Title: Grape varieties: is specialisation beautiful in the wine sector?

Authors: Eric Le Fur; Jean-François Outreville

Addresses: INSEEC School of Business and Economics, 33000 Bordeaux, France ' Burgundy School of Business, 21006 Dijon, France

Abstract: The objective of the paper is to investigate whether the grape varieties most used in national production affect the export performance. We examine this relationship over the period 1995-2016. The analysis is based on a sample of 38 wine exporting countries. We use the data envelopment analysis (DEA) to compute the efficiency of wine exports if the market structure of grape varieties is an input decision unit. Our results show that only a few countries are efficient. The three largest exporters, France, Italy and Spain, are efficient and adopt a strategy of diversification with a relatively small share of their most planted varieties in the national production. Some New World countries (Argentina, Portugal, South Africa and the USA) and the Old World (Germany) adopt the same strategy. Australia and Chile are also efficient but adopt a strategy based on a small number of grape varieties as well as a large share of the national production made with a few grape varieties. The implications for the wine industry are then discussed.

Keywords: DEA method; export performance; market structure; wine industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2021.118438

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2021 Vol.44 No.2, pp.118 - 137

Accepted: 02 Mar 2020
Published online: 26 Oct 2021 *

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