Imitation and the Case of the Global Wine Industry.

LLUCH ANDREA; GASPAR MARTINS PEREIRA; DA SILVA LOPES TERESA

The Routledge Companion to the Makers of Global Business

Routledge

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2019; p. 502 - 515

This chapter provides an overview of the multiple dimensions and impacts of imitation on the making of global business. It will focus on the wine industry, which historically developed as one of the first global industries, and which was particularly affected by imitation and adulteration during late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Unwin 1991; Pan-Montojo 1994; Pereira 2009; Stanziani 2003, 2009; Lopes et al. 2017a). This is also the period of the first global economy (1875?1914), discussed in Chapter 2 by Geoffrey Jones. During this period, the Western world was characterized by a revolution in transportation and communications (essentially in more developed economies), an expansion of urban consumption, and the development of mass distribution and marketing, in particular mass advertising, and mass packaging of branded goods (Chandler 1994; Jones 2005). These changes increased the choice of consumers both in terms of selection of goods, their quality, and price (Wilkins 1989). This chapter compares and contrasts wine-producers countries producers and consumers of wines from two continents: the Old World, focusing on major producers such as Portugal, Spain, and France, and also major traders and consumers such as Great Britain; and the New World, including major producers of wines such as Argentina, and also major traders and consumers such as Brazil. The chapter adopts a supply side perspective, investigating the relations and the multiple dimensions of imitations strategies in the wines industry.