emotions uncorked: inspiring evangelism for the …

r Academy of Management Journal2017, Vol. 60, No. 2, 461–499.https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2014.0092

EMOTIONS UNCORKED: INSPIRING EVANGELISM FORTHE EMERGING PRACTICE OF COOL-CLIMATE

WINEMAKING IN ONTARIO

FELIPE G. MASSALoyola University New Orleans

WESLEY S. HELMSMAXIM VORONOVBrock University

LIANG WANGUniversity of San Francisco

This paper examines how organizations create evangelists, members of key audienceswho build a critical mass of support for new ways of doing things. We conduct a longi-tudinal, inductive study of Ontario’s cool-climate wineries and members of six externalaudience groups who evangelized on behalf of their emerging winemaking practice.We found that wineries drew from three institutionalized vinicultural templates—“provenance,” “hedonic,” and “glory”—to craft rituals designed to convert these audi-ence members. These rituals led to inspiring emotional experiences among audiencemembers with receptive gourmand and regional identities, driving them to engage inevangelistic behaviors. While a growing body of work on evangelists has emphasizedtheir individual characteristics, the role of emotions in driving their activities, as well ashow they advocate for organizations, our study demonstrates how evangelism can bebuilt through ritualized interactions with organizations. Specifically, we reveal howorganizations develop rituals that translate emerging practices into inspiring emotionalexperiences for particular members of audiences. This suggests that rituals can be usednot only to incite dedication within organizational boundaries, but to inspire membersof external audiences to act as social conduits through which emerging practices spread.

Scholars and practitioners are increasingly awarethat organizations benefit from converting externalaudience members into evangelists dedicated tobuilding support for emerging practices (Kawasaki,2015; Stinchcombe, 2002). Whether they are advocat-ing fordisruptive technologies (Beatty&Gordon,1991),new management techniques (Beu & Leonard, 2004),or controversial sources of entertainment (Helms &

Patterson, 2014), evangelists play a key role in spread-ing thewordabout andcampaigning for the acceptanceof unfamiliar ways of doing things within their com-munities (Scarpi, 2010). Accordingly, organizationsranging fromgiants suchasAppleandAmazon tosmallwineries and fashion boutiques have committed re-sources to converting consumers, bloggers, and otherexternal audience members into evangelists who vol-untarily tout their message (Goldfayn, 2012). Yet, de-spite the growing importance of evangelism to theseorganizations and attention to the phenomenon fromscholars, there has been no systematic investigation ofhow evangelists are created.

Organizational scholars have traditionally attendedto how organizations meet audience expectationsand garner their approval (e.g., Hargadon & Douglas,2001; Vergne, 2012; Wry, Lounsbury, & Glynn, 2011)by modifying or reframing what they do (Deephouse,1996; Suchman, 1995). By focusing on how organiza-tions might change to conform to expectations, these

We are grateful to associate editor Scott Sonenshein andthree anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and con-structive guidance. We would also like to express ourgratitude to Candace Jones, Christine Oliver, and TrishRuebottom for their insightful comments on the earlierdrafts. Finally, we would like to thank the many peoplewithin the Ontario wine industry and the passionate sup-porters of Ontario wine who have shared their insightswith us over the years. This research was funded, in part,by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Re-search Council of Canada.

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https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2014.0092

studies overlook the possibility that some audiencemembers might be inspired to voluntarily and enthu-siastically champion an organization’s way of doingthings (Helms & Patterson, 2014). Extant researchon evangelists also points to this possibility by por-traying audience members as persuasive consumers(Seeberger, Schwarting, & Meiners, 2010) and knowl-edge activists (Beu & Leonard, 2004), while capturinghow they fervently “spread the word” by engaging inmissionary work for organizations (Stinchcombe,2002; Whittle, 2005). The process by which theseaudience members transition from spectatorship toevangelism and the role emotions play in how it takesplace, however, has yet to be fully elaborated. WhileJones and Massa (2013), for instance, found thataudiences tend to evangelize for innovative buildingswhen they are designed to reflect their distinctiveidentities, they did not closely examine the processunderlying how the conversion of audiences intoevangelists and why the evangelists become emo-tionally engaged with building preservation and con-secration. Without a fuller understanding of how theconversion process unfolds and a better sense of whatactions generate fervor in otherwise disengaged audi-ences, organizations may bank on conjecture as theyformulate strategies for disseminating practices.

To address this research gap, we conducted a longi-tudinal study of Ontario wineries and the external au-dience members that have come to evangelize on theirbehalf. Ontario’s wineries developed and advanced aninnovative practice that enabled them to produce finewine in their cold climate (Bramble, 2009). With lim-ited financial resources to promote this emergingpractice,wineries reliedon rituals to transformasubsetof a diverse range of audience members into devotedevangelists. These efforts took on a somewhat religiousdimension as members of the media, regulators, con-noisseurs, representatives of vinicultural institutions,andrestaurantoperators reportedbeing“converted”bytheir interactions with Ontario’s wineries and “spread-ing the gospel” of Ontario cool-climate winemaking.One such evangelist noted:

The neat thing is that they’re out spreading theOntariowine gospel, if you want to call it that, to their friends,right. So they’re people that are telling other peopleabout wines. They’re sharing the wines that they findwith their friends. And then I’mhoping that it’s havingthat ripple-oneffect, thatwe’re creatingmore andmorepeople who are trying Ontario wines or liking Ontariowines and telling their friends about Ontario wines.

Tobetterunderstandthisphenomenon,weadoptedan institutional perspective that characterizes

evangelism as revolving not only around a specificbrand or single organization, but around an emerg-ing practice (Stinchcombe, 2002). In doing so, weare able to shed new light on the origins of evan-gelism, as well as bridge and extend organizationalresearch on audience engagement in managementand marketing by elevating the roles of ritualsand emotions. First, while scholars have theorizedthat evangelism can elicit broad-based advocacyfor practices (Jones & Massa, 2013; Stinchcombe,2002), we empirically capture the process throughwhich the conversion to evangelism takes place andthe mechanisms that drive it. Second, our modelshows how organizations can use rituals that drawon institutionalized templates to not only fostersupport within their formal boundaries (Dacin,Munir, & Tracey, 2010), but as means to convertand inspire external audiences. This finding pointsto new ways in which rituals might be deployed,and extends the palette of techniques available toorganizations as they endeavor to create more mean-ingful connections with audiences. Third, our datareveal how emotional experiences can inspire evan-gelism from a subset of audience members with dis-tinct and receptive identities, but fail to inspire others.We thereby clarify underwhat conditions evangelismmight be engendered, and highlight the crucial yetunderplayed role that emotional experiences play inthe process. Ultimately, by crafting and deploying avocabulary based on Stinchcombe’s (2002) “mis-sionary work” terminology, which leverages not onlyevangelism but also conversion, proselytization, de-votion, belief, and other religious terms, we unlocknew,more affect-inclusiveways to explain emerging-practice dissemination.

INSPIRING INSTITUTIONAL EVANGELISM

Institutional evangelismisaprocess involvingbroadaudiences thatexplains thespreadofnotonlyproductsand services, but of “emergingpractices,”definedhereas novel ways of doing things (Stinchcombe, 2002).These emerging practices are spread through themissionary work of audience members who havebeen inspired byorganizations tonot only believe ina practice and the institutions—the values, norms,rules, beliefs, and taken-for-granted assumptions(Barley & Tolbert, 1997)—that underlie it, but tospread these elements through the conversion ofothers (Stinchcombe, 2002). By adopting a processorientation and drawing on growing research onaudiences who advocate for the emerging practicesthey monitor (Glynn, 2000; Helms, Oliver, & Webb,

462 AprilAcademy of Management Journal

2012), we are better able to understand evangelistsand their creation.

Evangelist Activities

Studies of evangelists have largely focused on thework of organizational actors as advocates for theirown practices (Beatty & Gordon, 1991) and consumeradvocates for products and services (Ortiz, Reynolds,& Franke, 2013). Consumers, however, constituteonly a small part of an organization’s “key externalaudiences,” a term that refers to “collections of agentswith an interest in a domain and control overmaterialand symbolic resources that affect the success andfailure of claimants in the domain” (Hsu & Hannan,2005: 476). Audiences who observe the developmentof and evaluate practices are broad in nature, rangingfrom regulators to critics to the media, with eachpossessing their own value systems, needs, and moti-vations (Giorgi &Weber, 2015; Hudson, 2008). In spiteof growing evidence of the importance of audienceadvocacy for emerging and even contested practices(Helms & Patterson, 2014), little understanding existsof evangelist emergence or the types of behaviors theyengage in to build criticalmasses of support importantto the success of emerging practices.

To inspire evangelism, organizations need to under-stand what motivates particular audiences to engagewithpractices, aswell aswhat activities theyundertakewhile performing evangelism (Stinchcombe, 2002).The motivations of audiences have received sub-stantially less attention than those of the organiza-tions to which they attend (Giorgi & Weber, 2015).For example, audiences such as themedia (Zavyalova,Pfarrer, Reger, & Shapiro, 2012) and regulators (Sitkin& Roth, 1993) have been portrayed by scholars ashavingwell-definedactivities fromwhich theyseldomdeviate. Focus has been on a limited set of audienceactivities, including “hands-off” approval or disap-proval (Sutton&Callahan, 1987)or theevaluationandthe rubber-stamping of practices from afar (Anand &Watson, 2004).

In contrast, recent studies have pointed out thataudience members may sidestep their duties as im-partial observers because they feel compelled to seea practice they value become adopted widely (Jones,Maoret, Massa, & Svejenova, 2012). Research on af-filiatemarketers (Duffy, 2005),mavens (Feick &Price,1987), and early adopters (Rogers, 1995) has foundthat, instead of engaging with brands passively, theseaudiences promote products and services they findcompelling (Seeberger et al., 2010). Research alsoshows how customers interact with organizations by

joining socialmovementsor activist groups, formedtosanction, boycott, and protest organizations and theirpractices (King, 2008; King, Bentele, & Soule, 2007).While studies such as these portray audience mem-bers as interest-based marketing engines for an orga-nization’s products or vehicles for protest against anorganization’s activities, this constrained view doesnot address the case of evangelists who devote them-selves to building support for an organization’s wayof doing things (Whittle, 2005). That is, although ac-tivists join movements fighting to address injusticesthey care about and consumers advocate for organi-zations whose products enhance their image (Feick &Price, 1987), scholars have not explainedwhat drivesadvocacy for emerging practices that might, for in-stance, not reflect well on the evangelist or be basedon something they believe in advancing before inter-acting with an organization.

Aninstitutionalperspectiveonevangelism,withanemphasis on organizations inspiring members frombroad audiences to fervently spread their shared be-liefs in practices, provides an opportunity to buildtheory on the origins and activities of evangelists. Forexample, Jones and Massa’s (2013) study of institu-tional evangelism found that audiences of critics,conservationists, and historians cared deeply aboutand spread the beliefs, symbols, and identitymarkersthat constituted Frank LloydWright’s architecture. Incontrast, we build a more comprehensive theory ofnot only how evangelists work to advance practicesthey care about, but also who might become evange-lists for organizations, how evangelists become de-voted to an organization’s way of doing things, andhowmembers from these diverse audiences engage indifferent evangelistic behaviors.

Emotions and Identities that Drive Evangelism

While scholars have articulated that the advocacy ofevangelists, as compared to other audience members(such as mavens or activists), is driven by emotions,to date, what emotions inspire evangelists as well aswhy particular audience members experience theseemotions and others do not are unknown (Becerra &Badrinarayanan, 2013). Marketing scholars haveadopted the term “devotion” to describe the state ofpassionate dedication to a product, brand, or experi-encedemonstratedbyevangelists (Ortiz et al., 2013: 7).Stinchcombe (2002: 421) favored the term “fervor” todescribe the driving force behind evangelist engage-ment in “vigorous missionary work to recruit suit-able people . . . to the corresponding community.”Although he departed from entrenched emphases on

2017 463Massa, Helms, Voronov, and Wang

cognitive comprehensibility over emotion-driven pro-cesses common in institutionalism (Voronov & Vince,2012), it is valuable to examine how specific emotionsexperienced by those audience members who areconverted to evangelism lead them to advocate foremerging practices.

We join organizational theorists who have notedthat “emotions”—definedhere as experienced feelingstateswith identifiedcauses thatcanbecommunicatedverbally or behaviorally (Elfenbein, 2007)—are key toany comprehensive understanding of what motivatesorganizational actors (Creed, Hudson, Okhuysen, &Smith-Crowe, 2014; Huy, 1999; Huy, Corley, & Kraatz,2014) and those audiences that evaluate them (Jasper,2011). At the micro level, leaders engage in symbolicmanagement by “orchestrating, summarizing, andelaborating symbols to evoke emotion which canbe generalized to organizational ends” (Ashforth &Humphrey, 1995: 111). At themacro level, studies onthe advancement of emerging practices and the dis-ruption of entrenched ones show how organizationalactors use rhetoric that stirs the feelings and supportof audiences (e.g., Jones et al., 2012; Lounsbury &Glynn, 2001; Suddaby & Greenwood, 2005).

Engendering emotions that spur evangelismamongaudience members can pose a challenge for organi-zations. First, the motives and identities of audiencemembers are far more differentiated than typicallyacknowledged (Albert & Whetten, 1985; Giorgi &Weber, 2015; Hudson, 2008). Rather than internaliz-ing a single, homogeneous “audience identity,”members of key audiences relate to, and prioritize,many distinct cultural and professional subgroups(Ertug, Yogev, Lee, & Hedstrom, 2016; Kim & Jensen,2011; Kim & Jensen, 2014). Kim and Jensen’s (2011;2014) research suggested that an organization’s stra-tegic decisions regarding how they engage in theirgenre-based practices should depend upon under-standing and adjusting to these “divergences”withinthose key audiences they rely on, such as culturaldifferences and subgroup identities.

Second, because an audience’s membership con-sists of members from identity groups with “differentlevels of knowledge, preferences, and specialization”(Kim & Jensen, 2014: 1361), they may experience in-teractions with organizations differently and judgepractices based on different sets of lived experiences.Kozinets and Handelman (2004) found that thefeeling-driven advocacy of consumer social move-ments was rooted in the religious and spiritual iden-titiesof theirmembers. Subsequently, theyargued thatunderstanding suchadvocacy involvesaddressing therole of “evangelical” identities, but did not delineate

theprocessesbywhichsuchidentitiesmanifested intodevotion that drove action. Such evangelist audiencemembers may identify with a practice when that per-son’s self-concept contains similar attributes as thosethey perceive in the practice or organization (Dutton&Dukerich, 1991; Dutton, Dukerich, & Harquail, 1994).These attributes can be self-enhancing for audiencemembers, yielding feelings of pride and happinessthat support commitment, while misalignment canproduce negative feelings that lead to disengagement(Albert et al., 1998).

Third, there is a significant difference between gain-ing the approval or acquiescence of audiencemembersand inspiring their engagement in evangelistic behav-iors. Evangelists feel strongly about and identify withthewaysorganizationsdo things (Scarpi, 2010;Whittle,2005). Scarpi (2010) found, for instance, that evangelistconsumers who utilize word of mouth online weredriven by an interaction between their emotions andtheir identificationwith the brand’s online community.While research has examined the role of emotions thatcreate and sustain collective efforts (Goodwin, Jasper, &Polletta, 2001), and has identified collective emotionalstates that energize contention (Flam, 2005; Jasper,2011), little is known about emotions experienced byaudiencememberswithdifferentiated identitiesduringinteractions with organizations.

By adopting an institutional perspective on evan-gelism that emphasizes the importance of emotionalexperiences to supporting the missionary work ofa diverse set of actors and audiences, we join organi-zational theoristswhohaveargued thatactors’ “desiresare not reducible to the pursuit of rational interests”(Voronov&Vince, 2012: 59). In particular, by buildingaffect-inclusive theory, we address why audiencesmight come to dedicate themselves to advocating andbuilding support for novel ways of doing things.

Organizational Interactions Eliciting Evangelism

Studies on evangelists (e.g., Scarpi, 2010) and au-dience advocacy (e.g., Helms & Patterson, 2014) havehighlighted the importance of organizations interact-ing with audiences to elicit advocacy behaviors, butmost of what is known focuses on arm’s-length in-teractions between organizations and audience mem-bers. To date, there has been no research on howorganizationsengagemembers fromdiverseaudiencesin interactive experiences that produce the emotionalexperiences that drive evangelism. In line with evan-gelism’s religious roots, one manner in which organi-zations may elicit the engagement of audiences isthrough the use of rituals (Wellman, Corcoran, &


Stockly-Meyerdirk, 2014). “Rituals” are dramatic andemotional cultural performances by which actors dis-play the meaning of their social situation for others(Alexander, 2004; Dacin et al., 2010) and “define theorder of the world and one’s position in it” (Friedland&Alford, 1991: 250).Durkheim (1915/1965) noted thatritualized activities can create an affective state of“collective effervescence,” which he deemed crucialto the genesis of shared values and the “emotionalcharging” of artifacts representing the group.

