Chapter 23 - Interactive innovation is a key factor influencing the sustainability of value chains in the wine sector

Abstract

Innovation is crucial to enhance and promote sustainability in the wine sector. It must encompass whole value chains to become effective beyond the farm level. Interactive innovation, whereby multiple stakeholders and actor-networks interact along the value chain, is advocated by the EU to enhance farming sustainability. The Wine Sustainability Program of Alentejo (WASP), in Portugal, engages farmers, winemakers, and traders to monitor and enhance their sustainability standards through a voluntary framework of quantitative indicators. Hereby, we argue that the success of the WASP is underpinned by an interactive innovation approach. To test this, we extracted qualitative and quantitative data and metrics to elicit aspects of interactive innovation driving success in implementation of the WASP. Our findings indicate to the key role played by individual champions and open-ended actor-networks, the relevance of shared values, and of horizontal cooperation and vertical coordination. This confirms interactive innovation as a key factor enhancing wine sustainability standards.