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The two major entrepreneurial motivations of being “pushed” or “pulled” to start a business have been frequently explored in the entrepreneurship literature. In the global wine industry, thousands of small entrepreneurial wine businesses are flourishing, but few have been started by Black entrepreneurs. What is missing from the research is an exploration of the motivations of these entrepreneurs and what the industry can do to encourage the entrance of more minority entrepreneurs. The purpose of this study is to apply push–pull theory to better understand the motivations and challenges of what prompts Black entrepreneurs to start and succeed in the wine industry.

This exploratory study uses a qualitative methodology of 42 in-depth interviews with US Black winemakers, retailers, and other wine business owners conducted over Zoom. The data were analyzed using Otter software and a thematic coding process for 2,120 pages of rich text.

Findings included 12 motivation themes and 12 challenges for Black wine entrepreneurs, with more emphasis on “push” versus “pull” motivation factors. Many of these entrepreneurs were “pushed” to participate in the industry to create a more inclusive space for Black wine consumers and to create opportunities for other Black professionals and minorities in the industry. Managerial implications include solutions for more inclusive marketing and workplace culture.

This study contributes to push–pull theory by offering a unique perspective on the motivations of Black wine entrepreneurs, as well as being the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to focus on this issue.

With the ongoing industrial transformation of the Japanese sake industry and the continuous growth of exports in recent years, terroir, one of the core concepts in the wine culture, has been strategically used in the sake industry. Therefore, as an essential investigation, the purpose of this study is to elucidate when, how and why terroir has been used in the sake industry. This study starts with the research question: When, how and why has terroir come to be used strategically in the sake industry?

This study investigates the use of terroir in the Japanese sake industry, examining all 196 newspapers that referenced terroir from 1998 to 2022, sourced from the renowned newspaper database Nikkei Telecom 21. This study’s outcomes have been visualized through categorization work and text mining.

In this study, the use of terroir in the Japanese sake industry has gained significant momentum since 2015, with a remarkable surge observed in the 2020s. With the continuous growth in sake exports, industry players such as sake brewers are strategically structuring terroir to reinforce the authenticity of the brewing process, emphasizing the uniqueness of natural elements, such as water, sake rice and the natural environment. These findings highlight the critical role of terroir in the Japanese sake industry’s added value expansion.

This study provides objective insights regarding the recent industrial transformation for the practical sake industry, such as sake exporters and distributors. Additionally, this study enables the wine industry’s audience to understand the sake industry’s evolution in terms of wine culture.

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.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the academic landscape in wine economics and business research over the past decades, capturing and analysing the literature through rigorous bibliometric methodologies. The study is intended as a foundational resource for academics, policymakers and industry stakeholders interested in the evolving scholarly discourse within the wine industry.

The authors analyse data from over 3,200 papers in the field of wine economics and business published between 1990 and 2022, sourced from Scopus. Various bibliometric indicators are applied, including publication and citation counts, and methods like keyword and co-citation analyses were used to map out the thematic and intellectual landscape.

The study reveals the escalating global relevance of wine economics and business research and identifies prominent papers and authors, influential countries and leading journals. The analysis reveals a dynamic shift in academic focus. Initially concentrating on foundational inquiries in the 1990s, research evolved to encompass complex themes such as e-commerce, wine tourism, sustainability and global crises. The study emphasises the adaptability and resilience of the wine supply chain and anticipates future research areas.

This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the expanding body of research in wine economics and business, using data from over 3,200 documents published between 1990 and 2022. It uniquely combines different advanced bibliometric tools to provide a multifaceted overview of wine economics and business research.

This study aims to further develop the CLC stage/path’s identification model that distinguishes between path’s emergence (emergence stage), path’s development (growth stage), path’s sustainment (maturity stage), path’s decline (decline stage) and path’s transformation (renewal stage), and by applying it, define the current stage/path of the Demarcated Douro Region (DDR) cluster. The Port wine industry, which is the dominant industry of the DDR cluster, is at the maturity/decline stage – is the same for the cluster itself?

