Browsing by Subject "kustannusvaikutus"

This study focuses on understanding the relationship between organic wine production and economic performance. The aim of this study is to clarify, what are the economic impacts that result from the conversion of wine production from conventional to organic. This is an interesting topic to be explored in more detail because despite the increasing demand of organic wine and share of vineyard area used for organic winemaking, the economic consequences of the conversion are still somewhat unclear. Understanding the economic impacts of the conversion process is very important for wine producers from an economic perspective and contributes to an up-to-date picture of the organic wine industry´s economic performance also for the scientific field. The theoretical framework of the study was built in order to investigate the relationship between environmental responsibility and economic performance. The environmental impacts of organic wine production have so far not been scientifically proved but the organic production is widely viewed as an environmentally sustainable way of producing wine. The theoretical review showed that environmentally responsible production may cause both direct cost impacts and also indirect cost and revenue impacts on the economy. Moreover, the net impact creates the final economic performance and influences the success of a company. The study is based on an empirical approach focusing on understanding an economic phenomenon in its real-life context. The data is collected from representatives of organic wine estates from different parts of the world, who have experience of the conversion from conventional to organic wine production. The empirical study was implemented during fall 2012 in two parts. The first dataset was collected through a survey sent via e-mail and the second dataset was through interviews that were organized in one of the studied estates. Both parts of the data collection were based on a qualitative semi-structured questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of five sections, which all together covered four themes: vineyard, cellar, wine and business aspects. To accomplish the objectives of the study, first the focus was to understand the impacts of the conversion of production from conventional to organic on a wine estate in general. After this the impacts were categorized according to economic performance. The changes were classified into positive and negative cost and revenue impacts by using the existing theoretical knowledge about how environmental responsibility may affect a company´s economic performance. The findings indicated that most of the cost impacts, positive as well as negative, occurred in the early parts of the production chain, in vineyard and cellar procedures. The strongest cost increase was observed in the vineyard production processes, and slightly decreasing level of cost occurred in cellar production process. Varying revenue impacts were naturally indicated more frequently in later procedures, in wine and business themes. In overall, cost effects were considered both negative and positive, but the revenue impacts were mainly positive. Moreover, the cost impacts where more obvious, especially in the vineyard processes, than the changes that had impacts on revenue. Still any significant conclusions about net economic performance cannot be drawn because the findings do not offer any exact information on the magnitude of these impacts and the sample size is rather small. In general, the findings of this study seem to be consistent with other studies. This study was, however, able to offer more detailed information on the economic impacts of the conversion process than previous studies. In general, the representatives considered the organic wine business to have much positive potential, yet benefiting from the potential in economic term was little. The organic market is currently developing and growing faster than the conventional wine market, which creates a possibility to find new customers and increase the marketing channels. Still clear differentiation strategy that would potentially allow premium pricing and bring new customer segments was in use by only minority of the estates. Previous studies indicated that certification has an important role in organic wine marketing as well as in ensuring sustainable competition in the markets. Furthermore, organic wine production is a more risky business than the conventional one, and therefore developing insurance arrangements might be a useful mechanism for balancing the risks and an important factor in encouraging new estates to acquire certificates.