Práticas estratégicas de vinícolas nacionais de destaque no mercado brasileiro de vinhos finos

Abstract

This study intends to understand the strategic practices of leading national wineries in the Brazilian wine market from the perspective of Strategy as Practice. To conduct the survey, we developed a multi-case study in three wineries companies located at the Serra Gaúcha region, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, where the managers involved in strategic activities were interviewed and observed. Faithful to the recommendations of Strategy as Practice authors, this work sought to understand how context’s forces shape and guide the disposition of actors for a particular strategic choice. To perform the analysis, the practices were grouped into seven major dimensions used to describe the common and distinctive strategic practices of each of the companies in the sample. This research shows that differentiation must be attributed to a combination of practices in the specific context of each company, and the weight of the particular skills of the wineries owners influences the orientation and the way the strategy takes place, transferring characteristics to practices that make them virtually unique. The study shows that the prominent position of the companies surveyed is related to a very accurate alignment of the available resources, and a set of strategic practices chosen to exploit them. These choices lack a formal planning and are constructed through daily contact among practitioners as strategic reactions to past experiences. Each company chooses practices that value their distinctive resources, reaching through them a competitive advantage. In this sense, the results of this study are encouraging. The survey revealed that the sampled companies have reached a prominent position in the market through very different resources and strategic choices, concluding that there are many ways to achieve superior performances in the market. The study of these paths from the Strategy as Practice perspective offers a rich and detailed description of the activities of practitioners in the day to day winery business, which may be used as an example and inspiration to others in the industry interested in implementing differentiation strategies in Brazilian wine market.