A Country-Level Analysis of Competitive Advantage in the Wine Industry

The purposes of this paper are (1) to examine driving forces and key success factors related to the increasing globalization of the wine industry, and (2) to analyze the current competitive advantage positions of four Old and five New World wine producing countries. Each country will be profiled using key industry data and analyzed regarding their national capabilities to address five key success factors that contribute to their national competitive advantage position. The countries fall into three groups with respect to their national comparative competitive advantage position. The group with the strongest competitive position includes United States, Australia, and Chile. Australia and Chile both have small populations that provide for a tiny domestic market with little potential for growth. However they are very well positioned to produce and export wine with their adaptive, large-scale producers and their great lure for foreign investments, providing them with a position of a strong competitive advantage. With respect to production, cost structures suggest Australia and Chile may be better positioned that the US. However, economies of scale and economies of scope in marketing offer an advantage to the US because it is a populous and affluent nation. While the US wine market is already significantly larger than Australia and Chile, it has even more potential to expand. The group of countries with moderate competitive advantages includes Italy, Spain, Argentina and South Africa. Lingering economic concerns and disadvantages of scale prevent Argentina from being ranked as competitively as neighboring Chile. Likewise, South Africa has strong marketing economies of scale and moderate production economies of scale, but currently domestic unrest has diminished its attraction for foreign investment and ability to expand its home market. In the Old World, Spain and Italy are hampered by decreased consumption rates and weak economies of scale in production. However, on the positive side, they have shown promise in their ability to adapt to an increasingly internationalized marketplace and to attract foreign investment. The countries with the weakest competitive advantage positions in the global wine industry are two traditional strongholds of wine production in the Old World: France and Germany. While they have large domestic markets, there is little opportunity for further growth. The concentration of production into small wineries, scarce land and labor, complex labeling practices and inability to leverage new production, and marketing techniques does not bode well for effective competition in a global market place. Nor does either country hold much potential for attracting foreign investment, save for some traditionally undervalued areas of France, like Languedoc. In conclusion, it is clear that the New World countries are currently positioned better to capitalize on the opportunities created through industry globalization and other current driving forces. Italy and Spain emerge as the best positioned Old World nations. This competitive advantage scenario should be a wake-up call to many wine producing countries. Indeed, some Old World countries have begun efforts to better adapt to industry-wide improvements in production and marketing practices. However, it is clear that many nations need to increase support that will encourage production and marketing innovations to improve their competitive advantage position to help local wineries succeed in the changing and increasingly competitive wine marketplace.Wineries, Globalization, Competitive Advantage, Exports, Markets

The Globalization of Beringer Blass Wine Estates

The Beringer Blass Wine Estates Corporation was created by the $1.5 billion purchase of U.S. based Beringer Wines Estates by Australia based Foster\u27s Brewing Group. Each firm, operating independently up to the time of their deal, had expanded in their industries through both internal growth via development of premium wine brands and external growth via acquisitions of new brands. In September, 2002, Walt Klenz, President of the wine operations of the firm, privately contemplated how to guide Beringer Blass towards its strategic goals in an industry that was rapidly consolidating on a global basis

Globalization And The Emergence Of New Business Models In The Wine Industry

The forces of globalization have dramatically altered the international competitive landscape of the wine industry. This paper identifies and analyzes four new business models that have emerged among major industry competitors as wineries strive to create sustainable sources of competitive advantage

Can We Use SE-specific Sentiment Analysis Tools in a Cross-Platform Setting?

In this paper, we address the problem of using sentiment analysis tools 'off-the-shelf,' that is when a gold standard is not available for retraining. We evaluate the performance of four SE-specific tools in a cross-platform setting, i.e., on a test set collected from data sources different from the one used for training. We find that (i) the lexicon-based tools outperform the supervised approaches retrained in a cross-platform setting and (ii) retraining can be beneficial in within-platform settings in the presence of robust gold standard datasets, even using a minimal training set. Based on our empirical findings, we derive guidelines for reliable use of sentiment analysis tools in software engineering.Comment: 12 page

Heme metabolism genes Downregulated in COPD Cachexia.

