Purpose: Industry 4.0, the integrated digital process world in production, is an under researched area. Especially for the wine industry, 4.0 theoretical base up to date is weak, impeding further digital transformation of the wine industry. Some basic-level digital capabilities exist in most of the researched business models, which is why further digital transformation requires strategic redefining of business models in order to further transform the whole industry.Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research approach based on the concept of business model innovation (BMI) has been deployed in order to identify business models and consensus building between industry´s stakeholders. Semistructured interviews delivered primary data.Findings: The diversity of existing business models in the wine industry as well regarding BMI is confirmed, where each one occupies a specific place in the innovation ecosystem for Industry 4.0.Research limitations/implications: This qualitative research is exploratory and directed toward theory building. The findings confirm the importance of environmental scanning and market sensing for convergent technologies as well as the need to develop core value proposition.Practical implications: This study has important implications for companies and their capabilities inside wine industry 4.0, while its main practical value being a systematical organization of weak signals to support small entrepreneurs’ transition to digitalization and Industry 4.0Originality/value: The paper nourishes the theory on innovation trajectories for Industry 4.0 by including previously unidentified BMIs and a convergence–divergence continuum on the example of wine Industry 4.0.

This study advances the research and methodological approach to measuring and understanding national-level destination competitiveness, sustainability and governance, by creating a model that could be of use for both developing and developed destinations. The study gives a detailed overview of the research field of measuring destination competitiveness and sustainability. It also identifies major predictors of destination competitiveness and sustainability and thereby presents destination researchers and practitioners with a useful list of priority areas, both from a global perspective and from the perspective of other similar destinations. Finally, the study identifies two major types of destination governance with implications for research, policy and practice across the destination life-cycle. The research deals with the analysis of the secondary data from the World Economic Forum Travel and Tourism Index (WEF T&T). Major types of destination governance and predictors of belonging to either one of the types, as well as inside cluster predictors have been extracted through a two-step cluster analysis. The results support the notion that a meaningful model of national-level destination governance needs to take into account different development levels of different destinations. The main limitation of the study is its typology creation approach, as it inevitably leads to simplifications.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically derive a typology of sustainable business models in the food & beverage (F&B) industry and explore the competitive profiling via sustainability.Design/methodology/approach: Primary data were collected through an online survey for small- and medium-sized wineries (N=125). A principal component analysis (PCA) was used for inducing the F&B sustainable business model typology as an empirical basis for building a conceptual framework.Findings: The analysis has identified seven strategic business models of the German wineries in regards to sustainability. Three models are at the forefront of sustainability, two are characterized by managerial focus on social opportunities and innovation and two of the identified business models are characterized by an administrative approach to social and environmental requirements and therefore rather rudimentary approaches to sustainability.Research limitations/implications: Main limitations of the study are the focus on wine industry as well as on one country. Furthermore, the deployment of PCA method does not safeguard from neglecting other relevant business models.Practical implications: Successful business models allow to differentiate in competitive markets in the F&B industry via sustainability. Such models need strategic ambition, positioning and realization but allow to win new clients safeguarding from market squeeze out.Social implications: The research facilitates scaling up of sustainability initiatives to the benefit of the wider society.Originality/value: Business model typology for sustainability has been derived mainly conceptually. The empirically based typology of sustainable business models provides a more rigorous foundation for a transition of business models toward sustainability.

The article explores SME (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) brand strategies as a means to position and successfully engage in competitive markets. A derived typology of brand strategy types deals with social profiling and sheds light on brand strategy internalization of two current managerial paradigms—sustainability and co-creation. N = 895 German SME wineries were examined, leaning on a netnographic analysis of predominantly websites and social media interactions. A two-step clustering method thereby identified eight winery SME brand strategy types. The importance of sustainability across the identified eight brand strategy types is significant. Co-creation turned out to be a key profiling trait characterizing one brand strategy type. The typology illustrates strategic richness, with brand strategies leaning predominantly on traditional values, on sustainability, on external reputation, or on more innovative customer centric concepts such as co-creation. Hereby, the typology and the identified brand levers invite to strategically design brand management, governance, and sustainability. Wineries which focus on traditional positioning and legitimacy were found to be cautious in deploying co-creation through social media. Winery brands that are characterized by engagement in digital co-creation apparently either tend to expand their scope or partially combine it with traditional values, making them the most diverse type identified. Sustainability obviously needs to be addressed by all brand strategies. Despite industry and country focus, the analyses illustrate the relevance of socially-oriented profiling and highlights that sustainability has reached a status of a fundamental business approach still allowing to differentiate thereon. Furthermore, the business models of the SMEs need to deliver communicated values.

The article improves understanding on leveraging new technology for DT (digital transformation) of grape harvest in SME wineries. It provides evidence on technologies used and workplace types deployed in grape harvesting, as well as strategic paths in deploying new technology, thereby contributing to the literature on networked sensing and seizing capabilities in the wine industry 4.0. The research approach is explorative and qualitative drawing on 31 interviews with wine industry 4.0 experts and managers, mostly owners of SMEs: wineries, wine software and wine machinery enterprises. Resulting findings serve as a roadmap for digital transformation of grape harvest process in SME wineries explaining technologies and work roles necessary for DWT (digital workplace transformation), as well as strategic paths of deployment of novel grape harvest technology. Previous research on the wine industry 4.0 has focused on BMI, while this research expands the focus to include a wider concept of technology adoption strategy as well as DWT. The research identifies two types of factors impacting the strategic deployment of grape harvest technology: pull factors, also termed servitization factors, as well as push factors, termed also digital transformation factors.

Innovation is declared as key to success in increasing competition. This study explores the innovation activities of German wineries. A multi-case survey of 25 wineries shows rich innovation portfolios with diverse activities. The innovation activities of the wineries indicate diminishing product centricity in the industry, since innovation is pursued not only for products but for services, in investment and finance, in processes, and in marketing and sales. Wineries are characterized by intensive innovation and change activities. Intensive change might be rooted in bandwaggoning effects, being pushed by trends and fads. Entrepreneurs in the wine business are urged to adapt to changes in customer behavior and to react to trends that they perceive to be important, resulting in diverse innovation ideas and change activities The self-reliance seem to push entrepreneurs and smaller companies in the wine industry to increase their innovation portfolio in without regard for capacity or resource scarcity considerations or adequate strategic profiling.