When effective, the use of rituals by organizationslead participants to develop shared meanings, inten-sify the emotional connections between those in-volved, and develop a sense of community (Islam &Zyphur, 2009). An understanding of the power ofrituals, and how they impart collective meaning, en-tails studying the accounts, ceremonies, and artifactsof which they are composed (Rosen, 1985; Trice &Beyer, 1984). In a relatively recent study, Dacin andcolleagues (2010) advanced a ritual-centered theory(Greil & Rudy, 1984; Hallett, 2007) of how institu-tionalized beliefs are transmitted to members of or-ganizations. This reflects the findings of scholars ofreligious organizations who argue that “the symbolicthemes or beliefs expressed” within ritualized activ-ities can strengthen the dedication, commitment, andfervor of those involved within such communities ofpractice (Knottnerus, 2014: 319).While somescholars(Gray, Purdy, & Ansari, 2015; Kovacs & Sharkey,2014) have acknowledged the influence of ritualsbeyond an organization’s boundaries in bestowingnew meaning and legitimacy for practices, we exam-ine how rituals can influence external audiences.

In short, extant studies note that the ritualized in-teractions with organizations play a key role in theconversion of audiences from spectators to evange-lists, but do not elaborate on why certain interactionslead to emotions that drive evangelism while othersdo not. To elucidate the interactive processes thatinspire members of audiences to become evangelistsdevoted to an organization’s way of doing things, weask, “How do organizational actors engender institu-tional evangelism among audience members?”

METHODS

Research Context: The Emerging Practice of FineWinemaking in Ontario

Over the 165-year-long history of winemaking inOntario, Canada, wineries have developed and sub-sequently made strides to overcome a negativereputation for low-quality wine production and

perceptions that cool-climate wine production is notviable among key audiences such as critics, restaurantoperators, and connoisseurs. The origins of Ontariowine’s poor reputation canbe tracedback to the 1860s,when Ontario’s first wineries produced wine usingindigenous grapes, such as Concord, that could sur-vive the region’s harsh winters, but that did not con-form to “Old World” winemaking standards (Wang,Madhok,&Li,2014). In the1970s,Ontariowinemakersengaged in large-scale production of low-quality,mass-market wines that further cemented the re-gion’s reputation for poor quality. In the 1980s, freetrade agreements lifted protections that had shieldedOntario wineries from global competition, forcingOntario wine producers to reinvent their practice. In-spired by the success of small local wineries that uti-lized internationally accepted, fine winemakingpractices to win prestigious international awards forice wine, Ontario winemakers began shaping theirexisting fine winemaking practices to fit their coldclimate. Winery operators collaborated to establishrules of practice, codifying them through the creationof the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA), an initiallyvoluntary standard (1988) that later became manda-tory (2001). VQA wineries emulated not only the vin-icultural practices of well-established wine regions,but defined them in terms of “terroir”—that is, norms,beliefs, and rules regarding thoseaspects of aplace thatmake it unique and shape its wine practices.

Despite these efforts, many local and global wineaudiences of critics, restaurant operators, and con-noisseurs, citing concerns over poor reputation, largelyignored or dismissed Ontario’s fine winemakers in the1990s and early 2000s (Bramble, 2009). Lacking in fi-nancial resourcesaswell aschannels to spreadpositivenews of Ontario wine to audiences, VQA winemakerschose to engage those who dismissed their effortsdirectly and actively seek their support. They aggres-sively sought the support of external audiencemembers in the wine media, restaurant industry,and wine expert groups (i.e., connoisseurs) for theiremerging practice, successfully inspiring them to ad-vocate for the inclusion of Ontario wines in winecompetitions, media, and restaurant menus and tofound events and organizations celebrating it. Figure 1showshowVQAstandardshave takenhold inOntario,paralleling growth in both total number of wineriesfounded as well as liters of wine sold. It also lists theevangelist activities thathelpedspreadandgaingreateracceptance for Ontario’s practice of fine winemaking.

Ontario winemakers and audience members whohave come to publicly advocate on behalf of Ontariowinemakingprovide anexcellent context for building


theory on how institutional evangelism is engen-dered. A theoretically appropriate context for explor-ing institutional evangelism should include actorswho advocate on behalf of a practice for reasonsthat are emotional and not just instrumental. That is,the evangelist’s motives for disseminating a practiceshould extend beyond reputational benefits derivedfrom advocating for a popular practice or from imme-diate financial benefits that are gained as a direct resultof advocacy. Although progress has been made, thenegative reputation associated with Ontario wine-making still remains (Vansickle, 2015). As such, ad-vocating on the emerging practice’s behalf can leadto reputational and financial risks. For example, a res-taurateur-turned-evangelist expended time and re-sources convincing clients of the viability of Ontariowine, yet still reported that Ontario wine does not “fi-nanciallymake sense.”Our initial interviews revealedthat individuals taking these risks andusingwhat littlespare time they had to extol the virtues ofOntariowinewere driven by devotion to the practice, andwanted tosee it succeed despite personal costs. This devotion forthe practice has to yield action for efforts to be rea-sonably designated as evangelism. We sought theseevangelistic behaviors when selecting a context.

Ontario’s fine winemaking context presented uswith a case in which evangelists are not advocating

for the advancement of a single winery or wine-makers, but are voluntarily advocating for thewinemaking practice itself (e.g., regional wine soci-eties, UncorkOntario.com, 2015). Public eventsrevealed that audience members voluntarily pro-moted the codification of rules systems (e.g., VQA),incorporation documents revealed that these mem-bers established organizations to advance Ontariowinemakers (e.g., wine societies), as media archivesrevealed that audiences sought to “spread news” ofa new way of doing things. It is the advancement ofthis new way of doing things that makes the storyof Ontario winemaking an institutional one.

Data Sampling, Sources, and Collection

The research reported in this article was a part ofthe broader study of institutional change in theOntario wine industry. In contrast to previouslypublished work that examined the region’s effortsto conform to global winemaking standards (Hills,Voronov, & Hinings, 2013; Voronov, De Clercq, &Hinings, 2013a, 2013b) or the geographic clusteringofwineries inOntario (Wang et al., 2014), the presentarticle focuses on the creation of evangelists forOntario cool-climate winemaking. To examine howinstitutional evangelism is engendered, we relied

FIGURE 1Overview of Fine Winemaking Practice (VQA) Dissemination and Related Evangelist Activities

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1980–1994 1995–2004 2005–2014

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50

100

150

200

250

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2014

Number of VQA Members

Number of Ontario Wineries

Litres Sales of Ontario wine in Ontario (VQA only)(00000's)

Evangelists

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Published a book on touring Ontario’s wineries (2012)Restaurants hosting Ontario wine education events Volunteering for regional wine festivals and events Coordinated private wine tastings and competitionsRestaurants selling predominantly VQA wines. (Year (number)) 2007 (27); 2008 (32); 2009 (46); 2010 (56)

Published books and websites telling stories and describing Ontario wineries (2005)Published books on touring, and describing tours, of Ontario wine country (2005)Started national column focused on Ontario winemakers and winemakingPublished book on Ontario winemaking history (2009)

Founded OWS: Halton Chapter (2009); OWS: Windsor/Essex (2011); OWS: Prince Edward (2012)Published and writing wine review websites for Ontario Published wine reviews of Ontario wines for local, national, and international websitesCoordinating invite-only tasting events, tours, and dinners Created CUVEE vineyard of excellence award (2008)Created “promoting the promoter awards” (for Ontario winemaking) for media, restaurants, and experts (2006)

Restaurant moves to selling predominantly Ontario wines (1988)

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National wine book (1983; 1993)Book on touring Niagara wine country (1992)Founded Ontario Wine Awards (1995)

celebratory event (1989)

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Ontario Wine Society (OWS) founded in Toronto (1991)CUVEE wine-tasting and

Expert tastings event -(1990)

Restaurant selling only Ontario VQARestaurants selling mostly VQA wines. (Year (number)) 2004 (24)Founded OWS Niagara (2003)Volunteering for regional wine festivals and events

Published books on touring Niagara’s wine country (2000.2003) Reported efforts of numerous Ontario wineries in broader National Winery Encyclopedias (1999, 2003) Published newsletter on Ontario wines and winemakers

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Founding of Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute, Brock University (1996) Organized OWS Restaurant: Buy VQA wines “placard campaign” Volunteered for dozens of regional wine festivals and events

Wine Connoisseurs

Restaurant Operators

Wine media


http://UncorkOntario.com

upon a theoretical sampling strategy to select orga-nizational actors and audiencemembers who wouldhelp build a shared consensus on emerging con-structs (Yin, 1994). We expanded our sampling ofdata sources iteratively, allowing the emerging the-ory and the saturation of our knowledge of subjectareas and practices to guide data collection.

Our primary method of data collection involvedsemi-structured interviews with actors from wineriesand audience members, coupled with in situ obser-vationsof interactionsandritualisticwine tastingsandtours. Importantly, given that emotions are difficult tocapture empiricallywithprecision (Fineman, 2004),wewrote field notes of emotional experienceswe observedand triangulated our observations with retrospectiveinterviews in which we asked actors what they feltduring and following rituals. Table 1 provides an over-view of the data sources we relied upon for this study.

Semi-structured interviews. Eighty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted with organi-zational actors and audiencemembers that ranged inlength from 1 to 1.5 hours and included both open-and close-endedquestions. Thesewere recorded andtranscribed verbatim. We modified the interviewprotocols after each interview to take advantage ofemerging themes (Spradley, 1979). Consistent withinductive, grounded methodologies, we continuedour interviews until they started adding little new tocoding categories (Corbin & Strauss, 2008).

Our first interviewee sample consisted of audiencemembers from six key audiences: restaurant operators(e.g., management, owners, and sommeliers); thewinemedia (e.g., newspaper and wine publications); regu-lators (from the provincial distributor); local vini-cultural institutions; consumers and connoisseurs(e.g., experts with credentials); and wine society rep-resentatives.Weselected intervieweesbasedonpublicacts, the receipt of public awards for their service to thepractice, or through interviewee referrals. To contrastthese, we sought out interviews and engagement withaudience members who were not evangelists for, orbelievers in, Ontario winemaking (e.g., often pro-vincial regulators and consumers who were not en-gaged in wine societies or attending events). Thisallowed us to compare our evangelists with thosewhoreported and demonstrated little devotion to thepractice and were largely engaged for financial orreputational (e.g., career advancement) interests.

Interactions with many of our evangelist inter-viewees revealed that they were not simply benefitingfrom their activities, but that their experience withOntario’s winemakers hadmade them believers in thepractice.We found that theyused religious language to

describe their devotion to the practice and its dissem-ination. Many expressed their willingness to take onfinancial and reputational risks that came with beingassociated with cool-climate winemaking. They alsospoke at length, often unprompted, about the fre-quently voluntary nature of their work building sup-port for the practice by “converting” others. Forexample, during an initial interviewwith a sommelier-turned-evangelisticwriterandorganizer, they reportedhaving “converted” hundreds of others and “spreadthe gospel” ofOntariowine to thousands, leadingus torealize that we were interviewing an evangelist:

I don’t even know if necessarily that’s the word,“supporter.” I’m just a believer, rather . . . I’m justtrying to advocate and perhaps to, you know, em-phasize, you know,what they do, and perhaps to, youknow, scream and, you know, asmuch as I can, tryingtomakemyvoiceheard that, “Hey,hereweare andweare a region that, you know, is as good as any otherclassic grape-growing region in the world.”

In situ observations. Two of the authors observedmore than 250 hours of winery-based interactionswith key audiences. Following Howell (1972), webegan by establishing rapport with actors engaged inthe Ontario wine region (e.g., winery staff and man-agement, local critics, government regulators), im-mersing ourselves in the field and recordingdata andobservations. These observations included viewingtours, tastings, and events with members from keyaudiences, as well as experiencing the winery build-ings and artifacts. Unsurprisingly, given their strongpropensity to share their craft, winery intervieweesinsisted vehemently that we see their activities, andsupport their efforts. Two authors did not engage inobservations in order to balance observer insightswith more reflective ones.

Archival texts. We collected several types of ar-chival documents to help us understand the insti-tutional context, the evolution of the practice ofOntariowinemaking and thewineries and audiencesthat advanced it. We began by reviewing texts thatdocumented the history, rules, and norms of the glo-bal practice of making wine (Clarke, 1999; Colman,2008; Johnson & Robinson, 2007; Kramer, 2004;Robinson, 2006; Van Leeuwen & Seguin, 2006; Zhao,2005). We also collected books and articles that re-ported on the history of Ontariowine specifically andrevealed its blemishedhistory indetail (e.g., Bramble,2009). Texts documenting audience members’ expe-rience with Ontario winemaking were gathered aswell. These included writings of professional wineand food writers in newspapers, books, social media,


TABLE 1Overview of Data Sources: Audience Members and Ontario Winery Operators (Organizations)

Audience Members

Sources Interviewees (no.) Additional Data Sources Description

Wine media Local (2), national (6) websites; 36 newsletters; 9 pressitems

writers and reporters working for localand national media outlets

Wine societyrepresentatives

Local (6) websites; 4 email interviews withfollow-up

founders, leaders, and otherconnoisseurs running organizationsdedicated to the appreciation ofOntario wines

Restaurant operators Local (8) 15 hours’ observation; website;22 newsletters

employees, owners, and sommeliersoperating local establishments

Ontario viticulturalinstitutionrepresentatives

Local (4) supplemental texts members founding and leadingorganizations that conductviticultural research on Ontario wine

Wine retailers Regional liquor retailer (4) n/a managers

Consumers/Connoisseurs

Local (3), broader (3) 15 hours’ observation; 12 websites;28 blogs; 33 newsletters; 25 pressitems; 58 online reviews.

attendees ofwine tours and reviewers ofwineries in both wine review sitesand general rating sites (e.g., Yelp)

Ontario Winery Operators

Sources(pseudonyms) Interviewees (no.) Additional Data Sources Primary Template(s)

CountrysideWinery

President (3), Marketing manager (3),Viticulturist (1), Winemaker (1), Salesagent (2)

15 hours’ observation; website; blog;33 newsletters; 25 press items

Provenance

Niagara Estate Proprietor/Viticulturist (7),Winemaker (2),Marketing manager (2), Sales agent (2),Assistant winemaker (1), Ops manager(1)

20 hours’ observation; website;36 newsletters; 9 press items

Provenance

Old World Winery Director of marketing (1) website; 8 newsletters; 5 press items Provenance

Future Vineyards Director of marketing (2) 20 hours’ observation; website;68 newsletters; 11 press items

Provenance

Heritage Estate Proprietor (1) 5 hours’ observation; website; 2newsletters; 2 press items

Provenance

Orchard Estate Proprietor (1) 10 hours’ observation; website;44 newsletters; 8 press items; 2 interviewtranscripts

Provenance

Glamour Vineyard n/a 15 hours’ observation; website;62 newsletters; 9 press items; 1 transcriptof a media interview

Provenance and Glory

John Smith Winery Proprietor (1) website; 5 press items; 2 transcripts ofmedia interviews


Old Vines Estate Winemaker (1) 10 hours’ observation; website;13 newsletters; 9 press items


Pinnacle Vineyards Winemaker (1) website; 11 newsletters; 56 press items;1 transcript of a media interview


Pioneer Estate Director of marketing (1), Founder (2) website; 39 press items Provenance and Glory

Terroir Vineyards Winemaker (1), Retail manager (1) 20 hours’ observation; website;63 newsletters; 7 press items


BreakthroughWinery

Winemaker (1), Retail manager (1) 15 hours’ observation; website; 52newsletters; 14 press items; 2 transcriptsmedia interviews

Hedonic

Cool Vineyards President (1) website; 12 press items Hedonic


and other industry publications; public documentsfrom Ontario’s winemaking institutions regardingawards and events; and social media from connois-seurs and visitors.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

We analyzed our interview, observational and ar-chival data in an iterative fashion, traveling back andforth between the raw data and the emerging theoryusing a constant comparison technique (Corbin &Strauss, 2008; Corley & Gioia, 2004; Locke, 2001).Over multiple iterations, several key theoreticalcategories emerged based on “open coding.” Eachauthor noted the nature of particular interactions(e.g., re-telling the history of a particular vintage) aswell as any motives (e.g., admiration of the wine-maker for staying connected with legacy) presentand/or the action brought about by the experience(e.g., sharing behaviors with third parties). Theseopencodeswere aggregated into themes that allowedus to link broad categories (e.g., different ritualthemes, positive emotional reactions) to emergingdata. As we began to reduce the complexity throughthe elimination of non-recurring themes, three keypatterns began to emerge: (1) winemakers reportedtrying to inspire audience members to become ad-vocates of Ontario wine, hoping that they wouldshare positive experiences with others and, in turn,inspire more advocates; (2) audience members re-ported experiencing intense and positive emotionsthat drove them to share Ontario wine with others;(3) audiences pairing the experience of these emo-tionswith their identificationwithparticular groups.

