Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'New Zealand wine districts'

It is widely recognised that the tourism experience involves pre-visit anticipation, travel to and from the site and post-visit reminiscence or recollection, yet to date few studies have explored the link between these elements. Winery visitation presents an excellent opportunity to explore these phases of the travel experience as wine is present pre-visit, on-site and post-visit. In 1999 this study set out to explore these links by surveying visitors to 33 New Zealand wineries and then tracking their behaviour six to eight months post-visit via a postal survey. From an initial sample of 1,090, 636 follow-up surveys were distributed with 358 usable surveys returned. The on-site survey explored the pre-visit and on-site wine habits and winery visitation behaviour of respondents, while 97 semi-structured interviews were also undertaken in order to provide further detail on some aspects of the on-site visit. The follow-up survey included an exploration of the respondents� on-going purchasing and consumption of wine as well as experiential elements such as recollection of the visit, word-of-mouth behaviour and enduring levels of satisfaction. A number of a priori segmentation criteria drawn from wine consumer behaviour and wine tourism literature have been applied in the analysis of the data in order to provide a detailed discussion of the various elements of this multi-phased experience. Many regional differences were observed in the demographic profile of respondents, while the age profile of male and female visitors were also significantly different. This has dispelled the myth of a 'typical winery visitor' put forward by many early wine tourism researchers and highlights the need for detailed market analysis for wineries and wine regions. Pre-visit wine habits and winery visitation behaviour were influenced by gender, age/generation and country of origin. However, the most significant influence was between different levels of wine knowledge. This highlights the importance of wine education and interpretation, which was also identified as an important part of the winery visit by many respondents. Examination of the on-site experience identified important regional differences in the nature of the winery experience and lead to the coining of the term touristic terroir to describe the nuances of the regional experience. Almost half of the respondents made a post-visit purchase, while there were moderately high levels of enduring satisfaction and high levels of word-of-mouth behaviour. Post-visit purchases were primarily influenced by taste, but experiential elements of the visit (including sharing the wine or winery experience with others, memory of the visit and the service received) were also moderately influential. This study has provided an insight into wine tourism and the behaviour of the winery visitor. It is the first and, to date, only nationwide survey of winery visitors anywhere in the world and one of only a handful of tourism studies that have attempted to track the behaviour of respondents. It has identified important connections between the on-site experience, experiential aspects of the post-visit experience and the purchasing and consumption behaviour of winery visitors. It also provides a framework for the study of other areas of tourism including souvenir purchases, holiday photography, food and tourism and tourist behaviour more broadly.

Recently, New Zealand's wine industry has made remarkable progress. For example, the number of hectares planted in grapes increased from 4,880 in 1990, to 15,479 in 2003, and the number of wineries increased from 175 in 1993 to 421 in 2003. Projections for 2006 indicate that the growth of wine exports should nearly double from 2003, with expected revenues of $NZ 736 million. However, despite this growth, little has been reported about developments in New Zealand's wine tourism industry, or about consumer perceptions of the winery experience in the form of published academic research. The limited amount of information, particularly from the visitors' points of view, may not only be preventing winery operators and the wine industry in general from having a better understanding of their visitors, but also from addressing the needs of different visitor segments. Resulting implications for winery operators may include forgone business opportunities, and customers not fully benefiting in terms of product and service quality. Recent studies indicate that this last element is particularly important in wine tourism. This study reports the results of an exploratory research project conducted in New Zealand wineries that investigated aspects of the winery experience, including wine involvement, satisfaction with the winery experience, and visitor demographics. An index to measure involvement with wine, the wine involvement index (WIX), was developed and utilised to investigate whether wine involvement had an impact on winery visitors' behaviour. Data were collected from winery visitors via questionnaires distributed in a sample of wineries in different wine regions of New Zealand. A total of 609 usable responses were obtained (24.8% response rate). The results indicate a number of differences between the independent, dependent, and moderating variables. For example, it was found that age, whether visitors are domestic or international, and different levels of wine involvement appear to have a clear impact on winery expenditure. In addition, the WIX was confirmed to be a useful tool, for example, by identifying potential relationships between different groups of winery visitors. The results add new knowledge to the area of wine tourism, and offer useful information for wineries and the wine tourism industry. This information includes the potential commercial significance of some visitor groups. An additional contribution of this study is the 'complete wine tourism research model.' This concept presents an alternative to existing wine tourism models, and points out attributes and dimensions that play a major role in the winery experience.

