mcdonald's a case study in glocalization pdf

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Article search, mcdonald's: a case study in glocalization.

• The purpose of this research report was to assess McDonald's globalization strategy. We examined McDonald's strategy across six dimensions: menu, promotion, trademarks, restaurants, employees, and service. We also compared the company's performance across these six dimensions in 10 different countries: Saudi Arabia, France, the United Kingdom, Greece, Brazil, Indonesia, India, China, Japan, and New Zealand to measure McDonald's success in capitalizing on globalization and localization. As discussed in this report, McDonald's is a global brand through its worldwide standards and training operations, but the company is also local, with its franchising to local entrepreneurs, locally sourcing food, and targeting specific local consumer market demands. McDonald's is an excellent example of blending global with local - an organization that has glocalized very successfully.
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• ProQuest One Business
• Acculturation
• Corporate sponsorship
• Fast food industry
• Globalization
• Localization
• Manycountries
• Market strategy
• Multinational corporations
• Olympic games
• Professional basketball
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Fast and Pluribus: Impacts of a Globalizing McDonald’s

The expansion of McDonald’s in the twentieth century brought the fast food chain to more than 100 countries. But how well did it integrate into its new home(s)?

The connection between globalization and McDonald’s is a tale of scholarly metonymy. There’s no textual shortage of evidence that references the now-global fast food chain’s success in other countries , often linking it to themes of self-sufficiency, post-industrial stability, and democracy-formed capitalism.

Among these chunks of research is a more endogenous angle that examines the impact McDonald’s has had within offshore cultures; namely, how the American fast food model has been diffused across different countries. Such case studies, which look at individual cultural phenomena and their direct applications to globalization activity, refines not only the framework of McDonald’s in theories, but overall globalization processes and strategies as well.

Japan’s stylish renditions of fast food practices, for one, existed long before McDonald’s came to the country. Given the existing popularity of convenient and on-the-go meals—including conveyor belt sushi and street vendor meals—American fast food chains were bound to succeed. Scholars John W. Traphagan and L. Keith Brown investigate this supposition by employing an ethnographic model of research, building the argument that Japan not only assimilated—but basically swallowed whole—the McDonald’s dining model , to the point that younger people especially believe McDonald’s is a Japanese company.

Traphagan and Brown emphasize that, rather than “styles of preparation or ingredients,” fast food is defined by “a style of selling food.” Essentially, McDonald’s brought no real paradigm shifts to Japan—but rather constructed a space in which already-formed Japanese cultural practices could continue.

Their case study contrasts with that of geographers Ray Oldakowski and John McEwen, who similarly investigate McDonald’s and its cultural assimilation—but in Ecuador. Their evidence shows that the integration of American fast food dining followed a different path , and McDonald’s remains an obviously foreign establishment in the cityscape. McDonald’s didn’t attempt to adapt to Japanese or Ecuadorian culture (for McDonald’s, “the strategy has been one of consistency, i.e. McDonald’s prefers not to change its way of doing business to adapt to foreign cultures, rather, it changes local cultures to meet its own needs,” they note), but Ecuadorians clearly viewed the fast food chain as a deviation from local tastes, unlike Japanese consumers.

“[A] comparison of exterior designs revealed that the McDonald’s in Guayaquil [Ecuador] were very similar to the typical McDonald’s restaurants in the United States,” write the authors. Moreover, the menus were also similar. Only 2 percent of those polled considered the food served at McDonald’s similar to Ecuadorian food. In contrast, very few interviewees considered Kentucky Fried Chicken—another American fast food establishment—different from Ecuadorian food. Eighty-four percent reported that KFC was the most similar to Ecuadorian food, and 68 percent said it was actually where they dined regularly.

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“Those results suggest that McDonald’s might gain new customers, and more visits from existing customers, if they also offered menu items more typical of Ecuadorian food,” conclude the authors.

