Title: The entrepreneurship power house of ambition and innovation: exploring German wineries

Authors: Marc Dressler

Addresses: University of Ludwigshafen, Ernst-Boehe-Str. 4, D – 67059 Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany

Abstract: Increasing competition, globalisation, and supplier concentration - hence changes in the external business environment - stress small entrepreneurs. Indeed, survival is not for granted. In the investigated German wine industry, the number of producers was cut in half since 1980. Resilience, meaning the ability to cope with environmental changes, obviously is a necessary precondition for sustainable success. Survey data of German wineries serve to explore strategic entrepreneurship and the impact on resilience or eventual sustainable growth in a crowding out market. The study explores key entrepreneurial traits of pro-activeness, innovation, and ambition level. Descriptive, variance, and correlation analyses disclose that entrepreneurial behaviour improves performance. Typical entrepreneurial 'bricolage' could be observed. Environmental challenges are interpreted in an optimistic manner, even caesural ones. Despite limiting environmental factors entrepreneurs seize opportunities, are more ambitious, show innovativeness, and thereby profit by higher performance.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; small and medium enterprise; SME; sustainability; resilience; goals; ambition; innovation; wine industry; performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2020.110796

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2020 Vol.41 No.3, pp.397 - 430

Received: 14 Nov 2018
Accepted: 01 Sep 2019
Published online: 29 Oct 2020 *

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