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The purpose of the paper is to identify the main characteristics of vertical integration strategies and discuss the effects of those characteristics on companies' ability to compete. Using a sample of 316 parent companies, the study found that industry uncertainty affected companies' decisions regarding their levels of vertical integration, but not companies' decisions to change those levels. The study also suggests that a significant number of companies have disintegrated to become more competitive.

Container liner shipping companies started expanding their business by investing in container port terminals in the late 1990s. This market entry results in an extensive presence of vertically integrated liners and terminals. This study aims to explore the competition effects of this vertical integration trend based on a regional (European) analysis. In particular, it extracts lessons from the European Commission (EC) cases on the competition effects of vertical integration. The critical analysis of the cases examined at the institutional level intends to reach conclusions on whether liner–terminal vertical integration harmed or advanced competition in the relevant markets and/or the extent that there is a need to revise the current policy practices.

This study critically assesses the EC’s decisional practices in port container terminal vertical mergers in the last 25 years (1997–2021). Based on a literature review comparing maritime and competition economists' perspectives, it reviews the types of mergers examined, the methodology followed for relevant market definition and calculation of market shares and the estimated competition effects. The Hamburg–Le Havre area is the port range used as a case study for comparing the decisional practice with actual market developments. These container ports serve the greatest consuming market of final and intermediate goods in Europe and are gateways to Central and Eastern Europe.

The assessment identifies a need for expanding the investigation as a precondition for reaching conclusions on both the anti- and pro-competitive effects. First, only a limited number of transactions have been notified to the EC. Second, the empirical research identified a gap in this process, as there were no decisions (phase I) on vertical mergers between 2008 and 2016. Third, the exante assessment has not applied a phase II in-depth analysis to any case due to the absence of competition concerns. Finally, due to the absence of complaints, there is a lack of any ex post assessment of the effects of vertical integration.

This assessment is important for understanding the current and emerging features of intra-port and inter-port competition and the potential effects that the continuation and expansion of liner companies' vertical integration strategies will have along maritime supply chains. It also contributes to the broader discussion on liner companies' strategies, such as the research and policy-making efforts around the globe to understand the impact of both vertical and horizontal integration.

These discussions are critical for a diversity of businesses that use liner shipping services or provide facilities and services to container shipping lines or ports. They are important for the interests of customers and consumers as they could inform any needed re-visiting of competition policy to protect from the dominance of any market developments that would lead to conditions limiting competition. Expanding analysis on the competition effects of non-notified mergers would help a better understanding of market changes.

Enhancing competition and limiting monopolies is valuable from a consumer's perspective. This is more so in the case of maritime trade that serves the needs of societies. The study contributes by generating a better understanding of how decision-makers have worked towards that direction and what realignments are worthy.

There are no previous comprehensive reviews and analyses of the ways that policy-makers at the regional level have addressed the competition effects of vertical integration strategies of liner shipping companies when enhancing competition is valuable from a consumer perspective. Comparing maritime economists and competition, the study, via its literature review, also offers a comparison of maritime and competition perspectives on these competition effects, allowing positioning of how effective decisional-making practices have been.

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.

Vertical integration is often one of the first diversification strategies that firms consider. To choose the right strategy, companies must assess the four different types of possible integration and weigh the merits of each.

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 purpose of this paper is to explain why some real estate companies choose to have a vertically integrated structure, instead of specializing in only stage of the production chain.

The first stage of the research was an extensive literature review to generate hypotheses. A case study method was then chosen, as more detailed knowledge about the companies were judged to be needed to evaluate the different hypothesis. Documents about the companies were studied and interviews carried out.

In the studies cases, there is no support for theories related to vertical integration as a way to monopolize a market and only marginal support for theories that focus on contracting problems related to the so called hold up problem. The most important factors for the companies were that vertical integration gives information and more options that are important in small number bargaining situations. The companies bargaining power increases when they are better informed about, e.g. costs and profits in nearby activities, and when they can use in-house units, if there are problems to find reasonable conditions on the outside market.

The main limitation is that only three cases were studied.

