The purpose of this research project was threefold: 1) to establish a set of research questions, propositions and hypotheses about the nature of international fast-food franchising; 2) to identify the distinctive strategies employed by fast-food franchise firms in foreign markets and 3) to provide a set of guidelines for managers which will assist them in dealing with the challenges of initiating and expanding a fast-food franchise system in a foreign country. A multiple-case study approach was used focusing on how U. S . franchise firms have adapted their domestic business practices to the Canadian, Japanese, and Russian Markets. Special attention was given to the degree to which their firms have modified franchise objectives, expansion strategies, marketing mix elements, control system and support services. A principal finding of this research project is that fast-food companies do in fact extend domestic franchise strategies to foreign markets when expanding internationally. However, they do make certain alterations in their domestic method of doing business. The alterations are in the areas of expansion strategies, franchise objectives, control systems and support services. These alterations do not follow a consistent pattern. They vary from country to country and from firm to firm. / Ph. D.

Although conscious consumers flock to sustainability-branded restaurants and grocery stores to "vote with their forks" for environmental sustainability and vibrant local economies, workers in these industries face the same poverty wages, discrimination, and exploitative labor practices that plague the food service and retail industries at large. Despite rapid growth and labor degradation, low-wage workers in these industries have largely been left behind by the mainstream labor movement and the alternative food movement. Whereas in the past, progressive social movements worked to alter power relations between labor and capital through collective action, today's mainstream labor movement focuses on servicing its dwindling membership and winning minimum wage increases through local ballot box measures and legislation. For its part, the alternative food movement focuses narrowly on achieving environmental sustainability through market-based mechanisms and consumption politics that do not adequately attend to the struggles of food chain workers. Through research conducted in partnership with the Burgerville Workers Union (BVWU) and the Industrial Workers of the World, I investigate three empirical research questions: 1) How do sustainability-branded institutions deploy values-based discourse and how does this relate to labor practices?, 2) How do worker-organizers understand and expose the contradictions of sustainability branding?, and 3) How do worker-organizers engage with social reproduction as a terrain of political struggle, and to what ends? I attend to these questions through activist scholarship aimed at informing my broad theoretical question: How might social reproduction "as discourse and practice" be marshaled to generate more inclusive organizing strategies, forge more just conceptions of sustainability, and build worker power? Drawing on over two years of ethnographic research, content analysis, and interviews with 48 worker-organizers involved in four labor organizing campaigns, I examine their efforts to build worker power through mutual aid programs, political education, and coalition politics. My analysis reveals that these strategies embody an inclusionary intersectional politics that prioritizes the needs of women, parents, and people of color, but that worker-organizers also face significant challenges. I demonstrate that organizing against neoliberal policies and practices requires moving beyond consumption politics and single-issue campaigns and deploying what I term (re)production politics which are fundamentally about how work is organized and how we care for society and the planet. Politicizing the labor, locations, and practices of social reproduction as landscapes of struggle, I conclude, offers an opportunity to build a broad class consciousness across interconnected issues and envision more liberatory ways of organizing social reproduction based on solidarity, mutuality, and interdependence.

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Snabbmatsrestauranger har svårt att hålla en bra lagerstyrning på grund av föråldrade inventeringsmetoder. Där manuell inventering sker varje dag för att kontrollera vad som finns i lager. Detta är en tidskrävande process som kräver arbetskraft att utföra. Det uppstår ofta fel i lagersaldo på grund av manuell kontroll, då det handlar om många varor på en liten yta och med en hög lageromsättningshastighet. I andra lagermiljöer används vägning som inventeringsmetod för att underlätta lagerstyrningen. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om vägningen är en lämplig metod för att kontrollera lagersaldo i små manuella lager med hög omsättningshastighet hos snabbmatsrestauranger. En empirisk studie genomfördes i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Två snabbmatsrestauranger var inblandade, där fyra personer intervjuades, alla respondenterna jobbade inom forskningsområdets specifika lagermiljö och har hand om lagerstyrningen för dessa lager. Två forskningsfrågor besvarades utifrån intervjuerna, vilket bidrog till att uppfylla syftet med studien. En innehållsanalys utfördes på den empiriska datan som samlades in från intervjuerna, för att underlätta bearbetningen av datan och få ut information som kan besvara forskningsfrågorna och syftet med studien. Tidigare forskning visar att vägning är en användbar metod för att kontrollera lagersaldo. Den empiriska studien gav en bättre uppfattning om tekniken skulle kunna användas i små manuella lager med hög omsättningshastighet hos snabbmatsrestauranger. Där svarade respondenterna att denna lagermiljö inte är anpassad för att kunna införa ett fungerande vägningssystem som kan ge ett korrekt lagersaldo. Då det finns många hinder som kan uppstå med att implementera ett fungerande vägningssystem. Ett hinder är att det förvaras många olika artiklar i lagret på en liten yta, vilket leder till problem vid vägningen av varorna. Att det skulle vara svårt att kunna urskilja alla olika artiklar och få ett korrekt vägningsresultat. Ur intervjuerna kom det även fram att förvaring av artiklarna i lagren inte förvaras likadant, vissa produkter staplas på backvagnar, en del förvaras på hyllor medan vissa artiklar är staplade på varandra från marknivå. Vilket försvårar användningen av ett vägningssystem. Under höga försäljningsperioder kan det bli problematiskt med ett vägningssystem, då det kan krävas att artiklar lagras i andra utrymmen än i lagren. Vilket gör ett sådant system irrelevant om den inte kan väga alla artiklar och ge ett korrekt lagersaldo. / Today, fast food restaurants find it difficult to maintain good inventory management due to outdated inventory methods. Where manual inventory takes place every day to check what is in stock. This is a time-consuming process that requires manpower to perform. There are often errors in the stock balance due to manual control, as it involves many goods in a small area and with a high stock turnover rate. In other warehouse environments, weighing is used as an inventory method to facilitate inventory control. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether weighing is a suitable method for controlling inventory balance in small manual warehouses with high turnover rates in the fast foodindustry. An empirical study was conducted in the form of semi-structured interviews. Two fast food restaurants were involved, where four people were interviewed and all the respondents worked within the specific warehouse environment of the research area and are in charge of inventory control for these warehouses. Two research questions were answered based on the interviews, which contributed to fulfilling the purpose of the study. A content analysis was performed on the empirical data collected from the interviews. To facilitate the processing of the data and obtain information that can answer the research questions and the purpose of the study. Previous research shows that weighing is a useful method of controlling inventory balance. The empirical study gave a better idea of whether the technology could be used in small manual warehouses with a high turnover rate. There, the respondents answered that this warehouse environment is not necessarily adapted to be able to introduce a functioning weighing system that can provide an accurate inventory balance. As there are many obstacles that can arise in implementing a functioning weighing system. An obstacle is that many different articles are stored in the warehouse on a small surface, which leads to problems when weighing the goods. That it would be difficult to distinguish all the different articles and get a correct weighing result. The interviews also revealed that the storage of the articles in the warehouses is not the same, some products are stacked on back carts, some are stored on shelves while some articles are stacked on top of each other from ground level. Which complicates the use of a weighing system. During high sales periods, it can become problematic with a weighing system in the warehouse as it may sometimes be required that items be stored in areas other than the warehouses. Which makes such a system irrelevant if it cannot weigh all items and provide an accurate inventory balance.

