Vertical integration and innovative performance: The effects of external knowledge sourcing modes

We set out in this study to analyze the impact of vertical integration on the innovative performance of a firm and to explore the interaction between vertical integration and different modes of external knowledge sourcing. Our empirical results reveal an initial increase in the effect of vertical integration on innovative performance up to a certain level of integration, although this is subsequently followed by a decline; that is, the relationship is characterized by an inverted U-shape. The results further reveal that external knowledge sourcing is positively related to the innovative performance of a firm, albeit with a negative interaction with the level of vertical integration. In other words, firms with higher levels of vertical integration may be faced with barriers to the acquisition of external knowledge. Our findings suggest that firms should be cautious in their pursuit of a strategy of vertical integration, given the non-monotonic impact on innovative performance, whilst an increase in the level of vertical integration is also likely to diminish the effectiveness of the external knowledge sourcing.     

Antecedents of vertical integration: Transaction cost economics and resource-based explanations

This article focuses on antecedents of vertical integration. A model of vertical integration derived from transaction cost economics and the resource-based view is tested empirically with data from the mechanical maintenance services market in the hydroelectricity industry. The results show that asset specificity and closeness to present competence are positively related to vertical integration, while tacit knowledge is negatively related to vertical integration. The positive interaction effect between asset specificity and closeness to present competence on vertical integration is also supported, indicating that the decisions on insourcing and outsourcing can benefit from using transaction cost economics and the resource-based view in tandem.     

The impact of competition on vertical integration: The role of technological niche width

Despite there being numerous studies exploring the relationship between competition and vertical integration, the empirical findings regarding the nature of this relationship are still unclear. The current study suggests that technological niche width mediates the relationship between competition and vertical integration. It also suggests that technological niche width and vertical integration play a complementary role in enhancing firm performance. These arguments have found empirical support in the examination of the U.S. hybrid electric vehicle market from 2008 to 2016. In so doing, this study provides an opportunity to better understand the relationship between competition, vertical integration, and technological niche width. In addition, it explains how firms can effectively manage fierce competition and achieve the goal of superior performance through strategic decisions regarding vertical integration and technological niche width.     

Technological change and vertical integration

Attention is given first to recent modifications in traditional patterns of vertical integration which suggest broadening the basic concept in several directions. The steel industry is then used to illustrate the variety of pressures tending to alter traditional patterns of vertical integration. After outlining a basic approach to exploring the potential effects of technological innovations on vertical integration in a variety of industries, the analysis considers the prospective effects on such integration of nine major categories of current and emerging technological developments.     

纵向并购的经济学分析

本文首先对契约、交易费用与纵向一体化进行比较分析,然后着重通过模型阐述了在不同的一体化方式及程度下,企业的利润变化情况,以从经济学角度解释纵向一体化存在的原因。     

Strategic Delegation and Vertical Integration

This paper proposes a game‐theoretic model to analyze owners' vertical integration choices if they delegate pricing decisions to their managers. We find that all three vertical structures are possible Nash equilibrium outcomes. If the products are weak substitutes, then the outcome is that both owners adopt vertical integration. When the products are close substitutes, both owners adopt vertical separation in equilibrium. When substitution between the products is medium, the coexistence of vertical integration and vertical separation is the equilibrium outcome, and the owner corresponding to vertical separation offers exactly a profit‐maximization contract to his or her manager under this situation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vertical integration and disruptive cross‐market R&D

We study how vertical market structure affects the incentives of suppliers and customers to develop a new input that will enable the innovator to replace the incumbent supplier. In a vertical setting with an incumbent monopoly upstream supplier and two downstream firms, we show that vertical integration reduces the R&D incentives of the integrated parties, but increases that of the nonintegrated downstream rival. Strategic vertical integration may occur whereby the upstream incumbent integrates with a downstream firm to discourage or even preempt downstream disruptive R&D. Depending on the R&D costs, vertical integration may lower the social rate of innovation.     