The study can be helpful both to companies that choose to integrate vertically and those that chose not to. There are similar problems related to information and bargaining power that needs to be handled.

This is the first study that test theories about vertical integration in the real estate sector.

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.

Vertical integration is a key strategic management decision which requires research support. Existing literature is extensive but is preoccupied with measures of the extent of vertical integration rather than the fundamental effectiveness of the strategy. The industrial community that the research seeks to benefit is left with an array of measures of integration and an array of widely differing conclusions regarding its potential benefit to a business. Research should be driven by customer need and the decision areas industrialists need to address should set the research agenda. Identifies the key issues relating to vertical integration and the extent to which these are addressed by existing methodologies. Develops a new methodology which avoids the intractable problem of measuring the extent of integration. Adoption of this methodology would enable more coherent and clear messages to be sent to management, thus enabling more informed decision making.

The paper intends to identify and explain key managerial principles for vertical integration in the cattle industry during a key period of environment uncertainty.

Following Yin's advice on using case studies for exploratory theory development, this study builds on existing theories of vertical integration through a case study that explores potential prospects for cattle producers in a uniquely uncertain environment and the execution of a higher degree of vertical integration in a mature market.

The creation of NVF is a result of a well‐groomed uncertainty management scheme designed to attain a higher degree of vertical integration within an enterprising community. Some key managerial principles have been identified that can be applied to a thriving vertical integration endeavour in the cattle industry. History has proven that such an undertaking is taxing. Nevertheless, by looking at NVF's business model, it can be seen that environmental uncertainty can facilitate vertical integration projects in the cattle industry, given the right community‐oriented doctrine.

This case study does not include cases where cattle producers were not so successful.

It provides advice for managing vertical integration by networks of small business owners in the cattle industry. The BSE crisis seems to have triggered efforts to decrease dependency, especially by outside stakeholders. NVF focused its members on building a business model and long‐term objectives beyond the specific uncertainties created by bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), such as whether the border reopened or stayed permanently closed to foreign markets. Domestic consumers were their core marketing priority at the outset. In addition, future plans were set in motion to create a strategy to seek other foreign markets, including the EU.

The case study presented in this paper provides an example of vertical integration as a strategic response to market uncertainty enhanced by a political and economic crisis in a rural community. This paper also outlines key events of the Canadian BSE crisis, the Canadian beef industry and surrounding communities, and the relevance of past research on environmental uncertainty and vertical integration in explaining why vertical integration has been strategically unnatural to cattle producers but occurred in this situation.

This study takes the cinema industry as the research context and investigates the impact of online to offline (O2O) platforms on cinemas' performance. Specifically, the purposes of this paper are threefold: first, to study the influence of platform multihoming on cinemas' performance; second, to examine the interaction impact of platform multihoming and vertical integration; third, to investigate how the influence of platform multihoming varies with cinemas' performance.

This study collects data from 1918 cinemas in China, employs quantile regressions to estimate the model and test the proposed hypotheses and adopts an instrumental variable method to examine the robustness of our results.

The findings confirm the positive role of platform multihoming for cinemas' performance. However, when a cinema has low-degree platform multihoming, the cinema's vertical integration is positively associated with its performance; when a cinema has high-degree platform multihoming, the cinema's vertical integration is negatively associated with its performance. Furthermore, results from quantile regressions indicate that low-performance cinemas benefit more than high-performance cinemas from employing platform multihoming strategy.

This paper extends previous research by investigating the impact of platform multihoming on heterogeneous firms and the impact of interaction between platform multihoming and vertical integration. The findings imply that the impact of platform multihoming on firms' performance depends on firms' performance attributes and their vertical relationships.

Platform multihoming can be a double-edged sword for local service firms. When multihoming platforms, a local service firm should think about the fit between platforms and its own attributes, and identify the potential conflict between platform relationships and traditional relationships of industrial organization.

There is a growing interest in understanding platforms' role in the digital economy. The impact of platform participation on local service firms' performance is not sufficiently investigated. Previous research rarely addressed the impact by incorporating local service firms' performance attributes and the existing relationships of industrial organization.