Co-operative business practices in the competitive leisure destination : lessons from the wine tourism industry in New Zealand

The generic management literature on ‘clustering’ among small businesses is centred around the co-operative efforts of firms within single product industries that have a progressively linear production model; there has been comparatively little attention paid to the role of clusters in developing a region, as opposed to the individual firms that conduct business in that region. This paper uses a case study of the wine tourism industry in New Zealand to examine some of the ways in which small firms may co-operate in establishing a regional image and branding, while remaining competitive in terms of their individual product lines. The main conclusion is that the clustering concept offers significant advantages to participating firms but that co-ordinated leadership is an essential component of long-term success.