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- Research Summary
Vertical Relationships Between Firms
Where should a firm draw its boundaries in the vertical chain of production? This has proved to be one of the most interesting and contentious debates among economists and strategists alike. On one hand, vertical integration into upstream and downstream businesses may... View Details
- Aug 2010
- Conference Presentation
The Micro-Foundations of Performance in Vertical Relationships
By: Ranjay Gulati
- July 2016
- Article
Do Prices Determine Vertical Integration?
By: Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger and Andrew F. Newman
What is the relationship between product prices and vertical integration? While the literature has focused on how integration affects prices, this paper provides evidence that prices can affect integration. Many theories in organizational economics and industrial... View Details
Alfaro, Laura, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger, and Andrew F. Newman. "Do Prices Determine Vertical Integration?" Review of Economic Studies 83, no. 3 (July 2016): 855–888. (Also NBER Working Paper 16118.)
- Research Summary
Do Prices Determine Vertical Integration?*
By: Laura Alfaro
What is the relationship between product prices and vertical integration? While the literature has focused on how integration affects prices, this paper provides evidence that prices can affect integration. Many theories in organizational economics and industrial... View Details
- September 1996 (Revised March 1999)
- Background Note
Sustaining Superior Profits: Customer and Supplier Relationships
Explains relationships between asset specificity, holdup, and vertical integration. In particular, it emphasizes solutions to the holdup problem through vertical integration and contracting. View Details
McGahan, Anita M. "Sustaining Superior Profits: Customer and Supplier Relationships." Harvard Business School Background Note 797-045, September 1996. (Revised March 1999.)
- Research Summary
Information Technology and Vertical Integration: Evidence from Plant-level Data (with Chris Forman)
We study the relationship between different margins of information technology (IT) use and vertical integration using plant-level data from the U.S. Census of Manufactures. Focusing on the short-run decision of whether to allocate production output to downstream plants... View Details
- December 2005
- Article
Adaptation in Vertical Relationships: Beyond Incentive Conflict
By: Ranjay Gulati, P. Lawrence and P. Puranam
Gulati, Ranjay, P. Lawrence, and P. Puranam. "Adaptation in Vertical Relationships: Beyond Incentive Conflict." Strategic Management Journal 26, no. 12 (December 2005): 415–440.
- 2020
- Working Paper
Contract Duration and the Costs of Market Transactions
By: Alexander MacKay
The optimal duration of a supply contract balances the costs of reselecting a supplier against the costs of being matched to an inefficient supplier when the contract lasts too long. I develop a structural model of contract duration that captures this tradeoff and... View Details
Keywords: Vertical Relationships; Transaction Costs; Contract Duration; Identification; Supply Chain; Cost; Contracts; Auctions; Mathematical Methods
MacKay, Alexander. "Contract Duration and the Costs of Market Transactions." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 18-058, December 2017. (Revised May 2020. Direct download.)
- August 2022
- Article
Contract Duration and the Costs of Market Transactions
By: Alexander MacKay
The optimal duration of a supply contract balances the costs of reselecting a supplier against the costs of being matched to an inefficient supplier when the contract lasts too long. I develop a structural model of contract duration that captures this tradeoff and... View Details
Keywords: Supply Contracts; Intermediate Goods; Switching Costs; Vertical Relationships; Transaction Costs; Contract Duration; Identification; Supply Chain; Cost; Contracts; Auctions; Mathematical Methods
MacKay, Alexander. "Contract Duration and the Costs of Market Transactions." American Economic Journal: Microeconomics 14, no. 3 (August 2022): 164–212.
- 08 Jan 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Come Together: Firm Boundaries and Delegation
- February 2001 (Revised September 2005)
- Case
Howard Schultz and Starbucks Coffee Company
By: Nancy F. Koehn
Investigates the entrepreneur's strategic initiatives to develop a mass market for specialty coffee in the 1980s and 1990s. These initiatives included the development of premium products, rapid expansion of company-owned stores--each with attractive retail environments... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Groups and Teams; Brands and Branding; Growth Management; Employee Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Organizational Design; Leadership Style; Customer Relationship Management; Competitive Advantage; Vertical Integration; Food and Beverage Industry
Koehn, Nancy F. "Howard Schultz and Starbucks Coffee Company." Harvard Business School Case 801-361, February 2001. (Revised September 2005.)
- 2012
- Working Paper
Information Technology and Boundary of the Firm: Evidence from Plant-Level Data
By: Chris Forman and Kristina McElheran
We study the relationship between different margins of information technology (IT) use and vertical integration using plant-level data from the U.S. Census of Manufactures. Focusing on the short-run decision of whether to allocate production output to downstream plants... View Details
Keywords: Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Production; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Vertical Integration; Supply Chain; Manufacturing Industry; United States
Forman, Chris, and Kristina McElheran. "Information Technology and Boundary of the Firm: Evidence from Plant-Level Data." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-092, April 2012.
