Title: Good environmental practices in a traditional wine producer: an opportunity for global competition

Authors: Virginia Barba-Sánchez; María Pilar Martínez-Ruiz; Ana Isabel Jiménez-Zarco; Phil Megicks

Addresses: Enviromental Strategy Interdisciplinary Team and Management, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Edificio Infante Don Juan Manuel, Paseo de los Estudiantes, s/n, Albacete, 02006, Spain. ' Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de Cuenca, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Avenida de los Alfares, 44, Cuenca, 16071, Spain. ' Economic and Business Studies, Open University of Catalunya, Av. Tibidabo 39-43, Barcelona, 08035, Spain. ' School of Management, Plymouth Business School, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 8AA, UK

Abstract: In an environment characterised by a global, dynamic and increasingly more competitive economy, wine businesses must identify advantages which enable them to achieve higher profits than their competitors. As such, the integration of an environmental variable in business strategy is being promoted as a potential source of competitive advantages. This investigation analyses, from a multidisciplinary point of view, the potential effects of good environmental practices on strategic behaviours in the wine industry, as well as their ecological and economic results. A cooperative group in this industry provides the study context; the authors investigate how it confronts threats from its environment. The results show that managerial commitment has been the main promoter of good environmental practices, mostly those that are easy to apply, demand low economic costs, and allow for improvements in the productivity and quality of the products. This study also offers a series of implications to contribute to existing knowledge about success factors for environmental strategies, especially in the wine industry.

Keywords: ecological strategies; ecology; good practice; environmental practices; global competition; competitive economies; profits; competitors; environmental variables; business strategies; competitive advantage; strategic behaviour; cooperative groups; managerial commitment; low costs; economic costs; productivity improvements; product quality; success factors; environmental strategies; San Antonio Cooperative Society; La Manchuela; regions; Albacete; Spain; globalisation; wine industry; alcohol.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2012.043976

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2012 Vol.8 No.1, pp.131 - 152

Published online: 14 Aug 2014 *

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