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This paper aims to investigate how producers of biodynamic and sustainable wine portray their brand identity online.

The study uses an inductive approach to qualitative content analysis of wine producers’ websites. The authors use a theoretical starting point based on the categorizations literature related to institutional scripts and identity projection.

Producers adopt identity templates similar to the provenance and glory templates established in extant research. They demonstrate templates of community, quality, spirituality and sustainability, but there is a break in the templates, and they adopt a pseudo-rationalist template, avoiding detailed descriptions of practices and underpinning philosophy, leaving any references to them opaque and ambiguous. This may be due to concerns over scientific skepticism or spiritual suspicion, or anticipation of a lack of consumer knowledge.

The geographical location of the sample poses limitations to the results of the study. However, the study provides an examination of the nuances of self-categorization as it relates to identity projection, prompting further investigation into its positive and negative potential.

Research on the connection between quality perceptions and experience and credence attributes suggests producers should do more to emphasize the philosophy underpinning biodynamics.

The study contributes to research on marketing for inherently sustainable producers who may suffer potential negative reactions in general and biodynamic wine producers in particular. This study provides nuance to the understanding of negative reactions to novel and innovative wine production practices.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how business ecosystems evolve, what is the identity of business ecosystem and is the ecosystem identity static or dynamics. To understand the above questions, this paper is conducted on stone carving clusters in India.

The author engaged the ethnographic approach in this study. To sample stone carving clusters of India, the author followed the snowball sampling method. Further, the author did collect the information by informal personal discussions, focus group discussions and participant observations. Furthermore, the thematic analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis were applied to process the data. The validity and reliability of the method was ascertained by testing the credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability.

The author found that the business ecosystem of stone carving was dynamic, and it was transformed from the buyer-driven ecosystem to the supplier-driven ecosystem. The identities of the early stage business ecosystem and the late stage ecosystem were analyzed through product, network and information flow. The author developed a structural framework to conceptualize the identity domain of the business ecosystem and the author named it as “nature-conduct-performance model.” Also, the author conceptualized the identity evolution, the influence of social system on business ecosystem identity, and identity-based conflicts and identity-based cooperation in the stone carving business ecosystem.

This study is making additional theoretical contribution in conceptualize the business ecosystem from the identity construct.

The purpose of this study is to understand the business ecosystem through the “identity” construct. “Identity” is a well-researched subject in sociology and psychology but as a construct, its application is limited in management and organization studies, especially in the ecosystem context. This study used “identity” to examine the management and organization of stone carving microenterprise clusters in India.

The examination followed classical grounded theory approach for data collection and data analysis. Data collection was made by a mixture of focus group discussions, informal discussions, personal observations, etc., and it followed a series of thematic analysis under the qualitative technique. Further, a structured questionnaire was used to collect information, and the data analysis was done through structural equation modelling and confirmatory factor analysis.

The study identified and established ten identities of the producers, two identities of the suppliers and two identities of the customers. There were identity-interlinkages within each stakeholder, and among the stakeholders, creating a solid, static and rigid ecosystem for ages.

This paper made a new and significant contribution to the literature on the business ecosystem.

The four sections to this article have distinct but inter‐related objectives. Part I introduces the concepts, problems and tensions central to an understanding of the product liability debate. These issues recur throughout the article. Part II outlines the development of product liability law in Europe and assesses the impact of the European Directive on Product Liability. The “product liability crisis” in the United States is discussed in Part III, which looks at the law's development and proposals for reform. In Part IV the United States and European positions are compared and the case is made out for a global uniform product liability law which recognises the social responsibility of the producer towards those injured by his products.

This paper aims to explain why Fairtrade International (FI), an organization committed to empowering the producers of Fairtrade certified products, at times (paradoxically), excluded them from its highest bodies of governance. A within-case study of Fairtrade’s inclusive and exclusive reforms over 25 years, along with insights from the social enterprise, hybrid governance and political sociology literatures, is used to generate several propositions about how voluntary sustainability standards-setting organizations (VSSSOs) engage stakeholders – especially producers – in governance.

This study uses process-tracing methodology, which focuses on the sequential, intervening processes that link potentially important variables within a single case. It draws on data from over 100 interviews and nearly 6,000 archival documents collected from FI and its member Max Havelaar Netherlands. Causal process observations were extracted from the documents and compiled to create a 68,000-word chronological narrative used to evaluate six potential explanations of Fairtrade’s governance reforms: legitimacy, resources, identity, oligarchic tendency, leadership and producer mobilization.

This study finds that Fairtrade’s inclusion/exclusion of producers reflected its desire to increase its moral legitimacy among external actors and understanding of how to signal legitimacy. The discussion proposes that VSSSOs, especially in times of heightened competition, leverage their comparative advantages to differentiate themselves from other organizations. In cases (like FI) in which the advantage is legitimacy, changing notions of legitimacy may have a destabilizing effect on governance.

This evidence-based account of FI’s governance decisions should help resolve some debates about the nature of FI’s relationship with producer groups. The broader propositions offer guidance for future cross-case research aiming to explain VSSSOs’ governance structure and hybrid governance, more generally. Because FI includes producers in governance to a much greater extent than most VSSSOs, it is an important case.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a method by which to audit winemakers' communication of regional wine brands and to illustrate the method's conceptual basis through its empirical application to the Swiss wine Merlot Ticino.

