness of SM communication.

An observational study of Spanish wineries’ SM presence and traffic was carried out during a three-month period in 2013 and repeated in 2016. During this period, a questionnaire was distributed to 196 wineries. Logistic regression was used to model the dichotomous outcome variable of whether a winery “does” or “does not” utilise SM. Additionally, leader wineries were interviewed in April/May 2016 about SM STP.

The results show that most wineries are starting in SM without a well-defined strategy. The presence of a webpage is significantly related to the use of SM. SM wineries do not segment and can take advantage of digital targeting strategies.

Segmentation and targeting SM can improve the effectiveness of the winery SM activities as well as the winery competitiveness in the wine industry.

This paper is a first step in understanding the value of segmentation SM to reach millennial consumers and the importance of targeting to improve the effectiveness of winery on SM.

The purpose of this exploratory study is to identify the most important resources, and emerging issues among Spain’s Cava wineries, including opportunities and challenges, from predominantly winery operators, and through the lens of the resource-based view of the firm (RBVF).

Unstructured, face-to-face, in-depth interviews were conducted with the representatives of five Cava firms, and with the manager of the local Institute of Cava in Sant Sadurnà d’Anoia, Spain. In addition, owners/managers of seven other Cava wineries provided responses and comments via email.

The attributes pertaining to the RBVF, such as valuable, rare, imperfect imitable resources, and (non)substitutability emerged in the present study, illustrated by the local designation of origin, tradition/history, territory, specific grape varietals and increased perceived quality of Cava products. To address pressing challenges and maximise opportunities, particularly the decline of domestic Cava consumption, participants underline strategies to gain more exposure in international wine consumer markets, and also benefit from the growing popularity of gastronomy and wine tourism.

Originality and value in this research are demonstrated in two ways. First, the study focuses on a region, which, despite its long history and tradition, has received limited attention from the academic literature, especially in recent years. Second, the study adopts the RBVF to facilitate understanding of contemporary issues affecting Cava wineries, and in aligning theory and findings. To date, this theoretical framework has been marginally adopted to examine the wine industry; this limitation is even more evident within the Cava industry.

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 explore the continuous identification of tangible and intangible strategic resources needed to achieve competitive advantages in uncertain times in Spanish wineries, highlighting the critical value of human capital.

By means of a case study of a Spanish Sherry winery theoretically based on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, the paper focuses on the influence of environmental uncertainty on firms’ strategic resources and the need for in-depth knowledge. Direct participation and experience in the business have allowed access to data for longitudinal exploratory analysis.

Human capital, especially managers’ knowledge and experience, has been the key to the survival and success of the company analysed, throughout its history.

The paper guides managers, especially in microenterprises and SMEs, on the inclusion among the firm’s strategic resources of a part of their own human capital that is generally not considered.

This paper contributes to the RBV and self-reflection theory by demonstrating the value of human capital in a small family business under extremely uncertain times.

Understanding the role of emotion, landscape, involvement and storytelling related to wine is the basis for understanding the wine tourist experience. The purpose of this study is to analyze the validity and reliability of the wine experience scale in Spain.

The scale validation comprised translation, cultural adaptation and validity, in which 250 wine tourists (45.6% male and 54.4% female) from 17 Spanish wineries participated. Data was collected on different days during three consecutive months. To carry out the analyses, IBM SPSS and JASP software were used.

The statistical procedures used allowed the verification of psychometric properties as well as adjustment indices and reliability measures. The analyses carried out retained 16 items and ensured grouping into four factors: wine storytelling, wine involvement, winescape and wine tasting excitement.

By providing this instrument, it will be possible to create a promising path of commercial knowledge. Its application will contribute to establishing a more accurate profile of wine tourists and, simultaneously, to adapting a sustainable tourist offer.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of wine tourism on the economic, social and environmental performance, i.e. the sustainable performance, of Spanish wineries. In addition, age, size and membership in the protected designation of origin are introduced as control variables to increase the precision of the cause-effect relationships analyzed.

A conceptual model is proposed, which is tested by means of structural equation modeling based on data from a survey of 202 Spanish wineries.

The results indicate the existence of a positive and significant link between wine tourism activities and the three performance typologies analyzed in the Spanish wine context.

The study contributes to the academic literature on wine tourism in a remarkable way, as, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no previous literature that has addressed the effect of wine tourism on the sustainable performance of Spanish wineries, making the study useful for both academics and wine professionals who are considering the implementation or development of this typology of tourism in their facilities.