Our coding of audience emotion was guided ini-tially by the language used by audience members asthey described their experiences and our observa-tions of interactions. To help us code emotions, werelied on a two-dimensional “circumplex” model ofemotions (Larsen & Diener, 1992) that categorizesemotions across valence and activation spectra. Forinstance, the pleasant, intense reactions reported assoaring and joyful by some tour participants in he-donic ritualswere categorized as elation. Ultimately,by examining the language used by interviewees todescribe their emotions and contrasting them withthe circumplex model, we identified three recurringemotion categories that reflected our observationsand that were salient to the genesis of institutionalevangelism: (1) “reverence,” (2) “elation,” and (3)“awe.” Each of these categories is inclusive of morediscrete emotions (e.g., reverence includes admira-tion and awe includes surprise), but are presented inaggregate for the sake not only of concision, but be-cause discrete emotions occur in sequences that aredifficult to parse (Larsen&Diener, 1992). In addition,our coding of ritualized descriptions as well as feel-ings of reverence, elation, and awe revealed identitystatements associated with food culture as well astheir province. Comparative coding of non-evange-list’s experiences of ritualized encounters revealedthat they prioritized different identities (professionalaswell as consumer) during these interactions. Thesethemes led to our categorization of “receptive” and“non-receptive” identities.

Once each author had a tentative data structureprepared, we compared coding schemes to verifythat they accurately reflected the data. We discussed

TABLE 1(Continued)

Ontario Winery Operators

Sources(pseudonyms) Interviewees (no.) Additional Data Sources Primary Template(s)

Thomas Winery Proprietor (1), Winemaker (1), Marketingmanager (1)

15 hours’ observation; website; 22newsletters

Hedonic

Scenic Vineyard Proprietor (1) website HedonicOne-with-Nature

WineryProprietor (2) 5 hours’ observation; website; 56

newsletters; 13 press items; 1 transcriptof a media interview

Hedonic andProvenance

Distinction Estate President (1), Winemaker (1), Directors (2) 15 hours’ observation; website; 13newsletters; 14 press items

Hedonic andProvenance

Rural Vineyards Proprietor (1) 3 press items Hedonic andProvenance

Falls Vineyard VP marketing (4), Head winemaker (2) 15 hours’ observation; website; 76newsletters; 15 press items

Glory


differences in coding, until we reached a consensus.Whenwe could not reach a consensus, we consultedour interviewees to determine the most appropriatecourse of action and to ascertain if additional datacollection was necessary, thereby increasing the

“trustworthiness” (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) of ouranalysis. Figure 2 provides an overview data struc-ture, illustrating the first-order codes, second-orderthemes, and aggregate theoretical dimensions thatguided our theorizing.

FIGURE 2Overview of Data Coding Structure

Second-Order Themes First-Order Codes Aggregate Theoretical Dimensions

Evangelistic Behaviors

Proselytizing

Organizing

- Re-enact ritualized experiences for audience members - Preach to audience members about the value and meaning of Ontario winemaking

- Founding of Ontario wine support organizations - Creation and planning of events that feature Ontario wine

Inspiring Emotional Experience

Elation

Awe

- Sense of awe at quality of wine and experience - “Eye-opening” moments that led to increased curiosity

- Reported experiences of joy during ritualized experiences - Reports of extraordinary pleasure and carefree feelings

Reverence

- Admiration for winemaker struggle - Experiences of pride in development of region - Gratitude for ritualized experience and relationships

- Texts referencing traditional, “old world” practices, norms - - - Winery operators reference their families and European practices as inspiration Provenance Template

- Texts noting wine is meant to be pleasurable, indulgent - Proprietors talk about creating a relaxed atmosphere focused on enjoyment Hedonic Template

- Texts about the importance of status in winemaking - Operators referencing attempts to create a winery capable of winning awards and competing internationally

Glory Template

Institutionalized Templates

Regional Identities

Salient Audience Member Identities

Gourmand Identities

- Statements asserting importance of Ontario to self-concept - Self-descriptions as Ontarian or part of Niagara

Professional / Consumer Identities

Non-receptive

Receptive

- Audience statements establishing themselves as “wine aficionados” - Focus on importance of food and drink to sense of self

- Audience member as a consumer seeking out value/deals - Primacy of professional duties over devotion to region

- Stories conveying family legacy/tradition - Descriptions of aesthetic experiences - Accoladesand celebrity tales

Accounts- Tasting ceremonies using traditional sequence/accoutrement - Ostentatious award ceremonies and tastings - Commemorative ceremonies and events Ceremonies

- Signage and bottle labels that emphasize status - Fun or whimsical bottle designs and buildings - Bottle labels and buildings linked to “old world”

Artifacts

Organizational Rituals


ENGENDERING INSTITUTIONAL EVANGELISMFOR ONTARIO COOL-CLIMATE WINEMAKING

To present our findings on what drove evange-lism on behalf of Ontario winemaking, we exam-ined how the deployment of institutionalizedtemplates either led to evangelism on behalf ofOntario winemaking or to failed conversion of cer-tain audience members (“non-believers”). We didso by highlighting representative audience-memberexperiences of three distinct institutionally themedrituals. Provenance, hedonism, and glory institu-tional templates, which arrayed important values,beliefs, and norms of behavior, shaped the perfor-mances of rituals by winery operators for externalaudience members. Our operators reported usingone or more of these templates (see Table 1) to notehow their work was inspired by “Old World” and“New World” winemaking traditions.

Our analysis revealed that these organization-curated rituals involved three principal componentsthatworked inconcert tocreate a cohesive experience.First, ceremonies encompassed “staged” interactionsbetween winery operators and audience membersthat were conducted during wine tastings, tours, andwinemaker dinners and provided occasions for thesharingof template elements. Second,artifacts suchasunique wine glasses and decor with symbolic valuewere used during ceremonies as a means to introducesensoryexperiences to the sharingof templates.Third,accounts, including descriptive language and stories,guidedthesensoryexperienceof theseartifacts andsetthe tone for the ceremonies. A winery operator re-ported that he/she was asked by an audience memberat the endof a tourwhy theyperform these rituals. Theresponse: “Why? I want to create an emotional con-nection with you and that’s why we’re doing this. Iwant you to love us. I want you to love this place.”Table 2a displays archival data on institutionalizedvinicultural templates and interview data of wineryoperators discussing the elements and importance oftemplates to theirpractice.Table2bprovidesevidenceof the deployment of institutionalized templates viaaccounts, ceremonies, and artifacts.

Drawing from three evangelist exemplars, we thendescribe how these rituals elicited emotional expe-riences of reverence, elation, and awe from ourevangelists (see Table 2c). When contrasted withaudience members that never became evangelists,our evangelist interviewees reported how gourmandand regional identities shaped and enabled theseparticular emotions during rituals (see Table 2d).Finally, we report how the experience of these

emotions drove, and sustained, their engagement intwo evangelist behaviors: proselytizing and orga-nizing (see Table 2e). In order to demonstrate theimportant role of identity in enabling emotions thatled to evangelism, we provide an exemplar audience“non-believer” that experienced rituals but did notengage in evangelism, citing how their prioritizationof professional and consumer identities disruptedthe emotional experience of the ritual encounter.

Provenance-Themed Rituals

Our review of archival texts and winery datarevealed that several winery operators adopted aprovenance template. The template highlights thechronology of ownership, stewardship, or custodyof the winery or winemaking techniques. Prove-nance themes are present in numerous texts onwinemaking (Clarke, 1999; Colman, 2008; Johnson& Robinson, 2007; Kramer, 2004) that focus on thecharacteristics of the land (Van Leeuwen & Seguin,2006), how family histories shaped a region’spractice, and the importance of adhering to tradi-tion in making wine (Ulin, 1995, 1996). They arealso dominant in so-called “Old World” regions(e.g., Bordeaux, Burgundy) where a producer’s leg-acy and connection to the history of a region oftencorrelates with the value assigned to the wine theyproduce (Ulin, 1995, 1996, 2002).

During provenance-themed rituals, winery oper-ators pointed to their familyhistories, their Europeanroots and experiences, or highlighted the lineage ofparticular winemaking techniques. Ontario wineryoperators revealed that, much like their Europeancounterparts, they believed in preserving, honoring,and sharing a legacy. They reported valuing beingfaithful stewards to their families, their family’s his-tory in farming or winemaking, sustaining Ontario’snatural and historical characteristics, as well as keep-ing stories of past vintages and growing seasons alive.A winery staff member conveyed this sentiment in aninterview:

It’s about stewardship, ultimately, you know, [theowners’] family traces their family history back to the1700s on this piece of land. They feel really tied to thisland and also it’s a family business. This is not run forquarterly profits. This is run by the quarter centuryand by the generations so, you know, they want tohand over this property to their children in a healthyway as well.

Rituals that predominantly adhered to prove-nance themes had distinct ceremonies, artifacts, and


TABLE 2aData Display for Institutionalized Templates

Illustrative Data: First-Order CodesSecond-Order

Themes Aggregate Dimensions

Archival support for template institutionalization: ProvenanceTemplate

InstitutionalizedTemplates“What made wine great one hundred years ago, or even five hundred years ago, is still

whatmakes for greatwine today: complexity, originality, and that certain somethingthat used to be called ‘magic,’ which the French long ago called terroir. I call itsomewhereness.” (Kramer, 2004: 9)

“Tradition, defined by oenologist Emile Peynaud as an experiment that has worked, isan extremely important ingredient in viticulture and winemaking in many OldWorld regions. A significant proportion of older small-scale producers . . . do thingsin the vineyard and cellar precisely because their fathers did, even if their ownchildren are likely to have been exposed to science through some sort of formaltraining.” (Robinson, 2006: 706)

“In the Old World, the people running wineries usually come from families that havebeen doing the same thing for 300 years, give or take a century” (Schreiner, 2007: 9)

Interview support for template adoption:

“We’re posting our family tree, been proud of it. If someone had a chip on theirshoulder, we’re sorry. That’s their problem. But we know one thing that extra highpercentage will endorse that, admire that.” (Owner of Heritage Estate onemphasizing family legacy despite potentially offending certain audiencemembers)

“So sincewedon’t havemuchof ahistory,wehavevery little history, youhave to knowwhere you came from to know where you’re going to end up. But we haven’t comefrom anywhere yet. We have to build that, right.” (The winemaker from Old VineEstateon the importanceofestablishingahistory forhiswinery andthebroader region)

“I think that the fact that the three brothers and, you know, it started with and by theirparents. . . . I think that all of that figures together tomake that fairly evident.Wehaveit onourback labels, thehistoryof the fact that this is a familyproperty.” (AnownerofCountryside Winery on the importance of family history for their winemaking)

“It’s not the average farmer that’s putting up wineries. There’s a lot of money that’scome in. And it’s sort of, like, I have had people come and talk to me about buyingvineyards and opening a winery and so on. And it’s people that have a dream. Theyhave a dream of—they think it’s—the most romantic thing in the world to do is tohave a vineyard. They don’t have a clue aboutwhat’s involved.And I’mvery straightwith them in saying, ‘No, I don’t think—it’s not like that. It’s like this.’And then youput your $2 million building up and then you sit and wait for someone to come andbuy your wine.” (A manager from Niagara Estate who cites the importance of herfamily’s history growing grapes over the hedonic (romantic) perspectives ofwinemaking)

Archival support for template institutionalization: Hedonic Template“Why should anyone seek to be a connoisseur? Simply put, because it enhances one’s

pleasure, whether it be wine or automobiles or furniture. One can becomea connoisseur of anything that offers gradations of quality.” (Kramer, 2004: 24)

“Themost common sort of consciouswine tasting . . . is themost admirable one, tastingfor the purposes of pure pleasure.” (Robinson, 1999: 63)

“Winewas part of an essential ‘ritual of pleasure’ that symbolized the superiority of theFrench people, blessed with a ‘land of treasures.’” (Belasco & Scranton, 2014: 44)

“Thus wine gives pleasure—perhaps aesthetic pleasure—but unlike works of art it isconsumed and only a memory remains; it thus conveys an idea of the transience oflife.” (Charters, 2006: 185)

Interview support for template adoption:“They’re drinking and having fun.What else do youwant your customers to do, right?

(Owner ofOne-with-NatureWinery oncreatingpleasurable experiences at hiswinery)“They all go to Niagara Falls, and I’d bring them tomywinery. ’Causewhen they come

here they experience it. First of all they go, ‘Jesus, you guys really do grow grapeshere.’And it’s beautiful, and there are peaches—and then they go home and they tell


TABLE 2a(Continued)



people.” (The founder of Pioneer Estate on how he uses the region and his winery tocreate a fun and beautiful experience for audience members)

“You’re selling something that’s a little bit sinful: alcohol. You’re selling enjoyment tosomebody. They’re taking it home, they enjoywhat you’ve produced.We get tomeetmany, many people. But the goal at the end of each year is to make the best way thatyou can possibly make.” (A winemaker from Niagara Estate who does notcompromise on creativity and claims to love the hands-on, uncompromising natureof their “artisan” winemaking)

“I run through the basics, you know, look, smell, taste, and all that stuff in a light-hearted way. And I talk about a lot of this stuff but ultimately at the end of the day Isay, ‘You can talk about all the technical stuff in theworld, it doesn’t reallymatter. Itcomes down to do you like what it tastes like? Do you enjoy the wine? Then it’s goodwine.’” (A winery owner from Future Vineyards on the point of winemaking andwine experience over as being fun for him and his clients over trying to “prove”highest quality through awards)

Archival data in support of template institutionalization: Glory Template

“Now a universal phenomenon . . . The trophies and medals awarded to the moresuccessful exhibitors are used extensively in marketing and promotion, and areaccepted as reliable indicators of quality by retailers and consumers alike.”(Robinson, 2006: 628)

“The key to identifying trophy wines is their international fame (often determined bya particularly high score, notably from the American wine critic Robert Parker) and,especially, price.” (Robinson, 2006: 713)

“The trick was to sound noble and traditional without using a blatantly false orpotentially dangerous title. Chateau fit the bill perfectly.” (Colman, 2008: 13, on howthe French came to use the term “chateau” for the elite wineries)

Interview support for template adoption:

“And themore international acclaimweget . . . andwe certainly use it at the tasting bar,is, if your wines—if you get international acclaim from outside of the country or ifyou sell your wines, you know, Japan buys from you or Hong Kong and Beijingbuys—then, all of a sudden, people go, ‘God, your wine must be very good.’” (Awinemaker from John Smith Winery expressing goals of acclaim and producingworld-class wines)

“ThomasWinery winemaker Kevin announces our newest honour. The 2007 ReserveCabernet Francwas presented Gold at this year’s esteemed [award name]. . . . award-winningwines are eagerly sought after by consumers andquantities are limited. Thissmall-batchwine is only available through thewinery.” (ThomasWinerynewsletter,recounting their win)

“But you got to think about howyouneed todescribe it, and,what Imeanby that, is youdon’t have to say, ‘We’re like Burgundy.’What Iwould say is, and particularly on thebench, the best wine regions in the world are limestone based. We’re limestonebased.” (An owner of Countryside Winery on how he chooses to communicate howhis region as one of the best in the world)

“So I just don’t know. I don‘t think that we’re naive. I think we could—there’s a lot ofthings going on. Definitely a lack of sophistication by some. And I think still quitea few—even the smaller ones, who really don’t understand this whole concept ofsymbolic value. I don’t think theyunderstandwhat it’s about andhow it’s so importantto, youknow, to thesuccessofyourownbusiness.” (Awinemaker fromOldVineEstateon certain wineries not conforming to norms of presenting symbolic awards andmarketing terroir success and instead following trends or their creative interests)

“We put wine on a pedestal. We try and position it as this high-end luxury item thatneeds to be reveredand is something special.And I think it’s a loadof crap. I think it’sthe biggest mistake wemake in the wine industry is—and this goes probably againstthe whole symbolic value of wine. But we sit there and, you know, we talk about


TABLE 2a(Continued)



price,we talk about all theother stuff.And somanywineries forcewineuponpeople.‘Oh, you’ve got to like this ’cause it won this award,’ or whatever it is.” (Owner ofOne-with-Nature Winery railing against his need to use glory templates whilereporting a preference for hedonism)

TABLE 2bData Display Illustrating Institutional Template Deployment through Ritual

Illustrative Data: First-Order Codes Second-Order Themes Aggregate Dimensions

Interview data: Ceremonies Organizational Rituals

“And it’s just great giving people ammunition for the ‘ah-hah’moment with theirclients where they can go, ‘Oh, try this wine,’ and they go, ‘Oh, it’s really lovely.Where is it from?’ ‘It’s from Canada. It’s fromOntario. It’s from so and so.’And justgiving the people that shock effect.” (Awinery employee fromOrchard Estate talksabout the goal of creating awe through ceremonial wine-tasting routines ofcomparing wines)

“And that was for me the biggest thing, was the stage and the opportunity to compareit . . . I didn’t even realize that I was going to discover . . . these crazy realizationsthat, ‘Oh, my God, I had no idea...’” (A wine-appreciation club founder describinghow hedonic wine-tasting routines inspire feelings of awe through ceremonialcomparisons and interactions)

“There are safety concerns for tours and so on. So theworld has changed a little bit onus there and that’s why we’re doing things differently, too. But one of the mainreasons as well is that we want to maintain an impression with people that we’renot a factory. Andwe’re not. But it’s easy tomake that assumption, when you comein, you see a bottling line like this with a number of people and a lot of activity andtow motors running around, that, ‘Oh, well, you know, human hands, humanhearts don’t go into this stuff.’ But it does.” (A Countryside Winery operatordiscussing the importance of tours in sharing the provenance elements of the farmand connecting to audiences.)