- December 2017 (Revised January 2018)
- Case
Alltech
By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred
Alltech was a Lexington, Kentucky–based producer of supplements for animal feed, with revenues of over $2 billion (projected to reach $3 billion in 2018), sales in 120 countries, 5,000 employees, and 100 manufacturing plants worldwide. For nearly four decades, Alltech... View Details
Keywords: Alltech; United States; Agribusiness; Agriculture; Animal; Animal Agriculture; Animal Feed; Livestock; Family Business; Vertical Integration; Strategy; Growth; Feed Additives; Feed Supplements; Kentucky; Growth Strategy; Family Businesses; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Change Management; Trends; Governance; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development; Intellectual Property; Leadership; Management; Markets; Organizational Culture; Private Ownership; Science; Quality; Risk and Uncertainty; Research; Sales; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; Kentucky; Brazil; China
Bell, David E., and Natalie Kindred. "Alltech." Harvard Business School Case 518-001, December 2017. (Revised January 2018.)
- October 1997
- Case
John A. McCarthy, Jr.
By: Hugo Uyterhoeven, Todd M. Harris, A. Lanham Napier and John Sisson
Seven years after graduation, an MBA grad accepts the COO position in a company he's never heard of in an industry he knows nothing about. Moving up a vertical learning curve, he is involved in a crisis, and exposed to change and people management. He also must develop... View Details
Keywords: Management; Business or Company Management; Crisis Management; Leadership Development; Labor and Management Relations; Business Strategy; Management Teams
Uyterhoeven, Hugo, Todd M. Harris, A. Lanham Napier, and John Sisson. "John A. McCarthy, Jr." Harvard Business School Case 398-038, October 1997.
- November 2009
- Case
VF Brands: Global Supply Chain Strategy
By: Gary P. Pisano and Pamela Adams
This case examines VF Brands global supply chain strategy. Historically, VF has used a combination of in-house manufacturing and traditional arms-length sourcing arrangements. At the time of the case, the company is considering a third approach to supplier relations... View Details
Keywords: Global Strategy; Logistics; Supply Chain Management; Partners and Partnerships; Cooperation; Vertical Integration; Apparel and Accessories Industry
Pisano, Gary P., and Pamela Adams. "VF Brands: Global Supply Chain Strategy." Harvard Business School Case 610-022, November 2009.
- 2012
- Article
Open Innovation and Organization Design
By: Michael Tushman, Karim Lakhani and Hila Lifshitz - Assaf
This paper calls the organization design community to reconcile the divergent scholarly perspectives on the relationship between firm boundaries and the locus of innovation by moving beyond debates between open vs. closed boundaries and instead embracing the notion of... View Details
Keywords: Organization Design; Open Innovation; Innovation; Locus Of Innovation; Organizational Boundaries; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Innovation and Invention; Alliances; Vertical Integration; Boundaries
Tushman, Michael, Karim Lakhani, and Hila Lifshitz - Assaf. "Open Innovation and Organization Design." Special Issue on The Future of Organization Design. Journal of Organization Design 1, no. 1 (2012): 24–27. (SSRN's top ten download list for: Organizational Structural Designs, Innovation & Product Development.)
- April 2000
- Article
The Fable of Fisher Body
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Daniel F. Spulber
General Motors' (GM) acquisition of Fisher Body is the classic example of market failure in the literature on contracts and the theory of the firm. According to the standard account, GM merged vertically with Fisher Body in 1926, a maker of auto bodies, because of... View Details
Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Failure; Contracts; Vertical Integration; Market Transactions; Investment; Trust; Production; Assets; Supply Chain; Opportunities; Technology; Auto Industry
Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Daniel F. Spulber. "The Fable of Fisher Body." Journal of Law & Economics 43, no. 1 (April 2000): 67–104.
- 2010
- Working Paper
Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries
By: Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger and Andrew F. Newman
We study how trade policy affects firms' ownership structures. We embed an incomplete contracts model of vertical integration choices into a standard perfectly-competitive international trade framework. Integration decisions are driven by a trade-off between the... View Details
- 2009
- Other Paper
Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries
By: Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Andrew F. Newman and Harald Fadinger
We examine how trade policy affects firms' organizational choices. We embed a model of firms' vertical integration decisions into a standard perfectly-competitive international trade framework. In the model, integration decisions are driven by a trade-off... View Details
Keywords: Trade; Policy; Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Vertical Integration; Boundaries
Alfaro, Laura, Paola Conconi, Andrew F. Newman, and Harald Fadinger. "Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries."
- Article
Diversity and Team Performance in a Kenyan Organization
By: Benjamin Marx, Vincent Pons and Tavneet Suri
We present the results from a field experiment on team diversity. Individuals working as door-to-door canvassers for a non-profit organization were randomly assigned a teammate, a supervisor, and a list of individuals to canvass. This created random variation within... View Details
Keywords: Ethnic Diversity; Organizational Behavior; Labor Management; Groups and Teams; Diversity; Performance
Marx, Benjamin, Vincent Pons, and Tavneet Suri. "Diversity and Team Performance in a Kenyan Organization." Art. 104332. Journal of Public Economics 197 (May 2021).