The South African fast-food industry is growing steadily, and so is the trend towards healthy eating. South Africans are becoming more aware of what they put into their bodies and not only do they want to consume meals that are quick and convenient, but they also want to ensure that what they are eating offers nutritional benefits. Although fast-food outlets have responded to customer demand by adding healthier food options to their menus, customer satisfaction regarding these options has not been investigated sufficiently in South Africa. The purpose of this study was to explore customer satisfaction with the healthier food options available at fast-food outlets in South Africa. An extensive literature review was conducted on the South African fast-food industry (the link between fast-food and obesity was noted, followed by a discussion on the trend towards healthy eating) and customer satisfaction. An empirical study was conducted, in which data was collected from students studying at the University of Pretoria by means of self-administered questionnaires. The study followed a mixed method approach, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative research in order to satisfy the research objectives. The results of this research study indicate that there is a high level of satisfaction amongst South African customers with the healthier food options available at fast-food outlets. / Business Management / M. Comm. (Business Management)

The South African fast-food industry is growing steadily, and so is the trend towards healthy eating. South Africans are becoming more aware of what they put into their bodies and not only do they want to consume meals that are quick and convenient, but they also want to ensure that what they are eating offers nutritional benefits. Although fast-food outlets have responded to customer demand by adding healthier food options to their menus, customer satisfaction regarding these options has not been investigated sufficiently in South Africa. The purpose of this study was to explore customer satisfaction with the healthier food options available at fast-food outlets in South Africa. An extensive literature review was conducted on the South African fast-food industry (the link between fast-food and obesity was noted, followed by a discussion on the trend towards healthy eating) and customer satisfaction. An empirical study was conducted, in which data was collected from students studying at the University of Pretoria by means of self-administered questionnaires. The study followed a mixed method approach, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative research in order to satisfy the research objectives. The results of this research study indicate that there is a high level of satisfaction amongst South African customers with the healthier food options available at fast-food outlets. / Business Management / M. Comm. (Business Management)

The objective of the study was to determine the relationship between personality preference types (as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator [MBTI]) Form M and psychological career resources (as measured by the Psychological Career Resource Inventory [PCRI]) of managers in the fast-food industry and whether groups from different races, ages and gender differ significantly regarding personality types and psychological career resources. A quantity survey was conducted on a sample (N = 81) of managers in the fast food industry in the Western Cape. The extraversion, sensing, feeling, judging (ESFJ) and the introversion, sensing, feeling, judging (ISFJ) personality types were the dominant ones in the study. Personality type preferences were significantly related to psychological career resources. The personality types differed significantly regarding the following PCRI variables: variety/creativity (career preference), growth/development (career value), self/other skills (career enabler) and social connectivity (career harmoniser). Significant differences between personality types, psychological career resources and age, gender and race were also established. / Industrial & Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The objective of the study was to determine the relationship between personality preference types (as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator [MBTI]) Form M and psychological career resources (as measured by the Psychological Career Resource Inventory [PCRI]) of managers in the fast-food industry and whether groups from different races, ages and gender differ significantly regarding personality types and psychological career resources. A quantity survey was conducted on a sample (N = 81) of managers in the fast food industry in the Western Cape. The extraversion, sensing, feeling, judging (ESFJ) and the introversion, sensing, feeling, judging (ISFJ) personality types were the dominant ones in the study. Personality type preferences were significantly related to psychological career resources. The personality types differed significantly regarding the following PCRI variables: variety/creativity (career preference), growth/development (career value), self/other skills (career enabler) and social connectivity (career harmoniser). Significant differences between personality types, psychological career resources and age, gender and race were also established. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)