Paola Signori

Toward sustainable supply chain orientation (SSCO): mapping managerial perspectives

Purpose – The purpose this paper is to profile individual-level perspectives on sustainability and supply chain partnering, introduces the concept of sustainable supply chain orientation (SSCO), and suggests pathways between executive profiles toward SSCO. Design/methodology/approach – The research relies on inductive, theory-building grounded theory and phenomenological data collection and interpretations in the wine industry. In-depth interviews were conducted over five years with 112 senior managers from 88 organizations in the global wine industry representing nine wine regions in four countries. Findings – Ten profiles were developed depicting executives’ perspectives on embracing sustainability, the extent to which motivations for various forms of sustainability and partnering compete, and being self-or supply chain partner focussed. A SSCO depicts a leader who embraces sustainability, sees alignment in motivations and is supply chain partner focussed. Research limitations/implications – The paper c...

Constrained innovation on sustainability in the global wine industry

ABSTRACT In dynamic and turbulent contexts many firms are trying to develop innovative sustainability solutions. Winery managers across the globe from this study discussed sustainability innovations in terms of product innovation (products, services, and product-service bundles), process innovation, and organizational innovation. However, forces act to constrain sustainability innovations in some agricultural industries including the wine industry. This article reports findings on forces constraining sustainability innovation from an ongoing seven-year investigation into global contemporary wine marketing and sustainability. This inductive theory-building grounded theory study involved a large number of in-depth interviews and used traditional interpretive trustworthiness criteria to ensure valid data were collected and the best interpretations out of multiple possible ones considered by the research term were developed. Executive perspectives from wineries of seven countries yielded insights to four significant constraints to sustainability innovations (i.e. competing motivations, variation in innovation approaches, lack of resources, and lack of a sustainability orientation) and why, in some cases, overcoming these constraints can be difficult, retarding progress toward sustainability goals. These executives also shared insights to strategies, processes and capabilities that enabled them to overcome constraints.

Building Business Sustainability through Resilience in the Wine Industry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address how wine businesses build sustainability – the ability to survive and be successful over the long-term – in a complex market environment. Design/methodology/approach To understand how managers in a wine supply chain (i.e. from grower to consumer) are trying to sustain business within a hyper-competitive industry, the authors used a standard grounded theory, constant comparative research method using formal depth interviews along with additional data sources from wine businesses in nine global wine regions in the USA, Australia, Italy and New Zealand. Findings A framework emerged from the data to improve business sustainability and counteract the complexity in the wine market by developing resilience through innovating and experimenting, obtaining resources/developing capabilities and relying on supply chain connections. Research limitations/implications This conceptual framework contributes to the existing theory on institutional transitions and resilience in business, and extends and broadens it by proposing that resilience is needed to combat entropy in the wine industry for businesses in this industry to survive and thrive. Practical implications Managers can learn from and apply the examples mentioned in this study and follow the framework presented to implement the strategies to build resilience to increase their chances of sustainability. Originality/value This study is one of the first empirical studies to the authors’ knowledge that identifies the impact of entropy in the wine industry and examines resilience as a means to combat an entropic market and obtain business sustainability.

Marketing internazionale e resilienza. Analisi degli elementi endogeni ed esogeni che influenzano i percorsi di sviluppo delle Pmi italiane in contesti critici

The research has its main objective the exploration of how the businessmodels of Small Medium Italian companies (Smes), in some contexts,adapt or react to macro and micro environment that could potentiallybe problematic. Those may cause changes of business contextand be instrumental in defining new paths of development of the business,with strategic decisions concerning marketing strategy. The use ofa qualitative research methodology has allowed us to understand the dynamicsof the evolutionary paths of strategic international marketing ofSmes, analyzing the related factors of vulnerability and resilience. Theresults suggest developmental pathways that depend on the resiliencecapacity and evolutionary adaptation of business models for Smes in orderto keep and develop the firm.

Pandoro cake: how to become a mass marketer from a local market

This case study refers to the details of Bauli, one of the best‐known Italian companies in the confectionery industrys history. In particular, the analysis shows that, in this case, first of all, quality then specialisation and innovation for change have led the organisation to market leadership. The case is structured in three parts. The first sketches out market data about Bauli and direct competitors in different products. The second gives some information about the famous Pandoro cake to underline the typicalness of this traditional recipe. The third introduces Bauli, giving trade information, describing vicissitudes of the firm from its very beginnings, and discussing different key factors of success. Concludes that the tale of this company is similar to many others that have now grown up and out from their local trade areas, and have increased their market share to achieve leadership in their sectors.

