Small and medium sized wine producers dealing with business to business e-commerce: Towards a relational model for enhancing value (co-) creation

The internet has produced a forward-looking shift in the way we communicate, think and run economic activities around the globe. The revolution in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has generated an innovating process in the agri-food sector that is far from being unwind. The wine industry is a case in point. Indeed, the industry has attempted to address the multifaceted challenges posed by electronic commerce since always. Business to business electronic commerce has been slower to develop than its counterpart, i.e. business to consumer E-commerce. However business to business e-commerce is starting to attract an increased interest, by showing a significant business value in terms of potential. Against this background, the slow development of B2B e-commerce has been linked to regulatory and economic reasons. In order to deal with such stumbling blocks, the paper suggests a shift towards an open platform that is aimed at facilitating transactions and interactions among businesses through a continuous problem-solving process in which trust and value is co-created by producers and customers through relational contracting.