In neither Japan nor Ecuador did McDonald’s actively work to adapt itself to the tastes of the host countries, but the depth of integration into local dining customs differed between the two nations. Such observations could prompt additional nation-specific analyses and possibly reveal additional adaptations to the “strategy of consistency” associated with McDonald’s. However, the study of the globalization of fast food from a micro-cultural angle requires challenging assumptive attitudes around American businesses and classical theories, with one of the most popular—and infamously controvertible—examples being the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention , built on tropes of democratic peace through development. Globalization and its effects could also be examined in light of McDonald’s cultural impacts on its origin country of America, opening a conversation on socio-economics and class .

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Pathways to Global Markets: Case of McDonald‘s Globalization

• Department of Marketing

Research output : Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

• http://www.asbbs.org/files/2011/JBBS_23.1_Spring_2011.pdf
• Persistent link

T1 - Pathways to Global Markets

T2 - Case of McDonald‘s Globalization

AU - Smith, David E.

AU - Mitry, Darryl J.

N2 - For marketing and economic researchers, an important aspect of globalization is the degree to which various consumer behavior dimensions and consumption patterns in different parts of the world are becoming similar, and how multinational companies have identified pathways to global success. An important case study is McDonald‘s corporation, the world‘s largest fast food restaurant chain. This company has employed divergent marketing and economic strategies in both domestic and the international markets to become a leader in the global marketplace. An overview of the company‘s background, organizational structures, mission and vision illustrate McDonald‘s strategic focus on its proactive evolution from a small drive-through operation to a global fast-food giant. The strategy is based on its ability to adapt to the cultural differences of the markets that McDonald‘s serves while preserving its core competencies and branding. Development situations of the company‘s four geographic segments, North America, South America, Europe, and APMEA (Asia, Pacific, Middle East and Africa), are presented in order to fully understand how McDonald‘s influences and is influenced by its domestic and global markets.

AB - For marketing and economic researchers, an important aspect of globalization is the degree to which various consumer behavior dimensions and consumption patterns in different parts of the world are becoming similar, and how multinational companies have identified pathways to global success. An important case study is McDonald‘s corporation, the world‘s largest fast food restaurant chain. This company has employed divergent marketing and economic strategies in both domestic and the international markets to become a leader in the global marketplace. An overview of the company‘s background, organizational structures, mission and vision illustrate McDonald‘s strategic focus on its proactive evolution from a small drive-through operation to a global fast-food giant. The strategy is based on its ability to adapt to the cultural differences of the markets that McDonald‘s serves while preserving its core competencies and branding. Development situations of the company‘s four geographic segments, North America, South America, Europe, and APMEA (Asia, Pacific, Middle East and Africa), are presented in order to fully understand how McDonald‘s influences and is influenced by its domestic and global markets.

M3 - Journal article

JO - Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences

JF - Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences

Glocalization in Fast Food Chains Glocalization in Fast Food Chains

This chapter aims to cover the emergence of glocalization in global perspective and to relate various glocal practices of multinational fast food chains with marketing mix of McDonald's. In the wake of investigating the marketing mix of McDonald's, cleared that the company can be said to be “glocal”, i.e. combining elements of globalization and internationalization. McDonald's have accomplished this through applying the maxim, “think global, act local”, to all the components of the marketing mix.

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Effective/Differentiating Marketing Strategies of McDonald’s in Malaysia And Indonesia

McDonald's has become one of the world's most known fast-food companies. The success of McDonald's in growing business makes some individuals genuinely curious as to how McDonald's developed their marketing process and strategy as marketing strategies perform crucial roles for businesses to grow eventually. This case study aims to determine the effective marketing strategies of McDonald in Malaysia compared to with those in other countries such as Indonesia and provide recommendations to deal with the situation McDonald's is faced with. This research, using comparative analysis and focusing on 4P marketing mix components, focuses on the analysis of products, prices, places, and promotions.

Franchising and the internationalization of businesses: the case of fast food chains

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