IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/mpifgd/142.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Wine as a cultural product: Symbolic capital and price formation in the wine field

Author

Listed:
  • Beckert, Jens
  • Rössel, Jörg
  • Schenk, Patrick

Abstract

Understanding the valuation of goods in markets has become one of the key topics in economic sociology in recent years. Especially in markets for goods that are valued for their aesthetic qualities, the ascription of value appears to be a complex social process because product quality is highly uncertain. The wine market is an extraordinary example because most consumers and even experts are not able to differentiate between wines based on objective sensory characteristics and cannot rank wines in blind tastings according to their price. Our premise is that assessed quality differences cannot be explained by the sensual qualities of the wine. Instead, we explain variations in valuation by social processes in which quality is constructed and contested. To do so we make use of Bourdieu's field theoretical perspective, which is strongly supported in our empirical analysis of the German wine field. It shows that his model of the structure of fields has considerable power in explaining price differentiation between wineries and that the orientation of consumers towards different segments of the field is based on class hierarchy.

Suggested Citation

  • Beckert, Jens & Rössel, Jörg & Schenk, Patrick, 2014. "Wine as a cultural product: Symbolic capital and price formation in the wine field," MPIfG Discussion Paper 14/2, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:142
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/94361/1/781546443.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:bla:jindec:v:50:y:2002:i:4:p:431-56 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Lucien Karpik, 2010. "Valuing the Unique: The Economics of Singularities," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9215.
    3. Doris Hanappi, 2011. "Economic Action, Fields and Uncertainty," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(4), pages 785-804.
    4. Beckert, Jens & Musselin, Christine (ed.), 2013. "Constructing Quality: The Classification of Goods in Markets," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199677573.
    5. Fiona M. Scott Morton & Joel M. Podolny, 2002. "Love or Money? The Effects of Owner Motivation in the California Wine Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(4), pages 431-456, December.
    6. Schamel, Guenter, 2003. "A Hedonic Pricing Model for German Wine," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 52(05), pages 1-8.
    7. Jean-Marie Cardebat & Jean-Marc Figuet, 2004. "What explains Bordeaux wine prices?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(5), pages 293-296.
    8. Victor Ginsburgh & Sheila Weyers, 2006. "Creativity and Life Cycles of Artists," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 30(2), pages 91-107, September.
    9. Landon, Stuart & Smith, Constance, 1997. "The Use of Quality and Reputation Indicators by Consumers: The Case of Bordeaux Wine," MPRA Paper 9283, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    11. Michael B. Beverland, 2005. "Crafting Brand Authenticity: The Case of Luxury Wines," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5), pages 1003-1029, July.
    12. Bernd Frick, 2004. "Does Ownership Matter? Empirical Evidence from the German Wine Industry," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(3), pages 357-386, August.
    13. Beckert, Jens & Aspers, Patrik (ed.), 2011. "The Worth of Goods: Valuation and Pricing in the Economy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199594658.
    14. Rössel, Jörg & Beckert, Jens, 2012. "Quality classifications in competition: Price formation in the German wine market," MPIfG Discussion Paper 12/3, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    15. Pierre Combris & Sebastien Lecocq & Michael Visser, 2000. "Estimation of a hedonic price equation for Burgundy wine," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(8), pages 961-967.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Beatriz Plaza & Catalina Gálvez-Galvez & Ana González-Flores & Jokin Jaca, 2016. "Repositioning through Culture: Testing Change in Connectivity Patterns," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Wilkinson, John, 2019. "An overview of German new economic sociology and the contribution of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies," MPIfG Discussion Paper 19/3, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    3. Carter, Elizabeth, 2015. "Constructing quality: Producer power, market organization, and the politics of high value-added markets," MPIfG Discussion Paper 15/9, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    4. Benner, Maximilian, 2017. "Culture in local and regional development: A Mediterranean perspective on the culture/economy nexus," MPRA Paper 77787, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Fischer, Edward F., 2017. "Quality and inequality: Taste, value, and power in the third wave coffee market," MPIfG Discussion Paper 17/4, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rössel, Jörg & Beckert, Jens, 2012. "Quality classifications in competition: Price formation in the German wine market," MPIfG Discussion Paper 12/3, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    2. Jacobo Núñez & David Martín‐Barroso & Francisco J. Velázquez, 2024. "The hedonic price model for the wine market: A systematic and comparative review of the literature," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 55(2), pages 247-264, March.
    3. Gerhard Rainer, 2021. "Geographies of qualification in the global fine wine market," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(1), pages 95-112, February.
    4. Luigi Benfratello & Massimiliano Piacenza & Stefano Sacchetto, 2004. "-What Drives Market Prices in the Wine Industry ? Estimation of a Hedonic Model for Italian Premium Wines," CERIS Working Paper 200411, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    5. repec:lic:licosd:40818 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Carter, Elizabeth, 2015. "Constructing quality: Producer power, market organization, and the politics of high value-added markets," MPIfG Discussion Paper 15/9, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    7. Wehinger, Frank, 2014. "Falsche Werte: Nachfrage nach Modeplagiaten," MPIfG Discussion Paper 14/20, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    8. Stefano Castriota, 2018. "Does Excellence Pay Off? Evidence from the Wine Market," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS49, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.
    9. Bronk, Richard & Beckert, Jens, 2022. "The instability of preferences: Uncertain futures and the incommensurable and intersubjective nature of value(s)," MPIfG Discussion Paper 22/1, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    10. Nouguez, Etienne, 2020. "How much is your health worth? A research agenda on valuation processes and markets for medicines," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 21(3), pages 11-19.
    11. Kornberger, Martin & Pflueger, Dane & Mouritsen, Jan, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures: Accounting for platform organization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 79-95.
    12. Kornberger Martin & Pflueger Dane & Mouritsen Jan, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures : Accounting for platform organization," Post-Print hal-02276737, HAL.
    13. Neil Pollock & Duncan Chapple & Suwen Chen & Luciana D’Adderrio, 2023. "The Valorising Pitch: How Digital Start‐ups Leverage Intermediary Coverage," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 346-371, March.
    14. Plante, Maude & Free, Clinton & Andon, Paul, 2021. "Making artworks valuable: Categorisation and modes of valuation work," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    15. Peter Gal & Attila Jambor, 2020. "Geographical Indications as Factors of Market Value: Price Premiums and Their Drivers in the Hungarian Off-Trade Wine Market," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 12(2), June.
    16. Menival, David & Charters, Steve, 2014. "The impact of geographic reputation on the value created in Champagne," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 58(2), April.
    17. Jerry Patchell, 2008. "Collectivity and Differentiation: A Tale of Two Wine Territories," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(10), pages 2364-2383, October.
    18. Villas-Boas, Sofia B, 2020. "Reduced Form Evidence on Belief Updating Under Asymmetric Information," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt08c456vk, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    19. Vincent Hoang & Takao Iida & Shigeru Matsumoto & Natsuki Watanabe & Clevo Wilson, 2016. "Consumer’s comparison between local and imported organic products: a hedonic analysis of the Japanese table wine market," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 6(3), pages 405-415, December.
    20. Mahenc, Philippe & Meunier, Valérie, 2006. "Early Sales of Bordeaux grands crus," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 57-74, April.
    21. Richard Carew & Wojciech J. Florkowski, 2010. "The Importance of Geographic Wine Appellations: Hedonic Pricing of Burgundy Wines in the British Columbia Wine Market," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 58(1), pages 93-108, March.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:142. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mpigfde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.