The audit is comprised of two parts: one captures producers' intentions regarding the communication of the regional wine brand while the other determines what wineries actually convey through their formal communications. Data about intentions were collected through qualitative interviews and a survey of producers, while data on what wineries convey was based on a content analysis of wineries' communication materials.

The application of the audit to the brand Merlot Ticino shows that the proposed method provides several insights into the brand's personality, possible gaps between producers' intentions and actual communications, the potential target of the communication, the level of consistency of communication content and style, and the expressiveness of wineries in communicating the regional wine brands.

The content analysis adopted in this research focuses on formal communications issued by wineries. Adding oral contents and consumer perceptions would considerably improve the audit tool.

This paper provides winemaking regions with a useful tool with which to determine the effectiveness of their brand projections in the collective promotion of their regional wine brands. The paper is of value for academic research because it illustrates that results may be obtained in the wine brand field using methods traditionally used in corporate communication research, like projective techniques and communications audits.

The paper reports on a study of marketing approaches adopted by different categories of wine producer in the Sainte Foy Bordeaux region in south‐west France. Market conditions for many French producers have been deteriorating, with falling consumption in the main markets and growing competition from the new wine regions. Even with the world‐famous name “Bordeaux” on the label, a much more active marketing stance is becoming essential. One possible marketing response by producers is to develop strong branding. Several possible dimensions for individual branding can be identified, including the individual chateau name, the AOC marking, the type of wine, the grape variety used, whether or not the wine is organically grown and the vintage. In developing and maintaining these brand identities, producers have to integrate collective marketing efforts, such as promotional programmes for the local AOC marking, with individual marketing programmes for their own brands.

This exploratory study aims to investigate the national adoption of international wine industry trends in Germany. Specifically, the paper consider this adoption as perceived by luxury German wine producers in three wine regions. This study addresses two main questions: what impact do regional German traditions have on techniques used by small wine producers in the super‐premium + segment? Are these traditions balanced with the adoption of New World techniques and trends in viticulture and viniculture?

Due to the complex nature of the research questions and to provide rich, meaningful descriptions, this study adopted a qualitative method. The researchers did semi‐structured interviews with five highly respected German winemakers in the Rheingau, Württemberg and Baden regions.

This study shows that German wine producers are heavily influenced by Old World philosophy and traditions as well as New World concepts and technology. Successful wine producers appear to create a balance between the gastronomic identity of the region with advantages of new technologies, business models and trends. Research limitations/implications – The study has been conducted in only three wine regions in Germany. In addition, this study employed the case study approach. Future research could use large sample proposition testing to investigate if the findings from this study can be statistically confirmed and are applicable to other countries.

German wine producers can learn much from New World business models. In particular, revised organizational forms that allow wine producers increased access to travel and promotion of products can assist in increasing demand for quality products as well as on‐going learning through interaction with others in the industry.

German wine is an important subject for academic study, however, it is under‐researched. This exploratory study provides several implications for small to medium‐sized wine producers in Germany.

The purpose of this study is to define and analyse the emergence of collaborative engagement platforms (CEPs) as part of a rising platformisation phenomenon. Contrary to previous literature on engagement platforms (EPs), this study distinguishes between formalised and self-organised EPs and sheds light on collaborative EPs on which heterogeneous actors operate without central control by legislated firm actors.

Drawing on institutional work theory, this paper explores the institutional rules, norms and practices involved in the emergence of a new platform. This paper implements a longitudinal case study of a local food network called REKO and explores how engagement practices and institutional work patterns catalysed its emergence during 2013–2020.

The findings of this study show that actors engaged within the REKO platform participated in institutional work patterns of disruption, creation and maintenance, which drove the development of the platform and ensured its viability.

This paper encourages future research to further explore how different types of EPs emerge and function.

The rise of CEPs pushes the dominant managerial orientation to progress from the management “of” a platform to managing “within” a platform. For managers, this means developing novel practices for engaging and committing a versatile set of actors to nurture open-ended, multi-sided collaboration.

This study contributes by conceptualising different types of platforms with a particular focus on CEPs and explicating the engagement practices and institutional work patterns that catalyse their emergence.

Wine is an integral part of so‐called “Old World” nations, amalgamating with the local history and landscape, and providing a powerful “origin branding”. To date, however, these dimensions have been discussed to a very limited extent in emerging “New World” wine regions, where the lack of a traditional heritage of wine making presents special challenges in terms of origin branding. The focus of most previous research has been on the viewpoints of consumers, not those of producers. This study seeks to explore these dimensions among small wine growers.

Using a qualitative approach, 42 interviews with winery operators from several emerging Western Australian wine regions were conducted.

In the absence of historical wine pioneers and traditions, winery operators in emerging wine‐producing regions use alternative means for “origin branding” that emphasise heritage and landscape characteristics centring on the wider “rural idyll”. These associations serve to forge a “vintage” identity for their industry, which essentially masks its youth for their region.

In view of the more than 200 small wineries operating in Western Australia the number of respondents in the study may not allow for making generalisations of the state's wine industry.

The current growth in the number of wineries in the regions studied and the increasingly acknowledged quality of their wine product may help towards the establishment of their history and identity, thus contributing to origin branding over time.

The study explores the importance of history and landscape among winery operators in promoting their wineries and their wine products in the context of emerging wine regions, an area for the most part ignored in contemporary research.