No / This article examines the employment practices of McDonald's and other US-owned multinational corporations (MNCs) in the global fast-food industry from the 1970s to date. It focuses on the impact that different host institutions have had on pay and working conditions in different countries in the industry. The author argues that US fast-food MNCs still adopt the underlying principles of their US practices, even if the practices themselves could not be imposed in their entirety, often keeping unions out of workplaces and preserving their management prerogative, even when sector-level collective agreements have been imposed, and often limiting the impact of such agreements. Whilst some improvements have been achieved in some countries, adequate representation remains a serious problem, with many employees experiencing low pay, inadequate hours, insecure work, unpaid hours and sometimes hazardous and intimidating working conditions. The theoretical effect of host-country influences cannot therefore be automatically assumed; rather, the variations that arise across countries, while indicating national diversity, also emphasize variation within national systems and a limited form of convergence or ‘low-road Americanization’ in this sector.

No / The fast-food industry is one of the few industries that can be described as truly global, not least in terms of employment, which is estimated at around ten million people worldwide. This edited volume is the first of its kind, providing an analysis of labour relations in this significant industry focusing on multinational corporations and large national companies in ten countries: the USA, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Russia. The extent to which multinational enterprises impose or adapt their employment practices in differing national industrial relations systems is analysed, Results reveal that the global fast-food industry is typified by trade union exclusion, high labour turnover, unskilled work, paternalistic management regimes and work organization that allows little scope for developing workers' participation in decision-making, let alone advocating widely accepted concepts of social justice and workers' rights.

No / This paper is based on a study of the employment practices of one Italian-owned multinational corporation (MNC) and one US-owned MNC in the Italian quick-food service sector and examines such issues as work organization, unionization, employee representation and pay and conditions. The paper focuses on the concept of ‘dominance’ and the related convergence and divergence theses. The findings suggest that dominance can not only be interpreted as a mode of employment or production emanating from one country, but could also be associated with one dominant MNC in one sector. Consequently, it is argued that while the effect of host and home country influences may be significant factors in cross-border employment relations practices, more attention needs to be paid to organizational contingencies and the sectoral characteristics within which firms operate.

No / This article reports on the union recognition dispute that took place at the MacDonald's food-processing plant in Moscow. It examines this dispute in the context of McDonald's employment practices worldwide, the interventions made by international and local unions, and Russian government bodies. Despite these interventions it became impossible to either organise the workforce or establish a collective agreement. The case illustrates the difficulties facing both local unions and global union federations when confronted by intransigent multinational companies, especially in low-skilled sectors in transitional economies.

No / This article examines the labour relations practices of multinational corporations (MNCs) in the German and Spanish quick-food service sectors. The demand for greater profitability and lower costs is leading to a greater standardization of work methods across a widening range of food service operators, resulting in the gradual elimination of more expensive, skilled and experienced workers, and an increasingly non-union approach in employee relations practices. The outcome involves increasing standardization, union exclusion, low trust, low skills, and low pay. These sectoral characteristics appear to outweigh both country-of-origin and host-country effects. The findings therefore confirm continuing variation within national industrial relations systems and the importance of sectoral characteristics and organizational contingencies in understanding MNC cross-border behaviour.

No / This article analyses the establishment and subsequent meetings of the McDonald's European Works Council and raises a number of questions. Who is an `employee representative' for the purposes of the EU Directive? How are such representatives elected in practice and what roles do existing national sub-structures play? Can employee representatives adequately coordinate their roles in the absence of significant unionisation? The experience of the McDonald's EWC suggests that where workforces have low levels of unionisation and employers are opposed in principle to the prescribed arrangements, a non-union firm can frustrate even the limited aims of the Directive. Furthermore, legally underpinned national-level sub-structures, which are often assumed to make such European-level bodies accountable, may fail to do so in practice.

No / This paper examines the problem of effectively regulating the labour relations practices of multinational corporations. It focuses on the activities of the McDonald's Corporation in a number of European countries. The findings suggest that public and private codes of conduct have a very limited effect and that determined and well-resourced corporations can not only undermine regional forms of regulation - such as that provided by the European Union - but also, and to a considerable extent, national-level regulation. This is particularly evident in the area of independent trade union representation. Although its aim of avoiding collective bargaining and union recognition wherever possible is only partially successful, McDonald's appears to have developed a number of highly effective strategies for limiting the presence of trade unions at restaurant level, particularly in avoiding or undermining statutory works councils and union representation rights.

Yes / Ireland’s selective system of collective agreed minimum wages has come under significant pressure in recent years. A new fast-food employer body took a constitutional challenge against the system of Joint Labour Committees (JLCs) and this was strengthened by the discourse on the negative effects of minimum wages as Ireland’s economic crisis worsened. Taking a historical institutional approach, the article examines the critical juncture for the JLC system and the factors which led to the subsequent government decision to retain but reform the system. The article argues that the improved enforcement of minimum wages was a key factor in the employers’ push for abolition of the system but that the legacy of a collapsed social partnership system prevented the system’s abolition.

Yes / In this article we examine the industrial relations practices of three large European food retailers when they transfer the hypermarket format to other countries. We ask, first, how industrial relations in hypermarkets differ from those in other food retailing outlets. Second, we examine how far the approach characteristic of each company’s country-of-origin (Germany, France and the UK) shapes the practices adopted elsewhere. Third, we ask how they respond to the specific industrial relations systems of each host country (Turkey, Poland, Ireland and Spain).

Background: Academic interest in emerging markets and their growth has been relevant due to their promised potential for foreign multinational companies. Internationalization is a fundamental differentiator for MNCs aiming to expand and grow in novel markets. The existing unequalness prevailing in emerging markets necessitates strategy adaptation to overcome the existing heterogeneity.  Research Problem: Despite the increasing relevance of emerging markets, research on both institutional environment and foreignness in structurally unequal markets is underdeveloped. Combining institutional theory with internationalization activities presented itself as a research area, with the focus on structurally unequal emerging markets being identified as a research gap. Research Purpose: The purpose of this research is to identify the interconnectedness between institutions and foreignness under the theoretical lens of institutional theory. It aims to showcase the relevance of strategy adaptation and market awareness for continued success within the context of South Africa.   Research Question: How do internationalization activities affect the survival of foreign MNCs in structurally unequal emerging markets? Research Method:  The study follows qualitative, inductive research – based on a relativist ontology and social constructionist epistemology. Research is approached with an explorative multiple-case study, with data being purposefully collected through semi-structured interviews and company reports. Data was analyzed with the Gioia method. Conclusion: Our findings concentrate on the existence of institutional voids, with distance being an important factor. Foreignness is found to be an advantage for foreign MNCs, with isomorphic behavior to be absent. From this we abstract a framework which showcases the distance and foreignness under the driving factor of internationalization.