Attitudes toward Sustainability, Environmental Practices, and Firm Performance in the Wine Industry: A Multi-Country Study

This study explores the relationship between managers’ attitudes toward sustainability, implementation of environmental practices, and firm performance in wineries, building on upper echelons theory. Then, consistent with dynamic capability theory, we propose that wineries, typically small and/or family owned, develop innovative dynamic capabilities in the form of formal intellectual property (IP) and branding development to strengthen the relationship between their environmental practices and firm market and financial performance. We test our hypotheses using survey data from wineries in Italy, France, Denmark, and the US. We then explore how wineries in the “Old World” (Italy and France) differ from wineries in the “New World” (Denmark and the US) in their use of formal IP and branding capabilities to bolster market and financial performance.