It is a case study with a longitudinal perspective based on the analysis of the dynamics of the parameters of cluster evolution using available secondary sources (cluster identity/brand; number of firms; number of employees; network; innovation; policies and regulations; and external markets – exports), especially addressing the past decade, that represent the stage of maturity/decline of the cluster’s dominant Port wine industry.

The conclusion is that since the 1990s the Demarcated Douro Region has gone through a “path transformation” where during the following 20 years new “anchors” for the cluster were gradually introduced, such as Doc Douro Wines, new forms of consumption of Port wine, tourism and olive oil. Since 2010 the cluster has entered a growth stage/(new) path’s development, where these “anchors” are in steady growth. The Douro brand is becoming more internationally recognized and established, the number of firms and employees is increasing, the network is restructuring with the creation of cluster-specific official institutions, innovation is especially reflected with increasing heterogeneity through diversification of the clusters into new activities and regulations and policies are supportive for expansion – all these parameters are indicating the rise of the new cycle for the cluster. Thus, the DDR cluster represents an attractive business environment and requires attention from regional policymakers to support the cluster’s development. Especially institutions have been highlighted as internal factors driving clusters growth, European integration as an external factor and firms’ strategies of diversification and internationalization as an appropriate de-locking mechanism for new path’s development.

This research contributes to the CLC theory by further developing and applying a CLC stage/path identification model. It provides a better understanding of the dynamics of the DDR cluster that diverge from its dominant industry life cycle, which is relevant for regional policies and firms’ strategies. This study has its limitations. It provides an exploratory application of the theoretical framework proposed, and consequently, no general conclusions are possible yet. More empirical studies with different clusters in different stages are necessary to test the framework.

These findings are useful to policymakers when designing their policies for cluster development but also for clusters’ entities and actors when making their strategic decisions as it allows based on the verification of the established parameter of CLC to identify its current stage/path of development.

The paper presents a theoretically grounded model for CLC identification and for the first time to the best of the authors’ knowledge applies it to a cluster case – the DDR cluster. This case applies the proposed model and illustrates its usefulness. The model provides the tools for a better understanding of cluster dynamics.

This paper aims to examine the opportunities of continuous family succession in operating small-to-medium-sized wineries (SMWs) in Victoria, Australia.

Using case studies from Victoria, an exploratory qualitative approach was used to explore the benefits of continuous family succession in this conceptual paper. This included interviewing participants from wineries about their perceptions about family business succession. Themed analysis was applied to highlight the findings and overall conclusions about why the wine industry was affected more than other industries with regard to family business succession issues.

The three main findings of this study include family succession is extremely important in building a story customers can relate to; family reinvestment opportunities for financial sustainability and innovation of the winery and family succession for future employment and legacy. These three findings highlight the way family business succession is integral to the successfulness of the wine industry.

Small-to-medium-sized wineries (SMWs) have many challenges including long-term financial sustainability and innovation opportunities. To assist in overcoming these challenges, the findings suggest winery owners need to create lasting legacy through story-telling, competitive advantage and family linkage (succession). This will assist wineries to create marketing campaigns focussing on family succession and brand attachment, seven opportunities for family reinvestment and innovation leading to financial sustainability and competitive advantage.

There is little research investigating family succession in the Victorian wine industry even though it is common practice and essential to marketing and communication campaigns. This paper supports continuous family succession as a legitimate marketing technique and long-term financial sustainability and innovation for small-to-medium-sized wineries (SMWs) through reinvestment opportunities. This is the first time small-to-medium-sized wineries have been defined as SMWs and reinvestment opportunities have been identified by wine stakeholders.

This study aims to provide a detailed characterization of Argentinean exporting wineries using a new rich firm-level data set to understand how capabilities and business strategies differ among firms with different levels of involvement in the export market.