“Well, I think there’s one thing, it is getting people down to see the grapes on theground, is themost important thing. Becausepeoplewant experiences.And, if theyhave a good time going around awinery, they’ll remember that. And they’ll want tohave that wine again to remember the occasion.” (A wine reporter on what he/shefeels is themost important aspect of building support for Ontariowineries, tours ofOntario’s wineries)

In situ observations of ceremonial components of rituals:

Provenance-themed ceremonies used to engage audiences: Routinized and stagedtours of historical buildings, showing familial homeswith accounts of the regionaland natural history of vineyards. For example, at Countryside Winery, the tastingroom and tour focuses on routinized stops to discuss a historical family house,family and regional historical artifacts, and highlighted family/historical stories.

Hedonic-themed ceremonies used to engage audiences:Wine tastings,wine dinners,tours, and community events with music, food, and other pleasurable socialinteractions. Dozens of food, music, and community-based events in whichfamilies are invited and encouraged to enjoy and engage with the fun activities atthe event. For example, Old Vines Estate’s annual open house where stations arestagedwithgourmet foodanda largenumberofwinesavailable for tastinganddiscussion.

Glory-themed ceremonies used to engage audiences: Wine tastings routinizedthrough stories of how wines won medals or awards, followed by consumption.


TABLE 2b(Continued)


Wine tours involving stops followed by overviews of awards or stories of winerysuccess.Forexample,eventsheldatGlamourVineyard tocelebrateandunveil awards.

Interview data: Artifacts“Sometimes we’ll tell the story behind the 2012 vintage, or our new optical sorter, or

all these things. And say, ‘Here, let’s have a look at the results of that.’Oh, and thensometimes we’ll introduce a cheese or some sort of foodwith thewine and you seethe person going, ‘You know, that isn’t bad.’ But as you’re ratcheting them up,starting with the classics elevation and then the reserves. So when you get to theelevations they are, like, they’re kind of—you can see their eyes kind of flippingback and so you know they’re thinking, ‘Right.’ Thenwhen you finally get into thereserves they are, like, ‘Wow. I hadno idea.’” (An employee fromDistinctionEstatedescribing how he uses artifacts of food and glasses to create pleasurableexperiences during tastings)

“Sowe do utilize it with howwe sell our tours, the content of our tours, andwith anypresentation at any event. I guess because we’ve embedded the milestones in ourpiazza, so when people come to an event they see we’re proud of our historybecause they’re actually on milestones within the piazza.” (An employee ofPioneer Estate, on displaying their award winning history through award plaqueswhen audiences enter the winery’s opulent main building)

In situ observations of artifacts used during rituals:Hedonic-themed artifacts used to engage audiences: Great emphasis on the use of

wine and its consumption, the use of different glasses to bring out enjoyment ofwine, using the context (building and vineyards) for enjoyment and aestheticreflection/enjoyment, strategically placed furniture on the vineyard. The authorsobserved audience members reporting that the winemaker’s or employee’s “sex”appeal “made” the wine tasting or touring experience.

Provenance-themed artifacts used to engage audiences: Emphasis placed upon thehistorical and traditional values of artifacts such as buildings and equipment aswell as the natural significance of aspects of the property. At several wineries,during tastings and tours, the authors found that employees were introduced asmembers of the founding family.

Glory-themed artifacts used to engage audiences: Emphasis on awards, award cases,and award symbols on bottles, as well as modern buildings designed to reflectmaterial wealth. At Glamour Vineyard, we observed staff dressed in more“uniform”-oriented clothing (white shirt, dark pants) during tasting, tours, andevents. Bottles emphasize medals and awards won by wine and winery.

Interview data: Accounts

“And people love the fact that it’s a family story, that it’s got some roots to the area.And soby, youknow, sort of leveraging that, it puts a personality to thewine, it putsa personality to the product above and beyond quality.” (A winery founder fromOldVines Estate explaining howconveyingprovenance stories during tours elicitspositive feelings in audience members)

“. . . he referred to a Gamay from Countryside Winery, which was ‘gulpable’ he said.And, you know, and so I tasted it and, in fact, it was gulpable.” (A restaurantoperator describes howhe is impacted by hedonic, pleasure-driven descriptions ofwine during tastings)

“I think it’s stories of the people who sort of, you know, have a struggle and sort ofmade their way from a small winery to something substantial, or made their, youknow, struggled and just, even if they didn’t become a very big winery, becamea pretty good winery. And I kind of like the idea of people working at something.”(A wine reporter from a national newspaper displaying how stories of provenancerituals resonate for him/her)

“And that’s what you need there, and she’s gone even further to use lovelydescriptions of experiences or ‘interpretations,’ if I were to call it . . .And honestly,you know, they’ve given her the license to do all of this, so that’s a wonderful


TABLE 2b(Continued)


experience.” (A wine reporter reflecting on the awe he/she experiences from thedescriptions written by a winemaker that relies upon hedonic scripts)

In situ observations of themed accounts used during rituals:

Hedonic-themed accounts expressed and experienced during ritual observations:Dramatic and aesthetic stories drawing from aesthetic accounts of whywine tastesthe way it does during consumption, amusing or incredible accounts aboutbuildings/landduring tours. InDistinction Estate,we hearddescriptions of naturalvistas, beautiful buildings, and romantic visual settings (wedding services) duringtasting, tours, and events.

Provenance-themedaccounts expressedandexperiencedduring ritual observations:Stories about family history (parents, grandparents, and children) and evocation of“stewardship,” “responsibility,” “preservation,” “connections/roots.” Forexample, Niagara Estate staff relied on accounts of the family winemaking legacyand land ownership during tasting, tours, and events.

Glory-themed accounts expressed and experienced during ritual observations:Success stories emphasizing how and why winemakers are “winning awards,”“emphasizing growth,” “focusing on credibility.” At Old Vines Estate, we heardaccounts emphasizing awards won and status by employees and staff duringtasting, tours, and events.

TABLE 2cData Display Illustrating Reported Emotional Experiences



Descriptions of emotions experienced during and from rituals: Awe Inspiring EmotionalExperiences“It was during that SWOVA vintage tasting that I tasted wines from all of the local

wineries . . . I remember being blown away by just how good [winery]’s wines were.This was one of those moments that changed everything for me.” (A wine educationsociety founder describes a wine-tasting event and the experience of shock/awe fromtasting Ontario wines, and that they could be as good as those from other regions)

“It was thewine that wasmost intriguing, fruity but not a grape like, I was expecting acidlike juice, heat that I nowknow is the alcohol, andpungent aromas, all coming togetherin a very sensualway. Iwas in awe. It started a lifelong quest to find that ‘awe in a glass’again.” (An Ontario wine media evangelist describing how a tasting experiencecreated an experience of awe that drove his/her love of wine)

“And the wonderful thing I would interpret as being full of wonder and answering somany questions that you were really amazed you didn’t even know that you had,right!” (A wine education society founder from the restaurant industry directlyreporting how his/her experiences of amazement from participating in ritualsmotivated her to learn more about Ontario winemaking)

“Itwasnot just the taste of thewine thatmademehave to sit downand reconsiderOntarioasmynew favorite place forwine, it was the . . . the abrupt realization that thiswas oneof those happymoments you can hold on to.” (Awinewriter evangelist discussing thefeeling of shock during a tour that transformed and inspired him/her to evangelize forher/his new favorite wine region)

“I didn’t really like Riesling before. I always thought it was supposed to be sweet. It’s justonce you find out afterwards, oh, that was the winemaker. Oh, that was the wineryowner. It kind of touches you in a—and you have that connection that’s really kind ofspecial and kind of changes people’s minds.” (A wine reporter evangelist on his/herjourney from tour/tasting to ending up, surprisingly, meeting thewinemaker and howhis/her ritual changed his/her perception of Ontario winemaking)


TABLE 2c(Continued)



Descriptions of emotions experienced during and from rituals: Elation“I enjoy that . . .So Imean, itwas just a little bit funnyand ironic.But, yeah, andof course I

would have a baby with me. I remember when my youngest was born, I was out ata [winery] tasting, and Iwas kind of—I had her on one hip as Iwas swaying and talkingto the crowd [laughs].” (A regional wine society founder from the food industrydescribing how she enjoyed rituals somuch that shewould go to tastings (not to drink)with her child)

“It’s all how it makes us feel ... and it might not be just the pleasure of the tasting of it. It’sthe pleasure of the association. The pleasure of the status. The pleasure of buildinga cellar. The pleasure of having more information about something that you didn’thave before andhowmuch fun that is to learn.And then to tell friends.” (An evangelistmember of the wine media reporting the experience of pleasure from his/her ritualexperiences and why he/she enjoys it)

“We took like daytrips out to Niagara there and terrorized the tasting bar staff into lettingus tastewhatever they had andmaybe something else that they had behind there. And,you know, just kind of picking people’s brains about what they liked, what theydisliked, and that kind of thing ... That was always kind of a fun experience.” (Anevangelist wine reporter reporting the pleasure he/she experienced and experienceslearning from interactions during rituals)

“Somymain interest is indrinkingwine rather thanmakingwineor thewinemaking sideof it. The technical side of it doesn’t interest me that much. My interest really startswith once the wine’s put on the table and the whole experience, whole emotionalexperience, of drinking wine and all of the things that go with it such as thecircumstances, the company, the sociability, the enjoyment.” (An evangelist winemedia member on how he/she did, and others should, get to know Ontario wine,emphasizing his/her experience of the exciting and fun ritualized activities)

“And I couldn’t—I just—sometimeswhen I have that wine, I can’t believe how good it is.It’s—unbelievable bottle of wine!” (An evangelist restaurant owner reporting theexperienceof enjoyment fromaparticular tasting, andhowhe/sheenjoys thequalityofa particular winery’s wines)

Descriptions of emotions experienced during and from rituals: Reverence

“Imean, very quickly,my rock starswere—havenow—arenowwinemakers. ThepeopleI look up to and who I—I get more star-struck meeting, you know, [winemaker] than IwouldBono,because tome that, youknow,he’smore remarkable, youknow?” (Awinesociety founder evangelist describing the experience of respect he feels aroundOntario’s winemakers during events)

“That was a heart-touching moment of my career, because the other award was given to[winemaker] so I was put in the same category as—I was bitingmy tongue, believe it ornot, I’m37years old and Iwas bidingmy time—tongue, not to cry, not tomake amoronout of myself in front of all those people whom I knew on a personal level.” (Anevangelist sommelier reporting his/her experience of pride and respect from sharingthe stage with an important winemaker)

“Because sometimes, you know, support, support, support, like, it comes across, youknow,with a double-angledmeaning, you know, that, I mean, these guys, look aroundhere, right here where we’re sitting and all that. I mean, these guys do supportthemselves. These guys believe in themselves. They do the right thing for themselves.They, you know, I’m a believer.” (An evangelist wine sommelier discussing his/herexperience of frustrationwhen people have closedminds to tasting, and his/her beingcompletely devoted to Ontario winemaking)

“They are great people who are doing so many good things for Lake Erie North Shore . . .share my passion and commitment towards our region and Ontario wines ... can’t sayenough good about them.” (Awine society evangelist reporting the respect he/she hasfrom all of the positive ritualized events shared with winemakers)

“I’m part of this now. And without acknowledging that, they don’t have that sense ofbeingpart of something larger than themselves.” (Anevangelistwinewriter describinghis/her experience of reverence in learning from his/her experience with Ontariowinemakers)


TABLE 2dData Display Illustrating Receptive and Non-Receptive, Salient Audience Identities


“And, you know, I’ve always kind of been into thewhole food andwinething and kind of learning, liking to learn about things kind of ona nerdy level. And kind of liking to try and master that. You neverreally quite master it. It’s a lifelong journey but you try and learn asmuch as you can.And so I just started taking trips down thatway, youknow, as soon as I could.” (A wine reporter addressing how he/shebecame interested in Ontario winemaking)

Gourmand Identity (Receptive) Salient AudienceMember Identities

“And I ended upworking in quite a few restaurants here in Ontario andthen over in Europe and [specifically in] France [inaudible] and allthewhile Iwas increasingly interested inwine, because you’re eatingwell you tend towant to drinkwell, too, and to drinkwell you need toknow a little bit about what you’re drinking. So I carried on doingstudies on the side and eventually by sort of coincidence I returned toCanada.” (A sommelier reporting how his/her experience in tastecultures shaped the pleasure he/she experiences from Ontariowinemaking)

“And my family background is partially Italian so, you know,it’s—wine’s just another food. It’s not a special occasion thing. It’swhat you have with dinner. So that’s how I kind of came to wine. SoI’ve always maintained an interest, was—had some, you know, and,you know, did some reading and just had—I had kind of a good basicgeneral knowledge about wine.” (A restaurant owner reporting howimmersion in Italy’s wine culture enabled his/her engagement withOntario winemaking)

“Well, I was raised in this area, been downhere since 1995.My father isa chef, British born, British trained. So I’ve always grown upwith theinfluences of food and wine.” (A restaurateur who experiences greatjoy with winemakers (and has a predominantly Ontario-orientedwine list) and working with Ontario wine commenting on his/herprofessional family background as the source of his/her interests)

“If the Italians are taught to appreciate, the young Italian Canadians,second-, third-generation, are taught to appreciate the wines of theirparents’, their grandparents’ country, regions in Italy, it’s not a bigleap for themthen to appreciate the local, the indigenous, thewinesoftheir country of birth: Ontario, Canada.” (A wine media member onhis/her experience as an Italian assists him/her in appreciating theorigins of wine and connecting with Ontario’s winemakers)

“Yeah, additional excitement, additional everything. Stratus where? InNiagara, Ontario. It’s good for everybody [inaudible] affect them, too,whatever theywant. It’s good. It’s good. It’s adding a little [inaudible]and pieces to the thing. Like, it’s a positive.” (A wine reporterdiscussing his/her history and pride in his/her adopted Niagaraidentity and his/her role in supporting Ontario winemaking)

Regional Identity (Receptive)

“Ontario citizens, [we] tend to sell ourselves short. And I thinkthat—and I don’t know if it’s, again, it could be a societal thing butwealways seem to—when it’s our own, we tend to say, ‘Oh, you know,’shrug and say, ‘Meh, you know, there’s always something better outthere.’ I think thatwedon’t tend to be very supportive of ourdomesticindustries.” (A restaurateuron the importanceof supportingwineriesthat, due to their being from Ontario, are hesitant to brag aboutthemselves)

“And I think it boils down to this, somehow, we’re insecure for somereason. I don’t know.And Idon’t knowwhere that comes from.Wheregenerally, like, an Ontario wine is—I mean, you know, there,obviously a lot of people are, but, you know, generallywe’re not—we


TABLE 2d(Continued)


don’t seemproudofour industry.Proudof thisorproudof,youknow.” (Awine society founder on becoming proud of being fromOntario)

“When Ontario wineries focus on the varieties of grapes that grow bestin our climate, they can produce results comparable to any cool-climate wineries anywhere in the world. Several of the people I havemet over the years in the Ontario amateur winemakers groups havegone on to become winemakers in Ontario wineries. Having seenthemdeterminedly labor over the years to develop their winemakingskills, I admire what they achieved.” (A wine society memberdiscussing his/her admiration for Ontario’s winemakers and theirability to produce high-quality wines)

“And I represent the [organization] on many committees and industry-related groups. Sit on an advisory board for the Niagara CulinaryInstitute for their hospitality and tourism programming. I sit on anadvisory board for Brock University for CCOVI. And I sit on anadvisory committee for the Ministry of Tourism to help developagritourism products to that industry in Ontario.” (A wine retailer)

Professional/Consumer Non-BelieverIdentity (Non-Receptive)

“The tour went quickly and the tour guide did a good job of explainingthe work the family is doing in the field and how the whole processworks. But, by the time I got to the tasting, the bottles were soexpensive that I just couldn’t wrap my hands around it. I thoughtCanadianwinewould be a deal.” (A consumer reviewing awine touron an online review site for tourists did not connect emotionally tothe practice)

