Il vino invecchia, il vino invoglia, il vino invaghisce: prospettive evolutive dell'economia e del management del settore vitivinicolo

The object of this paper is the process of evolution of the wine sector in economic and managerial perspective. The triple denotation in the title search to mark the sense of the factors that are believed to be linked to the object of study. The wine sector in the first place has some structural features of the so-called mature industries (Volpato, 1986), hence the denotation that the wine "age" not only as a finished product but also as an area for improvement, particularly in Italy. This tendency is opposed by other maturity indicators which show a marked change from the point of view of demand, which it can extract the second denotation. The wine induces, as a product no longer consumed, in most cases, as a complementary element to the meal, but as a component of an experience. A third element that is intended to emphasize the industry (infatuated) is related to how the subject of the offer, and part of the distribution, the living viticultural production activity. It intends to emphasize that these are common elements of "passion" in the product, both by operators that offer and demand wine. The aim of this study is to develop an interpretation of the various phenomena associated with the evolution of the wine sector using as interpretative perspective that headed to the "knowledge economy". This outlook is based on identifying generative value in the production and use of new knowledge, constitutive processes of production value (Levitt and March, 1988, Kogut, Zander, 1992; Rullani, 1994; Nonaka, Takeuchi, 1995 ; Spender, 1996; Davenport, Prusak, 1998; Rullani, 2000, 2001, 2002a, 2004a, 2004b). Using this perspective, the main questions in the evolutionary process of the wine industry will find a reply. In particular we will seek to resolve questions such as why the demand for products related to wine growing in a situation of declining consumption of the product? how and where we produce more value (the largest share of value) within the supply chain / value constellation of wine? what are the roles that wine-firms can take in the process of evolution? how to interact with people who create value around the product wine? The interpretive perspective used, the economic-managerial, cognitive, and sees the interaction between demand and supply the central point of the process of value production. From this point of contact will be possible to identify all the players involved in the production of value (the subjects belonging to the constellation of value) focusing on the role that wine-firms can take. Finally, we will try to identify the evolutionary factors that must be addressed at the level of wine companies, to co-evolve within the industry.