Wine Product Involvement and Consumers’ BYOB Behaviour in the South Australian On-Premise Market

Purpose – The purpose of this exploratory study is to identify how consumers’ involvement with wine as a product impacts upon their on-premise behaviour, with special focus on the BYOB (bring-your-own-bottle) behaviour aspect. Design/methodology/approach – Data are collected through the use of a self-administered highly structured questionnaire in both metropolitan and rural areas of Adelaide in South Australia. The sample consists of consumers who had at least one time BYOB of wine experience. A response rate of 73 percent was achieved resulting in 101 useable surveys. During the operationalization process a scale was designed for measuring consumers’ wine involvement level. Findings – Consumers’ involvement level with wine as a product has a direct effect on consumers’ BYOB of wine behaviour. High-involved wine consumers have a higher tendency to BYOB than low-involved wine consumers. Although there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of financial motivations for BYOB, high-involved wine consumers are more concerned about functional reasons, while low-involved wine consumers are more concerned about social and time reasons. There is a positive relationship between consumers’ wine involvement level and their attitudes towards having to pay corkage fees for BYOB. Research limitations/implications – The restaurant and wine industries could enter into mutually beneficial arrangements to cope with the increasingly popular BYOB practice. For example, wineries can partner with restaurants to have permission for consumers to BYOB of their wine to the partnered restaurant without paying any corkage fees. In return, the wineries can provide a “corkage fee subsidy” to the partnered restaurants. Although tentative due to the exploratory nature of this study, these findings may provide useful information to the restaurant and wine industry and would benefit further from investigation on a larger scale. Originality/value – This study is of value to academic researchers, the restaurant industry and the wine industry alike. It is unique in that it examines the relationship between consumer involvement with wine as a product and how this impacts upon their on-premise behaviour, with a specific focus on their BYOB behaviour