Role of government regulatory pressures over small wineries: A Niagara Peninsula case study of compliance effects in wine bottling

This article investigates the role of government regulatory pressure over small wineries in Ontario. The underlying premise of this study is that the regulatory system is not neutral with respect to size of the business firm and that a great deal of government regulation has disproportional adverse effects on smaller businesses, contrary to the belief of policymakers. The role of regulation is discussed from the lens of Ontario's small winery performance to develop a theoretical linkage. A case study of regulatory compliance on wine net quantity declared (NQD) is analyzed to investigate economic trade-offs that bear on the main premise of the article.