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The aim of this study is to gain important insights on integration oriented servitization identifying essential dimensions of effective structures, coordination approaches and management controls adopted by manufacturing firms that integrate forward towards distribution, sales and services.

The study adopts a theory-guided qualitative abductive methodology to conduct a comparative case-study of two manufacturing firms in the same industry integrating forward to enhance servitization but with significantly different performance outcomes. The findings are uncovered from a broad spectrum of primary and secondary data spanning two decades.

The consistently high-performing firm puts equal emphasis on production and downstream distribution, sales and services and motivate individuals to engage in entrepreneurial efforts to develop combined product-services offerings that are valued by customers. The underperforming firm prioritizes operating efficiency driven by engineering prowess and managed through planning, standardization, authority and central controls.

The study is based on two representative firms operating in a specific industry context, which has ramifications for the generalizability of results and calls for replication studies to substantiate and extend findings.

Forward integration from manufacturing into distribution, sales and services represents a specific servitization strategy that needs structure and particular coordination approaches to be effective in complex dynamic product-markets. The characteristics of the outperforming case company provide useful insights on effective integrated servitization efforts.

Forward integration is a commonly adopted strategy among manufacturing firms that constitute the backbone of modern economies and effective governance of these integration oriented servitization efforts has important implications for societal value creation.

This study builds on rationales from management science including economic theory, corporate strategy and different micro-foundational lenses and thereby hone recent calls for broader theoretical foundations to enlighten studies of the servitization puzzle.

The aim of this paper is to develop a two‐stage decision model of vertical integration by breaking down integration decisions into two stages: extent of integration and direction of integration.

The study uses price premium as a proxy for differentiation‐based competitive advantage. The relationship between the extent of vertical integration and price premium through a vehicle of consumers' brand perception is explored. A segmentation‐based analysis is performed to study whether different vertical integration configurations are related to price premiums at different levels.

Vertical integration relates positively to price premium set by apparel companies; consumers' perception of brand quality mediates the relationship. Findings also suggest that an organization should opt for integration if vertical integration generates greater effect on price premium as relative to the cost. Strength of internal and forward integration is related strongly to higher price premiums than integration balance.

Further research is encouraged to test if the findings of this study can be generalized to other industries and/or other types of supplier relationship integration, e.g. partnership, strategic alliance and joint venture.

As a departure from extant literature, it is argued that vertical integration is a viable strategy that enables companies to gain differentiation‐based advantage. A conceptual model is developed and applied to the apparel industry, which explains critical issues involved in the design of supply chain structures.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

Popularity of the resource‐based theory of the firm has brought renewed interest in internal organisational domain as an important contributing factor toward organisational success. Generally, this research has taken the perspective that a direct link exists between internal domain and performance. An underlying premise of this view is that competitive direction is simply a reflection of the parameters of this domain. This study investigates the strength and direction of the link between internal domain and competitive direction to determine the significance of this assertion.

The paper intends to offer an understanding of the regional energy integration in the South Cone of Latin America as perceived in Brazil.

It assesses the Brazilian need of energy imports to balance its supply to demand and then reviews the strategy followed by successive Brazilian governments in order to move forward the process of energy integration domestically and, more recently, regionally. The reaction of the Brazilian energy establishment to the integration strategy implemented in the 1990s is studied as well.

The main findings of the paper are that the strategy pursued to regional integration (bilateral commercial contracts) is not providing the benefits originally envisaged and that the main reason for this outcome is the focus on the convergence of national energy regulations and policies.

To move the process of integration forward, the paper proposes that the focus should be on a multilateral agreement that can provide reliability to the national energy systems and can reduce domestic energy prices volatility as well. It is suggested that an agreement on the cooperative management of part of the large hydro and natural gas reservoirs available in the region offers the opportunity to institutionalize multilateral regional security reservoirs.

