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Social Network Analysis

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Handbook of Market Research

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Abstract

The increased awareness about the presence of social effects in consumer networks has inspired marketers to better understand and address the needs of their consumers through network analyses. In this chapter we consider network analyses as a set of techniques which allows researchers to analyze how the social structure of relationships around consumers affects their attitudes and behavior, and vice versa, how attitudes and behavior may affect the social structure. We focus on the types of network analyses that are currently most prominent within the field of marketing. We provide basic network theory and notation with references to key publications in the field. We also provide suggestions for software (packages) and useful functions including code snippets to support researchers and practitioners in setting up their first social network analyses. At the end of the chapter we discuss several more advanced network analysis methods and list several resources that might be useful to the interested reader.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Hans Risselada

  2. University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Jeroen van den Ochtend

Authors
  1. Hans Risselada
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  2. Jeroen van den Ochtend
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hans Risselada or Jeroen van den Ochtend .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

    Christian Homburg

  2. Inst. Informations Systems and Marketing Marketing & Sales Research Group, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Martin Klarmann

  3. Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Arnd E. Vomberg

Section Editor information

  1. University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

    Christian Homburg

  2. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Martin Klarmann

  3. University of Groningen, Groningen, Niederlande

    Arnd Vomberg

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Risselada, H., van den Ochtend, J. (2021). Social Network Analysis. In: Homburg, C., Klarmann, M., Vomberg, A.E. (eds) Handbook of Market Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05542-8_27-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05542-8_27-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-05542-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-05542-8

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