IntroductionCachexia contributes to increased mortality and reduced quality of life in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and may be associated with underlying gene expression changes. Our goal was to identify differential gene expression signatures associated with COPD cachexia in current and former smokers.MethodsWe analyzed whole-blood gene expression data from participants with COPD in a discovery cohort (COPDGene, N = 400) and assessed replication (ECLIPSE, N = 114). To approximate the consensus definition using available criteria, cachexia was defined as weight-loss > 5% in the past 12 months or low body mass index (BMI) (< 20 kg/m2) and 1/3 criteria: decreased muscle strength (six-minute walk distance < 350 m), anemia (hemoglobin < 12 g/dl), and low fat-free mass index (FFMI) (< 15 kg/m2 among women and < 17 kg/m2 among men) in COPDGene. In ECLIPSE, cachexia was defined as weight-loss > 5% in the past 12 months or low BMI and 3/5 criteria: decreased muscle strength, anorexia, abnormal biochemistry (anemia or high c-reactive protein (> 5 mg/l)), fatigue, and low FFMI. Differential gene expression was assessed between cachectic and non-cachectic subjects, adjusting for age, sex, white blood cell counts, and technical covariates. Gene set enrichment analysis was performed using MSigDB.ResultsThe prevalence of COPD cachexia was 13.7% in COPDGene and 7.9% in ECLIPSE. Fourteen genes were differentially downregulated in cachectic versus non-cachectic COPD patients in COPDGene (FDR < 0.05) and ECLIPSE (FDR < 0.05).DiscussionSeveral replicated genes regulating heme metabolism were downregulated among participants with COPD cachexia. Impaired heme biosynthesis may contribute to cachexia development through free-iron buildup and oxidative tissue damage

Intraspecific variation in alkaline phosphatase activity in Phaeodactylum tricornutum (Bacillariophyceae, Bohlin)

To describe potential intraspecific variation in phosphorus incorporation in two strains of Phaeodactylum tricornutum (Bohlin), Ub3 and Ub7, alkaline phosphatase (AP) activity was evaluated via enzyme-labeled fluorescence assay. Analysis using the probe ELF-97 (R) provides individual evaluation, and therefore can determine the nutritional status of inorganic phosphorus in phytoplanktonic cells. Bioassays compared the control treatment to both phosphate-enriched and phosphate-depleted treatments by varying only the phosphate concentration in the media. The P. tricornutum strains exhibited differences in their development when incubated in the phosphate-enriched media. The development of the Ub7 strain differed by exhibiting "luxury uptake" and utilization of organic phosphorus, and the alkaline phosphatase analysis indicated limitations of this clone under such conditions. The Ub7 strain showed higher AP activity, when compared to Ub3, in the P-enriched condition. P. tricornutum presented increases in AP activity and low variation in Surface/Volume ratio, by increasing biovolume and its maximum linear dimension, as strategies for phosphate incorporation. Our results highlight intraspecific differences in alkaline phosphatase activity, and hence differences in the incorporation of organic phosphorus, as the tested species regulated enzymatic activity under different external phosphate concentrations.Univ Estado Rio de Janeiro, Fac Oceanog, Lab Ecol & Cult Fitoplancton Marinho, BR-20550900 Rio De Janeiro, RJ, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Dept Ciencias Mar, Campus Baixada Santista, BR-11030400 Santos, SP, BrazilInst Nacl Pesquisas Espaciais, Km 39, BR-12630000 Cachoeira Paulista, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Dept Ciencias Mar, Campus Baixada Santista, BR-11030400 Santos, SP, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Body mass index change in gastrointestinal cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is associated with Dedicator of Cytokinesis 1

Background: There have been a number of candidate gene association studies of cancer cachexia-related traits, but no genome-wide association study (GWAS) has been published to date. Cachexia presents in patients with a number of complex traits, including both cancer and COPD. The objective of the current investigation was to search for a shared genetic aetiology for change in body mass index (ΔBMI) among cancer and COPD by using GWAS data in the Framingham Heart Study. Methods: A linear mixed effects model accounting for age, sex, and change in smoking status was used to calculate ΔBMI in participants over 40 years of age with three consecutive BMI time points (n = 4162). Four GWAS of ΔBMI using generalized estimating equations were performed among 1085 participants with a cancer diagnosis, 204 with gastrointestinal (GI) cancer, 112 with lung cancer, and 237 with COPD to test for association with 418 365 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Results: Two SNPs reached a level of genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10−8) with ΔBMI: (i) rs41526344 within the CNTN4 gene, among COPD cases (β = 0.13, P = 4.3 × 10−8); and (ii) rs4751240 in the gene Dedicator of Cytokinesis 1 (DOCK1) among GI cancer cases (β = 0.10, P = 1.9 × 10−8). The DOCK1 SNP association replicated in the ΔBMI GWAS among COPD cases (βmeta-analyis = 0.10, Pmeta-analyis = 9.3 × 10−10). The DOCK1 gene codes for the dedicator of cytokinesis 1 protein, which has a role in myoblast fusion. Conclusions: In sum, one statistically significant common variant in the DOCK1 gene was associated with ΔBMI in GI cancer and COPD cases providing support for at least partially shared aetiology of ΔBMI in complex diseases