Lb5235 Practical Or Research Project-Globalization Assessment Answers

The combined growth of mutually localised and internationally flexible capabilities surely signifies one of the main challenges being faced by MNCs like McDonalds. Brandenburg and Stuart (1996), give more importance on creating the brand value. The maintenance of competitive advantage is more imperative than its creation. Kaplan (2000) argued that businesses must show up with a diverse product from rest of its rivals. This will be helpful for McDonalds in enjoying benefit in opposition and also keep up it for longer time period (UK Essays, 2015).

Porter further added that a business must have an expertise in one particular field and not more than one. To expertise in a particular field McDonalds has to give up focusing on other areas of the business and make more by directed on a single part (UK Essays, 2015).McDonald can use any one of such methods to achieve competitive advantage over their competitors. Along with it the business has to modify and update itself with current state of affairs of the market and opponent businesses in order to retain its competitive place into the market (Porter, 1985).

2.4 Challenges for McDonald’s Australia
2.4.1Increased competition
Australian fast food chain is highly competitive with local as well as international competitors. Hungary Jack’s, KFC, Dominos Pizza, Nando’s, Pizza Hut, Subway, Oporto, Red Rooster, Eagle Boys Pizza, and many other newer players have been intensifying the competition. Westcott (2014) said that in Australian market, demand for Asian and Italian takeaway is growing along with juice and salad bars.

2.4.2 Satisfying Multicultural Society
Australia is multicultural society. It is the most challenging target market for McDonald’s. It is facing troubles in satisfying the tastes and demands of all its international customers with different food habits, customs, cultures, religions, tastes, health and ages at same location. For Example, Indian Hindu customers in Australia are complaining for lack of variety in vegetarian items in McDonald’s menu.

Every week, the demand for vegetarian food is rising and for a fast food chain not to include the veggie option in the menu is a massive missed opportunity for new customers. In a growing market, people have a lot of choices for non-vegetarian food. They will go elsewhere. But, vegetarian options are very few. McDonalds’s is cutting itself short if it doesn’t have a veggie option on the menu and missing out on the market. (Brown, 2016)

2.4.3 Overcomplicated menu
In struggle of satisfying more customers, McDonald’s is continuously introducing new items. Its menu size has increased by 75% in last 10 years. McDonald’s decision to include more products to an already-packed menu has not been appreciated by its workers. Staff from across Australia has criticized the company's decision to provide breakfast food for whole day. According to them, such complicated menu creates cramped and unhygienic kitchens (Bungard, 2016). Service speed, quality and cleaning process has suffered a lot. Across New South Wales, health inspectors found unclean and unhygienic kitchens in McDonald’s restaurants. The worst filthy kitchen in inner west of Sydney was fined $24000 (Devlin, 2017).

2.4.4 Health Issues
Gary (2015) said that excessive consumption of fast food produce in diet with high saturated fats and low vegetables and fruits. This results in increase in many health issues like Obesity, hypertension, coronary heart diseases, diabetes and several types of cancer. Now, public is becoming more health conscious; keeping themselves away from fast food as much as possible.

3.1 Research design
    Collection of appropriate data and information depends upon the research design. It helps to collect, analyze, disseminate and utilize information for the purpose of improving the satisfaction of the case study company (Kumar, 2008.) The research designs are of two types: Quantitative (emphasizes words) and Qualitative (collection of numerical data).The research methodology chosen in this study is quantitative approach. 

Quantitative research focuses on gathering numerical data and generalizing it across groups of people or to explain a particular phenomenon. (Muijs, 2011) The reason to choose this method is because quantitative method is useful to quantify opinions, attitudes and behaviors and find out how the whole population feels about a certain issue. Tools, such as questionnaires or computer software, are used to collect numerical data.  

The Quantitative research design, including a questionnaire is used in this proposal. Questionnaires will be included for respondents of different countries. For survey, there are a variety of questions listed in these questionnaires, consisting personal information of subjects like age, gender, nationality etc.; questions are about the services of restaurant like if food is nutritious, food variety and taste, quality meets expectation, cleanliness, employees are friendly, the changes that they want to see in McDonald’s food and service,  etc.; and some questions about restaurant attributes like if they will recommend it to friends or will visit again and many more. Besides this, secondary data would also be used.

