This paper studies the relationship between two decisions shaping the organizational configuration of a firm: whether to make the upstream resources more general and deployable to more markets (vs. keeping them tailored to a few markets), and whether to trade with downstream firms as an upstream...

Division of labor has benefits in addition to the direct productivity increases from specialization: In this paper we study how the development of specialized upstream technology suppliers improves access and lowers investment costs for latecomer downstream firms. Using a simple model, we test...