“As a person just at the bottom, the job’s fairly routine and boring. Istarted doing things just to get more interest for myself. So I started,oh, working on different aspectswithin the [wine retail organization]to find things that were more interesting, more exciting. So I starteddeveloping things like how to sell wine from sales sections. Nobodyhad ever thought to do that before. I did it.” (A wine writer whooriginally started in a provincial distributor describing how he/shecame to be involved in Ontario winemaking and feels that themajority of wineries offer poor marketing)

“Really great wine, but I never really felt like going back even though itis only a few kilometers fromme. It was a beautiful tour and the tourguide was pleasant but I didn’t understand half of the things he saidabout the wine, probably because it was my first time at a tour.Drinking wine just isn’t something you do all the time.” (A bloggerdescribing an Ontario wine tour experience and noting lack ofengagement with the practice)

TABLE 2eData Display of Evangelistic Behaviors


“So I’ve beenwriting about wine. My focus has been the consumer and helping theconsumer have as much fun as possible with wine. So my main interest is indrinking wine rather than making wine or the winemaking side of it. Thetechnical side of it doesn’t interest me that much.” (A wine media member thatexperiences delight from Ontario wineries on how he preaches hedonicexperience to broad connoisseurs and consumers)

Proselytizing Evangelistic Behaviors

“You know, just getting out and about and keep saying and keep, you know,bringing awareness to the quality aspect of these locally produced wines. That’s


TABLE 2e(Continued)


howyouachieve your goal ultimately.Asmanypeople you can tell the story to, isbetter for us ultimately. As many people we can tell the story—and it doesn’tmatter even if you’ll end up sounding the same, saying the same thing. As long aswe keep doing it all over again.” (A sommelier who experiences great reverenceand fellowship for the practice describing how he/she shares glory attained bywineries)

“So that’s kind of where I see my role is a little bit or a lot different than that. It’sa little bit more of trying to be kind of the storyteller there. And kind of trying togive the story and the voice for that kind of wine and person and wineryand—that I kind of find a little bit special and kind of different and interestingand sort of trying to convey a little bit of that experience. It’s kind of—I kind ofsee it as—I’m trying to do basically a road trip with the audience there to winecountry with them. And so we can kind of riff off each other and talk a little bitabout what we think of the wines there. But ultimately it doesn’t really matter.It’s kind of guiding them on that interesting experience. Like, it could be, like,‘Wow, you know, we can go here,’ and, you know, ‘[winemaker] at [Winery]’sgot this really coolwine. He actuallydoeswine inCanadianoak a lot.Hewas thefirst person to do that,’ and can kind of guide that interesting story towardspeople who are, you know, this person’s, you know, [hypothetical term] hadmade this special wine this year. It’s a little bit of a tribute to a family memberwhodied there.And, you know, themoney is kind of going for this kind of causethere. So there’s sort of that personal connection there and it’s kind of justtelling that story.” (Awine reporter communicating how his/her role is to retellOntario winemakers’ stories (a provenance theme and hedonic theme in thequote) to a broader audience)

“And that my job in part would be to educate the clientele about the terrific winebeing produced in our country. And I, therefore, designed a wine list in which Iwrite a story about eachwine. The story contains, always, the background of thewinery, who the winemakers are or who the winemaker is, and informationabout the wine itself. But the wine list is a much more comprehensive andeducational document that is normally the case. And that is because it is mybelief that the public needs educating about its own wines.” (A restaurateurwith great delight in the taste ofwines commenting onhowhe/shewrites storiesfor each wine)

“And it changeswhile it’s openandbecamebetter andbetter, somuchso that, by thetime that bottle’s done, the only reason why you’re not going to open up anotherbottle is because it’s not going to be the same for an hour later. So those are great,great experiences and I need to have those both here in the restaurant.” (Arestaurant staff member reporting recreating the pleasure experience he/she haswithin wineries of how wine changes in taste after being opened, creating anongoing fun, social, and interesting experience)

“One of those is [wine media writer], a great guy who shares my same passion forOntario wines. I had been trying to get him to visit Lake Erie North Shore eversince we met at the first ‘Tastecamp’ in Ontario in Niagara. I finally convincedhimtovisit last fall during theShoresofErie InternationalWineFestival. Iwantedhim to meet the people and taste the wines. He did, and he loved it and plans tovisit again soon. Wine is about so much more than what is in the glass. It’s aboutthe stories, and the people. (A founder of a wine society describing how he/sheexperienced elation and found fellowship in the Ontario winemakingcommunity. Now, he/she tours with other connoisseurs and media figures)

“A ‘wonderful’ experience at a Niagara Chapter event is one that is unique, non-repetitive, educational to a certain degree, entertaining, and has a socialcomponent. We try to incorporate most of these components in our events.” (Afounder of regional wine society describing what he/she means by “wonderful,”documenting what causes it, and how he/she attempts to create it for theirmembers)

Organizing


accounts. Tastings ceremonies involved interactionsbetween organizational actors and audience membersfollowing traditional tasting protocols that reflectedEuropean conventions. Artifacts that were present andreferred to during tastings included family members asservers, family portraits and symbols (such as familytrees or actual family members working), as well as theold buildings in which tastings were held. The Coun-tryside Winery proprietor’s description of the tastingroomin thehistorichome thathadbeen inhis family forover 150 years exemplifies this:

Our tasting room when you walk down into—youwalk down the steps to our tasting room, you’re ina [historic building] . . .built in the1800s. So that’s oneway of conferring that extra value.

Wine tours combined ceremonies, artifacts, and ac-counts to communicate provenance themes. Winery

staff took visitors on tours of the land and facilities,stopping to interact around historically preserved orimportant buildings (e.g., centuries-old barns, familyhomes) and offered inspirational family stories.

Many of our interviewees reported that the experi-ence of provenance rituals influenced their advocacy.Evangelist 1, a wine connoisseur who founded andcoordinated a regionalwine society that put ondozensof events for hundreds of people, reported that, beforeinteractingwithOntario’swineries, “I can tell you thatnot many of us liked it. I have to admit that I thoughtthis regioncouldnotproducegoodwine.”Whenaskedabout how he/she came to work on behalf of Ontario’swineries, he/she offered accounts of the powerfulimpact that provenance rituals had on him/her:

I rememberwalking into [winery name] andwatchingtheir young son, maybe 6 years old, applying the

TABLE 2e(Continued)


“The Toronto Chapter had quite an impact on the industry when they helda preview tasting of wines just prior to a delegation going over to London,England, to showcase Ontario wines to the media overseas. This tasting wasreceived quite well and got a lot of publicity fromwine writers and others in theUK.” (A wine society leader discussing an important event that he/she held forwine experts and the media)

“Somy vision for the tourism side of it is that every consumer that visits an Ontariowinery, the winery will exceed their expectations. So then, you know, if we getthat vision, then we can start to sort of introduce speakers or opportunities forthem to learn ofwhy that’s—how to go about doing that.” (Thepresident of a localwine association on his/her goals of getting as many people through rituals aspossible through his/her organization aswell asworkingwithwineries to perfecttheir core rituals)

“One success story is our initiative (again, without outside funding) to developa tent card that someone could leave on the table at a restaurant if they felt therewas a very small or no representation of Ontario VQAwines on themenu. It said,basically, ‘We enjoyed themeal, but where are the fine VQAwines?’” (A founderof a wine society on how he/she organized a campaign to influence restaurants)

“But I do all kinds of things. I definitely want to see this region succeed. I mean,there’s no question in my mind that we started producing world-class wines. Imean, there was a tasting that I organized for [wine critic] and you’ll recall herJanuary 13 article inThe Financial Times twice throughout the 900-word article,she twice stated the fact that we are producingworld-class wines.” (A sommelierinterviewee on how he/she organizes winemaker dinners for wine writers)

“People attend [regional wine society] events because they like wine, want to learnmore about wine, and feel welcomed into the group. Personalwine knowledge isnot important for many attending. They are surrounded by many other mastertasters from my class who share their knowledge with others in the group.” (Awine society founder describing how he/she recreates fellowship at their events)

“Our Chapter has really grown over the past few years. We have always had thecooperation from thewinerieswhen looking for a place to host an event, andnowrestaurants have been calling asking to host the group for an evening. This hasbeen a greatway to introduce some local restaurant owners to localOntariowinesto add to their wine list.” (A wine connoisseur on howwine societies events canopen restaurants to Ontario winemaking)


labels. Everyone has a job and everyone makes a dif-ference. He was very proud to be helping.

The most frequent emotional experience reportedduring observations of provenance-themed rituals andour interviewswasreverence—a feelingofdeeprespectand veneration tinged many of the emotions reportedby our interviewees. They reported “respect,” “admi-ration,”and“pride” fromthehardwork, achievements,and skills of Ontario’s winemakers, as well as feelinglike they were engaged with “something bigger” thanjust wine. Drawing from the prior ritualized encounterwith the young boy, Evangelist 1 described how prov-enance themes of family endurance elicited emotionsthat made wine feel like more than the product:

We were so touched at the bonding moment that wehad to buy a few bottles. The wine industry is a laborof love for family-run wineries. We shared that par-ticular wine with friends as well as our observationswith the labeling. We all enjoyed it so much that wemet at thewinery andcheeredour glasses to theyoungboy!Wine is the experience andmemories you create.

We found that these inspiring emotional experiencesof reverence during, and from, provenance ritualswere enabled and made more resonant by the regionalidentities of audience members. Across many of ourinterviews, it was apparent that they identified withOntario’s long winters, the struggles of Ontario’s localfarmers, andtheirbeing“overlooked”due to their smallnature and competition from larger, more renownedregions.Whenaskedwhyhe/sheplayedsuchakey rolein organizing and spreadingOntariowine, Evangelist 1continually referred to Ontario as “their” region:

I think that everyone in our area has an advocacy role.If people don’t knowwemake such amazingwine andhave such beautiful wineries, it is my job to tell them.We are a “best-kept secret.”

Provenance-themed rituals’ connection with strongregional identities elicited reverence, which, in turn,drove proselytizing behaviors; activities to “convert”others by sharing ritualized experiences, and bringingthem to share rituals. Evangelist 1, who reported earlierhow the prior ritualized experience drove him/her tobring others to wineries, reported the experience of rev-erence inspiring them to organizing and proselytizing:

I bring local wines to parties and give local wines asgifts. [Name] and I also visit other wine regions andspread the word about how our region is producingamazing wines.

Our interview, observations, and media reportsrevealed the sway that evangelists had in spreading

news of the practices valued by Ontario’s hard-working and historical family wineries. Theseevangelists spread stories of these families to con-sumers and restaurants through their society events,retelling stories through local newspapers, as well asplaying a role in converting others into advocates bybringing them to their favorite family wineries. AsEvangelist 1 noted:

I love the “Mom and Pop” wineries . . . wine is somuch more than what is in the glass. It is the storybehind it. The story of the family struggles andaccomplishments.

Hedonic-Themed Rituals

Our analysis of texts and winery interviewsrevealed that several wineries deployed a hedonicritual template. This template focused on enhancingthe enjoyment and on communicating the indulgenceassociated with winemaking and wine-consumptionexperiences. The archival texts we consulted oftenrefer to the winemaking and tasting experience asprimarily a fun activity that enhances the quality oflife of its participants (Kramer, 2004). Accounts of thecreation of wine as a labor of love (Ulin, 2002), and onthe “sinful” nature of winemaking and its value asa social lubricant (Colman, 2008; Groves, Charters, &Reynolds, 2000; Merrett, 1997) were prevalent.

Our organizational actors reported that wine-making was about love for what one does, that wineis a pleasurable creation, and that the region shouldbe focused on winemaking that is indulgent and ex-citing, not on upholding legacies and traditions. Theowner of One-with-NatureWinery described howhewas inspired byAustralianwine’s sense of fun ratherthan the more serious French traditions:

And what’s Australia? Well, it’s casual, it’s fun, it’sapproachable, it’s—you know.When you look at thosecountries, very, you know, France is, you know, a littlebit snobby, a little bit pretentious, the best, you knowwhat Imean? It is.That’showthey—that’sFrance, right.

Drawing on the hedonic template, winery newslettersoffered a range of festive events for the public, colorfuldescriptions of vintages, as well as aesthetically pleas-ing and whimsical labels on bottles. Winery staff ac-tively wanted to share the positive feelings they felttoward their winemaking with visitors. A winery rep-resentative, reflecting upon how he/she engaged withaudiences, noted:

It’snot thispristine, revered,youknow,placewhere, youknow, everybody’s—it’s—you know, it should be opera


anditshouldbeveryexclusive, right.But that’swhat theythink—I’m, like, “No, no, no. I want people to go there,have a great time, buy—get a bottle of wine, go sit out onthe bench. Pour it into plastic cups, drink it and enjoy.”

While provenance-themed tasting rituals focusedon more structured interactions, hedonic tastingceremonies involved audience interactions focusedon finding wines that enhanced pleasure and ap-preciation. They relied on accounts describingtastes, lessons on how glasses shape their enjoymentof wine, accounts of how to enjoy and differentiatebetween the tasted wines, and ceremonies thatallowed for freedom to roam the grounds duringstops. Winery operators reported eliciting positiveaudience responses to their descriptions and pour-ing of small-batch wines during tastings. Some ofthese ceremonies were built around glasses as arti-facts. Black glasses, for instance, obscured the wineand forced individuals to rely on their sense of smelland taste to identify flavor. Distinctly shaped glasseswere used by winery actors to create different sen-sory experiences and ultimately create a more plea-surable, fun, and surprising tasting.

Before his/her experience of hedonic-themed rit-uals, Evangelist 2, a founder of a regional wine so-ciety from the restaurant industry, reported thefollowing attitude toward Ontario wine and itswinemakers: “You know, like, I mean, I didn’t drinkit, like, it was—you know, it was planned that way.”Hedonic rituals created a powerful, transformativeemotional experience of elation for evangelists.Elation is a joyfulness or happiness during ritualsindicated by “romantic,” “fun,” and “enjoyable” ex-periences. When asked how he/she became involvedwith Ontario wine and its makers, Evangelist 2 re-ported that ritualized tastings were romantic fun:

I just enjoyed what I would have considered being ina story, you knowwhat I mean. I feel like—you know,I’mout trying grapes for the day. I’mchatting with theactualwinemaker for theday.That’s so—I feel like I’min a book. And so for me it was very—it was a veryromantic experience.

While these moments were highly pleasurable(positive valence), unlike awe (reported below), theexperience of elation was not marked by punctuatedarousal. Evangelist stories revealed feelings of ela-tion through bucolic, romantic ritual experiences.Evangelist 2 explained how the act of uncorking(versus unscrewing) during events created elation:

I like corking—popping a cork out of mywine. I don’tlike Stelvin closure because it loses the romanticism

forme . . .But howcan youbeat taking a corkscrewandshoving it in thatwineanddecidingwhetherornotyouhave the cork taint and whether or not to proceed. Idon’t know. Like, that whole thing is, like—it’s justright out of a Charles Dickens’ book or something, youknow. And that was what I loved.

We consistently found that evangelists’ elationduring hedonistic rituals was shaped by their gour-mand identities, cast by a background with gastro-nomic taste cultures (Gans, 2008), such as “foodie”culture. These individuals valued sensory experi-ences. Evangelist 2 was always “attracted to fine din-ing,” and, in addition to valuing taste, identificationwith food cultures provided knowledge of sensorytechniques (oxidizing wine) during hedonist ritualsthat enabled him/her to enjoy the experience fully:

And as soon as you do that, you’re going to smell itagain and you’re going to notice it. And so basicallyit’s just getting the science across to the people in thissort of romantic way, right. I mean, people who ap-preciate wine are usually in fine dining.

The pursuit of these joyful experiences droveaudience members and Evangelist 2 to engage inorganizing, voluntarily producing events and or-ganizations to support Ontario winemaking. Theseorganizations enabled the re-enactment of ritualsfor broader audiences and afforded Evangelist 2 theopportunity to continue to experience the fun oftasting rituals: “The thing that keptme going . . .wasthe romanticism of it.” The desire to re-experienceelation from these rituals drove him/her to organizedozens of events that recreated these ritualized in-teractions for hundreds of people:

. . .beingout for thenight, youknowwhat Imean.You’reout. You’re doing it. You’re out for the night. It’s a goodnight out. You’re drinking wine. You’re with people.You’re talking to the owners of wineries. It’s just fun.

Analysis of evangelists impacted by hedonistic rit-uals revealed that they described their “fun” expe-riences at wineries on social media, would bringothers to wineries to recreate experiences, and rec-reate tasting experiences for friends at their homes.

