Behind the Australian wine industry's success: does environment matter?

Abstract

PurposeThe success of the Australian wine industry is well documented. However, there have been few comparative studies of the reasons for this success as compared to Australia's main competitors. Most of the anecdotal evidence and trade publications focus on “value for money” and fruit‐driven wines, without looking at how the Australian wine businesses operate. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the external environment in France and Australia as one of the drivers for Australian wine sector success.Design/methodology/approachIn‐depth interviews with two French and two Australian wineries and a review of the literature led to a series of hypotheses about the role of market orientation, strategic orientation, innovative and entrepreneurial environment orientation, constraining legislation, industry infrastructure usage, industry plan support, and interorganizational collaboration as factors differentiating the two countries. An online survey of wineries in the two countries resulted in a sample of 82 French and 63 Australian responses. An analysis of variance revealed significant differences between Australian wineries as compared to the French.FindingsAustralian wineries rated themselves higher in market orientation, growth strategy, export proactiveness, perceived innovative environment, perceived entrepreneurial environment, more interorganizational collaboration, and less perceived constraining legislation.Practical implicationsThese results not only provide some basis for Australia's success in wine exporting, but also add to the literature on the effect of the external environment on business performance.Originality valueWine exporting countries can use the results to help shape policy for creating a more conducive environment for exporting wine.