The traditional wood used to make barrels destined for use in the world wide wine industry is oak. However, oak chips and shavings can substitute for barrels to add flavour to wine and are very much more cost effective. As with the heat treatment of barrels, oak chips are toasted before use. This serves to pyrolyse lignin and hemicellulose, generating families of compounds that impart desirable flavours to wine. Other woods are very occasionally used in wine barrel construction, but no chips other than oak chips have been used to flavour wine. This is surprising given that all woods contain lignin and hemicellulose, the composition of which will vary perhaps usefully from species to species. The 12 woods used in this research, including American oak, were chosen on several criteria: botanical similarly to oak, exclusivity to New Zealand, and historical association with New Zealand. The woods were cut to chips measuring about 10 x 20 x 2.5 mm. The moisture content was measured after dry heating to 110°C. Fresh samples of chips were heated (toasting in the context of wine) to 200°C for 2 hours, 210°C for 3 hours, called light and heavy toasting respectively. Weight loss was determined. The colour of the untreated and toasted wood chips was measured in Hunter colour space, yielding data on lightness (L*), hue angle (the basic colour) and saturation (the intensity of colour). The moisture content of oak was the lowest of all the woods. The weight loss of oak chips at 200°C was much greater than that of other woods, but the colour change did not indicate losses due to severe charring. Overall, each wood behaved in a distinctive way to the toasting treatments, with some charring much more than others. Hue was the least affected, indicating that the basic colour of the woods was little changed by toasting. Light and saturation generally decreased strongly, particularly on heavy toasting. Colour was thus being lost and less light reflected. An unoaked chardonnay was infused with toasted chips at the rate of 5 g.L-1 for two weeks at room temperature, and later decanted. At all stages exposure to air was minimised. The 25 treatments (2 x 12 plus the unwooded control) were first assessed by a panel comprising eight experienced wine tasters and 29 AUT staff members who claimed some knowledge of wine flavour. This qualitative/semi-quantitative analysis required tasters to assess the wines in terms of 12 descriptors commonly associated with oaked wines (boxes were ticked for ‘sweet oak’, ‘smokey’, ‘vanilla’ etc.), and to choose the three most liked and the three least liked. 6 Confidential A principal component analysis of a correlation matrix of descriptors was used to summarise panelist’s opinion. The first two principal components explained 53 % of the variation and served to group descriptors into four quadrants, which were each associated with different woods and toasting levels. Most liked were totara light (toast), kahikatea heavy, manuka heavy and American oak light. Macrocarpa light toast was almost universally disliked. On the basis of liking and association with New Zealand, five woods and chosen toasting levels and the control were selected for hedonic trials (1 to 9 liking scale) with 180 consumers (age range and gender were identified) in six retail wine shops. The decreasing numerical of liking by treatment was totara (6.49), control, manuka, American oak, kahikatea, radiata pine (5.47), with an overall significant effect (P < 0.001) for treatment. Tukey’s test revealed that only totara and the control treatments were outstanding (P < 0.05). Retail wine shop as a factor was marginally significant. Older consumers liked the wines more (P < 0.05), as did females (P < 0.001). There were no significant interactions between any of the factors. Because of the difficulties in sourcing totara, manuka appears to be the most viable alternative to oak as a wine flavouring in the New Zealand context.