A survey was distributed among all wineries along all wine regions of Argentina; the 45-min questionnaire was answered by 230 wineries, a representative sample with a response rate of 26.3% of the total population of Argentinean wineries. The survey assessed the interaction between wineries’ dynamics and characteristics and their participation in export markets. In the comparative analysis, the results are presented by dividing the sample into four categories according to the export intensity of the wineries.

High-intensity exporting wineries in Argentina differ from other Argentinean wineries in several dimensions. In particular, the most internationalized Argentinean wineries are the most endowed with higher capabilities; they follow a specific business model emphasizing product differentiation, quality upgrading, brand building and the development of distribution channels. Exporting wineries from Argentina adopt business practices that differ from those that prevail among wineries that only target the domestic market. They have developed firm capabilities such as human capital and technology to play a critical role in quality upgrading for their participation in global wine markets.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to study the Argentinean exporting wineries using a firm-level sizeable representative sample.

This paper aims to explore the emerging wine market of Ukraine. Specifically, the study examines Ukrainian consumer attitudes toward local wines and provides profiles of various groups of local wine consumers.

Data were collected via an online survey of Ukrainian wine consumers (N = 325). Factor and cluster analyses were performed to assess general attitudes toward local wine. Descriptive statistics and analyses of differences (t-tests and chi-square tests) were also used for further data exploration.

The findings indicate that quality perceptions, price sensitivity and reputation play a vital role in shaping local consumers’ attitudes toward Ukrainian wine. Three distinct consumer segments were identified. Local Skeptics exhibit reserved opinions about local wine. Local ambassadors show the highest level of enthusiasm and support for local wines. Local non-connoisseurs are the least involved and knowledgeable about wine; thus, their opinions about the local wine industry are not formed yet. This is the group that merits the utmost attention from wine marketers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first research attempt to identify different types of wine consumers based on their attitudes and perceptions toward local wines in Ukraine.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether a diversification by grape varieties may help wine producers reduce uncertainty in quantity and quality variations due to increasingly erratic climate conditions.

This study hand-collects granular quantity and quality data from wine harvest reports for vintages 2003 to 2017 for the Valais region in Switzerland. The data allows us to obtain detailed data on harvested kilograms/liters and Oechsle/Brix degrees. It is then merged with precise meteorological data over the same sample period. The authors use this data set to capture weather conditions and their impact on harvested quantities and quality. Finally, they build portfolios including different grape varieties to evaluate whether this reduces variations in quality and quantity over vintages.

The findings highlight that the weather varies relatively strongly over the sample period and that climate hazards such as hail, frost or ensuing vine diseases effectively occur. These strongly impact the harvested quantities but less the quality of the wine. The authors further show that planting different grape varieties allows for a significant reduction in the variation of harvested quantities over time and thus acts as a good solution against climate risk.

The effect of climate change on viticulture is becoming increasingly important and felt and bears real economic and social consequences. This study transposes portfolio diversification which is central to reducing risk in the finance industry, into the wine industry and shows that the same principle holds. The authors thus propose a novel idea on how to mitigate climate risk.

Networks linking tourist attractions or organizations are a major focus of tourism research. Despite extensive research on tourism networks, academic research on the spatial structure and formation of wine tourism networks is limited. This study aims to investigate the spatial structure and factors influencing the development of a network among Ningxia wineries, an emerging wine tourism destination in China.

This study uses social network analysis to uncover “what” the spatial structure of wine tourism networks looks like. Sixteen in-depth interviews were conducted among key stakeholders to explain the “why” of such structural characteristics.

The results show that in an emerging wine tourism destination, popular tourist attractions enjoy high centrality and hold key positions in the wine tourism network. Small wineries exhibit high closeness centrality, and only one winery serves as a network broker. According to the stakeholders, the importance of network actors will increase as their economic and political importance increase, while small wineries that lack differentiation in the network may perish.

Local governments can implement the suggested measures for improving network connections, and wineries are advised to find suitable positions to improve the experiences of tourists.

This study pioneers the identification of the distinct structure and factors influencing the network of an emerging wine tourism destination, thus enriching the understanding of the interplay and roles of different actors.