The business model and sustainability in the Spanish wine sector

Abstract

The literature on business models and sustainability is vast but fragmented across many studies. This article seeks to unify the diverse contributions, proposing a sustainable business model archetype. With a sample of 411 Spanish wineries and using the Mann-Whitney U test, we have detected a difference between wineries in terms of their sustainability, identifying two business models, one of high sustainability and another of low sustainability. The high sustainability business model is based on the ownership of a vineyard, the production of bottled wine, sales in retail stores, supermarkets or through intermediaries, a better online position than the competition, a positioning in the premium segment and exports. The business model of a less sustainable winery is based on the sale of bulk wine in the low-price segment and an unawareness of where the wine is sold.