When startups launch, growth goals often center on customer acquisition. The logic is that once you’ve made your product or service indispensable to people’s lives, you’ll have breathing room to ...

Business phrases like "due diligence" and "leverage" are common and well-known, but some newer ones, like forward integration, can be unfamiliar. The forward integration definition shared on ...

Vertical integration is the degree to which a firm owns its upstream suppliers and its downstream buyers with the goal of increasing the company's power in the marketplace. There are three varieties ...

Walmart recently opened its first beef processing plant in Kansas, which will allow the retailer to package its own cuts and distribute them directly to its stores. Walmart doesn’t specifically use ...

Ruzzier, Christian Alejandro. "Asset Specificity and Vertical Integration: Williamson's Hypothesis Reconsidered." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-119, April 2009.

For decades, vertical integration meant ownership. According to Michael E. Porter's seminal work Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, companies sought to reduce costs, ...

The Quinto Solar Farm in California, which forms part of Arevon’s operational solar portfolio. Image: Arevon Energy. Size, scale and vertical integration are imperative for success in the richly ...