Andrea Marchini

Governance, commercial strategies and performances of wine cooperatives

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the structural characteristics, the governance and the performance of two French and Italian groups of wine cooperatives, with two objectives in mind. On one hand, the study will analyse the presence of similarities between the characteristics of the two groups of companies which were founded in the same period within a similar legal framework; on the other, it will study the presence of links between the strategic policy of the companies and their structural, governance and performance characteristics.Design/methodology/approach – The study uses survey data obtained from interviews with 25 wine cooperatives. It covers the topics of their structure, organisation, strategies, management and performance in Italy (specifically in Umbria, a region in the centre of Italy), and in France (in Languedoc‐Roussillon, a region in southern France). Other indicators of performance, calculated from the balance sheets of the companies, were added to this analysis, and a ...

Agricultural and food economics - a new journal for a changing world

© A m Agricultural and Food Economics (AFE) is an on line peer-reviewed open-access journal supported by the Italian Association of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA) and published by SpringerOpen. This open access formula is an innovative and valuable opportunity for readers and authors who are interested in deepening their knowledge and keeping up to date on international agri-food policy and economic issues of the agricultural and food sector in a globalised world. In a fast-changing world, research in agri-food economics faces the important challenge of balancing the need of quickly publishing papers with that of following the rigorous scientific method. This e-journal tries to fill this gap by publishing peer-reviewed research articles that are open-access, and thus accessible to users immediately and free of charge for readers. AFE welcomes research articles from scholars and researchers from all over the world to publish problem-oriented, high quality and refereed papers. AFE seeks clearly written articles to promote insightful understanding of the current trends in the agri-food system. AFE publishes only original articles from a wide variety of economic perspectives that address current and relevant issues related to the agricultural and food system. Published papers focus on applied analysis, the discussion of innovative results, and relevant policy and managerial implications. Theoretical and methodological papers should be accessible to the journal’s variety of international readers. Qualitative papers and meta-analyses are welcome if they comply with the journal’s rigorous standards. Topics of specific interest of AFE include agricultural and food market analysis, agri-food firm management and marketing, organization of the agri-food chains, consumer behaviour, food quality and safety issues, economics of nutrition and food security, food and health economics, agri-food policy and trade, sustainable rural development, natural and marine resource economics, and land economics. Papers for publication in AFE are selected through a peer review process to ensure soundness, originality, relevance, and readability. AFE adopts a double-blind peer review process to ensure independent assessment of the papers. Each paper, with no exception, is reviewed by at least two referees of different nationalities. Manuscripts that are not within the scope of the journal may be returned to the authors without a formal review. The editorial board of AFE is composed, in addition to the editors in chief, by many internationally renowned economists that guarantee the high quality level of the papers published.

Visualization and purchase: An analysis of the Italian olive oil grocery shelves through an in-situ visual marketing approach

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to present an attempt to evaluate Italian olive oil brand competition thought the analysis of consumers’ visual perspective. Design/methodology/approach – Through the implementation of a new information technology system called “Visual Marketing REL”, which furnishes eye-tracking measures, the authors were able to produce important information relative to the layout organization of to the Italian olive oil shelf, a strategic product of the agro-food chain. The research uses the “in situ” testing of the software developed. Findings – The research, following up the thesis of sensorial marketing affecting choices, intends to identify an IT tool to facilitate the design of the shelf by increasing the efficiency of the retail mix. Results highlight that specific positioning could impact the differentiation effect and orientate consumers’ choices, thus increasing the efficiency of the retail mix. Research limitations/implications – To generalize the results would require m...

