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The purpose of this paper is to describe the rise of South Africa's quick service restaurant (QSR) industry by examining the structural changes and competitive strategies driving the industry.

The paper uses Michael Porter's Five Forces and secondary data to describe the structural reorganization of South Africa's QSR industry and market positioning strategies being used to respond to the growing industry competition and global challenges.

The paper finds that South Africa's QSR industry has risen tremendously and has expanded globally. The evolving fast food market comprises South African franchises and multi‐national franchise corporations co‐existing with modern supermarkets, contract food caterers, and informal traders. The industry uses a mix of market coordination, operational and competitive strategies to counter the intense global competition. Further research is needed to examine the potential of information communication technologies in QSR industry market coordination and consumer willingness to pay for increased convenience, healthy products, sustainability, and food traceability.

South Africa leads the continent in mobile phone penetration and there is scope for QSR managers to integrate mobile commerce when dealing with QSR industry customers and other stakeholders. South Africa's fast food franchises should craft strategies that adapt menus to local cultures and ethnic foods in other countries. With increasing attention on food safety and traceability, South Africa's QSR firms could provide leadership in marketing high quality food and gain competitive advantages through positive industry image.

The paper addresses the highly topical issue of rising competition in the fast food industry and successful strategies being utilized by South African firms to penetrate both regional and global markets.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how stakeholders perceive the motives behind fast food companies’ public health-related corporate social responsibility (CSR) and general social issue-related CSR initiatives, and their responses toward CSR in terms of supportive communication intent, investment intent, and purchase intent. The authors further examine the impact of perceived CSR motives on intent and whether a healthier chain image has an effect on stakeholder responses.

An online experiment was conducted. This study employed a randomized 2 (CSR type: health-related CSR vs generic social issue-related CSR)×2 (chain image: healthier chain vs general fast-food chain) full factorial design using general stakeholder samples.

For an ordinary fast food restaurant, generic social issue-related CSR programs elicited significantly more positive perceptions of CSR motives, supportive communication intent and investment intent, than public-health related CSR. When a company has a healthier image, stakeholders do not distinguish between CSR types. Stakeholders perceive both CSR types as stemming from mutually beneficial motives and show neutral to slightly positive reactions to both CSR. A positively perceived CSR motive plays a determinant role in anticipating communication, investment, and purchase intents.

This is the first study that examines stakeholder perception of motives behind and responses toward fast food chains’ health-related vs generic social issue-related CSR initiatives, in light of corporate image. The study findings help public relations practitioners, public health professionals, parent groups, and legislators understand stakeholders’ reactions toward CSR initiatives in the fast food industry and help them monitor practices for improvements.

The fast food industry has become a focus of media criticism for its apparent lack of interest in environmental and nutritional issues. Demonstrates the scale of the industry′s response and provides an objective assessment of current initiatives which have been specifically designed to improve the image of fast food companies. The greatest momentum for change has inevitably been associated with the major American fast food chains which are introducing more environmentally‐friendly packaging, accessory‐recycling and lower fat products. In the process they are gaining a competitive advantage over smaller domestic fast food companies and this fact alone will ensure the introduction of more initiatives in the future. Care for the environment and for consumer health have consequently become high‐profile marketing concerns.

McJobs in the fast‐food sector are a major area of youth employment. This paper explores young people's perceptions of work in this industry.

The paper discusses the results of a survey of students' experiences of McJobs in Australia.

Fast‐food workers were generally dissatisfied with the industrial relations and work organisation aspects of their jobs. Nonetheless, they were generally much more satisfied with the human resource management and social relations aspects of their jobs.

Our research has implications for understanding the human capital development practices adopted by employers in the fast‐food industry and in other sectors, especially those that employ young people. Much of the context for work and employment relations in Australia is comparable with those in most English‐speaking countries. Therefore, our findings have implications for work in similar sectors in other countries, in particular, other English‐speaking countries.

This paper has implications for people who devise recruitment policies and design of jobs. It is a useful reminder that it is no longer appropriate for people to talk in simple terms of satisfaction at work per se; it is vital to differentiate between various aspects and contexts of job satisfaction, or the of the lack of it.

Earlier studies of fast‐food work have tended to be polemical and polarized: either apologias or very critical. This paper adopts a more balanced approach and it puts the findings into context.

Fast‐food and franchising should present a formidable marriage when coping with declining economic performance. Compares the performance of 54 (18 franchisors; 18 fast‐food franchisees; 18 fast‐food companies) between 1987 and 1990 using Taffler′s Z‐score analysis. Finds that franchisors′ performance during the period declined but remained better than that of fast‐food franchisees and fast‐food companies. Fast‐food franchisees have remained buoyant but there are incidences of potential failures. Outlines differing solutions to return these companies to health.

Scholars and professionals are interested in studying customer value in fast-food restaurants. Previous research on the customer value of fast-food restaurants mainly measured the dimensions and relationships of the customer value. However, the research has not examined a method for identifying sources of customer value in fast-food restaurants. Therefore, this study used customer orientation to find customer needs and generate customer value in fast-food restaurants.

This study presents a conceptual framework with six constructs. A questionnaire was used to gather empirical data from fast-food restaurant customers in Greater Cairo, Egypt. The suggested framework was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and validity analysis, standardized path coefficients and regression-based moderation analysis.

This study found that proactive customer orientation has a substantial direct and positive impact on customer perceived value. Customer perceived value is also positively influenced by responsive and proactive customer orientations, with customer desired value change intensity acting as a moderator. Customer perceived value substantially impacts customer satisfaction, and the latter substantially affects behavioural intention.