Glory-Themed Rituals

Our wineries also deployed, and our audiencemember interviewees reported, that the experienceof rituals based on glory templates focused on praise,honors, or distinctions bestowed by status-grantingaudiences, as well as ostentatious displays of wealth


or grandeur. The pursuit of glory has been an in-trinsic part of fine winemaking for centuries(Colman, 2008), and this pursuit is often facilitatedby enrolling various audiences, such as critics oracclaimed restaurateurs, in the cause. Unlike ac-counts of provenance that highlight legacies ofstewardship, glory accounts tout external recogni-tion. Many of the wine media texts (e.g., wine mag-azines, blogs) attended to the accomplishments ofhigh-status wineries that won medals in competi-tions, had wines rated by well-known critics, andattained point scores for quality. Mentions andawards were reflected in Ontario winery newslettersand in plaques prominently displayed in tastingrooms. Glamour Vineyard’s newsletter, for instance,proudly announced: “All of us at Glamour Vineyardare proud and honored to be named Canada’s ‘Win-ery of the Year.’” In our interviews, several wineryoperators discussed how they were focused on “notbeing the biggest, but the best” and of the “highestquality compared to others.” One winery ownernoted:

I would do what it takes to be the best grape—amongthe best grape grower in the region. You know,what ittakes Iwill do to be there. But then after that, I decidedto open the winery. When I decided to open thewinery, my prime goal is to become a shining star.

Unlike rituals associated with other templates,glory-focused tours mainly featured stops that dis-playedmodern technology or ostentatious buildings.Guides stopped (often at displayed awards through-out the buildings) to boast of the prestige of theawards and competitions won, the costs of facilities,and their commitment to quality at any cost. The lessinteractive nature of these ceremonies was particu-larly evident in tasting ceremonies; wine was fre-quently poured, briefly described, and consumedwith fewer stories or descriptions.

Although observed frequently during our in situinteractions, glory rituals were the least reported byour interviewees as drivers of evangelism. Evangelist3 was a restaurant owner who organized events anddeveloped an Ontario wine list emphasizing Ontar-io’s wineries even though it often “doesn’t make fi-nancial sense.” This individual’s pre-evangelistperspective was that “Ontario wines were not verygood. But that has changed.” Evangelist 3 describeshow wine-tasting competitions sponsored by win-eries and including high-status wine figures havea demonstrated commitment to the highest quality:

They had the top wine writers and sommeliers in thecountry here.We had 20-odd people or 18 doing blindtests of the 40wines. The person sitting next to youdidnot have them in the same order. In other words, youcouldn’t sort of look over and be influenced by whatthey were doing. The results were quite incredible.

Glory rituals during which Ontario wines “com-peted”withwines from other regions created a senseof awe for Evangelist 3 andmany others. Awe entailsbeing aroused by something astounding, or surpris-ing. Upon being exposed to rituals at wineries, sev-eral audience members reported being in awe of theexperience and surprised by Ontario wines. Wemade note of words uttered by audiences duringtastings and during interviews such as “wow,”“dumbfounded,” “shocked,” “amazed,” and “won-der,” all of which indicated positive valence andintense, punctuated arousal. Although awe was alsoassociatedwith the quality or anew taste, itwas oftenexpressed from the experience that Ontario wineswere as “good” as other regions’wines. In describinghow the priorwine competitionwas a catalyst to his/her advocacy, Evangelist 3 described his/her sur-prise as follows:

There was no discernible difference between the twoof them, in quality, okay. And that’s really the in-terestingpart. So inasmuchas that, so the result comesdown to, is like, you knowwhat, you don’t have to beashamed about drinking Ontario wines anymore.

Many evangelists reported that their regionalidentities shaped their awe during glory rituals.Evangelist 3 assumed that his/her region had pro-duced lower quality wines of which he/she shouldbe ashamed. Exposed to ritualized competitions inwhich Ontario wines were “proven” comparable tothose from established regions elicited punctuatedfeelings of shock that Ontario wines were great. Rit-uals provided an experience that contradicted feel-ings of shame linked to their regional identity: “TheAustralians are proud ... The Californians are proudof the Californian wine. The Ontarians are ashamedof Ontario wine. And they have no reason to be.”

The experience of awe led many evangelists toactively proselytize on behalf of apologetic Ontarianwinemakers and to be flag bearers that convertedothers. Evangelist 3’s amazement led them to breaktheir own price rules and proselytize to their cus-tomers by creating a predominantlyOntariowine listand organizing tasting events at their restaurant: “Itwas done to support Ontario. I broke those rules. Imade the changes to support Ontariowines.”He/she


was also driven to spread awe by recreating ritualsfor his/her customers:

And when I showed him the bottle, that it wasOntario, he almost fell backwards. He has completelybecome converted to Ontario wines . . . Just recently,actually, itwas arranged for him to go toNiagara Falls,they did some tours.

Glory-focused evangelists, like Evangelist 3, wouldproselytize by announcing awards as well as cele-brate medals by organizing events and tastings toshow off their victories within their own, andbroader, communities.

Rituals and Non-Believers

Those who we found did not believe in Ontariowinemaking, termednon-believers, often reported thatrituals did not resonate with them emotionally. Ratherthan experiencing awe, reverence, or elation from rit-uals, they rationalized them away as being nothingmore than savvy marketing. They noted that, when itcame towine, theirprofessionalor consumer identitieswere more salient. For instance, while none of thethemes performed by wineries resonated with theseaudience members, several emphasized the disingen-uous and overly fabricated nature of glory-themedrituals. Non-believer 1, a wine writer, questionedwhether Ontario winemaking would ever be good:“Some of them do well; some of them taste like shit.But we’re slowly learning. So is it becoming a winearea?”

When asked how he/she came to be a wine writer,Non-believer 1 stressed their professional identitydeveloped from being in sales at the local provincialdistributor: “Iworked for the [regional distributor] . . .I started doing things just to get more interest formyself . . . I started developing things like how to sellwine from sales sections.” This professional identi-fication with sales and marketing shaped his/herexperienceof ritualized interactionswithwinemakers.For example, in his/her response to a provenance-themed tasting at a small, family owned winery, he/she remarked:

These people are just as down to earth as you couldever want anybody to be. And so aremany of the onesin these little wineries out in the middle of nowhere.They’re unsophisticated in the ways of marketing.

Displays of success and opulence through glory rit-uals were dismissed as poor attempts at marketingand as futile attempts to demonstrate status. When

reflecting upon a glory-themed tour of a winerydemonstrating top-of-the-line winemaking equip-ment, he/she noted:

There’s a great way for rich people to spend theirmoney; they want to create something of value. Andthey’re going to get their social kicks out of doing it. . .This way, you know, if this is how a rich personwants to measure their dick.

Importantly, his/her attitude toward Ontario winewas far from unique among non-believer inter-viewees, particularly those who had extensive salesor professional experience in the industry and hadbecome hardened to the effects of rituals they hadseen performed many times.

While salient identities in evangelist audiencemembers enabled the experience of positive emo-tions, salient non-believer identities impeded thisexperience. Instead, we found that non-believersemphasized consumer value as being dictated bya price-to-quality ratio. Non-believer 1 reported thefollowing from the experience of hedonic wineries:

I could make horrible wine, but, with my label on it,that stupid [winery logo] picture, and the way it’sknown, I’d be able to get $30 a bottle . . . They don’thave a marketing plan or whatever.

Like our consumer non-believers, when describingan interaction with a winemaker, Non-believer 1reported a primacy of reasonable pricing:

I had a long argument with [winemaker] about pricesoneday. I finallywonhimover, I said, “The right priceis the price you charge to sell your last bottle on theday you want it gone.”

Ultimately, as in the case of Non-believer 1, Ontariowineries faced resistance to rituals or found that theyresonated based not only on the quality of theirproduct or performance, but based on salient iden-tities of their audience members.

A MODEL OF AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT ININSTITUTIONAL EVANGELISM

In this section, we summarize the results of ouranalysis, blend findings with existing theory, andclarify the connections between our aggregate theo-retical dimensions (Golden-Biddle & Locke, 1993) todevelop an inductive, multilevel process model ofhow institutional evangelism is engendered in au-dience members. In doing so, we bring to light howorganizational actors stimulate, through rituals thatproduce positive, inspiring emotional experiences,


the transition of audience members from spectator-ship to committed advocacy. The model (Figure 3)allows for the elaboration and extension of existingtheory on audience member engagement, empha-sizing the role this process plays in the dissemina-tion of emerging practices.

Sequence 1: Institutional Template Performance inRituals

Our analysis revealed that audience membersbecame emotionally inspired to evangelize on be-half of emerging practice following participation inrituals led by organizational actors (see Table 2a).These interactionswere shaped by institutionalizedtemplates (Greenwood & Hinings, 1993) that codi-fied behaviors of established exemplars and con-noted the proper ways of sharing the practice.Organizational actors relied on these templates tocraft and arrange ceremonies, artifacts, and ac-counts that were delivered in concert to audiencemembers (Rosen, 1985; Trice & Beyer, 1984). Indoing so, they materialized fine winemaking idealsand norms, translating them into social, rhetorical,and sensory experiences. The deployment of dis-tinct templates was variegated across our sample(see Table 1), as some organizational actors adoptedcertain templates as primary, emphasizing themas themes in their performances, while othersleveraged more than one. This diversity allowed

audience members to participate in distinct ritualsthat emphasized different interpretations of theemerging practice.

The first sequence of the model captures notonly the work of organizational actors drawingfrom templates and crafting experiences, but alsothe interactions between organizational actors andaudience members that ensue thereafter. Audi-ence member participation in and repeated expo-sure to these performances set the stage fora sequential process in which progressive immer-sion produced more inspiring emotional experi-ences (Lofland& Stark, 1965). Interestingly, ritualswere used not to reinforce the commitment offormal members of organizations to its practicesand boundaries as is emphasized in extant studies(e.g., Dacin et al., 2010; Islam & Zyphur, 2009), butto link a practice and external audience membersthat value it and entice deeper and persistent en-gagement. Intensive, “eye-opening” moments en-sured continued involvement from external others(Stinchcombe, 2002). The rituals, as such, were aninvitation into a community of actors seeking toadvance compelling new ways of doing things(Stinchcombe, 2002). Importantly, rituals were“received” differently by audience members withdifferent backgrounds, creating two paths: oneleading to advocacy and one that did not producea change in behavior.

FIGURE 3Process Model of Audience Member Conversion into Evangelism

SalientAudienceMemberIdentities

(a) Receptive Identities

(b) Non-receptive Identities

Sequence 1

Sequence 2

Sequence 3

Inspiring EmotionalExperience

InstitutionalizedTemplates

OrganizationRituals

Emerging PracticeDissemination

No EmotionalResonance

EvangelisticBehaviors

Conversion to Evangelism

Failed conversion


Sequence 2: Salient Identities and AudienceEmotional Inspiration from an Emerging Practice

Audiences are composedofmemberswho identifynot only with the professions and organizations ofwhich they are a part, but alsowith other, less formalsubgroups (Kim & Jensen, 2014) and broader collec-tives (Roccas & Brewer, 2002). These identities areoften layered (Brown,Dacin, Pratt, &Whetten, 2006),becoming salient in different situations. For exam-ple, members of the wine media in our context oftentranscended their professional identities, noting thatgourmand andOntarian identities were more salientthan their professional identities during interactionswith winery representatives. Our findings suggestthat audiencemembers whowere inspired by ritualshad internalized salient, social identities that pre-disposed them to being amenable and responsive tosome ceremonies, artifacts, and accounts. That is,they judged elements less austerely and were moreopen to experiencing emotions (Forgas, 1995). Weterm these “receptive” identities in Figure 3. Ourdata revealed that rituals, by and large, did not res-onate emotionally with those who did not reportreceptive identities, hereafter referring to these as“non-receptive” identities. We describe the twoalternate paths below:

Receptive identities and the inspiring emotionalexperiences. Not all identities leave audiencemembers equally receptive to performances of in-stitutionalized ritual templates. Our context revealedthat two types of identities internalized by our audi-encememberswere integral inwhether they reportedan inspiring emotional experience in response toa ritual. Regional identitiesmade audience membersmore susceptible, for instance, toprovenance-themedelements that emphasized Ontario heritage (seeAppendix A). Similarly, glory accounts and artifactssignifying Ontarian achievements resonated withthose who saw themselves as Ontarian. A wish tosupport organizational actors with whom audiencemembers built relationships and who they revered(e.g., pride, admiration) for their work advancing thepractice was noted repeatedly in our interviews asa driver for continued interest and involvement byOntarian audience members. In fact, reverence,a composite of “other-praising” emotions (Algoe &Haidt, 2009) such as gratitude and admiration, com-pelled audience members to seek out ways to praiseorganizational actors’ achievements and reciprocate.

Audience members who had internalized a gour-mand identity also reported beingmore responsive torituals. Theywere receptive to hedonic elements that

emphasized sensory aspects of the consumptionprocess and social aspects related to the discussion ofvarietals (see Appendix B). Gourmands reported be-ing in awe (Keltner & Haidt, 2003) of the vistas andtastes ofOntario andwere curious to experiencemoreof what the region had in store. Given this identity,cognitive barriers associatedwithnegative reputationwere lowered, and they became more open to seeingOntario winemaking through the eyes of organiza-tional actors. They were open to experiencing trans-formative moments similar to those experienced inrites of passage or induction rituals (Islam & Zyphur,2009). Once audience members found themselvesimmersed in the rituals, they also reported experi-encing elation, a highly pleasurable feeling of arousalthat can lead togreater curiosityandsupport sustainedattention (DeRivera, Possell, Verette,&Weiner, 1989).In several cases, we found that liminal moments ofawe opened audience members with receptive iden-tities to an immersive experience with the emergingpractice. The actual ritual performance that tran-spired once audience members were immersed pro-ducedmore lasting elation that, in several cases, led tomore sustained curiosity about and involvementwiththe practice. Importantly, however, the ordering andintensity of this emotion sequence varied, as someaudience members reported, for instance, never los-ing their sense of awe at the practice.

Non-receptive identities and the absence of in-spiring emotions. Members of key audiences whohad identities that precluded them from experiencingemotions during rituals retained an arm’s-length as-sociation with the practice. In our context, we foundthat those who reported consumer or professional(such as regulator) identities as more salient thangourmand or regional identities did not experienceinspiring emotions. For example, professional identi-ties supported the objective enforcement of distribu-tion normsor quality assuranceover the advancementof fine winemaking. Those audience members whoself-identified as consumers sought to “find the bestdeal” andwere keenon avoiding salesmanship, ratherthan seeking outmeaningful experiences.Both groupsviewedinteractionswithorganizationalactorsaspurelycommercial transactions, and, thus, were not receptiveto inspiring emotional experiences that outdid theseexpectations (Louis, 1980).

Our findingsdonot suggest that the values inherentin professional, gourmand, and regional identitiescannot overlap (Roccas&Brewer, 2002). For example,the sommeliers in our sample who had internalizeda gourmand identity reported that their professionwas appreciation-oriented, and noted that their


pursuit of their profession was compatible with theirgourmand identities.We found, however, that severalgourmand restaurateurs were not evangelists, as theyprioritized professional (manager) identities overtheir gourmand identities. For example, three of thenon-believer restaurant owners in our sample choseto sellOntariowine to create amarketing buzz aroundtheir restaurant rather than to reflect their emotionalconnection to Ontario winemaking. As such, wecaution that the presence of receptive identities alonedoes not necessarily lead to emotional experiences.Instead, these identities appear necessary for the ex-periences to become viable. Therefore, it is importantto understand identities and the role they might playin coloring individuals’ experiences prior to exam-ining the process of “becoming” (Louis, 1980; Pratt,Rockmann, & Kaufmann, 2006) described here.

Sequence 3: Inspired Evangelistic Behaviors andPractice Dissemination

Rituals can leadmembers of key audiences to adoptnew roles and expand existing ones (Stets & Burke,2000). As our data shows, the emotions that audiencemembers experience associated with a practice stem-med from rituals that preceded their engagement inevangelisticbehaviors. Engagement in thesebehaviorsreflected the acceptance of a unique role. In contrast toaudience members who maintain a distant relation-shipwith the practices, this deeply involved audiencemember role ishighlyactivebut largelyvoluntary, andcrucial to the advancement of an emerging practice.By and large, audience members in our context whoevangelized stopped short of becoming practitionersin all but five cases, where individuals eventuallyjoined wineries or became amateur winemakers. Im-portantly, they did not see themselves aswinemakers,industry stakeholders, or part of a profession (Michel,2011), claiming instead to be facilitators, believers,and advocates. Ultimately, audience members expe-rienced emotions that made them invested in thepractice and led them to seek out opportunities forcontribution—even at the risk to their own reputationor financial well-being. Evangelism encompasses be-haviors that are driven by this devotion.

Our interviews also revealed that involvement inthese activities could be an emotionally rewardingexperience. Those proselytizing or organizing onbehalf of Ontario winemaking often found them-selves working with other evangelists who sharedsimilar identities, and that validated their roles inthe advancement of the practice. They reportedfinding a sense of purpose and deeper meaning in

their shared activities as they proselytized and or-ganized for a practice in which they believed. Asevangelists spent more and more time seeking theadvancement of the practice, more aspects of theirlives (e.g., friendships, routines) became enmeshedin the practice and its evangelism—which sus-tained their engagement (Voronov & Weber, 2015).Evangelists bought into the shared “dream” (Pratt,2000) of making a practice—in this case, Ontariofine winemaking—vibrant and successful.

