Can the twin transition backfire? Backlash dynamics in the wine industry

Purpose: This study examines how backlash dynamics shape the twin transition in the wine industry, challenging assumptions that digitalisation and sustainability naturally reinforce one another. It asks how sustainability-oriented digital initiatives are interpreted, resisted, and strategically mediated by wineries operating under diverse institutional and cultural conditions. Methodology: The article adopts a qualitative design based on semi-structured interviews with owners and managers from 28 wineries across Brazil, France, Italy, South Africa, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Data were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis supported by NVivo 15 to identify transition pressures, perceived disruptions, backlash manifestations, consequences, and strategic responses. Findings: The results show that sustainability-oriented digital initiatives are filtered through pre-existing market conventions, institutional arrangements, symbolic evaluations, and cultural-cognitive understandings. Four forms of backlash were identified: market legitimacy, institutional-regulatory, symbolic-communicational, and cultural-cognitive. Each was associated with distinct strategic responses. Originality: It contributes by positioning backlash as a recursive socio-technical mechanism that links prior transition experiences to subsequent strategic choices over time. It integrates transition and digital transformation perspectives and develops four propositions. Practical implications: Managers, policymakers, and industry associations should complement technological and regulatory efforts with legitimation work, flexible governance, and consumer education to reduce backlash and support deeper sustainability transitions.