We Used to Get and Give a Lot of Help: Networking, Cooperation and Knowledge Flow in the Hunter Valley Wine Cluster

Abstract

The Hunter Valley, New South Wales, is both Australia's oldest continually producing wine region and a highly functioning wine business cluster. New generation cluster actors perceive that the region's concentration of historic family‐based firms has contributed to its strength. We have used rarely consulted and newly accessioned evidence from the 1820s to the 1920s to qualitatively test the extent to which early networking created pathways for knowledge flow in the region. Our cross‐disciplinary research into the historic depth of embedded cooperation reveals a little known feature of early Australian business history and complements the more commonplace breadth approach in cluster studies.

Prosecco has another story to tell: the coexistence of multiple knowledge networks in the same value chain

“…Thus, companies do not tend to collaborate intensively, which may be because, in contrast to McIntyre et al's (2013) findings, this region has intense internal competition. The main organizations that have introduced greater cohesion and knowledge flows into the network are the Consorzio di Tutela del Prosecco Superiore di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene DOCG (41)evidenced by the numerous ties highlighted in the figuresand the Confraternita di 40), a community of practice formed by relevant actors in the cluster.…”

“…Often, if there is a problem in the cellar, it is the winemakers who take care of it, and if they need help, they act as knowledge Scouters, collecting useful information to solve the problem and passing it on to the cellarers or oenotechnicians. Thus, companies do not tend to collaborate intensively, which may be because, in contrast to McIntyre et al's (2013) findings, this region has intense internal competition. The main organizations that have introduced greater cohesion and knowledge flows into the network are the Consorzio di Tutela del Prosecco Superiore di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene DOCG (41)evidenced by the numerous ties highlighted in the figuresand the Confraternita di Valdobbiadene (40), a community of practice formed by relevant actors in the cluster.…”

“…Mitchell and Schreiber (2007) studied knowledge networks in wineries in New Zealand, showing that the mobility of technicians is the preferred link to establish a network relation. In their study of the Hunter wine cluster in Australia from the period 1820-1920, McIntyre et al (2013 found that informal knowledge flows were important for establishing stable cultivation of wine grapes in that region. Family ties and commercial links enabled knowledge to pass through the area and the absence of competitive pressures favored the creation of knowledge networks centered on conversations about grapes and wine among the settlers.…”

How innovation commons contribute to discovering and developing new technologies

“…Hackerspaces seem to closely follow the design rules relating to distinct group boundaries, collectively developed rules and cheap-talk coordination, and relatively flat hierarchies. Although more extensive analysis is required, we can also point to a number of other innovation commons in which similar governance design rules are apparent: namely at the origin of new sports such as windsurfing (Potts and Thomas 2015); in the early stages of the wine industry in Australia (McIntyre et al 2013); and the nascent blockchain industry collaborations, such as co-working spaces (Waters-Lynch et al 2016). …”

Governing the innovation commons

“…Societies and clubs to discuss and disseminate ‘useful knowledge’, often technical and scientific in nature, are a characteristic feature of progressive, technologically developing economies. They were common not only in mechanical engineering (Allen 1983; Nuvolari 2004), but also in early agriculture, horticulture and viticulture (McIntyre et al 2013), among other domains. While these communities appear as proto-forms of industrial science prior to being organized into modern universities and research laboratories, that view neglects the extent to which these scientific knowledge commons were also functioning as innovation commons by pooling useful information to identify and develop entrepreneurial opportunities (see Lyons 2013).…”