Vertical Integration and Firm Productivity

This paper uses three cross‐industry datasets from China and other developing countries to study the effect of vertical integration on firm productivity. Our findings suggest that vertical integration has a negative impact on productivity, in contrast to recent studies based on U.S. firms. We argue that in settings with poor corporate governance, vertical integration reduces firm productivity because it enables inefficient rent‐seeking by insiders.     

Strategic decisions regarding the vertical integration of human resource organizations: evidence for an integrated HR model for the financial services and non-financial services industry in Germany,Austria and Switzerland

We examine the drivers of vertical integration for an integrated and unified HR-process model for 42 large companies from the financial services (13 companies) and the non-financial services sector (29 companies). The basis of this paper is formed by the results of a survey analysing the structures, processes and sourcing activities of human resource organizations. We sent the survey to 500 companies in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The survey is based on an integrated process model that uses an employee life-cycle approach and differentiates between eight HR activities.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to gain insights into the current status of HR outsourcing and understand the differences between the financial services and the non-financial services industry. Second, to develop a theory-based framework (transaction-cost, resource-based, principal agent) enabling us to derive and test eight hypotheses using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS)-regression analysis in order to examine the determinants of the vertical integration of HR processes. Third, to analyse the impact of the vertical integration of HR departments on company performance and characteristics. We find significant differences in the level of vertical integration between the HR subprocesses analysed. Even the processes with increased outsourcing activities (i.e. a lower degree of vertical integration) still show a relatively high proportion of in-house production.

Regression analysis reveals a significant negative interrelationship between the relative size of the HR department compared to company size and vertical integration. This finding holds for the HR subprocesses ‘Personnel Administration’, ‘Payroll and Benefits’, and ‘Off Boarding’. Second, we find a significant negative correlation between financial performance in terms of Return-on-Equity and vertical integration of ‘HR-IT’. We also find support for the theoretical framework for the subprocess ‘HR-Top Management’. Six hypotheses (out of eight) are supported by the analyses; two of these are highly significant.

Three major findings are noteworthy when analysing company performance and the vertical integration of HR departments. First, we find that large companies (in terms of total staff and total assets) display significantly high levels of vertical integration for subprocesses which include a large amount of manual work and crucial managerial, controlling and reporting tasks (‘HR-Top Management’ and ‘HR-Controlling and Reporting’). Second, large companies (in terms of total company staff) show lower levels of vertical integration for the HR subprocess ‘HR-IT’. Third, companies that show superior financial performance in terms of Return on Equity (RoE) display lower levels of vertical integration for the HR subprocess ‘HR-IT’.     

垂直关系、效率原则与社会福利研究

企业之间的垂直关系主要包括垂直一体化和垂直分离,具体选择哪种垂直关系,企业需要在规模经济、交易成本和提高成员激励的各种得失中进行权衡。从社会福利和产业组织政策来看,处于不同市场结构中的企业,其进行垂直一体化和垂直分离的效率后果不尽相同,由此也导致了不同的社会福利水平。     

The impact of vertical integration on inventory turnover and operating performance

This paper investigates how vertical integration may influence inventory turnover and firm operating performance. A causal model is developed to investigate the effects of vertical integration on three types of inventory, namely raw materials inventory (RMI), work in progress inventory (WIPI) and finished goods inventory (FGI). The model tests the interactions between inventory types and the consequences of inventory turnover performance on various aspects of firm performance including costs and profitability. In particular, path analysis supports systematic differences with respect to how vertical integration affects RMI, WIPI and FGI. Vertical integration has a positive effect on RMI and FGI turnover but no significant effect on WIPI turnover. FGI contributes to a reduction in supporting processes costs which causes an improvement in return on sales (ROSs). Vertical integration impacts ROS directly.     

纵向一体化动因研究评述——交易费用经济学演化视角

文章从理论研究上选取交易费用经济学的视角,评述相关修正性和发散性的纵向一体化动因研究体系,同时梳理了经验研究中纵向一体化的测量手段及效果,以此作为理论演进的有效补充。     

Endogenous vertical structure and trade policy in an import-competing market

We examine the endogenous determination of a vertical market in an import-competing market with import tariff. We show that if firms commit to vertical organization before the government's commitment to trade policy, the home and foreign firms choose vertical separation and vertical integration, respectively, at equilibrium under Bertrand competition. Under Cournot competition, the subgame perfect Nash equilibrium entails both firms separating their retailers. Comparing profits between Bertrand competition to Cournot competition, we find that upstream manufacturer's profit can be higher under Bertrand competition with integration than under Cournot competition with separation when comparing foreign upstream manufacturer's profit.     