These behaviors not only spread news of Ontariowinemaking’s turn to quality but inspired other au-dience members to become stalwart advocates forthe emerging practice. Some of our evangelists re-ported that they initially became aware of the prac-tice, and were introduced to Ontario’s winemakers,not through a ritualized experience performed bya representative of a winery but through the prosely-tizing and organizing activities of already-convertedevangelist audiencemembers who had never workedfor a winery or wine industry group. This suggeststhat audience evangelism can be engendered througha virtuous cycle of emotional investment thatserves as a sustained mechanism for practice dis-semination. Figure 1, referred to earlier, supportsthis assertion.

DISCUSSION

Organizational Rituals and the Origins ofEvangelists

The model we develop in this paper emphasizesthe key role of organizational rituals in inspiring theemergence of evangelists from key audiences that de-votedly build critical masses of support for organiza-tions. While evangelism scholars have touted theimportance of organizational interactions and experi-ences in engendering consumer (Ortiz et al., 2013) andorganizational actor (Beatty & Gordon, 1991) evange-lism, we extend this work by providing a process-driven model that theorizes how these interactionslead to evangelism via the use of institutionalizedartifacts, accounts, and ceremonies by organizationsthat constitute emotionally resonant rituals.

Second, we inform social movement scholarshipon the emergence of audience advocacy that haspredominantly emphasized the role of framing(Benford & Snow, 2000) by organizational actors togalvanize particular audiences with shared identitiesrooted in common grievances. This work has em-phasized linguistic and symbolicallydrivencognitiveframing processes to communicate practices that


elicit either identity enhancing emotional reactionsoranger through reminders of injustice and inequity.Our emphasis on organizational rituals and the per-formance of institutional templates focuses on theinteractions between organizations and audiencemembers involving the experience of artifacts andengagement in ceremonies as well as accounts. Thetransformational nature of our context’s interactionsalong with our model echo and extend Alexander’s(2004) as well as Gray et al.’s (2015) arguments on theimportance of rituals by showing how the interactiveand relational nature of rituals play a key role in de-termining whether an organization’s frames will cre-ate shared systems ofmeaning for external audiences.

Finally, our model informs research on the social-ization tactics of organizations by showing howevangelism might emerge in the course of shorter-term rituals, even when the target of conversion (au-dience members, in our case) may enter and exit therituals freely, and actors are unable to reinforcenorms.Prior organizational studies tended to focusonindividuals who have undergone some form of so-cialization as part of joining a particular organization(Pratt, 2000) or profession (Michel, 2011). Key to suchsocialization is continuous exposure to and rein-forcement of norms and sanctioning for deviations(Sanchez-Burks & Huy, 2009). In contrast, in ourcontext, long-term exposure to socialization mecha-nisms or encapsulation (Pratt, 2000) of audiencememberswasnot a viablepath to creating evangelists.For instance, unlike Jones andMassa’s (2013) studyofinstitutional evangelism, in which evangelists werefound to build support by cultivating long-term re-lationships, we observed that devotion to emergingpractices was built through smaller-scale, ritualisticexperiences (Knottnerus, 2014).

The Role of Emotions and Identities in Evangelism

Prior studieshavenoted that“fervor” (Stinchcombe,2002), “devotion” (Ortiz et al., 2013), or “efferves-cence” (Durkheim, 1915/1965) toward an organiza-tion’s way of doing things plays an important role inpromoting evangelical behaviors (see also Scarpi,2010). We advance theory on how organizationalactors elicit evangelistic behaviors from members ofkey audiences in twoways. First, we propose three spe-cific emotion categories—reverence, elation, and awe—that organizations can inspire in evangelists to drivetheir support of an emerging practice. Second, weprovide insights into when and how these emotionswill surfaceby theorizing the roleof receptiveandnon-receptive identities in their emergence. In doing so,

we join scholars who acknowledge the importance ofemotions in organizing and call for increasing speci-ficity when discussing emotion states (Creed et al.,2014; Huy et al., 2014).

While scholars of collective action focus on howsocial movement organizations are able to frame ar-guments that target injustices and inflame already-feltemotions (e.g., anger, shame) among audiences anddirect them to a cause, our study focuses on how or-ganizations use rituals to create emotion experiencesfor particular members of audiences with internalizedreceptive identities. By acknowledging the fact thataudiences can have layered identities (Brown et al.,2006; Pratt & Rafaeli, 1997) that become more or lesssalient during ritualized interactions with actors,we describe why certain audience members retaina “hands off” spectator role or, alternatively, becomemore deeply involved with practice advancement.Thus,we explainwhy some audiencemembersmight,or might not, be amenable to emotional experiencesduring organizational interactions. In particular, wereveal how some identities make them more “re-ceptive” to emotional experiences that drive evange-lism (Elsbach, 2014). Consequently, we elaborate theconnection between cognitive identification processesand emotions that is often implicit in the work ofscholars who have entwined institutionalism andidentity research to understand change and stability(Navis &Glynn, 2010;Wry et al., 2011). Ultimately, weboth support and extend the notion that, prior to de-signing and implementing any conversion or trans-formationprocess, it is important to clearlyunderstandthebackgroundandsalient identities of those insideanorganization, but also those outside (Louis, 1980).

Lastly, we inform growing work on the role thatemotions play in the institutionalization of practices(Voronov & Vince, 2012). While institutionalists havepredominantly addressed emotions that maintain in-stitutions such as shame (Creed et al., 2014) or adoptedsocialmovementperspectives toexplainhowemotionssuch as anger (Jasper, 2011; Voronov & Yorks, 2015)disrupt them, we emphasize those positive emotionsthat inspire audience members to engage in work thatdisseminates a practice. Evangelist activities capturedin our longitudinal study demonstrate that positiveemotions (Nilsson, 2015) drive not only short-termcontributions by audience members, but drive mem-bersofaudiences tosustain theirevangelismoveryears.

How Audiences Extend Organizational Influence

Our finding that numerous organizations usedrituals to inspire evangelistic behaviors from a


broad range of audiences empirically demonstratesStinchcombe’s (2002) assertion that evangelists, andevangelism more broadly, may have potent impli-cations for how organizations can extend their in-fluence and spread their ways of doing things. Ourwork also advances the study of how organizationsspread emerging practices in three ways. First, byadopting a process-oriented perspective on in-stitutional evangelism with an emphasis on the roleof external audiences in evangelizing practices, ourpaper expands upon who (or members from whichaudiences) organizations may convert to evangelizeon behalf of their emerging practice. While pre-liminary research on evangelism has focused onconsumers and organizational actors, our findingsthat members of the media, regulators, experts(connoisseurs), and critics can have receptive sub-group identities (Kim & Jensen, 2014) that enableconversion to evangelism. This informs growing re-search on the role of audiences (Helms & Patterson,2014; Jones et al., 2012) in practice advancement byincluding more heterogeneous actors.

Second, our model of institutional evangelism ex-pands upon the behaviors of evangelists. Althoughprior research on evangelism and activism has em-phasized “word of mouth” (Scarpi, 2010), “preach-ing” (Beatty & Gordon, 1991), and other means ofspreading information within and across communi-ties (Whittle, 2005), the behaviors we capture morefully demonstrate the conversion activities that con-stitute evangelism. Furthermore, while prior re-searchers suggested that the work of evangelists canbe varied (Jones & Massa, 2013; Stinchcombe, 2002),we identify and explain the genesis of two newevangelist behaviors that advanceemergingpractices:proselytizing and organizing. Thus, evangelists workto convert others by sharing institutional templates,recreating rituals and emotional experiences, as wellas by holding events and founding organizations.

Third, in contrast to prior research, we found that,rather than all evangelists being converted by a com-mon individual or single organization, a “viral” spreadof ritual re-enactment supports emerging practice dis-semination (see Appendix C). That is, organizationalactors converted evangelists, who, in turn, prosely-tized and created support organizations tasked withencouraging other audience members to experiencethe practice through rituals and become “believers.”That is, by actively recruiting stalwart believers whosubsequently convert others who are several degreesapart, organizations engaged in emerging practicesmay find themselves having to devote fewer resourcesto re-energizingandconvincingaudiencesof theworth

of a practice. Without organizing—creating structuresthat facilitate encounters and interactions with poten-tial converts and reinforce devotion to a practice inbelievers—the drive behinddissemination effortsmaystall or lack dependability.

Future Research on Evangelism

We believe that there are many opportunities tobuild and expand upon the model and constructsproposed herein. In this paper, we do not systemati-cally explore the behavioral differences in howmembers from particular audiences evangelize.Future studies might examine the differences in howevangelists from audiences such as regulators,media,or connoisseurs engage in evangelistic behaviors.Advocacy has distinct implications for audiencesgoverned by different professional norms and rules(Muzio, Brock, & Suddaby, 2013). For example, reg-ulators are expected tomaintain greater distance fromthose organizations they monitor, as compared to aconnoisseur. This distance should shape the overt orcovertnatureof theevangelist behaviorswe introduceaswell as potentially introduce new ones. In additionto the type of audience having an influence on evan-gelism behaviors, the degree of contestation relatedto a practice should also influence them (Elsbach &Bhattacharya, 2001; Vergne, 2012). Future work onevangelists building support for not only emergingbut stigmatized practices could broaden the types ofevangelist behaviors that can emerge.

This single-context study of an emerging practiceprovides an initial typology of three emotions thatinspire evangelistic behaviors. Although we believethat our emotion categories are generalizable acrosscontexts, different rituals might produce differentemotions altogether. In order to broaden understand-ings of those emotions that drive evangelism, wewould encourage research on a broad range of evan-gelists for particular practices. For example, the emo-tions that foster evangelism for new technologypractice (Beatty & Gordon, 1991) might be differentfrom those for an artisanal practice (e.g., Jones et al.,2012). Furthermore, while our context revealed posi-tive valence emotions that inspired evangelism, otherorganizations engaged in practices of social issueawareness (such as human rights and environmentalpractices) could find that evangelistsmight bedevotedto emerging practices based upon anger associatedwith ideologically deviant practices (such as pollu-tion) they oppose (Kozinets & Handelman, 2004).

Thispaper’semphasison rituals in the formof tours,tastings, and other ceremonial events points to an


interesting and underexplored empirical phenomenafor future studies to examine.Universities andnot-for-profits as well as corporations regularly use tours,dinners, and social events to engage with audiencesand garner their support (Dacin et al., 2010). Althoughthe institutional templates, along with the artifacts,accounts, and ceremonies performed in rituals, willvary based upon the practice, the use of ritualizedevents provides an excellent context for further ex-ploring those organizational interactions that engen-der or fail to engender audience engagement or evenevangelism. Cross-sector studies on how actors usesuch ritualized events can extend theory on how di-verse organizations craft interactions that garnerevangelical support from a wide range of audiences.

Finally, perhaps the most generative elementelaborated in this study is a renewed vocabulary,built on Stinchcombe’s (2002) “missionary work”terminology, but also evocative of Pratt’s (2000)workon Amway or Ashforth and Vaidyanath’s (2002)work on organizations as secular religions. It lever-ages not only evangelism, but conversion, prosely-tization, devotion, belief, and other religious termswith underexplored theoretical potential and ex-planatory power to explain emerging practice dis-semination. Scholars might deploy and extend theseconcepts in novel contexts, or even apply them topreviously observed phenomena that may have, forinstance, been examined through physical meta-phors (e.g., forces, diffusion).

CONCLUSION

We build a process model that casts institutionalevangelism as an important lens for understandinghow organizations can inspire the spread of emergingpractices. We theorize how organizations garner thesupport and advocacy of audiences through the crea-tion of rituals that, through emotional experiences,drive certain audience members to behaviors thatbuildcriticalmassesof support for emergingpractices.Rather than treating organizational actors, audiencemembers, and their interactions as non-emotive and“arm’s-length” pieces of the dissemination process,we re-conceptualize them as interactive and emo-tional protagonists whose ritualized encounters canturn those audience members into evangelical exten-sions of those organizations theymonitor. In doing so,we highlight the importance of carefully crafted, ritu-alized interactions with audiences outside one’s for-mal organizations, andof considering the lasting effectthat inspiring emotional experiences can have for theorganizations and practices around us.

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Felipe G. Massa ([email protected]) is an assistant pro-fessor of management at the College of Business at LoyolaUniversity New Orleans. He received his PhD from theCarroll School of Management at Boston College. His re-search is focused on the efforts of collectives that violateinstitutional boundaries and span social worlds to in-troduce disruptive practices and ideas.

WesleyHelms ([email protected]) is anassistantprofessorof strategicmanagementat theGoodmanSchoolofBusinessatBrock University (St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada). He re-ceived his PhD from the Schulich School of Business at YorkUniversity (Toronto, Ontario, Canada). His research interestsinclude the strategic management of conflict, social change,and the negotiation of ideologically contested practices.

Maxim Voronov ([email protected]) is professor ofmanagement at the Goodman School of Business, BrockUniversity. He received his PhD from Columbia Univer-sity. His research focuses on microfoundations of changeand stability—at organizational, field, and societal levels.

LiangWang ([email protected]) is an assistant professorof strategy and entrepreneurship in the School of Man-agement at University of San Francisco. He received hisPhD from the Schulich School of Business at York Uni-versity.His research focuses on firm location strategy, localinstitutions, and regional innovation and competitiveness.


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APPENDIX

AIllustration

ofSeq

uen

ce:R

ituals,Regional

Iden

tity,a

ndEmotionsDrivingEva

ngelist

Beh

aviors

Eva

nge

lists

Ritualsan

dEmotional

Exp

eriences

Reflectionson

Influen

ceof

Regional

Iden

tity

Eva

nge

listic

Beh

aviors

Awinewriterwhohelped

foundaloca

lresearch

orga

nization,v

olunteered

toco

ordinatenumerou

sev

ents,a

nd

authored

seve

ralb

ooks

onOntario

winem

aking

“Butify

oudon

’tac

know

ledge

that,y

oukn

ow,likeman

yproduce

rsdon

’trealizethestrugg

les,thestrugg

lesthat

[winem

aker]w

entthrough

,for

instan

ce,just

tobringan

appellation

system

toOntario.

Andtheterrible

resistan

cethat

was

intheindustry

...

I’m

parto

fthis

now

.Andwithou

tac

know

ledgingthat,they

don

’thav

ethat

sense

ofbe

ingparto

fsom

ething

larger

than

them

selves.”

“You

remainach

ildas

faras

ahistorical

mem

orygo

es,a

ndyo

umissthat

won

derfulp

ridethat

says,‘Ia

mparto

fan

industry

that

know

show

tostruggle.’”

“...that

know

show

topersist,that

know

show

toco

llab

orate.

...I’ve

joined

this

institution

.I’m

parto

fthis

now

.”

Discu

ssingtherole

ofhistory

during

ritualsin

crea

tingreve

rence

.Refersto

theprove

nan

cetemplates

communicated

through

rituals

Describingtheim

portance

oftheregion

’shistory

inwineryinteractions

(prove

nan

cethem

es)a

ndhow

he/sh

ereve

restheindustry

Emphatically

describinghow

feelingof

reve

rence

fortheac

complish

men

tsfor

thepracticedrive

shis/her

orga

nizing

andproselytizingthrough

writing

historica

lboo

ks

Restaurateurwhohas

persisten

tly

promoted

Ontariowinein

spiteof

loss

anditsneg

ativereputation

with

particu

larclients

“Itwas

follow

edup,y

oukn

ow,they

were

constan

tlyou

ttheredoingtastings

and

winem

akers’dinners.Andso

they

mad

e—they

gave

apersonality,

apersona,to

thewinery.”“Im

ean—an

dso

Ithink,

youkn

ow,O

ntariowineisan

exam

ple

forusto

beproudan

dflex

our

muscle,n

otat

theex

clusivity

ofan

yone

else,w

iththeex

ception

ofan

yoneelse,

ortheex

clusion

ofan

yoneelse.”

“Som

etim

essomeof

thefalse

sophistica

teswhoca

n’t,you

know

,who

thinkthat

youhav

eto

drinkbig,

bloc

kbuster

Nap

aValleywine.

AndI

thinkthat’skindof

a—there’skindof

aninsecu

rity

there,

aca

seof

low

self-

esteem

.”

“Buta

tthesametimewherev

erpossible,

let’spromoteOntario:

wine,

culture,

everything.

Yea

h.I

mea

n[inau

dible]

this

morning,

wejust

read

inthepap

erab

outthis

proposed

musicfestival

takingplace

dow

nin

Niaga

ra.B

e,like

,kindof

asu

mmer

season

withthe

Toron

tosymphon

y,et

cetera.I

mea

n,

that

sortof

thing,

youkn

ow,w

illg

oalongway

toen

courage

peo

pleto

drink,

toap

preciateOntariowine.”