ABSTRACT A core tool of sensory science is the use of trained descriptive panels. This research describes an investigation into the role of motivation in the performance of trained panels and the use of a trained panel to develop a better understanding of the perception of Sauvignon blanc wines. Substantial investment in time and money is directed towards ensuring trained panels perform optimally. Having selected a panel, the panel leader needs to ensure that panellists provide accurate, reliable data. Panellist motivation is also an important factor to consider. While performance psychology, education and sport science fields have researched motivation extensively, knowledge about panellist motivation within sensory science is limited. However, findings from existing research in these other areas - which suggest an important role for autonomy, competence and relatedness - can be applied to sensory panels in order to increase intrinsic motivation. The initial part of the research investigated the fundamental factors that affect and influence panellists’ motivation and participation. A survey (n=74) revealed that extra income and a general interest in food were the key drivers in inspiring people to become panellists, whilst enjoyment in being a panellist, interest in food, and extra income were key drivers for people to remain panellists. In a second survey, the intrinsic motivation of seven trained panels from four countries (n=108) was assessed. External panels were found to be more intrinsically motivated than internal panels. Experienced panellists had an increased perception of competence, which is a key factor for people to be intrinsically motivated. Understanding motivational frameworks currently used in other research fields and integrating them into existing panel training protocols may enhance and sustain panellists’ intrinsic motivation. A trained panel (n=14) was then used in the second part of the thesis to identify key flavours in Sauvignon blanc wines from Australia, France, New Zealand, Spain, South Africa and USA. Sixteen characteristics were identified and measured, including sweet sweaty passionfruit, capsicum, passionfruit skin/stalk, boxwood/cat’s urine, grassy, mineral/flinty, citrus, bourbon, apple lolly/candy, tropical, mint, fresh asparagus, canned asparagus, stonefruit, apple and snowpea. Principal component analysis was used to describe differences between regions and countries. Sauvignon blanc wines from Marlborough, New Zealand (NZ), were described by tropical and sweet sweaty passionfruit characteristics, while French and South African Sauvignon blanc wines were described as having flinty/mineral and bourbon-like flavors. Chemical analyses of these wines also showed that Marlborough, NZ wines had more methoxypyrazine and thiol compounds. A consumer study (n=109) showed that New Zealanders significantly prefer New Zealand style Sauvignon blanc. The final part of this research focused on using trained panellists to explore the interactions between volatile and non-volatile wine compounds and their effects on the aroma profile of New Zealand Sauvignon blanc wine. Four volatile aroma compounds that are important in New Zealand Sauvignon blanc wine were studied (isobutyl methoxypyrazine [MIBP], 3-mercaptohexanol [3MH], 3-mercaptohexanol acetate [3MHA], and ethyl decanoate). Each of these four aroma compounds were assessed in combination with three non-volatile polyphenolic compounds commonly found in Sauvignon blanc wine: catechin, caffeic acid and quercetin. Results showed each polyphenol had a unique effect when blended with a specific aroma compound, either suppressing, accentuating, or showing little effect on the perception of the aroma compounds. The perception of MIBP, 3MH, and ethyl decanoate were largely suppressed by the added polyphenols, with a few exceptions. The perception of 3MH was accentuated with the addition of caffeic acid, and the perception of 3MHA was accentuated with the addition of catechin. The interactive effects of aroma compounds with polyphenols likely reflect non-covalent associations in the wine solution that reduce the volatility of the aroma compounds. With an understanding of the interactive effects of volatile and non-volatile compounds in wine, winemakers might optimize the impact of selected volatile compounds by managing polyphenol levels, supporting their efforts to attain desirable wine aroma profiles.

