Sustainability in winemaking family business: does it matter?

Sustainability in wine sector is a deep issue for companies of all shapes and sizes across the entrepreneurial landscape. The concept of sustainability is derived from the notion of sustainable development, which is a way to use resource aimed to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present but also for future generation (WCED, 1988, Sterling, 2006) . The relationship between companies and the environment is so deep that it should be seen as integral and essential part of its strategic planning to become a real management’s attribute. This is true for all shapes of companies: international companies, SME, family-business, farm, public utility, wineries. In the past few years, it is widely increased the focus on sustainability issues by both producers and consumers. Therefore, it became an interesting topic of research in the Academic world. The main decision is to change direction towards in a sustainable wine production-system above all in environmental, social, and economic attention (Elkington, 1997, 1999, 2004; Norman – McDonald, 2004; Lanza, 2006). It inspires different companies to raise the quality level of the entire production system according to models of social responsibility, supporting increasingly complex challenges required by global markets. In this way, the success of Family Business depends from final choices that reveals the capabilities to understand consumer preferences and to bring forward competitors behavior. It is really important to maintain the Italian leadership in wine sector. Past and present globalization represented an opportunity for development, in order to raise any geographical part: the "localism", the traditions of the local territory; they could find an opportunity for greater visibility. However, they may generate risks like as lacking competitive capability could cause economic crises more or less deep. This paper investigates in a sample of selected small and medium family business in wine sector in a given geographic area (Abruzzo Region, in the middle of Italy) adopt with respect to sustainability issues. The study is based on an exploratory-inductive approach and the research strategy is composed of a multiple case study (Yin, 2003; Stake 2006) used as a source of inspiration to proceed with the opening of a theory-building activity. With refer to the sample of companies analyzed, the information is developed through an inquiry, articulated through semi-structured interviews to the entrepreneur for each family business investigated: 1. “Sustainability”: what’s the meaning according to the analyzed family business? 2. What are the methodologies introduced in their production system? 3. Which are the main difficulties companies found to embrace a sustainable philosophy? 4. Which benefits or disadvantages in adopting sustainability? The results of this study may be useful to demonstrate the alignment between environmental and business interests, ensured also by the diffusion of knowledge from generation to generation. The originality of these paper consists into the introduction, in terms of experience, in a several winemaking family businesses, the sustainable development analyzed in competitive key, highlighting the importance of proper verification of the degree of knowledge transfer. Based on the in-depth analysis of the selected cases, some initial theoretical findings can be pointed out: when a company embraces sustainability, so simultaneously focusing on the economic, environmental, and social dimensions, it also focuses on quality – which ranges from product quality to quality of human relationships – and adopts a long-term orientation in decision making. This paper helps reinforce the understanding some benefits that the interviewed entrepreneurs put into relation with the adoption of sustainability. They concern profitability, image and corporate reputation (CR), attraction of talented employees, an improvement in terms of company climate, a continuous improvement in stakeholder relationship, a better development of specific know-how and capabilities, new possibilities in access to new markets, a long-term growth. Does a positive relationship between the adhesion to a culture of sustainable development and improvement of competitiveness?