Neolocalism Strategies in Ontario Craft Brewing

Abstract

While we may live in a globalized society, it is human nature to crave local connection. The theory of Neolocalism helps us understand how businesses try to harness this, and can be defined as “a conscious effort by businesses to foster a sense of place based on attributes of their community” (Holtkamp et al., 2016, p. 66). In particular, there is a direct association between the theory of Neolocalism and businesses that sell food or beverage products as a way of creating a local identity for themselves. Craft or “Microbreweries” have emerged as the most common example of local businesses that embody Neolocalism as a way of building a successful business model through attributes and interactions with their local community. The purpose of this research is to understand what the most common approaches to Neolocalism are amongst Craft Breweries in Ontario. This research contributes to neolocal literature as it expands upon previous methods of understanding neolocal approaches carried out by businesses. Therefore, it will continue to advance the measurement framework that has been utilized to evaluate the business practices affiliated with the concept of Neolocalism. It also identifies trends in businesses approaches to Neolocalism that were previously overlooked or undervalued as the ability to collect information on certain variables and indicators had been limited. By doing this, it will determine more ways for businesses to embed themselves in their community, as it will allow them to evaluate their decision making process and identify further opportunities to create a stronger sense of place in their community. An explanatory mixed-methods approach was used for this study to gain a comprehensive understanding of Neolocalism within the Ontario Craft Brewery industry. Utilizing measurement framework for the business practices will provide clear trends and empirical measurement of neolocal approaches, while the inclusion of actual members from each brewery will ensure results are coming from their perspective and strategic thought process. The inclusion of brewery workers as participants instead of the use of customers or websites for data collection demonstrates the importance of gathering information from stakeholders who are privy to all aspects of the business. Given their knowledge and ability to comment on all indicators of Neolocalism is far greater, it aligned with the methodology for creating a comprehensive study on this theory. As well, the opportunity for qualitative discussion allows anyone who wishes to provide further context regarding their situation and decision making. Future studies should consider reducing the number of variables used in their assessment tool. This will create a more concise measurement of business practices and maintain one way of measuring variables to create a standardized measurement across all indicators.