Using a novel database containing the time-series details of the organizational structure of individual bank holding companies, this paper presents the first population-wide study of the transformation in business scope of U.S. banks. Expanding scope has a negative impact on performance on...

Focusing on proving or disproving Transaction Cost Economics has led to a relative neglect of some key drivers of vertical scope, such as differences in productive capabilities (as opposed to capabilities of governance). We consider how productive capability differences can shape vertical scope...

This paper proposes that transaction costs and capabilities are fundamentally intertwined in the determination of vertical scope, and identifies the key mechanisms of their co-evolution. Specifically, we argue that capability differences are a necessary condition for vertical specialization; and...

Existing studies, largely based in the transaction cost economics tradition, approach the issue of vertical scope from the point of view of the decision faced by the individual firm about whether to make or buy, given a set of existing markets and well-defined vertical segments. However, recent...

What determines vertical scope? Transactions cost economics (TCE) has been the dominant paradigm for understanding "make" vs. "buy" choices. However, the traditional focus on empirically validating or refuting TCE has taken attention away from other possible drivers of scope, and it has rarely...

This paper reconsiders the drivers and implications of vertical scope, in particular by fleshing out currently loose theorizing about capability-driven integration. As the transaction-cost based view cannot fully explain vertical channel choices in our large-scale US Mortgage Banking Database...

This paper suggests that an unrecognized determinant of global expansion is the structure of the value chain, which is both country- and sector-specific. Value chain structure evolves in a path-dependent, country-specific way. Differences in vertical structures between countries predict the...