Title: Wine business in a changing competitive environment – strategic and financial choices of Campania wine firms

Authors: Matteo Rossi; Demetris Vrontis; Alkis Thrassou

Addresses: Dipartimento dei Sistemi Economici, Giuridici e Sociali, University of Sannio, Via delle Puglie, 82 Benevento, Italy. ' School of Business, University of Nicosia, 46 Makedonitissas Ave., P.O. Box 24005, 1700, Nicosia, Cyprus. ' School of Business, University of Nicosia, 46 Makedonitissas Ave., P.O. Box 24005, 1700, Nicosia, Cyprus

Abstract: Over the last few years, the wine industry has been undergoing a process of accelerated change, consequent to the constantly changing wine geography. This research aims to investigate, evaluate and analyse the degree and nature of success of the strategic process of the Campania wine firms, Italy. The research focuses on strategies implemented towards achieving sustainable competitive advantage. It is based on a survey of 180 companies, it is exploratory in nature and it follows a deductive methodological reasoning and hypothesis testing. The findings demonstrate that in the new competitive environment, Campania wine industry bears structural weaknesses as a number of enterprises are incapable to realise an optimal strategic process, with negative reflex on performance. On the other hand, in the regional context, there are also successful firms, able to develop and implement competitive strategies. This research conclusively incorporates primary, secondary and theoretical findings to provide managers with practical strategic planning directions for wine firms, both locally and internationally.

Keywords: competitive strategies; strategic processes; marketing; company performance; capital structure; financial choices; Italy; competitiveness; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; changing environments; Campania; accelerated change; wine geography; structural weaknesses; strategic planning; regions; business; globalisation; wine industry; alcohol.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2012.043975

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2012 Vol.8 No.1, pp.112 - 130

Published online: 14 Aug 2014 *

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