This thesis aims to provide an insight into the legal rules governing viticulture and winemaking, and their historical development. Furthermore, the current legal and factual situation as well as the current issues associated with the legislation in these fields are more closely examined in the thesis. An anonymous questionnaire had been created and sent to a selected group of small and medium-size viniculturists and wine producers in the Slovacko wine subregion in order to supplement the research and its aim of presenting the current legislation from de lege ferenda point of view.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a worldwide issue as organizations are under increasing pressure to behave in socially responsible ways. Environmental responsibility as a part of CSR is often connected with sustainability and protection the environment. This is of a significant importance to New Zealand and its 'clean' and 'green' image. One industry having an impact on the environment, and also having a strategic position in the economy of New Zealand is the wine industry. The aim of the research is to understand what motivates and sustains companies' CSR practices. This exploratory study examines (1) what drives the industry to engage in CSR practices, (2) the role of stakeholders in the company's decision making, and (3) CSR practices in the wine industry. A qualitative research approach supplemented by quantitative measures was adopted to answer the research questions. 24 case study organizations (wineries) were studied and 31 managers interviewed. The research found that the most important drivers of CSR practices are personal values, preferences and satisfaction with this profession. This is followed by product quality and customers' demand. Though New Zealand wine companies are also driven by the market; the market still does not value CSR initiatives and companies do not receive a price premium for sustainable or organically grown grapes. Furthermore, environmental regulations belong to important drivers affecting companies' decision-making. However, companies do not consider current New Zealand's regulations as significantly difficult to follow. On the other hand, companies want to preempt future regulations. The research also revealed that the most important stakeholders are owners, shareholders, customers, wholesalers and international businesses. The role of communication and ecolabelling is also discussed. As a result, the study proposes a typology matrix that differentiates organizations' involvement in CSR according to the extent of CSR practices and their drivers. This study contributes to understanding of the New Zealand wine industry status in environmental CSR at the present, the extent of drivers of proactive environmentalism and companies' stakeholders, and the description of a typology matrix of companies engaging in CSR. This contribution is valuable for those interested in CSR, and the future of New Zealand's wine industry.

Cette thèse examine les déterminants de la performance économique des coopératives agricoles. Elle porte plus précisément sur le cas des coopératives vinicoles du Languedoc-Roussillon qui constituent, avec 70% de la production régionale, le moteur de ce bassin de production viticole.Grâce à une approche multi paradigmatique de la gouvernance (théorie de l'agence, théorie des parties prenantes et théorie cognitive), ce travail analyse l'influence de ces différentes modes de gouvernance et des investissements immatériels qui y sont liés sur la performance économique au sens large (amont, aval et financière).Cette thèse distingue, à travers le « dilemme coopératif », la notion de performance à court terme, axée sur l'optimisation du revenu des associés coopérateurs, et celle de performance à long terme, focalisée sur la création de richesse pour l'entreprise coopérative.Cette recherche applique une méthodologie alliant approche qualitative essentiellement exploratoire et approche quantitative confirmatoire. L'analyse s'appuie sur 25 entretiens qualitatifs semi-directifs auprès de dirigeants ainsi que sur 87 enquêtes quantitatives réalisées à l'aide d'un questionnaire et traitées partiellement grâce à l'outil d'intelligence économique COOPERFIC®. Les résultats montrent que la gouvernance coopérative résulte bien d'une combinaison complexe de trois dimensions complémentaires (disciplinaire, partenariale et cognitive) qui ont chacune une influence notable sur la performance économique. En matière purement financière, il apparaît que la dimension disciplinaire de la gouvernance peut entraîner soit un équilibre de la performance orientée vers le court terme (optique adhérents), soit un équilibre axé sur le long terme (optique direction et salariés). Pour ce qui est de la dimension partenariale, elle est porteuse d'un accroissement général de la performance financière (à court et long terme). Enfin, une forte dimension cognitive provoque, de son côté, un accroissement exclusif de la performance financière à long terme, en lien avec une stratégie d'investissements immatériels prononcée, elle-même déterminée par le niveau d'implication des acteurs dans la gouvernance cognitive.Cette étude a ses limites car elle repose principalement sur le point de vue des dirigeants salariés et concerne un peu moins de la moitié des coopératives vinicoles du Languedoc-Roussillon. Toutefois, jusqu'à présent, très peu de recherches empiriques ont été menées sur le lien entre gouvernance et performance des coopératives agricoles, ainsi que sur le rôle essentiel des investissements immatériels dans cette relation. Cette thèse contribue donc à la connaissance des modes de gouvernance dans la coopération agricole et, plus généralement, à celle des déterminants de la performance des coopératives agricoles. Elle est, sur le plan académique, une contribution à la littérature gestionnaire portant sur la gouvernance des coopératives agricoles, ainsi que sur leur performance. / This thesis deals with the economic performance factors of agricultural cooperatives and more precisely of wine production cooperatives in Languedoc-Roussillon, which account for 70% of regional production and drive growth of wine production development in the region. Using a multi-paradigmatic approach to governance (agency theory, stakeholder theory, as well as cognitive theory), this work analyses the influence of different modes of governance and intangible investments on broader economic performance (upstream, downstream, and financial).This thesis maps out the “cooperative dilemma”: short-term performance based on optimizing cooperative members' incomes versus long-term performance focusing on value creation for the cooperative. This research applies a methodology combining a qualitative approach, essentially exploratory, with a confirmatory quantitative approach. Analysis was based on 25 semi-structured qualitative interviews of managers as well as 87 quantitative surveys using a questionnaire and partially evaluated using the economic data base COOPERFIC®.Results show that cooperative governance is a result of a complex combination of three complementary dimensions (disciplinary dimension, partnerships, and the cognitive), each of which has a significant influence on economic performance. In purely financial terms, it seems the disciplinary dimension of governance can lead to either a performance balance geared to the short term (vision of members) or long term (vision of management and employees. Stakeholders approach lead to better financial performance both in the short and long terms. Finally, a strong cognitive approach to governance leads to better financial performance only in the long term, when linked to a well-developed strategy of intangible investments, itself determined by the level of implication of agents involved in the cognitive governance.This study has its limits since it is based mainly on the point of view of salaried managers and concerns a little less than half of the wine cooperatives in Languedoc-Roussillon. Nevertheless, until now, very little empirical research has been carried out on the link between governance and performance of agricultural cooperatives, as well as the essential role intangible investments play in their relationship. Consequently this thesis contributes to our knowledge of styles of governance in agricultural cooperatives, and more generally to what determines the performance of agricultural cooperatives. From an academic point of view, it is a contribution to writing on managing agricultural cooperatives and how they perform.

