Creating Opportunity from Crisis, Progress from Research: Redefining the Wine Sector

Abstract

Change, for some, is reluctantly accepted, yet, for others, it’s welcomed and embraced. This decade shall likely entail even more changes in our world and the wine sector than has ever been experienced, requiring a significant reliance on the knowledge, experience, resilience and innovative capacity of colleagues, academic and professional in securing a sustainable and prosperous future. Perhaps, in its own way, the transfer of this journal from hosting by Elsevier to the Florence University Press signifies a preparedness for timely adaptation to the pressures facing, in this case, the publication of peerreviewed research. A decade on from the founding of this journal, and having been invited to contribute this editorial comment, I reviewed the editorial we prepared for the first issue; Editorial / Wine Economics and Policy 1 (2012) 87–88. It is evident that many of the issues noted at that time remain relevant, albeit now accompanied by additional emerging and important themes. Back in 2012 the issues we identified spanned the gamut of economics, finance, business management and policy and identified several key issues which might now, a decade on, be considered even more relevant and topical. These issues include the drivers and facilitators of adaptation and innovation within the sector; adequacy and timeliness of data collection, analysis and interpretation, now much more broadly developed with “big data” and artificial intelligence; and the restructured and alternative distribution pathways, now reinforced by innovation in IT, e-commerce and social media. Without ignoring the relatively recent and substantial development of China, the wine industry is a mature industry in much of the producing and