Concerned about climate change, cooperatives in the wine sector are beginning to adapt their strategies, guided by cooperative principles that encompass high social responsibility and the pursuit of community values. In this context and focused on the analysis of the decisions that drive firms to be more environmentally sustainable, our goal is twofold. On the one hand, we wish to examine whether there exist differences between cooperative and non-cooperative firms as regards their environmental proactivity. On the other hand, we hope to demonstrate the diversity of behaviors within the category of cooperative firms, identifying the possible patterns of environmental proactivity in Spanish cooperatives in the wine sector. We first conducted a difference of means t-test for independent samples (n = 251; sampled in 2017)—cooperatives (51) vs. non cooperative firms (200)- and then a two-stage cluster analysis and a subsequent variance analysis, using SPSS 24. Our results show no significant differences between cooperative and non-cooperative firms concerning their environmental behavior and underlines the diversity within the cooperatives in the wine sector as regards their environmental proactivity, revealing the existence of proactive, preventive and activist patterns of behavior. These patterns also show differences in the motivations for their environmental behaviors and their assessment of financial performance.

In a changing socio-economic and ecological context, the agri-food industry, where the use of natural resources is very important, must pay more and more attention to green and eco-innovation. Public decision-makers have started to implement measures to encourage the adoption of sustainable practices by companies, which are also pressured by supply and demand factors. This article aims to determine the factors that drive eco-innovation in the wine sector in Spain, a mature and traditional sector characterized by its high fragmentation. In particular, we sought to determine the role environmental regulations play in promoting eco-innovation in the sector. To this end, an empirical study was developed using a structural equation model established using a partial least squares technique for a sample of 251 wineries from all over the country. The study shows that the current regulatory framework inhibits eco-innovation in Spanish wineries, who are more encouraged by positioning and external motivation factors.

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