Abstract
The aim of this review article is to identify the state of the art and research gaps in consumer perceptions, preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) towards wine with sustainability characteristics. In an effort to cover all relevant literature, we searched for scientific articles published between January 2000 and March 2016. The search resulted in 34 articles which were analysed in detail. To assess the reviewed articles, the Alphabet Theory, which is a framework for explaining environmentally significant behaviour, was used. The review differentiates the results for consumers’ wine choice by the type of production method, e.g. sustainable, environmental friendly, organic or local.
A considerable number of consumers across different countries had positive perceptions regarding these different production methods and reported a willingness to pay a premium for wine with characteristics of sustainable production. However, on average, consumers’ awareness of the broad concept of sustainability regarding wine seemed low in some European countries and North America. In particular, organic and sustainability labels were often perceived as quality indicators. In most cases, the studies focused on the environmental aspects of sustainability; environmental soundness was given most often as a determining factor in purchase decisions regarding wine with characteristics of sustainable production. Overall, social and economic aspects were only just examined.
The results suggest that producing and marketing wine with sustainability characteristics is a promising strategy for quality differentiation, particularly for wine that is both local and organic. Moreover, marketers, retailers and producers will likely profit from developing information campaigns with a focus on environmental, as well as social and economic aspects to increase consumers’ knowledge of sustainable wine production, thus creating preferences and influencing purchase behaviour. Gaining a deeper understanding of consumers’ attitudes and their buying motives regarding different sustainability attributes is recommended for future studies. Since none of the articles examined purchase behaviour in real market scenarios with real market transactions, future research should focus, for example, on the analysis of household panel data as evidence of an attitude behaviour gap was found.