Wine Business in a Changing Competitive Environment - Strategic and Financial Choices of Campania Wine Firms

Over the last few years, the wine industry has been undergoing aprocess of accelerated change, consequent to the constantly changing winegeography. This research aims to investigate, evaluate and analyse the degreeand nature of success of the strategic process of the Campania wine firms,Italy. The research focuses on strategies implemented towards achievingsustainable competitive advantage. It is based on a survey of 180 companies, itis exploratory in nature and it follows a deductive methodological reasoningand hypothesis testing. The findings demonstrate that in the new competitiveenvironment, Campania wine industry bears structural weaknesses as a numberof enterprises are incapable to realise an optimal strategic process, withnegative reflex on performance. On the other hand, in the regional context,there are also successful firms, able to develop and implement competitivestrategies. This research conclusively incorporates primary, secondary andtheoretical findings to provide managers with practical strategic planningdirections for wine firms, both locally and internationally.