Dynamics of Innovation, Contributions to Differentiation: Analysis of Innovation Strategies Vinibrasil of the Emerging Cluster of Winemaking in the Valley of San Francisco (Brazil).

This paper aims to investigate the interactions between the strategic process and the one of innovation, observing, in particular, how the mechanisms of decision making and the strategic actions of innovation contribute to the formation and formulation of different competitive strategies. This framework is proposed for analyzing the innovative strategic actions of ViniBrasil, given the challenges posed by the intensification of competition in the domestic and international wine markets. The study has a qualitativeexploratory character and used, as reference of the framework, the model developed by Sarkar (2007). The data arise from archival research and from a questionnaire applied to the key managers of ViniBrasil. The survey used is divided into two parts. The first one contains three blocks of closed answers (data analysis of characterization of the company, socio demographic data, and about the ability to innovate and use ICT). The second part consists of four blocks of responses, with a metric scale of measurement, in order to measure a set of latent variables. The most significant findings relate to the strategic actions of innovation applied to the production process, including the conversion of vineyards, the adequacy of the conduction and irrigation system, the production of differentiated wines, the winery modernization and to the business model, with emphasis on new marketing standards focused on domestic and foreign markets. The ViniBrasil is located in Fox Archetype Space, both at the level of product as of the production process. This space is characterized by the existence of a large number of competitors, operating in an environment of much competitive pressure and high degree of differentiation/innovation. Innovations occur in a continuum, ranging from the introduction of new products and processes, significant improvements in marketing and in the business management itself, factors which generated different impacts on the sustainability and maintenance of the competitive advantages of business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]