Process innovation in milling stage in olive oil sector: Evidence from an empirical analysis in Umbria (Italy)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of the modes of organizing the technological knowledge (make, buy and hybrid organization) in the decision to innovate the production process. Design/methodology/approach The study first develops a conceptual framework drawing the concept of mode of organization from the Transaction Cost Economics. The three research questions are coherently formulated which concern: the influence of the modes of organization on the decision to innovate and to invest in supporting instruments; the variability of this influence and the complementarity degree between the decision to innovate and to invest. The empirical analysis is carried out with respect to the olive oil sector considering a representative sample of olive millers (Umbria, Central Italy) and a complementary accidental sample drawn from an existing database. Findings The main results of the study provide evidence for the role of modes of organization in the knowledge acquisition finalized to the process innovation. The role of the “buy” option is important, while the collaboration – the “hybrid” organization – seems to influence strongly the innovation and the related investment decision. The important role of the information sources appears effective and articulated. Finally, despite the great economic importance of the quality requirements, the millers appear to be more sensitive to the difficulties to build up a clear process vision in terms of technology. Research limitations/implications The main limitation of the study is that it refers to a specific supply system including small enterprises and does not account for the pattern of innovation in other olive oil production systems. Moreover, one of the samples that was observed and analyzed is accidental in nature and does not allow a clear and robust comparison for the representative sample. Practical implications The findings of this study can contribute to the identification of organizational constraints to the rate on process innovation. Originality/value The originality of the study is based on the main focus, i.e. the attention to the role of the modes of organization in the decision to innovate, which provides complementary information to the extant literature on the choice of modes of organizing the technological knowledge acquisition. Moreover, the conceptual framework and findings are connected to the current research on the variety of the agribusiness organizations which is still a partially explored field of inquiry.

The Strategy of Voluntary Certification in Italian Olive Oil Industry: Who and Why?

The phenomenon of asymmetric information is central in the agri-food sector, in which often there is not full information transparency about product quality. This condition is particularly complex considering the high-end products. In order to reduce this information gap, a company can choose voluntarily to participate in certification programs that can be viewed also as a simplification of some organization issues. The research aims to understand the characteristics of firms oriented to use voluntary certifications as a tool to reduce information asymmetries between producers and final consumers. In particular, we want to consider two contexts of analysis: a structural one, considering some specific internal aspects and investment choices of the firms; a second one that takes into account some decisions related to market relationships. The study concerns small and medium olive oil company of Southern Italy. The results show significant values in both the two dimensions considered. Among the first one, there are significances in immaterial company investments but also in physical assets related to the olive oil process. There are several scientific developments relevant to the olive oil process and some of these patents have been reviewed in this paper. In the second part of analysis there are significances in some distribution channels as well as in the export activity. This work aims to contribute to the debate about the addressing of quality policy for a reduction of asymmetric information in the high-end products.

The Success Factors of Food Events: The Case Study of Umbrian Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Abstract Gastronomic events are an important part of the “Made in Italy” and a vital tool for rural development. The aim of the study is to identify the complexity of the factors that determine the success of a food event. The authors, after state-of-the-art analysis of the event marketing, formulate the hypothesis of a causal model and form a data collection during the “open oil mills” in the Umbria region. Through in-depth interviews the participants were asked to express themselves about the importance and interest attributed to some aspects directly related to the theme of the event, and finally to indicate the degree of satisfaction and the likelihood of some of their future behavior. Statistical analysis based on structural equation models allowed the authors to highlight which aspects are significant in order to confirm the assumptions made. Results provide guidance for management decisions and organization of food and wine.

Which are the sustainable attributes affecting the real consumption behaviour? Consumer understanding and choices

