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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 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 explore the location decision of multinationals across major cities in Latin America. Based on agglomeration economics and institutional theory, the paper explores whether institutional quality of a city can temper the attraction of agglomeration factors.

The paper analyzes the geographic dispersion of three global fast-food franchise networks in 45 Latin American cities. The explanatory variables are horizontal aggregation of other multinationals and the institutional quality of a city. The direct and indirect impacts of horizontal agglomeration are explored through negative binomial regression with controls for city population and economic power [gross domestic product (GDP)].

The key finding is that location choice of fast-food networks is driven principally by market conditions and to a lesser extent by horizontal agglomeration. The institutional quality of a city has a positive influence on the agglomeration of fast-food networks. A city with strong institutional quality makes this relation stronger.

Other multinational and national fast-food franchises are not included in the paper. Future studies should include a greater number of global and local fast-food franchisers.

The positive reinforcements of agglomeration and strong institution are important for the investment location decision of fast-food multinationals. The institutional quality of the city should be an important consideration in the location decision as it expands regionally and within a country. Smaller cities may not offer the agglomeration advantages of the large metropolitan areas, but their good institutional quality may reduce the business costs for multinationals.

Large cities in Latin America tend to reap the benefits of agglomeration. As a result, smaller secondary cities struggle to be relevant in generating economic activity and attracting private investments. One strategy to achieve relevance is to build strong and transparent institutions and a solid business environment.

The inclusion of institutional quality at the city level as moderation of the agglomeration factors influencing the location decision of a multinational is original. This paper contributes to our understanding of the importance of regional cities in attracting the investment of multinational firms.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of fast-food restaurant service quality (compound effect of food quality, physical environment quality and employee service quality) and its dimensions (when acting independently) on customer perceived value, satisfaction and behavioural intentions.

Data was collected from 400 fast-food restaurant customers in Fiji using a public-intercept survey. The study used descriptive and inferential analysis. This research also used backward elimination multiple regressions to test the hypotheses of this study.

The compound effect of fast-food restaurant service quality dimensions on customer perceived value revealed food quality and physical environment quality are significant determinants of customer perceived value, however employee service quality is not. In contrast, the effect of the fast-food service quality dimensions acting independently on customer perceived value revealed the three dimensions are significant determinants of customer perceived value. Results also confirmed that customer perceived value is a significant determinant of customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction is a significant determinant of behavioural intentions.

This study highlights to fast-food restaurateurs and marketers the importance of determining the compound effect of fast-food restaurant service quality dimensions, delivering the right combination of fast-food restaurant service quality dimensions to customers and not singling out dimensions in an attempt to enhance restaurant service quality.

This study makes important contributions towards understanding the compound effect of fast-food restaurant service quality dimensions and the independent effect of these dimensions on the formation of customer perceived value, customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions.

Aims to investigate the effect of communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to young consumers in the UK on their fast‐food purchasing with reference to McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).

Focus groups were conducted to clarify themes and inform a questionnaire on fast‐food purchasing behaviours and motives. Attitude statements were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis.

Most respondents (82 per cent) regularly purchased fast food from one of the companies; purchases were mostly impulsive (57 per cent) or routine (26 per cent), suggesting relatively low‐level involvement in each case. While there was scepticism regarding the CSR activity being promoted, expectations about socially responsible behaviour by the companies were nevertheless high. Four factors were isolated, together explaining 52 per cent of the variance in fast‐food purchasing behaviour. They were brand value, nutritional value, ethical value and food quality.

The research was conducted with students, and while these represent a key‐target market, any further research should target a more diverse public.

There are important implications for global fast‐food companies in terms of protecting and developing their brand value; they need to respond to the wider food‐related debates in society, in particular, those concerning healthy eating and food ethics. They also need to ensure that their business practices are fully consistent with the values expressed in their CSR initiatives.

The special value of the paper lies in its joining together of current perspectives on CSR and consumer value in the UK food industry as it explores both through the perceptions of young consumers of fast food.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of product evaluations and behavioural intentions regarding fast-food restaurants. Research tests the moderating effects of tradition on selected relationships in Croatia and Serbia. Further, it tests consumer willingness to use services in domestic and foreign fast-food restaurants.

Samples were collected from 332 and 362 respondents from Croatia and Serbia, respectively. The validity of the model was tested with confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling was used to determine main and interaction effects.

For both foreign and domestic fast-food restaurants, variety seeking and cosmopolitanism had a positive impact on consumer evaluations and behavioural intentions, while the desire for unique products had a negative impact. Personal innovativeness had a positive impact on evaluations and intentions regarding foreign restaurants but a negative impact for domestic restaurants. A moderating effect of tradition was more present in the Serbian sample.