Value Chain Envy: Explaining New Entry and Vertical Integration in Popular Music*

abstract The concepts of value creation, value capture, and value protection are employed to explain new entry and vertical integration. It is posited that if, at one stage of the value system, the share of value captured is disproportionally higher than the share of value created, value chain envy will ensue. This value chain envy will result in new entry and vertical integration towards that desirable stage provided that the means of value protection available to the incumbents can be overcome. Within the popular music industries, the value created at the stage of music publishing has diminished steadily over the course of the 20th century, but the value captured has remained high. This has triggered value chain envy both inside and outside of the value system. The data presented in this paper show high levels of vertical integration into that stage originating primarily from the stages upstream in the value system, while the level of new entry has been comparatively low. At the same time, the data indicate that the recent introduction of new information communication technologies (ICT) have not significantly affected the levels of new entry and vertical integration into music publishing.     

Vertical integration: A comparative analysis of performance and risk

Hofer's (1973) argument for strategy analysis by matched pairs forms a central methodological feature in this examination of vertical integration. With twenty matched pairs of companies we have sought to eliminate the major extraneous factors that have precluded consensus among previous research findings. Our results show that vertical integration (via whole ownership) is performance and risk-neutral. Support is generated for the fundamental notion that successful strategy selection, and subsequent performance, is a function of firm-specific competencies and opportunities. Consequently, we urge that research on vertical integration move forward to consider ex ante conditions of fit rather than continuing to pursue ex post rationalizations of performance and risk.     

横向和纵向一体化下可替代产品库存比较研究

考虑单向替代的两产品情况,比较分析了在横向一体化和纵向一体化条件下,由一个制造商和一个零售商组成的供应链企业的收益问题,并进行了数值仿真,得到了一些有益的结论。     

Flexible Outsourcing

Flexibility is definitely a key for success and is crucial in vertical relationships. Then, it seems worth analyzing the selection of the optimal degree of vertical integration and/or separation in a dynamic uncertain environment, where a flexible firm can switch from a certain degree of outsourcing back to vertical integration. The enterprise we investigate never throws away the vertical control of the manufacturing chain as it does not outsource the entire input requirement. On the contrary, it keeps the ability to make the intermediate good in‐house as a kind of prudential conduct. Higher uncertainty lets firms enter earlier, as vertical flexibility provides a hedge against risk. After entry, an increase in uncertainty boosts the probability of outsourcing. These results differ from received literature. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vertical Foreclosure, Technological Choice, and Entry on the Intermediate Market

This paper analyzes the profitability of vertical integration for an upstream monopoly facing a potential competitor. We show that it depends on the technology used by the firm when it integrates. We distinguish two types of technologies: standard technologies, used by nonintegrated firms, and nonstandard technologies, reserved for integrated firms and implying the complete foreclosure of nonintegrated firms. Vertical integration with the adoption of a nonstandard technology dominates vertical integration with the adoption of a standard technology and is profitable, as long as the degree of competition in the downstream industry is sufficiently low.     

整合还是外包——基于汽车制造业的多案例研究

从纵向一体化转向外包是企业发展的一种重要趋势,但有一些企业依靠垂直整合策略取得了成功,整合外包关系目前有多种模式。本文在对国内外十余家汽车企业调研访谈的基础上,运用多案例比较方法,分析了不同模式的特点、成因与演变规律。研究发现,企业的业务整合范围受企业当前组织能力、组织能力预期以及交易成本的共同影响。从长期看,整合和外包决策也是影响企业组织能力进化的一个重要因素。     

基于一体化的现代物流企业发展定位

首先提出了物流一体化三维体系结构模型，然后叉分别指出了现代物流横向一体化、纵向一体化和区域一体化的实质，最后分别给出了现代物流企业基于一体化的发展定位。