The analysis of competitive interdependencies through “Social Network Analysis”: the case study of extra-virgin olive oil

This paper aims to analyze, utilizing scanner data, the relationships of competitive interdependency in the extra-virgin olive oil sector in Italy. One of the most important aspects of the competitiveness analysis is the concept of competitive interdependency, as the competitive performances of a product depend upon the number of competitors on the same shop shelf. The “Social Network Analysis” (SNA) has been applied to investigate these interdependencies by elaborating extra-virgin olive oil sales data from a national level survey. The SNA methodology has provided a useful tool to analyse the competitive relationships between each selected extra-virgin olive oil brand and the others on the same shop shelf. The conclusions aim to discuss the results of the study, which has provided useful information about high quality Italian olive oil segments, and to evaluate future opportunities and actual limits of this new methodology to approach the analysis of competitive brand networks.