Vertical Integrators: Part II
The value chain for any given consumer market is divided into three parts: suppliers, distributors, and consumers/users. The best way to make outsize profits in any of these markets is to either gain a horizontal monopoly in one of the three parts or to integrate two of the parts such that you have a competitive advantage in delivering a vertical s... See more
stratechery.com • Stratechery by Ben Thompson
If the relevant market is not competitive or if the buyer has special advantages in production, for instance, integration becomes more attractive. Partial integration is sometimes used as a device to deal with upstream market power, because it both adds competition and makes an implicit threat of further integration. And when technical change is ra
... See moreDavid S. Evans • Invisible Engines: How Software Platforms Drive Innovation and Transform Industries
In a famous 1951 paper, Nobel Laureate George Stigler argued that this proposition implies that “vertical disintegration is the typical development in growing industries, vertical integration in declining industries.”