Digitalization's effect on everyday entrepreneurs in the French organic wine industry

Abstract

Everyday entrepreneurs comprise a substantial portion of the entrepreneur population. This paper focuses on everyday entrepreneurship, and on its ability despite limited resources to seize opportunities. Specifically, it investigates the impact of digital platform on the performance and activities of everyday entrepreneurs in France's organic wine sector. To this end, we construct a difference-in-difference model for the period 2011–2020. We compare the performance and growth of 66 organic wine producers before and after they joined Les petites caves—a digital platform dedicated to the promotion of organic wines. Subsequently, we compare this target sample with a control sample. The results show that, after digitalization, the target sample achieves higher sales; earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization; net income; and return on assets and equity than that of the control sample. The effect of digital platform on economic performance is more pronounced for younger ventures. These findings show that recourse to new digital technologies thanks to a bricolage ability contributes to everyday entrepreneurs' operational growth and sustainability and enhances their value creation. This study recommends everyday organic wine entrepreneurs to exploit digital platforms to promote local products, improve marketing and economic performance, and revitalize winemaking territories.