6.5 Monopolization practices
Businesses tend to create monopolies within a single Business Orientation and/or across neighboring ones.
Monopolization trends can be illustrated by the activities of the Standard Oil Company in the 19th-century USA. Standard Oil began as a producer of kerosene and gasoline and then expanded:
- Horizontally, by acquiring most of its competitors in the refining business.
- Vertically, by purchasing pipelines for oil transportation and eventually extracting crude oil from its own fields.
At the same time, it developed its own network of retail stations to distribute its products directly to consumers.
Monopolization efforts typically follow this pattern: Product makers seek to control distribution channels and material resources, while Commodity suppliers aim to dominate market access and commodity usage. Within a single Business Orientation, companies often attempt to acquire their rivals.
Public institutions counter monopolization practices. For example, the European Union, in its efforts to liberalize the electric energy market, requires major producers (Commodity Orientation) to divest distribution systems (Self-Service Orientation).
