Towards a Gradual Growing Strategy of small business: an analysis through the performance in the wine industry

The Italian wine industry is characterised by the strong presence of small firms in which a thorough strategic planning aimed to growth and to maintain or improve competitive advantage is marginal. This results in a lack of financial, managerial and cognitive resources. Based on these considerations, we believe that it is critical for small wine businesses to reconsider their growth strategies. We propose a possible strategic path, named Gradual Growing Strategy. Selecting a sample of 100 small wine businesses, we analyse the inter-organisational ties, distinguishing between equity and personal ties and identifying three groups of firms. With the aim to identify a strategic path consistent with the specific growth needs of small wine businesses, we conduct a descriptive and a regression analysis on performances of these groups of firms.