The Taste of Ageing, a 26-Year Analysis of Publications in the International Journal of Wine Business Research: An Abstract

This study analyses the content of the International Journal of Wine Business Research (IJWBR) and gives editors, reviewers, authors and practitioners an overview over the journal’s development over 26 years. The articles published in the journal since its inception in 1989 till 2014, inclusive, were analysed in two time frames. The first time frame covers 1989–2006 as the International Journal of Wine Marketing (IJWM), while the second time frame covers 2007–2014 as IJWBR, the new name under which the journal relaunched. All types of articles are included in the analysis with the exception of editorials, guest editorials and research notes. Five main themes are addressed: the nature of authorship, the most prolific and influential authors, characteristics of the manuscripts, regional distribution of the wine’s region-of-origin and focal markets, and the most common research themes.

The content analysis of this journal sheds light on how the style of the journal has evolved since its inception in 1989 onto the second time frame. The types of articles and methods used have been consistent in the early issues (1989–2006). However, since 2007 the journal has welcomed more academic and quantitative articles. The change motivated new authors to write longer articles, collaborate more and use more references, tables and figures. As a result, the journal’s impact has increased significantly. In addition, empirical studies published in the journal indicated an increase in the publications covering the Americas as both regions of origin and focal markets, as compared to other regions. This is the first time a content analysis has been carried out for IJWBR. The objective is to help authors identifying new and interesting research areas as well as to give editors and reviewers insight into the style and areas explored since the journal’s inception. By using software tools for data collection and analysis, the study is bound to the limitations inherent from these tools.