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Emerging economic regional powers and local systems of production:
new threats or new opportunities?
WP SERIES – N. 01/08
Catching-up Trajectories in the Wine Sector:
A Comparative Study of Chile, Italy and South Africa
Lucia Cusmano
lucia.cusmano@uninsubria.it
Insubria University, Varese and KITeS - Bocconi University, Milan
Andrea Morrison
a.morrison@geo.uu.nl
Uru - Utrecht University and KITeS - Bocconi University, Milan
Roberta Rabellotti
(corresponding author)
rabellotti@eco.unipmn.it
SEMeQ – Università del Piemonte Orientale
Via Perrone 18, 28100, Novara, Italy
Tel. 39.0321.375317 – Fax 39.0321375305
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Catching-up Trajectories in the Wine Sector:
A Comparative Study on Chile, Italy and South Africa
Abstract
From a development perspective an investigation of the changes that have occurred in the wine
industry is of particular interest because it provides evidence on how emerging economies have
been able to acquire significant shares of the international market in a dynamic sector. Based on
novel empirical evidence as well as secondary sources, this paper shows that emerging countries
with diverse institutional models and innovation strategies, have been driving the process of
technological modernization and product standardization. Newcomers in the wine sector have
responded particularly effectively to changes in consumption habits, and in aligning emerging
scientific approaches with institutional building efforts and successful marketing strategies.
Keywords: Catching up, Wine sector, Sectoral Systems, Chile, South Africa, Italy
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1. Introduction*
Up to the end of the 1980s, European countries, and particularly France and Italy, dominated the
international market for wine. Since the beginning of the 1990s, their supremacy has been under
attack due to the spectacular performance in terms of both exported volumes and values, of new
international players. The so-called ‘New World’ countries eroding the long established position
of traditional