Il settore dell’industria vinicola in Nuova Zelanda è in forte crescita con un aumento dell’export di circa il 24% ogni anno. Nella regione di Marlborough viene prodotto il 77% della produzione vinicola dell’intera nazione. Questa zona ha subito due eventi sismici, il terremoto di Lake Grassmere nel 2013 e di Kaikoura nel 2016, che hanno causato ingenti danni ai serbatoi d’acciaio utilizzati per lo stoccaggio e fermentazione delle uve. Questi danneggiamenti hanno evidenziato delle carenze nella progettazione di dettaglio. Per la progettazione sismica dei serbatoi d’acciaio esistono delle linee guida dal 1986 (aggiornate nel 2009) rilasciate dalla “New Zealand society of earthquake engineering” o NZSEE. Questa guida non offre indicazioni sul progetto dei dettagli costruttivi tipici dei serbatoi da vino o su come progettare secondo la gerarchia delle resistenze quando si ulizzano ancoraggi duttili per fissare il serbatoio alla fondazione. In questo elaborato vengono confronate le linee guida neo zelandesi con due norme internazionali sulla progettazione sismica dei serbatoi: l’Eurocodice 8 e le API650. Il confronto avvienen attravenso la progettazione di 6 serbatoi da vino tipici di Marlborogh in modo da evidenziare le differenze sugli sforzi. I risultati mostrano che gli sforzi calcolati con le diverse normative sono paragonabili. Inoltre le mancanze della linea guida neo zelandese non sono coperte neanche da EC8 o da API650. Vieni qui inoltre presentato un metodo per costruire la curva di capacità del serbatoio ancorato alla base attraverso l’uso della “Monolithic beam analiogy” o MBA. Questa permette di stimare la gerarchia delle resistenze e valori di sforzo sui vari elementi di dettaglio. Il modello viene applicato su 3 serbatoi che hanno subito danni dal terremoto di Kaikoura 2016 attraverso l’utilizzo del “Capacity spectrum method” che stima lo spostamento subito da una struttura in caso di evento sismico quando si conosce la curva di capacità della stessa.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of wineries’ attitudes towards wine tourism in New Zealand from the supply-side perspective. It is based on a survey of New Zealand national wineries’ conducted in 2010, and follows up to two previous New Zealand National Wineries’ surveys conducted by Hall and Johnson (1997) and Christensen et al. (2004). This research benchmarks changes which have taken place in the New Zealand wine industry with respect to wine tourism since 2003, as well as examining new elements of the contemporary wine tourism environment with respect to winery attitudes towards innovation, the environment, biosecurity and sustainability. The incorporation of questions from previous New Zealand National Wineries’ Surveys allows for longitudinal information to be presented between the 2010, 2003 and 1997 surveys. This comparative analysis of the survey time series provides value to the existing New Zealand wine tourism research by illustrating how wineries in New Zealand have used tourism as part of their business strategy. The findings reveal that there are many significant gaps in what is known about the character of the New Zealand wine tourist, and also of the industry itself. Biosecurity and sustainability issues are examined, and for the first time in wine tourism research anywhere in the world a section dedicated to innovation within the context of wine tourism is also included. Though the nature of wine tourism in New Zealand appears to fluctuate, the generally positive attitude of the wine industry towards tourism indicated in this study suggests that there is still unrealised potential within the industry, provided that it is both safeguarded against external threats, and is also promoted correctly through the appropriate channels in order to assure future growth.

This thesis explores the nature of ambivalence in Maori political thought as expressed during John Ballance's tour of seven Maori districts in 1885. A microhistorical study of Maori speeches recorded during the tour, undertaken by Ballance as minister of Native Affairs, reveals three overlapping points regarding Maori political thought in the late nineteenth century. Firstly, despite a lack of power in processes of government and the effects of numerous land laws, Maori remained optimistic at the possibility of gaining equality, an optimism generated by the very act of Ballance's visit to Maori communities. Secondly, optimism was grounded in a pragmatic approach to state power, one that acknowledged the realities of the colonial government's positionin the New Zealand political system. Thirdly, a strongly held desire for equality, in combination with a pragmatic approach to state power, explains why Maori continued to seek solutions through the colonial government in the late nineteenth century. These three implicit positions can be seen in the greetings, criticisms and requests made by Maori leaders during the twelve hui that constituted Ballance's tour. In combination, these points suggest an ambivalence in the conceptual bases of Maori political thought in the late nineteenth century. This argument challenges existing interpretations of late nineteenth century Maori political activity, particularly the idea that Maori increasingly sought 'autonomy' in their own sphere. By adopting the approach of the microhistorian, this thesis opens a brief and unique window onto a period between the New Zealand wars and the resurgent protest movements of the 1890s, one that historians have yet to capture.

