The Nature Of The Firm In The Oil Industry

The article discusses how the nature of the firm has changed in the oil industry, and how this has led to changes in the way the industry is organized. The article provides an example of a relationship between a core system integrator and an oil services company, and argues that this relationship provides insights into the change in the nature of the firm.

Firm to firm relationships, along with the overall structure of industries, have changed markedly over the past decades. Replacing the model of vertical integration with one of global business, firms have started to outsource more by using a wider global network. At the same time, they have begun to increase their control and coordination along the value chain to remain competitive, blurring the boundaries between companies. It is therefore necessary to understand the 'nature' of the firm and its role in coordinating the supply chain to be able to define global competitive strategies accordingly. The International Oil Industry aims to facilitate the understanding of the firm in the oil industry via the analysis of a specific relationship between International Oil Companies, which are among the world's biggest firms and 'core system integrators', and the Oil Services Companies, which help to find, extract, produce and distribute oil along the oil industry supply chain. This relationship serves as an example of deep integration by core system integrators and provides insights into the change in the nature of the firm in the era of modern globalization. Aimed at researchers and academics, The International Oil Industry offers a thorough examination of this relationship to shed light on the nature of the firm, both in the oil industry and in global business today.