Beer from here: Place attachment of Dutch Microbreweries

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2015-07
Language
en
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Abstract
The last years have witnessed a near-exponential increase in the amount of small breweries (microbreweries) in the Western world, breaking with the trends of increasing corporate consolidation and market homogenization that have characterized the international beer market in the last decades. In the academic literature, these developments are interpreted as suggesting a growing desire among consumers to be reconnected with the local in the wake of globalization. Responding to this claim, this thesis explores the ways in which microbreweries are attached to their localities using the following research question: ‘’How and to what extent are microbreweries attached to their place of establishment?’’. Using the theoretical framework of place attachment developed by Raymond, Brown & Weber (2010), this question is split up in three dimensions: place identity, place dependence (location factors) and social bonds (local networks). Data was primarily collected by interviewing the founders of 12 Dutch microbreweries. These breweries are segmented in three categories based on their annual production volumes. The results of this study indicate five factors that attach microbreweries to their village or city and inhibit relocation to another place: (1) personality of the brewery founder, (2) place branding, (3) outlet, (4) product types and (5) networks with other local initiatives. While the included microbreweries frequently integrate local elements into their corporate branding strategies and have highly localized downstream supply chains, an analysis of their upstream supply chains shows that most of their raw materials are sourced from abroad. Although most microbreweries indeed profile themselves as local businesses and are tied to their place of establishment in multiple ways, their embeddedness in global commodity chains paints a more nuanced picture of their proclaimed ‘localness’.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen