Abstract
Concerned about climate change, cooperatives in the wine sector are beginning to adapt their strategies, guided by cooperative principles that encompass high social responsibility and the pursuit of community values. In this context and focused on the analysis of the decisions that drive firms to be more environmentally sustainable, our goal is twofold. On the one hand, we wish to examine whether there exist differences between cooperative and non-cooperative firms as regards their environmental proactivity. On the other hand, we hope to demonstrate the diversity of behaviors within the category of cooperative firms, identifying the possible patterns of environmental proactivity in Spanish cooperatives in the wine sector. We first conducted a difference of means t-test for independent samples (n = 251; sampled in 2017)—cooperatives (51) vs. non cooperative firms (200)- and then a two-stage cluster analysis and a subsequent variance analysis, using SPSS 24. Our results show no significant differences between cooperative and non-cooperative firms concerning their environmental behavior and underlines the diversity within the cooperatives in the wine sector as regards their environmental proactivity, revealing the existence of proactive, preventive and activist patterns of behavior. These patterns also show differences in the motivations for their environmental behaviors and their assessment of financial performance.
Highlights
The scientific community broadly agrees that climate change is being rapidly exacerbated by human action, with the increase in pollutant gas emissions disrupting the world’s weather patterns
The aim of this article is to fill the gaps identified in the literature by making a benchmark contribution on the eco-innovative behavior of cooperative wineries in Spanish wine fair held in Ciudad Real (Spain), examining whether they present a homogenous environmental behavior, or whether, in contrast, they present differences which can be explained by the motivations for their eco-innovative strategies, which in turn may generate differences in performance as regards eco-innovations and in economic and market terms
We present the results of our empirical analysis in three subsections: construct generation and validation, comparing cooperatives and non-cooperative wineries and identification of environmental patterns among cooperative wineries
Summary
The scientific community broadly agrees that climate change is being rapidly exacerbated by human action, with the increase in pollutant gas emissions disrupting the world’s weather patterns. In the 1990s, the surface area of vineyards across the world grew significantly and new producers, such as China, Australia, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States, increased production, gaining a considerable share of international markets, especially in the premium wines segment, with growing product differentiation strategies in the global wine trade [31,32]. These changes were facilitated by technological advances that allowed production to be increased and quality to be improved, leading to the entry of new producers in global wine markets [33]. And Spain are regarded as having the capacity to adapt in a worldwide marketplace [31]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