Recou

ntingthe“su

rprises”

associated

withvisits

toOntariowinem

akers

(wineriesem

phasizinggloryrituals)

andthequ

alityof

Ontariowine

Rep

ortinghow

he/sh

ean

dother

Ontarian

smust

overco

methelowself-

esteem

associated

withfalsenotions

rega

rdingthequ

alityof

Ontariowine

Discu

ssinghow

he/sh

eisco

ntinually

look

ingto

proselytize

forOntariowine

from

his/her

restau

rant(ev

ents

and

winelist)

Winewriterwhoreportedon

Ontario

wines

formorethan

eigh

tyea

rsan

ddev

elop

edan

Ontario-focu

sedco

lumn

“Iw

ould

saythepeo

plewhowan

ttoge

tto

know

them

,whowan

ttoge

t—hav

eto

comedow

nhere,

seewherethey

’re

mad

e,seewhat

they

’redoingin

our

winerieshere.

Eve

ryon

eis

unique.

We

hav

egreate

xcitingwinem

akersdoing

won

derfule

xcitingthings.”

“W

ell,yo

ukn

ow,I’vealway

sbe

enasu

pporterof

Can

adianwines

whether

it’stheOka

nag

anor

Niaga

ra.W

hen

Ilive

din

Calga

ryfor10

years,Iv

isited

theOka

nag

analot,go

ttokn

owthose

wines.Itw

asn’tuntilm

aybe

8ye

arsag

othat

Itruly

gotinterested

inNiaga

rawines.”

“Ifee

lasaCan

adianthat

Ishou

ldsu

pport

theindustry

andhav

eco

meto

love

the

wines

ofNiaga

ra.N

owcircumstan

ces,

we’ve

been

livinghereforov

er3ye

ars,

circumstan

cesbrou

ghtu

shereso

I’m

really

intuneto

theNiaga

rascen

ean

d,

infact,w

rite

awee

klyco

lumnjust

abou

t—theon

lyon

ein

Can

adajust

abou

tNiagara

wines

specifically

and

theindustry

arou

ndit.”

Discu

ssinghis/her

elationan

daw

efrom

differente

vents

within

theregion

.Reflected

hed

onic,p

rove

nan

ce,a

nd

glorytemplates

Describingtheem

erge

nce

ofOntariohis/

her

iden

tifica

tion

withthewineregion

Apassage

onhow

his/her

dev

elop

men

tof

aregion

aliden

tity

has

ledto

alove

ofwines


APPENDIX

BIllustration

ofSeq

uen

ce:R

ituals,Gou

rman

dIden

tity,a

ndEmotionsDrivingEva

nge

list

Beh

aviors

Eva

nge

lists

Ritualsan

dEmotional

Exp

eriences

Reflectionson

Influen

ceof

Gou

rman

dIden

tity

Eva

nge

listic

Beh

aviors

Arestau

rateurw

hohas

usedhis/her

high-

profile

restau

ranttopromoteOntario

wines

through

athem

edwinelist

insp

iteof

finan

cial

losses

“W

ell,from

mypointo

fview,w

hen

they

comeherethey

,you

know

,we’lltrythe

wines.I’lltry

mybe

stto

goto

thewinery

andseetheop

erationan

dmee

tthe

winem

aker

ortheproprietor,thatsortof

thing...For

me,

that’saloto

fthefun.”

“Ib

etyo

uthat

ifyo

utw

oge

ntlem

engo

toToron

toor

ifyo

ugo

toan

ywherean

dyo

uaskasommelierwhat

wines

they

enjoythemost,ninetimes

outo

ften

thosewillb

ewines

basedmoreon

acidity.

And,y

oukn

ow,w

hether

itbe

Rieslingfrom

German

yor

Austriaor

wherev

er,oritw

ould

bepinot

noirfrom

Burgundyor

itwou

ldbe

Syrah

from

Rom

e.Itco

uld

beallthesethings.T

hey

enjoythosewines

because

they

’re

wines

that

mak

eyo

uthink.”

“For

every[large

wineproducer],there’s

seve

rals

mallw

ines

that

nob

ody’sev

erhea

rdof,right,that

areproducing

[inau

dible]n

oton

lych

arming,

but

they

’realso

producingwon

derful

wines.S

othat’sreally

whatwe’re

trying

todohere.

Ithink,

yeah

,may

beIm

ade

afew

enem

iesin

doingso

butI

think

that’sreally

truly

righ

t.”

Discu

ssingthepleasuresof

winerituals.

Reflected

stronghed

onic

them

esan

dprove

nan

cethem

esthrough

out

Rep

ortingtheim

portance

ofgo

urm

and

iden

tities

andba

ckgrou

ndas

aprofessional

sommelierin

the

experience

ofaw

ean

delation

Dem

onstratingawillingn

essto

alienate

someclients

inorder

toproselytize

onbe

halfo

fOntariofinewineriesto

crea

tepositiveex

perience

sof

elationan

daw

eforhis/her

clients

Arestau

rantm

anag

erwhowen

tonto

foundawineed

uca

tion

societyan

dcrea

tedoz

ensof

even

tsforhundredsof

participan

ts

“Yea

h,it’sve

ryco

mparative.

Andthe

wineindustry,a

smuch

asyo

uca

ndrinkthewinean

dsaythat

youlove

it,

youca

n’treally

iden

tify

much

toituntil

youco

mpareitag

ainst

theothers.And

that

was

formethebigg

estthing,

was

thestagean

dtheop

portunityto

compareit,w

hichwas

thewon

der

for

me,

was

Ididn’tev

enrealizethat

Iwas

goingto

disco

verthat.”

“Andpeo

ple

whoarein

finediningare

very

conce

rned

abou

tappea

rance

san

dman

nersan

dproper

etiquette,right...

Well,theglass,theglassdoe

smak

eadifference,a

ndthat’s—

again,it’sall

science,right.”

“Andso

oneday

Isaidto

them

,‘W

hydon

’tyo

uop

enupabran

chin

[region]?

Itwou

ldmak

esense.’Andthey

said,

‘Well,wewou

ldlove

to.B

utw

edon

’thav

ean

yoneto

runit.’Andso

Isaid,

‘Well,then

I’m

your[w

oman

/man

].”

Discu

ssingthehed

onic

nature

ofwine-

tastingritualsan

dtheex

perience

ofaw

e

Describinghow

his/her

experience

infine

diningen

abledhim

/her

touse

glassesto

enhan

ceelationduringdifferenttasting

duringrituals

Adescription

ofhow

he/sh

eca

meto

orga

nizeon

behalfo

fawineed

uca

tion

societyan

dhostd

ozen

sof

“roman

tic”

and“fun”winetastingev

entson

behalf

ofwineries


APPENDIX

B(Con

tinued

)

Eva

nge

lists

Ritualsan

dEmotional

Exp

eriences

Reflectionson

Influen

ceof

Gou

rman

dIden

tity

Eva

nge

listic

Beh

aviors

Aloca

lwinewriterwhohas

published

new

sletters

andbo

okspromoting

Ontariowine,

tran

smittingex

periences

atwineries,an

dsp

eakingpublicly

ontheindustry

“Myinterest

starts

withon

cethewine’s

puto

nthetablean

dthewhole

experience

,wholeem

otional

experience

,ofd

rinkingwinean

dallo

fthethings

that

gowithit,such

asthe

circumstan

ces,theco

mpan

y,the

sociab

ility,

theen

joym

ento

ffoo

d.”

“SoIc

omefrom

afood

–restau

rant–hotel

back

grou

nd.A

ndthen

,abo

ut2

0ye

ars

ago,

Idec

ided

toge

touto

fthat

andjust

workin

wineas

awriteran

dco

nsu

ltan

tto

therestau

rantindustry,interm

sof

constructingwinelistsan

dtraining

staffa

ndthat.B

ecau

seIs

tillen

joythat

sideof

thebu

siness,yo

ukn

ow,the

restau

rants

ideof

thebu

siness.”

“...interestsmealmostinasp

iritual

sense

ofwhat

hap

pen

swhen

peo

ple

sit

dow

nan

dstarttodrinkwine...And

I’ve

alway

striedto

inco

rporatethosein

mywritings

rather

than

anan

alysis

ofwhat

thewineis.I

tryan

dtellpeo

ple

abou

twhattheex

perience

mightb

elike

foryo

uwiththis

wine,

andhow

you

mighte

nhan

cetheex

perience

byco

nnectingitto

specific

circumstan

ces

andmoo

dsan

dthings.”

Discu

ssingtheim

portance

ofelationwith

wineriesan

dtheim

portance

ofhed

onic

rituals

Discu

ssinghow

his/her

iden

tifica

tion

withfood

culture

shap

edhis/her

elationwithOntario’swineries

Discu

ssinghow

he/sh

eproselytize

sto

sharehis/her

reve

rence,e

lation

,and

love

forhed

onic

ritualsthrough

his/her

writing,

spea

king,

andother

even

tshe/

sheorga

nizes

APPENDIX

CIllustration

oftheSpread

ofEva

nge

lism

through

Proselytiza

tion

:From

Organ

izational

Actor

toSom

melierto

Restauranteur

Audience

Mem

ber

Ritualsan

dEmotional

Con

nection

Reflectionson

Eva

ngelists

Eva

ngelistic

Beh

aviors

Awinem

aker

whois

know

nas

a“founder”of

Ontarioco

ol-climate

winem

aking.

He/sh

eworke

d,

conve

rted

,andco

llab

orated

withke

yau

dience

mem

bers

toev

ange

lize

the

practice

“[Former

employe

e]who’sateac

her

who

worke

dwithmeforeve

r.Iu

sedto

watch

her.F

irstthingsh

ewou

lddobe

fore

she

startedtalking,

she’daskthepeo

ple,

‘Whereareyo

ufrom

,how

did

youco

me

tolearnab

outu

s,doyo

ulike

wine,what

typeof

winedoyo

ulike

?’Soallo

fasu

dden

she’snow

gotp

iecesof

inform

ationlike

afortuneteller.”

“Sotheem

otional

connection

isab

solutely

fundam

entala

ndlisten

ing.

Got

tolisten

totheperson.O

r,when

the

personasks

aqu

estion

—mypartner

[nam

e]is

thebe

stat

this,they

’dask

aqu

estion

.You

know

,he’sahighly

emotional

winem

aker

andthey

’dsay

something.

Andhe’dsay,

‘What

are

you,stupid?You

don

’tkn

owthat

chardon

nay

isawhitegrap

e?’It’snot

ago

odway

toresp

ondto

thequ

estion

.Buth

eca

n’cau

sehe’sthewinem

aker

andpeo

ple

resp

ectthat,theartist.”

“You

gottoge

touttherein

the

marke

tplace

andbu

ildthead

voca

tes.I

mean,I

picke

dsommeliers

beca

use

they

werean

easy

target

’cau

sethey

’re

alway

sinterested

inkn

owingab

outthe

wineso

that

they

canbe

better

educa

ted

fortheircu

stom

er,right.”

Reflectingon

thego

alof

wineritualsin

disseminatingthenotionthat

wineis

“insp

ired

bytrad

ition.”

Emphasison

sharingthehistory

(prove

nan

ce)a

nd

“roman

ceof

wine”

(hed

onic)

Notingtheim

portance

ofregion

alan

dgo

urm

andiden

tities.Q

uotationab

ove

stresses

theim

portance

ofthese

preco

nditionsto

emotional

experience

andproductionof

reve

rence

Discu

ssingtheim

portance

ofgo

ingou

tan

dco

nve

rtingsommeliers

(restaurants)a

ske

yau

diences


APPENDIX

C(Con

tinued

)

Audience

Mem

ber

Ritualsan

dEmotional

Con

nection

Reflectionson

Eva

ngelists

Eva

ngelistic

Beh

aviors

Som

melierev

ange

list

stronglyinsp

ired

byhis/her

interactionsan

dreve

rence

fortheaforem

ention

edwinem

aker

“They

shou

ldcreate

that

intimate,

familiar,nice,co

zy,w

arm

feelingthere.

Andthen

,trust

me,

through

outthat,

crea

tingthat

ambian

ce,ifI

mightc

allit

that

way

,wineev

entastes

better.It’s

unbe

liev

able,trust

me.

Wineev

entastes

better

beca

use

it’sab

outs

tate

ofmind,it’sab

outp

eople,it’sab

out,yo

ukn

ow,theco

nve

rsation,it’sev

erything

else.Ita

llof

asu

dden

tastes

better.”

“Im

ean,o

ld-tim

ersIc

all,yo

ukn

ow,

[winery]

or[aforemen

tion

edwinery

founder],[from

winery],the[nam

e]family.

[Winery],[winem

aker]likejust

unbe

liev

able.T

he[fam

ily]

boys,

[winery],d

espitethat,y

oukn

ow,their

father

passedaw

ayat

thefairly,y

oukn

ow,e

arly

stag

e.They

took

over

that

wineryan

dthey

even

further

dev

elop

editan

dmad

eitasu

ccess

story.”

“I’m,y

oukn

ow,som

ewhat

avo

iceof

the

loca

lwineindustry,orfac

e,or

whatev

eryo

uwan

ttoca

llit.I’m

abigad

vocate

soarou

ndmethey

hav

eto,y

oukn

ow,

believ

ewhat

I’m

saying.Butthen

Ihav

emy,as

Itoldyo

u,m

ymethod

sto

conve

rtthem

into

believ

ingme,

youkn

ow.I’ve

been

arou

ndtooman

ypeo

ple

that

told

methat

they

hateloca

lwine,

andnow

that’sallthey

drink.

It’salittle

bito

fa—

touch

ingtheirhea

rtwhen

itco

mes

to[inau

dible]thethingan

d,y

oukn

ow,

stim

ulatingtheirinterest

alittle

bitb

y,‘Com

eon

,’yo

ukn

ow,‘try.’”

Describinghow

audience

sca

nbe

insp

ired

tobe

comeinvo

lved

.Provided

them

esof

glory(awardsan

dOntariowines

being

ofthehighestq

uality),p

rove

nan

ce(the

effortsof

Ontario’sfamily-runwineries)

andhed

onicelem

ents(reflected

inprior

quote)

Describingtheca

use

ofhis/her

reve

rence

fortheprior

winem

aker

andother

winem

akingfamilieswithwhom

he/sh

ehas

“dev

elop

edlove

,”friendsh

ips,an

drapport

Describinghow

he/sh

ewan

tsto

sharethe

elationhe/sh

efeelswhen

he/sh

ehas

loca

lwinean

dsp

read

his/her

reve

rence

withthoserestau

rants

and

connoisseu

rshe/sh

eco

mes

into

contact

with.H

astrained

hundredsof

restau

rante

mploye

esan

dprofessional

sommeliers

onap

preciatingOntario

wines

formorethan

adecad

e,an

dhas

voluntarily

coordinated

tastingev

ents

andco

mpetitions

Arestau

rateurwhoattributedhis/her

feelings

offellow

ship

withOntario

winem

akersan

dev

ange

lica

lco

nve

rsionto

Ontariowinem

akingto

thesommelierab

ove

“So,

inother

words,therewas

really

no

disce

rnible

difference

betw

eenthe

Bordeauxwines

andtheOntariowines,

atahuge

price

difference

because

the

Bordeauxwines

werealotm

ore

expen

sive

.Ata

huge

perce

ptual

difference,a

nd,y

oukn

ow,the

Bordeauxwines

obviou

slyweremore

highly

regarded

withou

treally—

withou

tanyreason

...So,

Imea

n,that

was

extrem

ely,

extrem

ely

interestingforme.”

“W

ell,Im

ean,therewasn’treally

any

storiesthatsortof

convincedmeto

doit,

orastrategy

.Ithinkitbe

camemoreof

abe

lief

andatrust

inhis

abilities.W

ebe

camefriendsbe

fore

wedid

anywork

toge

ther.”

“Soheca

mein

andIg

aveitto

him

blind.

Hejust

completely

love

dit.W

hen

Iaske

dhim

togu

esswhat

theprice

point

wou

ldbe

,heproba

blygu

essedab

out

twicewhat

theac

tual

price

was.A

nd

when

Ishow

edhim

thebo

ttle,that

itwas

Ontario,

healmostfellb

ackw

ards.

Hehas

completely

beco

meco

nve

rted

toOntariowines.”

Providingthem

esof

gloryan

dhed

onism.

Intheab

ovequ

ote,he/sh

eisdescribing

aco

mparativewine-tastingev

entw

ith

theprior

sommelier

Show

ingstrongregion

aliden

tifica

tion

withOntariocu

lture

andthe

importance

ofsh

aringreve

rence

forits

winem

akersan

dtheab

ilitiesof

the

aforem

ention

edsommelierthat

shap

edhis/her

emergingev

angelism

onbe

half

ofOntariowinem

aking

Con

veyingastoryof

indep

enden

tly

conductingawinetastingto

crea

teaw

ein

oneof

his/her

wineco

nnoisseu

rclients.H

asdev

elop

edastrongOntario-

them

edwinelist


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