Managing a Craft Brewery: Competitive,Legal,and Environmental Forces

Abstract

The number of craft breweries and the volume of beer they produce continue to increase in the United States. Small entrepreneurial craft brewery businesses produce limited quantities of specialty beer, also known as craft beer. As of 2018 the state of Montana had the second most craft breweries per capita in the United States. In addition to competitive industry forces, legal and environmental forces are two of the most salient concerns for craft brewery businesses in Montana and throughout the United States. A case study about Montana Hop Brew, a Montana-based craft brewery, is presented. The case highlights the entrepreneurial nature of small craft breweries and describes competitive industry, legal, and environmental forces that Montana Hop Brew faces. Teaching notes complete with learning objectives, required and supplemental readings, a student exercise, and discussion questions are available to assist with delivering the case.

Keywords

natural resource dependence theory strategic management craft beer craft brewery entrepreneurship

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bergmann, A., Stechemesser, K., & Guenther, E. (2016). Natural resource dependence theory: Impacts of extreme weather events in organizations. Journal of Business Research, 69(4), 1361–1366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.10.108

Brewers Association. (2018). State craft beer sales & production statistics, 2017. https://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics/by-state/

Brewers Association. (2019a). Craft brewer definition. https://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics-and-data/craft-brewer-definition/

Brewers Association. (2019b). National beer sales & production data. https://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics-and-data/national-beer-state/

Brewers Association. (2019c). National beer sales & production data. https://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics-and-data/econoimc-impact-data/

Brewers Association. (2019d). National beer sales & production data. https://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics-and-data/craft-beer-industry-market-segments/

Brewers Association. (2019e). State laws. https://www.brewersassociation.org/government-affairs/state-laws/

Brown

(2019, March 1). Brewed locally: Craft brewers add value to Montana barley. The Prairie Star. https://www.agupdate.com/theprairiestar/news/crop/brewed-locally-craft-brewers-add-value-to-montana-barley/article_2812d9f4-394b-11e9-93fb-3b32e8820e2d.html

Craig

C. A.

(2019). Managing wildfire disasters in the Rocky Mountains. The CASE Journal, 15(2), 78–87. https://doi.org/10.1108/TCJ-07-2018-0087

10.

Crunchbase. (2019). Anheuser-Bush inbev acquisitions. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/anheuser-busch/acquisitions/acquisitions_list#section-acquisitions

11.

Montana Brewers Association. (2019). About us. https://montanabrewers.org/about-us/

12.

Montana Department of Revenue. (2018). Brewery licenses. https://mtrevenue.gov/liquor-tobacco/liquor-licenses/alcohol-manufacturers/breweries/

13.

Montana State Legislature. (2019). 2019 session information. https://leg.mt.gov/session/

14.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (2018). Billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/

15.

Reidmiller

D. R.

Avery

C. W.

Easterling

D. R.

Kunkel

K. E.

Lewis

K. L. M.

Maycock

T. K.

Stewart

B. C.

(Eds.) (2018). Impacts, risks, and adaptation in the United States: Fourth national climate assessment. U.S. Global Change Research Program. https://doi.org/10.7930/NCA4.2018

16.

Sacks

(2014, July 29). State craft brewers fear drought could alter business, and the beer. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-beer-water-conservation-20140730-story.html

17.

Wheelen

T. L.

Hunger

J. D.

Hoffman

A. N.

Bamford

C. E.

(2017). Strategic management and business policy: Globalization, innovation and sustainability (15th ed.). Pearson.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.51 MB