Winery Entrepreneurs Rooted in “Their Place”: How Lifestyle Decisions
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Winery Entrepreneurs Rooted in “Their Place”: How lifestyle decisions, business motivations and perceptions of place influence business practices and regional initiatives in the wine and tourism industries _______________________________________ A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy At Lincoln University New Zealand By Daisy Byrd Dawson _______________________________________ Lincoln University 2012 Abstract of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Winery Entrepreneurs Rooted in “Their Place”: How lifestyle decisions, business motivations and perceptions of place influence business practices and regional initiatives in the wine and tourism industries. by Daisy Byrd Dawson This thesis explores the characteristics, motivations and business practices of winery entrepreneurs involved in tourism in two rural, New World wine regions: Central Otago, New Zealand and The Finger Lakes, New York, United States. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with winery owners, managers and additional stakeholders across these regions in 2007. This research clarifies and expands on current understandings of winery entrepreneurship and rural place identity by drawing on multiple disciplines, including tourism, wine, marketing, rural studies, cultural geography, entrepreneurship and business management. The study offers an analysis of the influence of “place” on the entrepreneurial process, and the influence winery entrepreneurs have on a place. It contributes to an understanding of the entrepreneurship concept by analysing the factors that motivate entrepreneurs, and influence their behaviours. In these rural wine regions, the entrepreneurial process is an economic activity that is also driven by the motivations of individuals seeking to fulfil their personal goals. A typology of winery ownership has been developed from the data that may be extended beyond these regions. Analysis identified three types- status-seeking winery entrepreneurs, subsistence-seeking winery entrepreneurs, and lifestyle-seeking winery owners. Individuals possess combinations of motivations and goals, which may evolve over time from changes in contextual or personal circumstances. Based on these types, this research explores how differences in motivations and attachments to place influence how an entrepreneur acts. In particular, this thesis focuses on the lifestyle decisions and business practices related to three issues highlighted as particularly important by research respondents: Tourism, Marketing and Seasonality. The research analyses collaborative regional efforts to influence tourism, marketing and seasonality management, and the challenges that result from conflicting stakeholder agendas and goals. Intertwined in these conflicts are broader disagreements as to how individuals work collaboratively, how they perceive and promote tourism, how they see this place and the trajectory of future regional development. Taken together, the wine and tourism industries provide a particularly useful forum to explore the various entrepreneurial motivations, and how these play out in business practices and collective regional initiatives: the decisions and actions of an individual business can impact all businesses in the region, given producers and operators rely on a collective name and reputation to market their products. While wineries act individually, collective decisions of wineries in the region ultimately influence the development of the region through physical impacts, land use, business practices and representations of a place. This complex phenomenon is represented by a theoretical model, developed to conceptualise findings and address research objectives. The model of Winery Entrepreneurship Process and Place Identity Development (WEPPID) helps explain differences between study regions and can be applied to other places, to be used as a framework to conceptualise the various components that contribute to and influence the entrepreneurial process and place identity development. The entrepreneurial typology and WEPPID model are effective tools for practitioners and researchers, and contributes to our understanding of entrepreneurship in a rural wine and tourism context. Key words: Wine, tourism, rural, entrepreneurship, rural place identity, rural business ownership, wine tourism, place-marketing, seasonality, Finger Lakes, Central Otago You people, you think you can just buy your way into this. You CANNOT do it that way. You have to have it in your blood, you have to grow up with the soil underneath your nails, the smell of the grapes in the air that you breathe. The cultivation of the vine is an art form. The refinement of the juice is a religion that requires pain and desire and sacrifice (Miller, 2008). It’s largely a cliché, but true – wine is part science, part art. It’s also a big part experience; experience of your own environment, of your conditions. Like any creative process, it comes from inside you. It’s not something that is taught. You can learn the science of winemaking, the chemistry, but the great winemakers are people who understand when to back off and when to do just a little bit of this and not too much of that. Small decisions. Intuition. And often, you don’t even know why you’re doing it (Winery respondent, Central Otago). Acknowledgements First and foremost, this PhD project would have been impossible without the constant support from my two sets of “parents”. My PhD parents - Dr. Joanna Fountain and Dr. David Cohen have served as my professional beacons and guiding force throughout this process. The ideas developed throughout this thesis would not have been possible without their constant discussion and feedback. Thank you so much for all of the insight, knowledge and time you have shared with me over the long journey this has been. I feel so lucky to have been blessed with you as my supervisors. This thesis also would not have been possible without the love, support and constant reassurance from my mother and father in New York. You were always there to help me out of a bind and remind me that there is much more to life than a PhD thesis – particularly important during the ruts! I could have not done this financially or psychologically without you, so thank you for everything. Thank you to Rotary International and all of the amazing Rotarians who took extraordinary care of me during my first year in New Zealand. Without the Ambassadorial Scholarship, I would not have had the opportunity to begin a PhD, nor had the wonderful opportunity to live in Christchurch. Thank you to everyone with the Environment, Society, and Design Division. Forbes has been a wonderful and supportive base from which to complete a PhD. Thank you for all of the advice and support offered – particularly Douglas for always having an answer to every question. A special thanks to Michelle Collings for the time and energy put into formatting in the final stages of submission. For all of the wonderful people I met in Central Otago and The Finger Lakes – thank you for sharing your time and stories with me. In particular, thank you to Timbo and Stuart Heal for your initial introduction to Central Otago and providing an “insiders’ perspective”. Finally, a very special thanks to those special people who were always there for me along the way – friends and family in the US and in Christchurch - particularly the Bikram yoga crew, and the Pomeroys “Commune” for offering stability and such a wonderful community that I will always consider home. i Table of Contents Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... i Chapter 1 : Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 1.2 Research Context ..................................................................................... 2 1.3 Significance of Research .......................................................................... 4 1.4 Research Objectives ................................................................................ 5 1.5 Outline of Thesis ...................................................................................... 6 1.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 9 Chapter 2 : Rural Place Identity .......................................................................................... 11 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 11 2.2 Place Identity ......................................................................................... 11 2.3 Rural Idyll ..............................................................................................