Brand Management, quality and performance in micro firms: the italian brewing industry

The paper contributes to the limited literature on strategy of micro enterprises operating in mature markets. To address the topic the study explores the effect of brand management processes and product quality on performance of micro breweries. Preliminary qualitative interviews with eight entrepreneurs operating in the emerging craft brewing segment within the Italian beer industry were realized. Then, 92 questionnaires were collected from the entire population of 335 microbreweries in the same country for quantitative analysis. Findings suggest that intrinsic product quality is the most relevant determinants of firms’ performance while the adoption of brand management processes exerts a significant, negative impact. Implications, limitations and directions for future research are discussed.