Dear Colleagues,

The wine industry is one of the most significant industries worldwide, which sees, in some European countries (i.e., Italy, Spain, France), the largest producers (Maicas and Mateo, 2020). Over the last decade, the wine sector deeply changed, becoming highly competitive as well as an element of cultural identity in different wine countries (Stanco et al., 2020a; Mazzocchi et al., 2019).

On the demand side, there has been a strong evolution in wine consumption. Indeed, wine has moved from being a slightly differentiated good, included in the everyday diet, to a hedonic good, consumed at social occasions and representing a status symbol too (Carbone et al., 2021). Nowadays, consumers are more informed and aware of foods, relying on their purchasing decision in both intrinsic, such as taste and price, and extrinsic attributes, especially ethical, social, and environmental ones. Accordingly, consumers are more and more guided in their choices by product characteristics, such as geographical origin, environmental impact, and social consequences related to production processes (Stanco and Lerro, 2020; Pomarici and Vecchio, 2019).

In particular, several studies stated that consumers’ interest in sustainable wines has significantly increased, showing that consumers are willing to pay a price premium for wine certification that takes into account sustainable attributes, such as biodiversity protection, carbon and water footprint, and organic production (Mazzocchi et al., 2019; Plank and Teichmann, 2018; Schäufele and Hamm, 2017; Sogari et al., 2015).

On the supply side, many efforts have been devoted to a general quality improvement and product differentiation, in order to better meet new consumers’ demands, in particular with the adoption of sustainable innovations (Carbone et al., 2021; Stanco et al., 2020b).

Despite several contributions investigating wine economics and consumption, much remains to be considered. As a consequence, the study of the dynamics involving consumers and producers toward the wine sector will be the main subjects that this Special Issue will seek to better investigate.

References

Carbone, A. (2021). From Flasks to Fine Glasses: Recent Trends in Wine Economics. Italian Economic Journal, 7(2), 187-198.

Maicas, S., Mateo, J. J. (2020). Sustainability of wine production. Sustainability, 12(2), 559.

Mazzocchi, C., Ruggeri, G., Corsi, S. (2019). Consumers’ preferences for biodiversity in vineyards: A choice experiment on wine. Wine Economics and Policy, 8(2), 155-164.

Plank, A., Teichmann, K. (2018). A facts panel on corporate social and environmental behavior: Decreasing information asymmetries between producers and consumers through product labeling. Journal of Cleaner Production, 177, 868-877.

Pomarici, E., Vecchio, R. (2019). Will sustainability shape the future wine market?. Wine Economics and Policy, 8(1), 1-4.

Schäufele, I., Hamm, U. (2017). Consumers’ perceptions, preferences and willingness-to-pay for wine with sustainability characteristics: A review. Journal of Cleaner production, 147, 379-394.

Sogari, G., Corbo, C., Macconi, M., Menozzi, D., Mora, C. (2015). Consumer attitude towards sustainable-labelled wine: An exploratory approach. International Journal of Wine Business Research.

Stanco, M., and Lerro, M. (2020). Consumers’ Preferences for and Perception of CSR Initiatives in the Wine Sector. Sustainability, 12(13), 5230.

Stanco, M., Lerro, M., Marotta, G. (2020a). Consumers’ preferences for wine attributes: A best-worst scaling analysis. Sustainability, 12(7), 2819.

Stanco, M., Nazzaro, C., Lerro, M., Marotta, G. (2020b). Sustainable Collective Innovation in the Agri-Food Value Chain: The Case of the “Aureo” Wheat Supply Chain. Sustainability, 12(14), 5642.

Dr. Marcello Stanco
Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Marotta
Dr. Concetta Nazzaro
Dr. Marco Lerro
Guest Editors

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