When businesses give autonomy and power to each of their divisions and departments, the result is differentiation, in which each section develops its own cultures and methods. When a company brings ...

Most products travel a long and winding road from raw material to a customer's cart, and those materials pass through a lot of hands along the way. At each stage of this process, there's a company ...

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 ...

Investopedia contributors come from a range of backgrounds, and over 25 years there have been thousands of expert writers and editors who have contributed. Chip Stapleton is a Series 7 and Series 66 ...