Abstract
Seattle-based Starbucks is the world's largest seller of premium-brewed coffee with over 8,400 stores, including 2,000 stores spread in 31 foreign countries. Starbucks used an international strategic approach to achieve its high level of international development across the globe. Starbucks built an outstanding competence in the management of retail outlets, selling high volumes of premium coffee-based drinks. The company is expanding outside the U.S. by replicating its business model in order to reach a global market. In this study we will explain how Starbucks built this core competence, and how it applied its model abroad in order to meet a global expansion.
