The make-or-buy decision involves a calculated balancing of several benefits and costs or integration. A manager can easily get lost in the complexity of this balancing act. Figure 3.3 provides a series of questions to guide the manager through the decision making process. The manager must first assess whether the market providers any alternative to vertical integration. If the answer is no, then the firm must either take on the task itself or prop up a quasi-independent supplier through a joint venture or strategic alliance. If the market dose offer alternative to vertical integration, then the manager must determine whether market relationship will be impeded by information, coordination, or holdup problems. If such problems do not exist, then the firm should use the market. But if they do exist, the manager must finally determine whether these problems can be prevented either. Though not shown in the decision tree, managers should also consider whether special circumstance of market power are causing double marginalization.