<P> In microeconomics and management, vertical integration is an arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is owned by that company . Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or (market - specific) service, and the products combine to satisfy a common need . It is contrasted with horizontal integration, wherein a company produces several items which are related to one another . Vertical integration has also described management styles that bring large portions of the supply chain not only under a common ownership, but also into one corporation (as in the 1920s when the Ford River Rouge Complex began making much of its own steel rather than buying it from suppliers). </P> <P> Vertical integration and expansion is desired because it secures the supplies needed by the firm to produce its product and the market needed to sell the product . Vertical integration and expansion can become undesirable when its actions become anti-competitive and impede free competition in an open marketplace . Vertical integration is one method of avoiding the hold - up problem . A monopoly produced through vertical integration is called a "vertical monopoly". </P>

What company is an example of a vertical integration structure