This study is the first to use the theory of planned behaviour and theory of social identity to investigate the impact of variety seeking, desire for unique products, cosmopolitanism and personal innovativeness on consumption in fast-food restaurants in two emerging countries in the country of origin context. Furthermore, it also provides information for researchers and marketers on fast-food consumption antecedents in different countries. New insights are provided for the moderating role of tradition.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the degree of satisfaction and loyalty of Chinese and Swiss fast‐food consumers. The aim is to compare Chinese/Swiss consumers' perception of meal quality, service quality, price and their influence on their satisfaction and loyalty. The image of fast‐food restaurants in the two countries is also compared.

Two on‐line surveys were conducted with two samples. The first one was conducted with Chinese consumers in China and the second one was conducted with Swiss consumers in Switzerland. The authors selected McDonald's as it is globally a standardized and well‐known fast‐food chain. They adapted items of SERVQUAL in order to apply it to the fast food industry and to measure service quality. Data analysis was performed using ANOVA. As they had several latent variables, the authors also used partial least squares (PLS), a variance‐based structural equation modeling method.

Results showed that Chinese consumers have a better perception of meal quality and a more positive image of McDonald's. As far as service quality perception is concerned, no major differences were observed. However, reliability and tangibles dimensions seem to be more positively perceived in China. The degree of consumer satisfaction is very similar between the two samples. However, the degree of loyalty of Chinese consumers is higher compared to Swiss consumers. In addition, the image of McDonald's seems to have a stronger influence on Swiss consumers' loyalty. Finally, the level of service quality perceived seems to have less impact on the image of McDonald's for Chinese consumers than for Swiss consumers.

First, as the authors selected McDonald's, they must be careful in the generalization of their findings to all fast‐food restaurants. Second, the two samples consist of students, which limits the generalizability of the findings. However, students are identified to be the current customers of fast‐food restaurants and consequently possess an intuitive understanding of fast‐food outlets.

As consumers in China perceive a better quality of meal in McDonald's, they might be willing to pay a higher price relative to their earnings. Compared to China, fast‐food managers in Switzerland should work harder in order to improve their image. Fast‐food managers must adapt themselves to the preferences of local consumers. However, this study also shows that not all variables are perceived differently by Swiss and Chinese consumers. This implies that some measures can be standardized in order to save costs.

The study investigates the impact of nationality on the whole model, defined by customer perception of fast‐food restaurants' image, product/service quality, satisfaction/loyalty, and finally price fairness. As China is a major player in the global market based on its size and growth potential, it is interesting to compare the antecedents of customer satisfaction and loyalty in China, with a culturally different country such as Switzerland.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the five dimensions of service quality on customer satisfaction in the UK fast food market and to indicate which factors among the five dimensions have a main role in driving overall customer satisfaction.

Primary data in the form of 147 questionnaire responses were been collected from a variety of quick service fast food restaurants in the UK. Likert seven-point rating scales were used to structure the questionnaire. Data were collected from the customers at two KFC restaurants, two McDonald’s restaurants, and one Burger King Restaurant.

The results of the analysis indicate that tangibles, responsiveness and assurance play the most important role in driving customer satisfaction in the UK fast food industry, followed by reliability and empathy. Results of correlation and regression analysis show that physical attributes (tangible) of service quality are key to customer satisfaction. In a nutshell, the tangibles variable is the most important factor driving customer satisfaction in the context of the UK fast food market.

This research incorporates unique and original insights in relation to the British fast food restaurants market and the results constitute novel findings pertaining to the importance of physical facilities and attributes. This account of the relative importance of service quality dimensions in fast food restaurants in the UK adds value to the field. The findings of this research have contributed to a better understanding of the main factors that influence service quality and customer satisfaction and have implications from a managerial point of view in the highly competitive UK fast food and wider foodservice industry.

This paper seeks to report historical research into McDonald's public communication strategies as the corporation responded to the rising tide of “political consumerism” that accompanied its global market expansion (1960‐2005).

Reviewing the brand's public relations strategies, through a content analysis of news coverage, the paper analyzes the way communication strategists took account of the anxieties about youth labour practices, community relations, globalization, environment and obesity which forced the brand to acknowledge the lifestyle risks associated with children and youth.

The case study portrays McDonald's as a figurehead of US entrepreneurial multinational capitalism. It reveals how addressing public opposition through the courts can backfire on a brand strategy so keen on defending its honour. The case study also finds that listening and engaging with critics is as effective as suing them for McDonald's.

The paper contributes to the historical recognition of the role that corporate communications professionals play – particularly marketing and public relations specialists – in transforming corporate practices by acknowledging consumers' growing anxieties about industrialization.