Sustainability Practices in Food Supply Chains: How is Wine Different?
Department
Management and Entrepreneurship
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2010
Abstract
Environmental stewardship has received much attention in the wine industry, but firms must also address social sustainability to be considered a 'sustainable' company. In this research, we compare qualitative and quantitative evidence of sustainability practice adoption of wine and other food producers. To this end, we first performed interviews with 14 winery and 18 food processing operations managers or owners in the northwestern United States. We then used the interviews to develop a questionnaire and surveyed all wine and food producers in the same region, receiving responses from 56 wineries and 61 food processors. The results indicate differences in sustainability practices and performance impacts across the two sectors. Specifically, we find that winery managers place more emphasis on certain environmental practices, which in turn improve product quality. Additionally, wineries with higher adoption rates of social sustainability practices find that these efforts pay off in better wine quality and better overall market perceptions.
Journal Title
Journal of Wine Research
Journal ISSN
0957-1264
Volume
21
Issue
1
First Page
35
Last Page
56
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1080/09571264.2010.495853