The triple bottom line in the global wine industry

Purpose: Sustainability is increasingly becoming important to global business, and the wine industry is no stranger to this trend. The purpose of this research was to empirically explore the extent to which all three dimensions of sustainability are practiced within the global wine industry to begin to form theory on the future of sustainability in this industry. Design/methodology: A qualitative study of 112 wine businesses from thirteen regions around the world was conducted over the course of six years to determine sustainability practices. Data consisted of depth interviews with wine business managers, organization documentation, website information, operation observations and photographs. The data were analyzed using accepted practices from grounded theory and content analysis to examine how the dimensions of sustainability are practiced. Findings: Few participants practiced the comprehensive triple bottom line; the majority were focused on financial sustainability of their company and a large percentage were concerned with both financial and environmental sustainability. Applying legitimacy theory, we found that companies influenced by moral legitimacy motivated practice of more comprehensive sustainability, whereas pragmatic and cognitive legitimacy drove the practice of more specific (single) dimensions of sustainability. Practical implications: Our findings suggest that the comprehensive sustainability perspective is not prevalent in the wine industry, primarily due to a lack of attention to social sustainability. The primary driver for the triple bottom line is moral legitimacy, or the internal desire to “do the right thing”. Customers have a great deal of power in influencing company behavior; therefore they could play a role in moving the industry toward the triple bottom line