Wine producers' strategic response to a crisis situation

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the competitive strategies adopted by French wine producing firms in a crisis context.

Design/methodology/approach

First, two case studies have been developed through interviews with wine producers. They show that many strategies, corresponding to different levels of performance, are possible in a crisis industry. Second, an empirical study has been conducted applying a questionnaire survey addressed in June 2008 to wine producing firms from the Languedoc‐Roussillon region, south of France. Third, ordinal regression is operated in order to link financial performance and strategic choices of the investigated 160 respondent firms.

Findings

The findings indicated some interesting trends concerning wine producers' perception regarding the effect of the crisis and the strategies adopted by firms. The preferred strategic choice of the majority of investigated firms is the combination of “niche + differentiation” strategies. On the other hand, the strategic choice of firms is influenced by their experience; many less experienced firms prefer to adopt a differentiation strategy or a combination of the “niche + differentiation” strategies. Moreover, statistical analysis shows that no implementation of niche, differentiation or relational marketing lead toward decreasing turnover.

Research limitations/implications

This research is focused only on wine producing firms from Languedoc‐Roussillon region in France. A second limitation is the fact that firms' performance was not systematically measured. The performance is evaluated mainly indirectly, considering that the investigated firms have survived the crisis.

Originality/value

Very few studies have been conducted on this particular topic.

Citation

Duquesnois, F., Gurãu, C. and Le Roy, F. (2010), "Wine producers' strategic response to a crisis situation", International Journal of Wine Business Research, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 251-268. https://doi.org/10.1108/17511061011075383