THE ORGANIC OLIVE OIL SUPPLY CHAIN IN ITALY AND SPAIN: A SOCIAL NETWORK STUDY

Summary

In recent years, due to the growing supply of organic production, the economic performance and the competitive advantages of the farms have become more dependent on network organizations in the supply chains. This evolution requires methodological approaches able to capture all the variables involved in the value-generating processes. The network dimension of the supply chain has become a key element, and enables us to understand better the competitive performances of firms. The relationships of firms, among intangible assets, are recently considered one of the main sources of profit. The relational capital forms the essence of the value of the firm and it is advantageous on the whole, achieved by occupying a specific position (role) in the network of social relationships, the social network (Costabile, 2001). The goods present in a context are not enough to explain the wealth of a firm or a supply chain or sector, so it is necessary to understand the nature of exchanges and how they work through the network. For these reasons our study compares supply chains of organic olive oil in Italy and in Spain using Social Network Analysis. The data was collected by surveys in two areas: the Sierra de Segura (Andalucia, Spain) and the province of Bari (Puglia, Italy). From the results of our study we can assert that the Sierra de Segura shows a simple network that allows, through a cooperative organization, value to be generated for the farms. On the other hand, in the province of Bari the network organization is quite disperse, denoting a luck of organization that leads to a low level in competitiveness of the whole supply chain. At the same time, firms with a good economic results also have a central position in the network.