Performance outcomes of Pinot noir producers: how resources and business strategies shape competitiveness in Burgundy, New Zealand, and South Africa

Purpose This study aims to investigate how firm-level attributes (proxied as winery’s “producing identity”) translate into external market valuation (proxied as its “consuming identity”). It contributes to the debate on premium wine competitiveness by analyzing the moderating role of regional institutional environments and geographic fixed effects. Design/methodology/approach Using a unique data set of 150 wineries, this study examines how organizational resources (human capital, equipment) and strategic choices (grape sorting, vertical integration) affect key performance indicators. To evaluate these relationships across diverse metrics – including price, Vivino consumer ratings, perceived competitiveness and export performance – the authors use Logit, Tobit, negative binomial and OLS regressions. Findings Elements of firm strategy, specifically manual grape sorting and human capital, are robustly associated with premium pricing. However, significant country-of-origin discrepancies persist. For South African producers there is a pronounced unexplained discrepancy in pricing, rating and market access relative to their technical resources which appear comparable to those in Burgundy. New Zealand reports high self-perceived competitiveness but lacks top-tier “iconic” ratings. Research limitations/implications Limitations include the cross-sectional design, which precludes causal inference and the identification of specific transmission mechanisms. Furthermore, the study is constrained by a relatively modest sample size and the use of firm-level resource proxies that are often shared across multiple varietals in multi-product wineries. Practical implications Visible quality signals are strongly correlated with market recognition. To enhance the market valuation of emerging regions, the findings suggest that policymakers could benefit from addressing collective reputation building and the mitigation of distributional frictions, though these empirical implications remain tentative due to the associative framework. Originality/value This is a comparative study that links value-chain activities to market outcomes across old and new world Pinot noir producers, evaluating how firm-level resources interact with broader geographic categories.