This chapter investigates the structure of a simple vertical competition model by exhibiting the competitive links among assemblers, component producers, and integrated firms in a generalization of Cournot's model of the vertical integration by allowing any degree of competition among cohorts. Vertical integration in the model can take place by vertical mergers, forward or backward integration. Vertical integration is highly profitable and always reduces the price of the final product. The cost-raising strategy of an integrated firm buying out unneeded component producers is profitable and detrimental to consumers only if the firm faces no competition from other integrated firms.

Strategic concentration is a key issue for manufacturing companies when designing a supply chain. As a corporate strategy and a supply chain governance strategy, vertical integration relates to organisational economics and strategic supply chain management. Numerous explanations have been created for vertical integration, and transaction cost economics (TCE) provides a theoretical basis to help understand the process. However, the current popularity of vertical integration seems inspired by something more than altering industry structure and minimising cost, which are the traditionally accepted explanations for vertical integration This paper aims to explore the driving forces for vertical integration, particularly downstream integration of distribution, and the consequences of vertical integration in a manufacturer‐distributor‐reseller chain.

This study adopted an exploratory case study approach to examine a Swedish‐based timber manufacturer that vertically integrated a distribution centre in the UK, which made it a direct supplier to DIY retailers and builders' merchants. Data were collected primarily through open‐ended, face‐to‐face interviews.

The study found that the most important factors driving the manufacturer's vertical integration of distribution were the demands of large retail chains and the manufacturer's decisions to focus on developing its positioning strategy in the supply chain. Vertical integration has transformed the manufacturer into a supplier to large timber products resellers, offering the firm a greater potential to provide integrated solutions and, therefore, become a strategic partner to its customers.

This empirical study examined a building material distribution channel, a subject that has rarely been studied. Study results add empirical evidence to explanations and impacts of vertical integration, especially the integration of customer interface.

The German banking sector has recently been facing high real estate loan default rates resulting in the accumulation of a high volume of distressed real estate debt in the banks' balance sheets. As a consequence, German banks are confronted with the workout of their non‐ and sub‐performing real estate loans to proactively solve the problem. When doing so, banks have to decide whether they want to conduct the loan workout in their own workout departments (integrative approach) or whether they prefer to outsource the workout to a third party servicer or even sell their bad loan exposure to an external investor (disintegrative approach). This paper aims to investigate this issue.

A bank's decision to employ an integrative or a disintegrative approach can be transferred into a make‐or buy‐decision as described by the transaction cost economics. The transaction between the bank and the workout manager is analysed by the transaction characteristics of the transaction cost economics. The specificity of the human capital required for the loan workout of real estate loans is a key consideration for answering the question of integration or disintegration. Assuming highly specific investments for both, the workout manager and the bank, a formal model compares the aggregated pay offs for the bank and the workout manager to determine the optimal control structure for the specific assets.

Following the assumptions of the transaction cost economics, the specificity of the investment of the workout manager (and also the bank) is crucial for the decision of integrating or disintegrating the workout of real estate loans. The degree of specificity required to perform the workout tasks depends on the status of underlying credit engagement and the characteristics of the collateral (the real estate). The formal analysis shows that the bank and the workout manager both under‐invest in integration and disintegration scenarios. However, if the degree of specificity of the investments is equal, nonintegration is superior to integration. Forward integration is superior to nonintegration, if the bank's investment is more specific than the workout manager's investment.

This research paper approaches the problematic from an academic stand point, integrating both the banking and the real estate perspective and aims to provide a recommendation for banks on the integration or disintegration of the workout unit for a certain real estate secured loan portfolio.

This paper shows that uncertainty is a multidimensional theoretical concept, which has empirical implications for the relationship with vertical integration. In a survey of empirical work that tests the relation between uncertainty and vertical integration, this paper demonstrates that performance ambiguity and general measures of uncertainty are positively related with vertical integration, technological uncertainty is negatively related, while market uncertainty and complexity are not systematically related to vertical integration.