The present study has been undertaken on qualitative aspect which has helped in effectively analyzing the individual needs and demands of the international consumers for fast food chain such as McDonalds. This helped in developing accurate and reliable results for the study. 

3.2 Data Collection
    Primarily, the data will be collected from secondary sources like magazines, websites, electronic books, online research papers, books, newspapers, articles on this subject, annual reports, etc.  Some primary sources can be included like questionnaires or surveys, observations, discussions, etc. For the purpose of this data collection, 50-60 international customers of McDonalds would be surveyed in Brisbane, which would include university international students, family visitors, tourists etc., of all ages and sexes.

The most of the subjects are unknown to researchers. The probability of selecting a subject is unknown, so non probability sampling method would be used in this research proposal. Furthermore, it is a convenient way to bring together a sample with little or no cost (Babbie, 1990). Researchers can go to McDonalds’ in Brisbane and question those international customers leaving the establishment after having food over there or other subjects could also be surveyed, who have previously experienced McDonalds’ food.

3.3 Data analysis
    Data analysis means description and summarization of data, identification of relationships between variables, comparison of variables and identification of difference between variables.  As it is a paper questionnaire, customers responses are transferred manually into a spreadsheet and for this purpose a variety of high-quality software are available. Microsoft excel is one of the most user friendly software and is capable of running basic descriptive statistics as well as a range of more complex statistical analyses. After calculating people’s response, data is presented through table and graph.

3.4 Ethical issues
Within the perspective of research, ethics refers to the appropriateness of the researchersbehavior in relations to the right of those who become the subject of his/her work, or affected by it (Saunders, 2009). Due to consider about ethical issues, name, salary, address and phone number of respondents will not appear in research report. Main point is all Data ensure that will be kept as a confidential. During the questionnaire it is very important that the respondents are not harmed in any way possible and monitoring for any potential harm should be taken into consideration.

The use of offensive, discriminatory, or other unacceptable language needs to be avoided in the formulation of questionnaire or discussions, etc. This study must be adhered to ethical principles and information attained through questionnaires should be used only for the research project purpose to evade issue of encroachment. Works of other authors used in any part of the project will be acknowledged with the use of APA referencing. It is really important that outcome of the research are honestly analyzed and produced, thus not creating any misrepresentation. The highest level of objectivity will be maintained in discussions and analysis throughout the research.

4.Timeline
Week    Activity of Research

1st week    
?Made a group of two and decide to use Quantitative research method along 
?Select the topic- The Challenges of Fast Food Restaurant Chain when Dealing with International Customers
-A case study on McDonald’s, Australia

2nd week
    
?Research the journal articles, books to find needed literature review and found relevant information

3rd week    
?Analyse data on the collected data by comparing information from journals articles
?Consult Lecturer to make sure that we were on right track
?Start working on research proposal 

4th week    
?Write down introduction, literature review and research design for proposal 
?Check draft with lecturer

?Write down ethical issues and timeline for research proposal
?Final submission for proposal at end of this week

   6th week    
?Prepare list of questions for questionnaire/survey

    7th week    ?Conduct survey and collect data from different respondents through questionnaire
?Observe Participants/Respondents

    8th week    

?Data entry and analysis
?Write Results and Discussion
?Write Conclusion and recommendations
?Obtain approval from lecturer

     9th week    
?Prepare Final Draft
?Checked draft with lecturer

    10th week    
?Revise the project report
?Final submission of project report

    This aspect of the study is very significant and critical part of the research. It helps the business unit in evaluating a significant aspect of evaluation and analysis. Data analysis means description and summarization of data, identification of relationships between variables, comparison of variables and identification of difference between variables (Schlosser, 2012).  The current study focuses on analyzing the Challenges of Fast Food Restaurant Chain when Dealing with International Customers. In order to effectively attain the stated aim primary data collection and thematic data analysis measure has been adopted. It helps in delivering clear and accurate results for the study. Data collection from 50 international consumers though structured questionnaire has been efficiently analysed and evaluated henceforth. 
5.2 Thematic analysis

Theme 1: Majority of consumers belong to the age group of 20-30 years

Findings and analysis: The above table provides a detailed evaluation of the respondents who were involved in the survey of the firm. As per the evaluation, 14% of the respondents belonged to the age group of below 20years. 50% of the respondents were from the age group of 20-30 years. 28% of the respondents belonged to the age group of 30-40 years while 6% were from 40-60 years age group. Only 2% belonged to the age group of 60 and above. Hence the overall evaluation clearly states that majority of the international consumers in Australia belonged to the age group of 20-30 years which was significant for the business growth and development of the company. 