This study investigates how well the Regional Atmospheric Modelling System (RAMS) simulates the sea breeze from False Bay (False Bay sea breeze) at a small resolution of 200m. It describes the influence of the sea breeze in the Stellenbosch wine growing district focusing on temperature, relative humidity and wind speed and direction through three case studies, using three different synoptic conditions. The RAMS simulations are verified against measurements done by automatic weather stations in the study area for all three case studies. The first synoptic condition investigated is when light onshore flow occurred over the south-western Cape. The RAMS model simulated the vertical and horizontal structure of the sea breeze from False Bay very well. However RAMS predicted the onset of the sea breeze 3 hours earlier than the AWS data predicted. The flow was off-shore in the second case study. The RAMS simulations as well as the observed data from the automatic weather stations, showed the two sea breezes influencing the study area, one from Table Bay, west of Stellenbosch, and one from False Bay. In this case study the model simulated the flatter head and stronger False Bay sea breeze. The third case study investigated the influence of strong onshore synoptic conditions, in which the model and observed values showed that no sea breeze developed from False Bay. From the three case studies it was found that the sea breeze is influenced by the synoptic flow and that the sea breeze causes cooling of between 3°C and 16°C and relative humidity (RH) increase of between 16 – 57% depending on the synoptic flow. RAMS was able to simulate the sea breeze theoretically correct and has the potential to be used to identify climatological areas in the wine growing areas of the Western Cape. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / Unrestricted

Notre thèse se propose de démontrer dans quelle mesure et par quels procédés Alves Redol s’inspire de la crise viticole du Alto Douro (1907-1915) sous ses aspects humains, politiques et socio-économiques pour élaborer l’architecture de sa trilogie. Cette problématique permet de découvrir combien la possession et la dépossession de la terre sont incontestablement deux axes fondamentaux qui décident du sort des protagonistes. Ce travail consiste à s’interroger sur les différents mécanismes qui sont au début de cette crise viticole, qui ont engendré un déséquilibre économique et par conséquent, d’importants changements tant au niveau de l’organisation sociale qu’au niveau des rapports sociaux. L’objectif de ce travail est de montrer comment la terre schisteuse du Douro, productrice du vin de Porto, façonne foncièrement l’homme dans sa dépendance fatale de la rigueur inexorable des saisons. Les viticulteurs dans la trilogie redolienne, et par le biais de l’intertextualité, sont aux prises avec une multitude de difficultés dues à plusieurs éléments : facteurs législatifs (signature d’un traité de vente de vin avec et en faveur de l’Angleterre) ; facteurs naturels (sous-production avec le phylloxéra et le mildiou) ; facteurs humains (surproduction et mévente avec la concurrence et surtout avec la contrefaçon du vin de Porto). Dans le sillage des théories marxistes-léninistes et du matérialisme dialectique, nous avons tenté de montrer que, malgré les procédés d’animalisation et de perspectives de privations continuelles des viticulteurs et des sans terre par les détenteurs des moyens de production, la masse rurale unie, réussit à se révolter contre l’exploitant et pour un nouvel ordre social. / Our thesis intends to prove to what extent and by what processes Alves Redol inspired by the Alto Douro wine-growing crisis (1907-1915) in its human, political and socio-economic dimensions to develop the architecture of his trilogy. Posing the problem in this fashion enables us to highlight that land ownership and dispossession are unquestionably two main axes which have an influence on the protagonists’fate. Our work examines the different mechanisms at the root of the wine-growing crisis, which created an economic imbalance, and consequently important changes in social organization as well as social relationships. This work aims at showing how the Upper Douro’s schistose soil, a key element in Porto wine production, also fundamentally fashions man and makes him dependent on the rigour of the cycle of seasons. In Redol’s trilogy, wine-growers, through the intertextuality process, are confronted with many difficulties due to various elements, whether they be legislative (the signing of a wine sales treaty in favour of England), natural (underproduction caused by phylloxera and mildew), or human (overproduction and bad sales due to competition and counterfeiting of Port wine). In keeping with Marxist-Leninist theories and dialectic materialism, we intend to show that, in spite of the dehumanization process and constant deprivation of wine-growers and landless people by those who control means of production, the united rural world succeeded in rebelling against its exploiters to achieve a new social order.