Agritourism, Value Co-Creation, & Marketing Innovation in the Sonoita-Elgin Wine Industry Item Type text; Electronic Thesis Authors Cubillas, Sonora Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 29/09/2021 06:30:54 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/620987 AGRITOURISM, VALUE CO-CREATION, AND MARKETING INNOVATION IN THE SONOITA-ELGIN WINE INDUSTRY by Sonora Cubillas _______________________________________________________________ Copyright © Sonora Cubillas 2016 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2016 WINE AGRITOURISM INNOVATION 2 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR The Thesis Titled Agritoursim, Value Co-Creation, and Marketing Innovation in the Sonoita-Elgin Wine Industry, prepared by Sonora Cubillas, has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master’s degree at the UniVersity of Arizona and is deposited in the UniVersity Library to be made aVailable to borrowers, under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, proVided that an accurate acknowledgment of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department, or the Dean of the Graduate College, when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, howeVer, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: Sonora Cubillas APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: June 7, 2016 Dr. Matthew Mars Date WINE AGRITOURISM INNOVATION 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures, Illustrations, & Tables ............................................................................................. 4 Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................ 6 Background & Setting ............................................................................................................................................. 6 Literature Review ..................................................................................................................................................... 7 Arizona Wine Industry ........................................................................................................................................... 7 Agritourism ................................................................................................................................................................. 8 Marketing & Value Co-Creation ....................................................................................................................... 10 Purpose Statement ................................................................................................................................................ 11 Conceptual Framwork ......................................................................................................................................... 12 Methods ..................................................................................................................................................................... 16 General Study Design ........................................................................................................................................... 16 Case Selection .......................................................................................................................................................... 16 Sample Selection .................................................................................................................................................... 17 Data Collection ........................................................................................................................................................ 18 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................................................................... 19 Positionality, Trustworthiness, & Limitations .......................................................................... 19 Findings ...................................................................................................................................................................... 20 PerceiVed Classification of Agritourism Type ........................................................................................... 20 Presence of Value Co-Creation Constructs (D.A.R.T.) ............................................................ 24 Discussion & Implications .................................................................................................................................. 32 References ................................................................................................................................................................. 35 WINE AGRITOURISM INNOVATION 4 LIST OF FIGURES, ILLUSTRATIONS, & TABLES Tables Table 1. Agritourism Type Breakdown ........................................................................................... 9 Table 2. Study Participants, Roles, & Associated Wineries .................................... 17 Figures Figure 1. A Typology for Defining Agritousim ........................................................................... 13 Figure 2. Building Blocks of Interactions for Co-Creation of Value .................................. 13 Figure 3. Customer Interaction Continuum ................................................................................ 15 Figure 4. Map of Sonoita-Elgin Wine Tour .................................................................................. 26 Figure 5. Customer Interaction Continuum – Agritoursim Type ...................................... 34 WINE AGRITOURISM INNOVATION 5 ABSTRACT Customers play an essential role in the growth and success of any business. Wineries and other agricultural-based enterprises that actiVely engage and/or inVolVe customers in production and other central processes do so for reasons that transcend simple marketing strategies. This qualitative study explores the strategic potential of customer inclusion in the operations of locally and/or regionally-based agricultural enterprises vis-à-vis on-site tourist models. This exploration relies on the theoretical principles of value co-creation to identify and illustrate how agritourism enterprises can more purposefully and strategically engage and embed consumers within their business operations. Atmosphere, compromise, and inVestment of consumers within the Value creation process leads to the transition of such consumers; taking them passiVe recipients to actiVe participants. WINE AGRITOURISM INNOVATION 6 INTRODUCTION Background & Setting Regional differences in climate lead to Variation in the agricultural enterprise landscape of the American Southwest. As a result, particular agricultural industries have been established within certain regions of this geographical terrain. One such example is the Arizona (AZ) wine industry, which has three primary grape-growing regions: Sonoita-Elgin, Verde Valley, and Willcox (Western Farm Press 2014b). The Sonoita-Elgin area of Southeastern Arizona is both the oldest of these three regions, and the only American Viticultural Area (AVA) found within AZ. This designation means that it has met federal requirements, as set forth by the Alcohol, Tobacco, Tax & Trade Bureau (ATTB), based on quality, reputation, wine characteristics, and so on (ATTB 2013). Studies on the scale, growth, and harvest rates within the Sonoita-Elgin viticulture region have been conducted. The bulk of current scholarly and practitioner attention in the area is being directed at the increase in the number of Vineyard acres, the amount of wine produced, and the recognition of the wine quality statewide (Western Farm Press 2014a). Scholars have directed particular attention to the marketing strategies pursued across the viticulture industry (Espejel,& Fandos, 2009; Fredrikson, 2001; Hollebeek & Brodie, 2009). The study within this line of inquiry with the most relevance to the current research is Hollebeek and Brodie’s 2009 study on wine distribution channels in correlation with customer inVolVement and target WINE AGRITOURISM INNOVATION 7 consumer wine knowledge (objective and subjective) leVels. The same authors also briefly consider market branding and Value co-creation, as defined by Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004), across distribution channels, within the industry (Hollebeek & Brodie 2009). That being said, a closer look at how wineries, from an agritourism approach, directly include, interact with, and market to their customers, has yet to be explored (Western Farm Press, 2014a). Further research on the inclusion of value co-creation