Business coursework and the resource-based view (RBV)

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether one can infer the identities of specific business and management coursework topics that owner/managers of wineries want to have addressed by a wine industry-specific educational institution by assessing upstream and downstream vertical integration strategies of their respective wineries. Exploratory empirical research involves the gathering of relevant information by way of telephone interviews and using closed end questions. The theory of the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm is the theoretical framework that was employed in developing relevant hypotheses. The results demonstrate that one can predict the types of business and management courses that owner/managers of wineries want to have offered by assessing realized upstream and/or downstream vertical integration strategies of their respective wineries. The research creates a bridge between research involving the RBV and the identification of needs of persons in various parts of the wine value chain. Such persons might either become involved in conceiving and/or rendering wine industry-specific business and management instruction, or benefit by taking business coursework that has been established as relevant for them by this research. © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited