Does wine innovation research require ageing? A bibliometric review

Abstract

Although wine is an old issue, wine business research and particularly innovation in the wine sector seem to be relatively young areas in the literature. With its production limited to certain regions but its consumption being more widespread, wine plays a relevant role in the economic development of some rural European regions. Considering this strong influence in certain European countries, the purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive assessment of innovation in wine-related articles published in scholarly journals between 1998 and 2019 to describe how this field of research has evolved. This article combines a systematic literature review process with a bibliometric review. The use of both methodologies makes a universal, neutral and reliable contribution, reducing the possible bias of traditional literature reviews. The main advantage of the employment of a bibliometric methodology is the speed with which we can analyse a large number of documents to obtain the key issues identified in the literature. A relevant finding in our research is that sustainable innovation is emerging as a distinct type of innovation, related to those involving procedural and organizational changes. The results also exhibit that a large fraction of wine business literature is regionally based, which makes sense given the characteristics of the industry.