Purpose This is an exploratory study on consumer information and behaviour towards green, health, local, social and environmental credentials on labels. It focusses on many dimensions of sustainability in the food products that affect consumer choices with a dual purpose: to identify and define “sustainable consumption” behaviour in broad sense and to investigate empirically the factors affecting the real consumption behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on consumers’ understanding, motivation and use of sustainable labelling in order to understand the role sustainability information plays in the food products market. Design/methodology/approach Two focus groups in order to investigate consumer motivation and behaviour in-depth and to prepare the questionnaire. Identification of the outcomes that could summarize sustainable consumption combining: purchase of local products, consume only seasonal fruit, prefer products with recyclable packaging, attention to the fat content in foods, give importance to traceability and purchase products only in the place of origin. Identification of the “at risk” virtuous consumer, using a binary logistic regression approach, taking into account demographic characteristics, the food and nutrition value system, experience, knowledge, institutional factors and marketing. Findings Results from the focus groups are mainly in line with the empirical analysis, highlighting the key role of education in influencing consumer attitude and behaviour. Consumers give little attention to information provided on the label for sustainable food consumption and environmental protection and have little knowledge of environmental problems. The virtuous consumer appears to give importance to a better food nutrition value system, to pay more attention to ingredients and instructions on the label, to be more attentive to environmental and sustainable attributes, to be concerned about product quality and to be slightly influenced by brands and special offers. Research limitations/implications The findings from the empirical analysis confirm the results from focus groups even if it was not possible from the empirical analysis to investigate in-depth the marketing aspects concerning the food choice. This limit probably comes from the low number of observations. Further research will focus on these marketing aspects. Practical implications Products with sustainable attributes can become a strategic variable and allow companies to gain a competitive advantage, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises. This may encourage the development of new marketing channels based on the direct relationship between producer and the new consumer demand, increasingly sensitive to the food security issues. Social implications There is a potential interest and sensitiveness to having sustainable behaviour in a broad sense, but there is a lack of knowledge about how to behave to be sustainable. In the absence of binding rules, it is necessary that government promote information and campaigns to generate greater awareness on sustainability, aiming at increasing knowledge to drive the consumer’s choices. This may lead to virtuous results in terms of reducing social costs related to an unhealthy diet, food waste and unsustainable consumption. Originality/value The results show that despite the appearance of attention to the environment and to healthy food which is associated with this emerging critical consumer in the literature, there remains the problem of the consumer giving little attention to information provided on the label for sustainable food consumption and environmental protection. This is the problem of “rules of thumb” in purchasing decisions that prevail in the following situations: when consumers have an overload of information that exceeds their processing limits; when they tend to base their decision making on heuristics, focussing their choices on brands as a proxy for high-quality, product-related characteristics.

Strategie di prezzo e profittabilità nel mercato degli oli extra-vergine di oliva:un modello di analisi attraverso gli scanner data.

The paper proposes a quantitative analysis of extra-virgin olive oils market designed to study the intra-sectoral competition and to analyze the profitability of pricing strategies for different types of companies: small produces, large manufactures, private label. The analysis focuses on trade within the modern grocery sector, which represents the first distribution channel of extra virgin olive oils at the national level. The study refers to the theory of industrial organization and, through the demand estimation, comes to the measurement of price-cost margins. The most important results relate to the concerns of the smaller producers respect to private label, big and international companies in the event of a further fall of extra virgin olive oils prices.

A Quantitative Analysis of Olive Oil Market in the North-West Italy

The problem of the competitiveness of the agricultural products has always animated the analyses of the agricultural economists. At the present, them competitive context is influenced from two phenomena of bottom: the progressive increase of the markets segmentation process, fed from the productive differentiation of the enterprises, and the crescent communicative weight of the products in the shelves of the GDO, exalted from the policies of merchandising feeding. Such phenomena feed complex competitive interdependences between the various trade categories and between the various brands inside of the category. The extravirgin olive oil, in virtue of the maturity level of its market, shows several peculiarities: it is introduced as a system burdened from secular problems of structural type that need of able participations to give back to force and competitiveness, in this moment that the consumption, is assumed, could increase. In so far as, a provisional support on which is the levers in order to render own market the best regarding the competitors, finds a remarkable interest, especially with the parallel use of a recent source of information (scanner date).

Determinant Factors in Reputation of Wines: Analysis of Wine-Production in Central Italy

Wine sector is just one of the most important drink sector in the modern market. In this global context, Europe and, in particular, Italy, play a critical role about demand and Supply. Traditional wine market is full, so it’s necessary to find new lever to have consumers fidelity over time, first between all, the quality information. The present work aim to estimate , through a regression analysis, several variables extremely important to determine the quality wine reputation in Italian consumers. The results have demonstrate the importance of some critics variable as wine characteristics and social-cultural aspects and, principally, the importance to take part on a DOC and DOCG. These results have a lot of important consequences in a strategic market chooses for companies.