Looking For Good International Partnerships: Bodegas Pirineos Ltd., A Case Study Within The Spanish Context

Abstract

In an economic context increasingly more dynamic, complex, and globalized, those companies which are able to find first-rate business partnerships and to manage efficient relationships with them have a greater guarantee of success and profitability in their activity. Their products will get the desired standards of quality and firms will be able to distribute and to sell these products adequately. For local and national markets firms use to have enough knowledge, but their position will be more complicated if they decide to expand their business abroad. Capability and unawareness of the market structures, language are some of the most important limits for international expansion. In this context firms must dedicate resources to look for capable partnerships. Although trust or partnership image could be understood as key-factor for election, decisions involve greater risk and uncertainty. If selection is satisfactory firms will desire to build relationships with these partnerships and cooperation and commitment will arise. In other case, firms will look for other alternatives, when available. Furthermore, the smallest firms have fewer resources than bigger firms and, therefore, the management these situations could be more complicated: power-dependence relationships are unfavorable. Now wine is a fashionable product. Once local and national markets are mature, international markets are fundamental for the wineries expansion. But international distribution seems pretty complicated. While production must be near vineyards, consumption could be localized wherever consumers are. Firms do not have enough resources to distribute their production directly, and peculiarities of each country or region must to be considered: legal aspects, languageBig international wine distribution use to be controlled by few and powerful enterprises in each country, while small and specialized distributors have fewer scope. Therefore, dependence relationships for wineries could arise. This paper, by analyzing a specific Spanish case, Bodega Pirineos Ltd., identifies those factors that a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) company assesses when choosing and deciding on building up a relationship with a specific international partnership that distributes its products. Sometimes distributors are understood as suppliers of services. Image, trust, communication, and cooperation are considered as prior elements, while commitment arises when relationships are satisfactory. When partnerships do not satisfy our firm, new alternatives are looked for. But if there is no more alternatives and Bodega Pirineos depends on this partnership it uses to maintain the relationship hopping new options arise. Some implications for other wineries or other SMEs firms could be derived from this paper.