Survival in the French wine industry: can cooperatives resist better?

Abstract En

This paper examines the ability of cooperatives to survive after crisis, during a turbulent environment. We focuson the French wine companies. The French wine industry is worthy of investigation because it has been exposedto the combined effects of globalization, exacerbated international competition and decrease of wineconsumption in traditional producing countries. The sales of French wines have fallen dramatically during theyear 2000s on the domestic and export markets, forcing companies to adapt their strategies and to achieve abetter fit to their environments (Stoeberl et al., 1998). Consequently, the entire industry evolves and undergoirreversible transformations in its competitive dynamic (Agarwal et al., 2002). We suppose - following the well-known adage - that is not the fittest, but the most adaptable who will survive. Thus, while most studies on thetopic try to highlight relevant strategy to create value and perform in these changing conditions, we reexaminethe adaptability of French wineries to their environment through an original approach: survival analysis.