The Make or Buy Decision: This is another section in which the background of students may vary greatly.  In some programs, an introductory course in supply chain management will have introduced students to the concepts here, while in others this material may not be covered until much later.  The overarching question here is the degree to which firms should (or will) vertically integrate.  The range of options is broad, with extensive vertical integration over multiple links in the supply chain at one extreme and a complete disintegrated approach that relies on spot markets and outsourcing at the other end of the spectrum.  In between lies what the authors call quasi-integration, which involves writing contracts to form relationships more durable than spot exchange, but less restrictive than integration.  The primary lesson to highlight for students is that the answer to this question varies with the type of industry, the size of the market, and what stage in its life cycle the firm finds itself.