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.

Network strategy in the New Zealand wine industry: how firms in an industry understand and use their business relationshipsThis theory-building study offers new theoretical explanations for how and why companies within a case industry use relationships in their strategies. Using qualitative data from multiple case studies within the New Zealand wine industry, the thesis captures and explains the strategic heterogeneity of diverse patterns of relationships and network interactions and how these are used strategically. Drawing on strategic management and business network theory, it emphasises how firms value their relationships in strategy, that is, how they contribute to strategy formation process and realisation outcomes. The study builds new interpretations and extends theory through in-depth exploration, providing two extensive typologies of relationships, one categorised according to the range of relationships, their functions, content and contribution to strategy, and another according to strategies and how relationships are used in their realisation. A model of relationship drivers in strategy is then developed, tested, and refined to show the purposes and outcomes of relationships and clarify the processes and conditions under which they arise and are used within an industry. The data support converging assumptions in strategic management and business network theory on the connectedness of firms in business relationships and the embeddedness of economic action in ongoing ties within social structures. Concepts of intentionality and emergence are used to show that emergence primarily arises out of intentionality.Understanding of relationships was based on the historically collective nature of the industry, on personal values, experience or approaches to relationships, on firm level strategy, especially decisions around grow, buy or connect options, and whether the firm aimed to control resources and activities internally or used relationships to achieve strategic goals. Firms focused on (in order of priority): resource-based input requirements, activity-based capability related strategies and actor-based values and these inputs operated at three levels which, singly or in combination, drove the diverse use of relationships: firm level strategy influences, relationship level influences and industry environment level influences. Two frameworks emerge which have strong explanatory power. One models how firms understanding and value placed on relationships is integrated into strategy processes. Another integrates concepts in a new way to show the main pathways through ways of understanding relationship development and use in strategy.

For a small state such as New Zealand, trade and economic partnerships are extremely important for economic survival. However, the tyranny of distance complicates this somewhat. Historically, New Zealand has always been dependent on exporting agricultural products. There are examples in New Zealand’s history of innovative ideas being utilised to New Zealand’s economic advantage, such as the advent of refrigerated shipping to the United Kingdom. An important economic partner for New Zealand is the European Union. The European Union is the world’s largest trade power, a formidable partner for a small state, such as New Zealand, to contend with in trade related matters. The agricultural protectionist policies of the European Union are an issue for New Zealand to work around. However, the European Union is also a welcoming market for high quality products that New Zealand should supply. New Zealand’s small size means that the country has to focus on producing high quality products rather than mass production. This thesis proposes to make recommendations for the types of products New Zealand should export to the European Union, in what quantities, and by which methods. This is important for New Zealand producers and exporters to take into account if New Zealand is to expand its exports to the European Union.

Organisations operate in an environment buffeted by social change. Child sexual abuse became publicly recognised as a social problem from 1986. The first part of this thesis examines public awareness of, and interest in child sexual abuse, how child sexual abuse arose in New Zealand, the influence of international "moral entrepreneurs" in shaping this recognition and the activities of local "moral entrepreneurs"' including some police officers, in assisting the move of child sexual abuse from the private to the public arena. The second part of this thesis examines organisational change and whether the causes for organisational change are environmentally or managerially driven. Or is it, as this thesis suggests a combination of both. This thesis takes these theoretical arguments and applies them to the process of organisational change that occurred in the New Zealand Police Department, from the development and implementation of the National Abuse Policy for the investigation of child sexual abuse and serious physical abuse. The third part of this thesis examines the interlinking between the main theoretical foci, organisational change and the construction of a social problem. The results of an investigation from key staff, Police and other agency personnel, from seven New Zealand Police Department Districts, interviewed in three waves over a two and a half year period, are reported. The total number of key staff from each wave was 93, 80 and 68. The results of the first part of the thesis is that through effective lobbying by the women's movement and child protection groups child sexual abuse has become a recognised social problem. In the second part of the thesis the following were found to be crucial factors in the shaping of organisational responses to child sexual abuse: The role of middle managers in the implementation of organisational change policies in assigning or not assigning appropriate resources. The role of the top management in the ownership of organisational change policies the procedures. Continual staff turnover and the policy of staff rotation limited the successful implementation and continued support for the National Abuse Policy. This factor, staff turn over and/or rotation, will impact on the success of any organisational change policy. The extent of the training provisions for police officers at all levels within the organisation and the maintenance of that training at a national and district level. Acceptance of the multidisciplinary investigative approach which differed from more traditional policing approaches. The internal and external pressure on the Police to implement and maintain a high profile response in the child sexual abuse field. The results of the third part of the thesis is that the Police Department played a role in the public recognition of child sexual abuse as a social problem and as a result had to implement an operational response through the development of a National Abuse Policy.

