1.4 IDENTIFICATION OF COMMODITY BUSINESSES. A recent article in Fortune magazine listed the following firms among the top ten most admired companies in the United States: Dell, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft, and Johnson & Johnson. Access the websites of these four companies or read the Business section of their Form 10-K reports (). Describe whether you would view their products or services as com- modities. Explain your reasoning.

According to Investopedia (2014), a commodity is “a basic good used in commerce that is interchangeable with other commodities of the same type” (Par. 1). Traditionally, within economics we have observed commodities as being a common input such as oil, gold, and metals. However, today the definition of commodity...