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In this paper, we argue that the rapid expansion of exports as a share of global wine production is strongly related to the invention of flexitanks for wine transportation and the concurrent exponential growth of the bulk wine industry. Bulk wine fundamentally changes wine production, from the organisation of grape growing to the commercialisation of the final product, as it enables companies to assemble wine across the globe by establishing new connections between distant rural regions. Building on ethnographic fieldwork with New Zealand and Chilean bulk wine producers and German large‐scale wineries which specialise in bulk wine blending and bottling, our aim in this paper is to investigate how these new connections are forged and sustained. Drawing on the work of Çalışkan and Callon, we consider marketisation processes to be composed of different types of framing, and we analyse three of them in respect of the bulk wine market: objectification of goods, marketising agencies, and market encounters. Through detailed analysis of one market encounter that we have called "wine design sessions," we show that German retailers align the other bulk wine agencies in a way that means they are well placed to decide on the final composition of the wines in a highly flexible accumulation scheme. It is through these wine design sessions and the practices of tasting, comparing, designing, analysing, and controlling wines that they organise the assembling and objectification of bulk wines from Chile and New Zealand (and from other countries around the globe) according to their specifications. Hence, rather than through top‐down pressure, coordination in the bulk wine market is accomplished through mundane practices and mechanisms which allow for action at a distance and which connect (and sometimes disconnect) rural regions on a global stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the wine industry are family owned and operated providing a unique organisational structure to study environmental sustainability engagement. However, researchers at the intersection of environmental sustainability (ES) and family businesses tend to oversimplify family businesses as homogeneous regarding ES. Therefore, the broader goal of this paper is to investigate the antecedents of heterogeneities among family firms related to ES. The paper aims to understand how family firms portray different aspects of family influence (family goals, family values, culture and ethics, and the imprints of the founders and the next generation) in their ES disclosures. Family logics are used as a theoretical lens to analyse family influence. A qualitative content analysis of 72 corporate websites of family firms operating in the New Zealand wine industry was conducted. Antecedents of heterogeneities were revealed with a discussion of three typologies of family firms: family first, business first and upstarts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the Waipara wine cluster, located in the South Island of New Zealand, in relation to formation, operation, evolution and impact. The unique methodological approach of this research is that it analyses the current and desired future state of the cluster and secondly examines the cluster in relation to both the domestic and international markets. Key findings from the research include a greater understanding of the relationships between cluster members, the operation of cluster, problems within the cluster and how the cluster operates for both domestic and international markets. The research lends itself to a new definition of internationalisation –‘direct and indirect methods of increasing the likelihood of international sales’– and also provides new insights for cluster theory, wine clusters and the wine industry in general. Some of the practices detailed have use in the wider wine community of the world, making the paper of interest to a wide audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the theme of governance as it relates to the evolution of global commodity chains in agro-industry and their incorporation of wine firms in two countries of the semi-periphery, New Zealand and Chile. The paper goes on to specifically examine the upstream and downstream relationships of selected New Zealand and Chilean wine firms to the wider commodity chains in which they are involved. Brief case studies will analyse the downstream and upstream links to the commodity chain of key wine firms in both countries. Such cases provide indicative evidence of the underlying processes of the commodity chain that are constantly changing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares new forms of political economy based on export orientation in New Zealand and Chile and relates them to the evolution of the wine industries in those countries. The wine sector is seen as a key example of an export-driven agro-industry in both countries. The paper applies the new political economy to a comparative analysis of land, production and exports in the wine sectors of both Chile and New Zealand. The nature of firms in the wine sector in both countries is examined and some broad implications for development at the local scale introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid expansion of the New Zealand wine industry has rested largely on a specific wine commodity form, Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Global demand for a specialised product has provided the impetus for substantial development at the regional level, an increasingly complex industry structure, and for the intrusion of international capital. This paper explores the contests and relations within the industry through attention to the commodity's value-added chain, wherein recent developments are interpreted as a contest over the brand rents. The contemporary situation therefore may be explained through overlapping organisational and geographic framings of these relations: producer versus buyer-driven dynamics; regional–national and global interests; and inter- and intra-corporate strategies. The commercial contest for control of the region-varietal commodity reveals some paradoxical outcomes in which the region is reaffirmed as a site of investment in an evidently globalised industry, and the significance of who controls what fraction of the value chain is re-asserted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates and compares some of the strategic choices made by small wine firms from two different New World wine producing countries, Australia and New Zealand, and one traditional wine producing region of France. This research was first conducted in 2003 in France with 98 wine firms being interviewed and then in Australia and New Zealand, with a total of 68 wine firms interviewed in 2004. In order to explain the differences in business practices, an effort to match wine sector perspectives and strategic management profiles is presented through a hierarchical cluster analysis. Some complementary explanations for the clusters found can be suggested: business practices are clearly dependent upon the business activity (bottled wine versus bulk wine), and the main goal of the owner-manager (improving business economic performance versus increasing market share). [EconLit classification: L190, L210]. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 22: 405–416, 2006. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competitiveness is a major theme within the strategic management literature. Porter suggests that in an emerging industry firms face the dilemma of competitive self-interest or cooperative industry advocacy. In this study of an emerging industry, the wine industry of New Zealand, values and practices of both competition and cooperation were found. It is argued that more than industry advocacy is at stake, competition and cooperation practices are necessary for industrial survival. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]