Previous research has suggested that the country of origin cue is important to consumers during their purchase decision making process; the cue is utilised as an indicator of product quality and thus has an effect on purchase decisions. However, country of origin research has been heavily criticised in terms of methodology and has tended to focus on durable, manufactured products such as automobiles, electronics and apparel. This research investigates whether consumers do utilise the country of origin cue during actual wine purchase decisions and whether consumer perceptions of wine will vary based upon the country from which it originates. In addition, this study also seeks to identify all of the product attributes which are utilised by wine purchasers, and the degree to which these attributes are important to them during the purchase decision process. Finally, the research seeks to understand the influence that individual consumer characteristics (i.e. demographic variables, product knowledge and product involvement) and usage situations will have upon attribute utilisation and importance. In order to examine these broad research questions, a structured survey was developed and administered to respondents in four countries immediately following an actual wine purchase. Analysis of the collected survey data revealed that consumers typically utilised only a small number of attributes during their purchase decisions, and that the attributes which were most frequently utilised were not necessarily the most important to wine consumers. The country of origin cue was the eighth most frequently utilised attribute and the fourth in terms of importance. The majority of consumers could accurately identify the country of origin of the wine they had just purchased and their perceptions of wines were found to vary based upon the country of origin. Individual consumer characteristics were found to have varying effects upon attribute utilisation and importance ratings. Three-quarters of all wine purchases were made to resolve just four usage situations, and these situations were found to moderate the origin of the wine that the consumer selected during their purchase decision. From a theoretical standpoint, this study supports the idea that consumers utilise only a small number of attributes during their decision making process, and that this number will increase as product knowledge and product involvement levels increase. The most important attributes for consumers were found to be intrinsic in nature. Country of origin theory has also been advanced by this study; consumers were found to hold stereotyped perceptions of wine based upon its national origin, and both the nationality and education level of the consumer were found to moderate the utilisation of the country of origin cue. Whilst earlier researchers had suggested that any home country bias may be product specific, this study suggests that it may actually be a product dimension specific phenomenon. The high reliability of the product involvement and subjective knowledge scales should also be of value to future consumer behaviour researchers. Similarly, the idea that the usage situation influenced which product was purchased, but not how it was selected, expands current knowledge. Practical implications arising from this study include the identification of the importance of having previously tried a wine; marketers could increase sales through the provision of wine tasting opportunities for consumers. The significant correlation between involvement and the frequency of wine consumption also provides wine producers with an opportunity to increase sales through initiatives which will increase consumer involvement with wine. The results indicate that the wine industry should focus on the production and marketing of wines which are suitable for consumption in the identified four dominant usage situations and should seek to increase consumption in dining situations in the US. Finally, promotional strategies linking New Zealand wines with high quality appear to have been successful, but these messages will need to be repeated in order to reinforce the positive consumer perceptions.