Contemporary Branding Tactics

This case vignette is starting with the story of two people, Daniel and Florence Cathiard. They are former ski champions and were members of the famous French Olympic team in the sixties. With charismatic personalities and a gold touch in business, they are best actors in a company’s history, so we would like to open this case study telling their stories.

A Global Overview of Wine

The 2008 American movie Bottle Shock offered an interpretation of the now-famous 1976 Paris wine tasting that put California on the international wine map. In that movie, a young wine maker, Gustavo Brambila (played by Freddy Rodriguez), was celebrated. Gustavo was known in the region as an amazing wine maker. By the time we engaged in our project, he had opened his own winery, Gustavo Thrace, and we interviewed him there. He now runs the winery Gustavo Wines with his wife, JoAnn.1

Conclusions and the Future of Wine Marketing and SCM

So here we are at the end of our stories. Our intent was to offer insights into some interesting perspectives and practices in the wine industry as we saw them over the last six years traveling the globe and interviewing winery owners, directors, wine makers, and managers. Our intent was not to provide a comprehensive practical guide to all things wine. We hope the book has opened your eyes to possibilities. If we did our job, you have seen areas where your or someone else’s winery is doing well and other places where opportunities to do better exist. If you are at a winery, ask yourself some honest questions: How well do we really understand our customers? How rigorous are our market-research processes? How solid are our relationships with customers, intermediaries, and consumers? Do we manage our brands and our corporate identity as well as we could? In what ways are we working to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability of our supply chains? How strategic and professional is our sales team? How do we see ourselves in this winery? Innovative, modern, traditional, or classical? Do we pursue innovation and/or experimentation regularly? In what ways are we diagnosing our performance? In what ways could we improve regarding any of these topics?

Toward Communication 4.0

Sandro Boscaini has been the president and managing director of Masi Agricola since 1978, and runs the company together with his daughter, Alessandra, and his son, Raffaele. The company remains strictly family-owned, but its management style is highly professional and open to international influences. Masi’s company history is the history of Boscaini’s family for seven generations. The name of the company derives from “Vaio dei Masi,” a small valley in Valpolicella acquired by this family at the end of the eighteenth century. Now Masi, according to its website “has lands in the best terroir sites of the Venetian regions with vineyards and historic estates.” In 1973, the company started a joint venture with the Conti Serego Alighieri family (descendants of the poet Dante) on their estates in Valpolicella (near Verona). More recently, the Conti Bossi Fedrigotti family (wine producers in Trentino-Alto Adige) started to collaborate with Masi. Both agreements are part of a project aiming to rediscover the farming and wine-making traditions of the nobility from the Venetian area. Masi’s president believes in the “Veneto” (a region in the Venetian area) way of wine making that could be exported abroad, where there are good conditions for viticulture. So he launched a company in Argentina to produce a special wine brand with Argentinian wines made in the Veneto style.

Forms of Markets

Ricasoli is “one of the oldest family wineries in the world, dating back to 1142,” we were told as we began our discussion with the marketing director of this medium-sized, innovative Tuscan winery. But he immediately qualified that statement, clarifying that they were “much more busy fighting with Siena at that time than making wine.” Wine production here is more commonly thought of as dating to the late 1800s. At that time, a Ricasoli ancestor began experimenting with wine production and invented Chianti Classico, which is not to be confused with Chianti. Different markets see various varietals differently. For example, Ricasoli knows that in the US markets, no difference is acknowledged between Chianti and Chianti Classico, when in reality there is a significant difference. In part, the difference can be seen in the exclusion of white grapes from Chianti Classico, as well as 80 percent of the wine produced from Sangiovese with the remaining 20 percent allowed to come from other red grapes such as Canaolo or “international varieties” such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The point here is not to focus on viticulture but rather that Chianti Classico is unique and special with strict rules associated with its production and labeling. The nature of the product is often related to the markets a winery seeks to sell within.