KFC and McDonald’s are two representatives of American fast food brands who are operating in China.Considering the cultural differences between American and Chinese culture, whether and how they adaptthemselves to the Chinese culture caught the authors’ attention. This thesis aimed to explore the culturaladaptation patterns of these two brands, and find out what factors contribute to a successful culturaladaptation model from customers’ perspective.In order to find the answer, the authors based this study on academic theories and studies together withobjective information of KFC and McDonald’s, and carried on a survey based on Chinese market. Aftercombining empirical findings and analysis, two models were derived for KFC and McDonald’srespectively. After the analysis, this thesis also discussed implication and limitation of the results, andsuggestion for future study was presented.

No / This paper focuses on the employment practices of both multinational corporations (MNCs) and large national competitors in the German fast‐food industry, such as Burger King, Pizza Hut, Nordsee, McDonald’s, Churrasco and Blockhaus. The paper poses a number of questions. Have the activities of MNCs affected the employment practices of national companies? Are companies adopting union exclusion policies and if so why and to what extent? Does the “country of origin effect” help explain the activities of MNCs? What changes are evident in workers’ terms and conditions and how effective are statutory systems of employee representation in practice? The findings suggest that Anglo‐Saxon‐based MNCs are more likely to adopt anti‐works council and non‐union policies in the sector, suggesting that MNCs may indeed be able to transfer their management practices across borders, imposing their employer‐based systems with little regard for German institutional arrangements.

No / The McDonald's Corporation is not only the largest system-wide sales service in the world, it is a phenomenon in its own right, and is now recognized as the most famous brand in the world. By providing a detailed analysis of the extent to which the McDonald's Corporation adapts or imposes its labour relations policies in Europe, this volume represents a real life case study revealing the interaction between a global multi-national enterprise and the regulatory systems of a number of different European countries. Key features include: an overview of the McDonald's Corporation's development and structure; an analysis of its corporate culture and the issues of franchising; an examination of key union strategies, including systems of co-determination, consultation and collective-bargaining; and a chapter dealing specifically with European legislation, in particular the McDonald's European Works Council. The author systematically analyses the conflict between the McDonald's Corporation and the industrial relations systems of the European countries within which it operates, and exposes this conflict as an 'unequal struggle' between economic liberalism and collectivism.

The McDonald's model of labour management has been widely adopted throughout the fast food industry. Literature that is critical of fast food labour management policy and practice often portrays employers as offering work that is low paid, unchallenging and uninteresting. However, others argue that the industry provides young workers with: a first resume entry, training opportunities, the chance to develop a career and a path into employment. This study interprets these two perspectives as reflecting either misalignment or alignment of employee/crew and employer preferences. Such an interpretation recognises that fast food work does not represent a career for many who do it but is short term or 'stop-gap' in nature. The study's research question is: to what extent does management preference for elements of work align with the preferred working arrangements of crew at McDonald's Australia? This research subjects McDonald's Australian stores to independent scrutiny. Previous research in this area has mostly used qualitative methods. Earlier studies, by and large, provide descriptive accounts of fast food employment however they often lack the rigour of an empirical investigation. The present research uses a structured survey method to obtain data from crew and managers. Results are analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings focus on three areas of labour management: industrial relations, work organisation and human resource management. Several themes relating to alignment of preferences in the fast food employment relationship are identified. These are: crew have scant knowledge of industrial relations, do not like aspects of work organisation, but respond positively to certain human resource management policies and practices; crew lack knowledge of labour management issues generally; crew work is simple and repetitive; and, many young crew seem to dislike aspects of fast food work as they get older but others, who have distinctive characteristics, appear to continue to like the McDonald's approach as they age.

<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.

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.

The climate question is one of the major questions in society and consumers today expect cooperates to take responsibilities that help the environment. One of the industries that consumers have misbeliefs in when it comes to green marketing and green products is the fast-food industry. Because of the misbeliefs from the consumers, the fast-food chains need to increase their green alternatives and their green marketing. The aim of this study is therefore to study and highlight how green marketing is used by companies in the fast-food industry to position themselves in the market. In addition, we also intend to investigate how and if green marketing affects the consumers’ brand perception and purchasing behavior. To examine this purpose a mix of both qualitative and quantitative methods is used. The qualitative method is analyzing commercials from the fast-food chains and observations in their restaurants to see how they use green marketing. The quantitative method is a web survey with 71 responses to see how the consumer perceived the brand of the fast-food chains. The result showes that the fast-food chains do similar initiatives for the environment, but it differs how consumers perceived their brand as green or not. / Problemdiskussion: Miljöfrågorna är idag dominerande i samhället och konsumenterna förväntar sig att företag därför tar mer ansvar för miljön. Snabbmatsindustrin har varit i blåsväder gällande miljö-och hållbarhetsarbete och på så sätt fått en yttre press att arbeta mer miljövänligt därför har de börjat ta mer ansvar och marknadsför mer gröna produkter och hållbarhetsarbete. Samtidigt finns det en misstro från konsumenterna om trovärdigheten i dessa gröna budskap. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera och synliggöra hur grön marknadsföring används av företag inom snabbmatsindustrin för att positionera sig på marknaden. Dessutom ämnar vi även att undersöka hur och om den gröna marknadsföringen påverkar konsumentens varumärkesuppfattning och köpbeteende. Metod: Denna studie bygger på både kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder. De kvalitativa metoderna bestod av innehållsanalys av reklamfilmer från två snabbmatsrestauranger i Sverige och observationer i restauranger. Den insamlade datan har vidare stärkts med fakta från respektive företags hållbarhetsrapporter. Den kvantitativa delen bestod av en enkätundersökning och hade som syfte att förstå hur konsumenterna uppfattar fallföretagens varumärke. Slutsats: Utifrån resultaten av studien går det att konstatera att företagen gör miljömässiga initiativ för att förbättra sin image. De båda fokuserar på teman som mat och miljö där båda använder sig av likvärdiga satsningar såsom vegetariska rätter och självbeställlningskassor. Däremot var det stor skillnad på hur konsumenterna uppfattar dessa två varumärken. De likartade verksamheterna använder sig av olika strategier för att kommunicera sitt gröna budskap som i sin tur positionerar varumärket från ett konsumentperspektiv.

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.