Craft on tap: the rise and slowdown of Czech microbreweries

This paper examines the life-cycle trajectory of Czech microbreweries between 2007 and 2023, extending an existing product life-cycle framework to a dynamic niche within a mature market. Using comprehensive excise duty data, it identifies a decade of double-digit growth followed by stabilization after 2018, marking a clear transition from expansion to maturity. The results show that microbreweries thrived amid the stagnation of large incumbents by capitalizing on product differentiation and consumer demand for variety but are now subject to the same cyclical dynamics they once disrupted. Conceptually, the paper advances product life-cycle theory by applying it to a niche sub-segment within a mature national industry, demonstrating that PLC stages can unfold asynchronously across firm-size categories within the same market.