Internationalization of Italian wine firms: an exploratory research

Wine business is called to modify its strategic patterns in order to face the challenges of global competition. The Italian wine industry shows a continuous loss of its competitive position linked to a decrease of Italian share in world exports. This problem is often examined with a macro-economic perspective which limits the analysis only to a picture of a quantitative phenomenon. Fewer studies address the firms’ strategies and the managerial approaches to the development of international processes. The paper is a first step of a wider research project “Quality challenges in international markets. The competitiveness of Italian wine firms” about the relationship between internationalization of the Italian wine firms and the diffusion of total quality management. In this first explorative phase an empirical survey was carried out on 49 firms in order to outline a descriptive analysis in terms of foreign market orientation, market and channel preferences, organizational assets and strategic tools to the management of internationalization.