In this paper the literature on industry clusters as a response to local collective failure is reviewed as a way of enhancing knowledge about how failure of food value chains to perform efficiently can be analysed and overcome. The conclusion is that there is much in the local collective failure literature that assists in an understanding of, and is consistent with, the concepts of value chain failure, value chain externalities and value chain goods. Four potential areas for enhancing the analysis of value chains by accessing this literature are noted: defining the boundary between chain failure and local collective failure; improving joint action among parties interested in overcoming chain failure; augmenting the processes of knowledge creation and application in value chains; and improving the governance of value chains. The key point is that the ability of local collective or value chain partners to produce chain goods and internalise positive chain externalities depends directly on the nature and intent of the joint action by the partners: will they cooperate or not, and, if they do cooperate, how and to what extent will they do so? These issues of coordination of economic activity and the nature of the relationships between partners go to the heart of governance within both local communities and value chains.

The Australian wine industry is currently experiencing a correction, ostensibly a victim of its own success. Some observers have concluded that prospects for the industry in the medium- to long-term are strong. However, a consortium of peak industry organizations recently called for more radical approaches to industry restructuring to protect its core viability. Against these uncertain prospects, this paper adopts a multidisciplinary approach to analyse the prospects for one of Australia's newest wine regions, New England Australia. We argue that despite the barriers to its development, a commercially sound course can be charted for New England Australia. This course is based on a regional strategic alliance featuring leadership, improved inter-industry cooperation, niche marketing and a branding strategy focused on what is unique to the region.

The scoring of wines and the ratings of wineries is the source of much debate. In this paper we attempt to explain variations in winery ratings in Victoria by examining two winery rating systems, the winery 5-star ratings system of Halliday and the WineBoss version that modifies the Halliday system, to obtain a consensus industry rating from a variety of sources; in conjunction with a limited number of other data about the wineries that are rated. We use ordered logit models and odds ratios on a sample of rated Victorian wineries (291 in the Halliday sample and 331 in the WineBoss sample) to see which predictor variables increase the odds of a winery being in a higher-rated category. Wineries that are older, use a consultant winemaker and/or produce predominantly red wines are more likely to be in a higher-rated category than those wineries that do not; conversely, wineries that use a contract winemaker and/or are located in a number of particular regions of Victoria are more likely to be in a lower-rated category than those wineries that do not. All of these results are as expected and confirm previous research. However, neither the size of the winery in terms of output nor whether the winery has other revenue sources, such as a restaurant, has any significant correlation with winery rating. The paper concludes with some suggestions for further research.

ABSTRACT: International market dynamics are often cited as the cause of the decline in the Australian wine industry's relative position globally and the subsequent declining economic returns to the country's diverse regions. However, this perspective has been derived principally from international trade data. By way of providing a more nuanced explanation, we compare Australia's wine production and export performance with that of the 10 largest wine-exporting countries from the Southern Hemisphere New World, North American New World and Old World (European) wine-producing regions for the pivotal year 2000. The analysis deploys three performance measures and one measure for productivity developed specifically for this study. The results suggest that these wine exporters occupied a series of complex positions with respect to one another. Further, Australia's situation was at the time far from dire. Nevertheless, the comparative position from the perspective of performance in 2000 initiated a situation where 'the hunter became the hunted'.