Stakeholders and Sustainability in the Balkan Wine Industry: A Mapping Approach to Governance

Abstract

The Balkan wine industry, dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), faces increasing pressure to adopt sustainability practices, yet efforts remain fragmented due to misaligned stakeholder interests and weak governance coordination. This paper applies stakeholder mapping to identify key actors, relationships, and governance levers influencing sustainability across Slovenia, Serbia, and North Macedonia. Using eight semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and triangulation through policy review, the study constructs a stakeholder map based on power, interest, and feasibility dimensions. Stakeholders were classified as internal or external and positioned within a power–interest matrix using qualitative coding and document triangulation. Findings reveal four clusters: Key Players, Context Setters, Subjects, and Minimal Stakeholders, whose interactions shape governance outcomes. Misalignments emerge between policy ambition and SME capacity, between market power and sustainability incentives, and between fragmented institutional levels. The analysis highlights how high interest often fails to produce action when feasibility is constrained. The study contributes a region-specific governance roadmap that links stakeholder alignment with actionable policy levers. It provides insights into how SMEs, associations and policymakers can strengthen coordination, integrate demand-side incentives and accelerate sustainability transitions in the Balkan wine value chain.