<p>Culture differences play a significant role in the international marketing, which has drawn many researchers‟ attention. This dissertation will focus on how the cross-cultural environments influence the choice of marketing strategies.</p><p>The theoretical framework of this study mainly contains cross-culture theories and 4P marketing strategy. These theories are put together in an analytical model where a connection between the two theories is explained that will be used as a foundation in gathering and analyzing the empirical findings.</p><p>The qualitative research strategy is employed in this dissertation. Utilizing the multiple case studies, we choose two sample companies both from USA. The empirical data was gathered through semi-structured interviews on the telephone. Data was also supplemented with secondary data such as company web pages and scientific articles.</p><p>The conclusion can be drawn from this study is that culture differences influence the 4P marketing strategies in both of the companies in different ways. Language, value and customer behaviors of a national culture are main factors to affect the implementation of marketing strategy in the international markets.</p>

Culture differences play a significant role in the international marketing, which has drawn many researchers‟ attention. This dissertation will focus on how the cross-cultural environments influence the choice of marketing strategies. The theoretical framework of this study mainly contains cross-culture theories and 4P marketing strategy. These theories are put together in an analytical model where a connection between the two theories is explained that will be used as a foundation in gathering and analyzing the empirical findings. The qualitative research strategy is employed in this dissertation. Utilizing the multiple case studies, we choose two sample companies both from USA. The empirical data was gathered through semi-structured interviews on the telephone. Data was also supplemented with secondary data such as company web pages and scientific articles. The conclusion can be drawn from this study is that culture differences influence the 4P marketing strategies in both of the companies in different ways. Language, value and customer behaviors of a national culture are main factors to affect the implementation of marketing strategy in the international markets.

Policymakers, politicians, and media outlets have declared an obesity epidemic. In doing so, they have named a variety of villains, including fast food. Despite the framing of fast food as being a leading contributor to weight gain and obesity, we have yet to understand the impact that fast food has on those who work with it every day. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the food choices, BMIs, and self perceived weights of the food service worker population. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and field, I investigate the role of the workplace and external cultural influences, such as the family, in navigating an obseogenic workplace environment that is centered on selling highly caloric food to the Canadian public in a quick and cost effective manner. The first stage of this research addresses the question: Are food service workers more likely to be overweight or obese and perceive themselves as being overweight compared to the general population? In order to do this, I analyzed secondary survey data from the Canadian Community Health Survey cycle 5.1 (2009-2010). I used logistic regression techniques to construct models that analyze the likelihood of having high BMIs and high self perceived weights in both the food service worker and general Canadian populations. In addition to this, I sought to understand the food choices that contribute to weight gain in fast food workers. To do this, I conducted forty semi-structured qualitative interviews with workers from a variety of fast food chains. The results of my research disprove my original hypothesis that food service workers are more likely to be overweight or obese because of their frequent exposure to fast food. Instead, I found that they are less likely to be overweight or obese than the general Canadian population. Additionally, they are also less likely to perceive themselves as being overweight or obese. Through the qualitative interviews, I found that these individuals participate in a process of regulation where they monitor their food intake at work. Additionally, I found that their consumption patterns stemmed from habitus generated through cultural exposures in other areas of their lives. Pierre Bourdieu (1984) argues that we develop habitus through meaningful cultural exposure. We use our habitus, or engrained dispositions, to navigate hierarchical spaces or fields. Through this research, I found that workers viewed their jobs as being temporary and their cultural consumption patterns did not seem to change from their exposures to their workplaces. The majority were part time students, working in this industry to pay for living expenses and tuition. For the most part, they were raised in middle class homes where their mothers prepared food for their families from scratch on a daily basis. Fast food was viewed as a special treat and not an item to consume on a regular basis. I conclude that the meaningful exposures we have to food and cultural norms throughout life are more important in determining our food choices than our exposure to fast food restaurants.

Background: Innovation is an important aspect of business today. It is important for companies to be innovative in order to stay competitive with their competitors. During the last couple of decades, technology has become more and more common both in our daily life, as well as in businesses. This has lead to an increase in technology implementation, especially within the service industry, where customers now can use self-service technologies in order to receive the service on their own. However, a lack of self-service technologies was discovered within the fast food industry. Since these types of innovations increased the service efficiency and decreased the waiting-time for customers, the authors believed that this would be very interesting for local managers within the fast food industry. Therefore, the authors began to investigate how much power local management has over these types of new innovations. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore how local management affects the innovation process, within fast food restaurant chains. Method: By conducting a cross-case study with the two fast food companies Subway and Max, the authors interviewed local fast food managers in order to explore the effect local management have on the innovation process. These two cases were selected since Subway fully consists of franchisees, while Max is almost completely company owned. Therefore, the two most common organizational structures within the fast food industry are included which will provide a more fair view of the industry. Conclusion: The effect of the innovation process has a positive relationship with the amount of power distributed to the local management. However, these areas differ depending on the organizational structure, with franchisees achieving their highest amount of power within medium-sized innovations and managers in company-owned outlets maintain their highest amount of power within minor innovations. Even though the overall communication was perceived as satisfying and efficient, large opportunities for improvements occur. By implementing more horizontal communication within the local management, it is in the belief of the authors that the entire internal communication will benefit. Especially this would benefit the franchise system where an increased local communication and collaboration would lead to more efficient communication throughout the entire organization.

Despite of economic downturn in recent years, the food service industry has performed well in Sweden and has grown by 4.1% in 2009. Now, the players are in a battle of differentiating their products/services and offers, as the degree of competition are moderately high in the market. Hence, building a strong brand image has apparently become a foremost tactics particularly in food chain industry.  The study aims to contribute on the concrete importance of brand equity management in the fast food chain especially by illustrating real empirical cases of McDonald and Max in Sweden. This comparative study attempts to figure out consumer’s attitudes, preference and behavior   that are affected by equity assets; brand awareness, perceived value, brand loyalty and brand associations in one way or another. Based on a quantitative survey, consumer’s brand knowledge is examined to confirm the brand value added by these brand equity assets.

A considerable amount of academic attention has been directed towards the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. But the nature of the exact relationship is still shrouded with uncertainty. In addition, few researches focus on the dimensions of service quality and their differing impacts on customer satisfaction in western fast food restaurants. This paper examines whether or not quality and satisfaction should be considered as a single construct, or distinct, separable constructs. Customer satisfaction is typically evaluated by means of a single item scale and sometimes multiple item scales. Conversely, this empirical study adopts a different approach and considers customer satisfaction as a multi-dimensional construct just as service quality, but argues that customer satisfaction should be operationalized along the same corresponding items on which service quality is operationalized. The SERVQUAL instrument was slightly modified to measure the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction among customers in western fast food chains in Kaohsiung. The research survey captures customers¡¦ perceptions of excellent service and compares it with their overall satisfaction. Using multiple regression analysis and T-test, the paper also reports on how socioeconomic and demographic disparities can influence the perception of service quality and satisfaction. Based on the research findings, the service quality and customer satisfaction are indeed independent but are closely related constructs. Their relationship suggests that an increase in one will lead to an increase in another. The statistical analysis also revealed that demographic variables can have major influences on service quality and customer satisfaction. The aim of the study is to supply useful results for future customer satisfaction researches in the fast food industry and provide insights into market segmentation strategies.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University, 2008. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 110-125).

Thesis (MFA)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2008. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Walter Metz. Montana Fare is a DVD accompanying the thesis. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 38-40).

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / China Area Studies / Master / Master of Arts