The study of organisational development is central to the discipline of management. Despite an array of models, our systematic knowledge of how organisations grow remains limited, with the dominant models of organisational development offering, at best, partial explanations of firm growth. The dominant schools of organisational development generally emphasise one source of change drivers (e.g., internal vs. external), as opposed to providing a more holistic and complete account of organisational development. There is also a lack of focus in the organisational development literature on the phenomena of continuous change. The literature remains dominated by examinations of radical, second order or discontinuous change, which often provides useful information on how firms deal with crises, but provides little by way of advice on how to avoid such crises in the first place.
PhD Doctorate

The technique of micro-oxygenation involves the deliberate addition of continuous, metered amounts of oxygen into a vessel of bulk wine during the maturation period (between the end of fermentation and bottling). The aim of the process is to improve the sensory properties of red wine, particularly the mouthfeel characteristics associated with the various polyphenol constituents. The success of the process appears to depend strongly on the ability to control the rate of oxygen dosage. The effect of dosage rate on the chemical and corresponding sensory changes of a red wine is the central theme of this thesis. A method of dosing oxygen (at typical micro-oxygenation rates) into small volumes of wine (<100 litres) was developed using a dense polymer membrane diffuser. It was clearly demonstrated that wine could be reliably oxygenated at very low rates using a coiled length of FEP as the diffuser material. Oxygen dosage was regulated by adjusting the oxygen pressure inside the tube. The advantage with a dense polymer diffuser is that no bubbles are generated and the oxygenation efficiency is 100%. The diffuser was fully modeled and characterised for use in the laboratory scale trials detailed in Chapters Four and Six. The small scale oxygenation equipment was used to conduct a fully replicated experiment to investigate the evolution of a Cabernet Sauvignon wine under four oxygenation treatments at dosage rates of 0, 10, 23 and 36 mg/L/mth. The total period of the trial was 105 days. HPLC analysis indicated that the rate change of low molecular weight polyphenols is directly related to the oxygen dosage rate. The concentration of the majority of the identifiable monomers, most notably the anthocyanins decreased throughout the course of the trial. The rate of decrease was directly related to oxygen dosage rate. Thiolysis results showed an increase in mDP for all treatments over the course of the trial until day 77 when they were observed to decrease for all treatments. The decrease in mDP coincided with an addition of SO2 which was investigated in a subsequent trial. Spectrophotometric results indicated that the rate of formation of non-bleachable pigments was directly related to the rate of oxygen dosage with significant differences between the high rates (23 and 36 mg/L/mth) and the low rates (0 and 10 mg/L/mth). The trend for all treatments was for increased levels of stable pigments. The sensory results show that the measured organoleptic temporal development exhibits a similar oscillatory behaviour compared to the anecdotally derived curve presented in figure 1-2. The distinction between the respective phases described in section 1.1.1 was, however less clear. The most significant factor in the model weighting was mouthfeel and astringency which correlates with the observed changes occurring in the wine polypenols during maturation. Overall the laboratory scale trial showed that the chemical polyphenol development was directly related to the oxygen dosage rate. The sensory evolution also appeared to be accelerated with higher oxygen dosage rates, although the oscillatory nature of the sensory response given a single linear input indicates a complex underlying mechanism driving the changes. The effect of SO2 on the development of wine polyphenols with and without oxygen was also investigated. The presence of SO2 was found to have a significant effect on both mDP and the concentration of non-bleachable pigments. mDP was observed to decrease over the six week trial period irrespective of whether oxygen had been added or not. The mDP for the treatments without SO2 increased steadily over the course of the trial. Similarly the formation of non-bleachable pigments was suppressed and even retarded with SO2 present whereas for the treatments without SO2 a steady increase was observed. The implication of these results is that SO2 may have a much larger effect on tannin development than oxygen. The use of electrochemical micro-oxidation (or ELMOX) was examined ostensibly to determine proof of concept and also compare the performance of glassy carbon and titanium as electrode materials against traditional micro-oxygenation. Notable transformations occurred with titanium showing higher levels of ethanal than the other treatments both chemically and by sensory measure. A greater rate of stable pigment formation was also observed for the titanium compared to the other treatments. The respective dosage rates for the glassy carbon ELMOX and traditional micro-oxygenation treatments were too low to be able to discriminate any significant differences compared to the control wine.
AGMARDT Doctoral Scholarship