Title: Wineries' contribution to the local community: a stakeholder view

Authors: Abel Duarte Alonso

Addresses: Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moores University, Redmonds Building, Brownlow Hill, Liverpool, L3 5UG, UK; School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Dr., Joondalup, 6027 WA, Australia

Abstract: While various authors recognise the socioeconomic importance of wineries in various nations, this area continues to be under-researched, including in major wine producing countries and regions. This exploratory study adds to the currently limited literature, adopting stakeholder theory to investigate wineries' contribution towards the community from the perspective of predominantly micro and small Italian winery operators. The findings reveal wineries' strong socioeconomic impacts, particularly through the dissemination of knowledge about the wine region and wine tourism development. In addition to providers, sponsors, guardians and promoters, other important stakeholder groups, such as educators, reorganisers, and engagers were identified. Furthermore, several alignments with various theses of stakeholder theory emerged, namely, between the descriptive thesis and intrinsic value, instrumental thesis and implicit benefits, and normative thesis and consideration of stakeholders' interests. Given the significance of the wine industry, both in Italy and in neighbouring nations, the overall findings have important implications.

Keywords: wine industry; socioeconomic impact; micro enterprises; small firms; stakeholder theory; Italy; wineries; local communities; knowledge dissemination; wine regions; wine tourism.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2016.081225

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2016 Vol.12 No.4, pp.295 - 312

Received: 16 Apr 2016
Accepted: 30 Aug 2016
Published online: 29 Dec 2016 *

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