When Walmart decided to incorporate grocery stores into some locations to create “supercenters,” was this a business-level strategy of differentiation or a corporate-level strategy of diversification? Why? Explain your answer

Franchising is widely used in the casual dining and fast food industry, yet Starbucks is quite successful with a large number of company-owned stores. For example, while McDonald’s is moving towards a 95% franchised model, 50% of Starbucks' restaurants are still company owned. How do you explain this difference? Is Starbucks bucking the trend of other food-service stores, or is something else going on?

What is going on in the world? Find a current event that is relevant to this class. Please include a link to the article and brief explanation of why it is relevant, what business concepts it is demonstrates, the significance of the news, etc. This is NOT a summary of the news; this is where you practice and demonstrate critical thinking (a key learning objective of the class).