This study offers several suggestions for managers of fast-food restaurants on how to employ customer orientation to find current, latent and future customer desires to provide customer value.

This is the first research in the hospitality industry to demonstrate how responsive and proactive customer orientation may be used to recognize customer needs and provide the desired customer value.

The purpose of this case study is to explore and study the determinants (demographics and psychographics) impacting consumers food choice towards fast food in India.

Food choice variables have been explored using literature reviews and exploratory survey of young consumers in the age group of 20‐40. Data obtained from the reliable sources (e.g. the World Health Organisation, Euromonitor International and Datamonitor International) have been used to study the implications of consumer food choice and growing trend towards organic food.

Based on literature reviews and exploratory surveys, the key determinants impacting consumers food choice are passion for eating out, socialize, ambience and taste for school and college goers and convenience for dual‐income families in urban India. Findings indicate that fast food companies can no longer rely on convenience as USP in India, unless the implications of same on consumers health is given equal importance in the years to come.

Data obtained from the convenience sample and literature reviews have been generalized for inferring consumption patterns of Indian consumers (population).

This case study focuses on growing trends towards organic food and green consumerism in view of rising global obesity with fast food consumption in Western countries and significantly very less in India despite obesity being an epidemic in India.

This paper focuses on determining a food choice model in wake of changing food and eating habits in India, using literature reviews, exploratory surveys and reliable data sources.

The Fair Labour Standards Act is a law that determines whether an employee is considered exempt or non‐exempt. Non‐exempt employees are eligible for overtime pay (time and a half) versus exempt employees, which are not eligible for overtime pay. The Fair Labour Standards Act status is based upon job duties rather than job title. An employee is considered exempt if he/she falls into either the professional, administrative, or executive exempt categories meeting all criteria. Many positions in the fast food industry are paid the minimum wage, or close to it, due to the intense competition and low profit margins in the industry (Reynolds, 2002). In addition, many of the employees are nonexempt employees and must punch in and out on a time clock. The positions available in the fast food restaurants themselves do not meet the criteria to be exempt due to the highly routine work they perform, with the exception of some management positions.

The purpose of this paper is to study differing demographic factors affecting fast-food customers loyalty towards national or international fast food chains. It also compares the variation between global and local fast food chains as the products offered are culturally different.

A variety of variables used to gain a holistic view, which includes factors such as quality, price, food and demographic profile of consumers affecting loyalty of fast food chains. The study adopts the theory and method of the trust-commitment-loyalty explanation chain and examines the consumer survey adapted from Fast food by Sahagun et al. (2014). The present analyses 542 filled questionnaires in which systematic sampling is used. Systematic sampling procedure is adopted.

Indians prefer global fast food chains compared to Indian fast food chains. Loyalty towards global brands is higher than that for Indian brands because they are found to be of better quality which leads to higher frequency of visit and recommendation of the brands to their friends and colleagues. There are ethnic variations towards global and Indian fast food chains. Global brand of food chains generated more good word of mouth publicity compared to Indian food chains. Demographic factors play a role in the patronage of fast food chains.

One of the limitations of this research is the study adapts the theory and method of the trust-commitment-loyalty explanation chain and examines the consumer survey adapted from a study of Sahagun et al. (2014) on fast food for emerging markets. Only India is studied, but the addition of other countries like Brazil, China, Russia and South Africa can add value.

Fast food managers had to illustrate the satisfaction on affective response, such as quality of food, convenient location, variety, service and value for money. Demographic variables like gender, age, education, income and ethnicity, global and local Brand will affect the perceptions.

This is the first attempt to study the loyalty of consumers in emerging markets, which is witnessing the entry of many fast food global chains. It studies the demographic variables effect on the loyalty and the behaviour of consumers and compares to local and global brand fast food chains. The research will be use to global managers who are planning to expand in emerging markets like India.

The existing literature has examined the determinants of post-purchase behavioral intentions. However, less attention has been devoted to the factors that contribute to perceived usefulness of fast-food restaurants attributes. The current study considers the servicescapes and social servicescapes of restaurants as well as their relationship with customers' perceived usefulness, with the moderating role of customer experience. It also explores how perceived usefulness influences choice process satisfaction and subsequent behavioral responses, including revisit intention and negative word-of-mouth.

Data from 485 fast-food restaurant consumers in Pakistan were collected using purposive sampling. The data were analyzed using both structural equation modeling (SEM) through AMOS 24.0 and the PROCESS macro in IBM SPSS 27.0.

The research revealed that perceived usefulness in fast-food restaurant industry is positively influenced by servicescapes and social servicescapes. Similarly, choice process satisfaction is primarily caused by perceived usefulness and affects behavioral responses. It also found that choice process satisfaction is positively associated with revisit intentions and negative word-of-mouth. Customer experience significantly moderates the relationship between ambient condition, facility aesthetic, layout, perceived similarity and perceived usefulness. However, customer experience insignificant moderates the relationships of physical appearance and suitable behavior with perceived usefulness.

The findings provide insightful information for both academic and managerial fields, contributing to the literature on consumer psychology, consumer behavior, servicescapes and the stimulus-organism-response theory. The study also assists restauranteurs in the fast-food restaurant industry in overcoming the challenges posed by a highly competitive environment and developing strategies based on consumer perceptions.

This study, conducted in Pakistan, took a pioneer step in testing and confirming a novel perceived usefulness model that incorporates not only servicescapes but also social servicescapes in consumer behavior. It enhances the knowledge of consumer visit intentions by quantifying the significance of perceived usefulness developed by different servicescapes.