Introduction: Perspectives on drinking, manufacture and drinking spaces and places

Globally, approximately one in three people (32.5%) drink alcohol equating to roughly 2.4 billion people (Griswold et al., 2018 ). Behind this consumption, there are a range of brewers, distillers and winemakers who produce alcohol and suppliers and retailers of various types who bring the product to the consumer. Statista ( 2025 ) highlights the revenue of the alcoholic drinks market in 2025 at 69.7 billion US dollars highlighting the significant size of this industry. Through this special issue, we examine the current state of the industry and consumers within it from the perspective of marketing management and consumer behaviour. The editorial and the special issue itself can be broken into five sections highlighting the contemporary interests of researchers in this area. These are (1) Drinking and alcohol; (2) Drinking places and spaces; (3) Manufacture; (4) Marketing and Product Development; and (5) Diversity and Inclusion. In addition, we have also included a conversation, which brings the views of practitioners to the forefront and will be discussed further below.