The Marketing Implications of Value Chain Governance Strategies of Wine Products Using Geographical Indications (GIs) in Italy and UK

Value chain governance strategies have important marketing implications for specific wine products that use Geographical Indications (GIs) in Italy and the United Kingdom (England and Wales). The researchers chose Italy because it has an important history regarding GIs and is one of the world’s major wine and specialty products producers, while the UK (England and Wales) being a newcomer, though small, is developing specialized wine production; and has enjoyed the recent adoption of GIs for wines. The contrast between an established market and a player with new market development makes for an insightful case comparison to study, and, therefore, identifies them as revealing and contrasting situations. There are many challenges surrounding the prevailing trend or movement towards the adoption of exclusive quality standards and distinctions in the global supply chains of agricultural food products in general, including wines, in the quest to support the conception of traceability and safety assurances. In this framework, the main aim of this paper is to review previous research that can be relevant to the analysis of governance mechanisms in supply chains related to Geographical Indications for wine and food products. The study analyzes how other researchers who study topics of this interest or relative to this research cope with these research problems or issues. The investigation is qualitative in nature, whereby it summarizes selected case studies from Italy and England and Wales, regarding the value chain governance (VCG) of wine and food products that use GIs. A value chain governance approach is deemed as an appropriate phenomenon that can help to fully understand and address the problem under study, since it is regarded as vital for developing, transmitting, and spreading of intelligence that leads to creativity; which in turn helps firms to enhance their performance and maintains the competitive edge. Therefore, as much as the study compiles a summary of investigations in these two countries (Italy and the UK), the findings are limited only to the impact of value chain governance, wine and food production in these areas and cannot be generalized beyond them. The study contributes to advancing knowledge and transferring it from existing situations in developed countries or markets to the developing ones. The paper proposes a further determination of governance sequences using GIs in developing, multi-cultural and ethnically diverse countries with developing economies.