12 pages, via online journal, This study, underpinned by the Resource-Based View and its association with the Relational View, contributes to the existing cross-disciplinary literature involving economic geography, tourism and marketing by extending the current understanding of the relationship between firms' value co-creation activities and sales performance in the context of rural wine producing firms. Specifically, by investigating how a firm's competitor orientation (possessing and acting upon knowledge of competitors) affects the relationship between firms' capabilities to engage in value co-creation activities and sales performance. This investigation utilises a multi-level qualitative investigation within small-to-medium-sized, New Zealand wine producers engaging in various value co-creation activities (wine hospitality and tourism such as accommodation and restaurants through to wine sales, including at cellar doors). The methods employed involved 40 interviews across 20 businesses; observations of cellar door employees in all 20 firms; and collection of archival data. The findings reveal that by having a high degree of a competitor orientation, the enhanced value co-creation activities can help individual companies improve sales performance and support cluster sustainability, including via repeat tourism. However, results vary among competing businesses based on the product-markets served, where illustrations of potential tensions highlight the need for the management of complementary relationships, within and across clusters (the latter typically being to serve overseas markets). This study consequently offers new unique insights that explain strategies affecting not just an individual firm's performance, but also, the sustainability of other businesses.
24 pages, Agriculture and fashion become intertwined when fiber animals are used as a source of “raw materials,” including wool and mohair for clothing and textile production. This study evaluates the emerging visibility of fiber farms in the United States with sheep, alpacas, and angora goats in physical and virtual realms. This study explores twenty-first century fiber farmer discourses that contribute to Slow Fashion. Farmers have extensive expertise about their animals, fibers, and the farm landscape. The research methodology included a virtual ethnography on Facebook, and on-site visits to US fiber farms during 2013. Findings from the virtual ethnography conveyed how fiber farmers in Texas, Virginia, New York, and Illinois individualize the fiber animals with photographs, names, and descriptions of their personality characteristics. Individualizing fiber animals led to user engagement and interest in physically visiting fiber farms. Findings from on-farm visits in New York, led to deeper insight about alpaca fibers, a heritage breed of sheep, and the farmer’s role in the community. The “open” atmosphere created by fiber farmers suggests the sustained development of a local fiber industry, and opportunities for collaborations between fiber farms and the fashion industry.