Theme 1: Consumers liked the food served at McDonalds’s

Findings and analysis: The theme focused on analyzing the consumer choices for food served at McDonald’s. The findings revealed that on being asked about their likes regarding food served at the fast food chain, 56% of the respondents said yes they liked the food while 44% said no for the same. The overall analysis reflects that consumers like the food offered by the McDonalds however the difference between the same is low. Hence it can be effectively analyzed that consumers currently are brand loyal for the stated organization but the tastes and preferences are changing widely. 

Theme 2: Consumers often visit to McDonald’s

Findings and analysis: The above theme focused on analyzing the frequency of consumers visiting McDonalds for their food needs. On being asked that, how often people visited McDonald’s, it was evaluated that 10% of the respondents said that they rarely visited the food chain. 18% of the respondents said that they sometimes visited it, 44% of the respondents said that they often visited the same however 20% said that they visited McDonald’s very often and 8% said that they regularly visited. Thus the overall evaluation reflects that consumers prefer McDonald’s for their food need. 

Theme 3: Consumers do not like the food variety offered by McDonald’s

 Findings and analysis: The above theme focused on analyzing the choices for food variety offered by McDonald’s. The evaluation revealed that 52% respondents said yes about the food variety offered by McDonald’s while 30% said no about the same. 18% however were not sure about the stated aspect. Thus it can be evaluated that variety offered by McDonald’s is not effective and acceptable by consumers at present. Increasing need for healthy food is changing food preferences within the market (Duarte Alonso and et.al., 2013). 

Theme 4: Consumers rated the food quality of McDonald’s Australia as average

Findings and analysis: This theme focused on evaluating the food quality and of McDonalds to create a significant underrating of the products and services. On being asked about the same 10% of the respondent’s rate it excellent, 20% rated it as good while 44% gave an average response. This gave an average reaction for the quality of food offered to consumers and the response for the same was effectively reflected in the survey. On contrary 22% rate the food quality to be below average while 4% said it to be not good. Thus the overall evaluation revealed that the food quality offered by McDonald’s Australia was rated average by most of the consumers. 

Theme 5: Consumers do not like the variety of items offered by McDonald’s Australia

Findings and analysis: to analyze the aspect of variety within McDonald’s it was evaluated that 10% of the respondents agreed that McDonald’s offered an effective variety of food to its employees.  30% of the respondents agreed while 20% gave a neutral reaction over the same. However 36% disagreed with the given statement and 4% highly disagreed with the same. Thus it can be effectively concluded that menu of McDonald’s Australia do not offers good variety of items (Tan, Oriade and Fallon, 2014). Consumer response revealed that product variety is not being effectively accepted by the buyers. 

Theme 6: McDonald’s culture is not similar to the culture of the Domestic country

Findings and analysis: As per the analysis of the project it can be analyzed and evaluated that impact of cultural factors on business performance is significant on McDonald’s Australia.

The findings of the study revealed that 12% of the respondents strongly agreed that culture of McDonald’s Australia was similar to that of their domestic nation. 18% of the respondents agreed with the same, 30% of the respondents gave a neutral response for the same. 36% of the respondents disagreed with the given aspect and 4% strongly disagreed with the same. Thus the overall evaluation reflects that consumer found a significant difference between the cultural aspects of the domestic and host nations (Vijayvargy, 2014). Thus the company must adopt effective measures to ensure cultural recognitions for the tourists. 

 Findings and analysis: The service quality of the organization was analyzed in the given theme. On being asked about service speed and efficiency, it was analyzed that 18% of the respondents strongly agreed that food was served quickly and correctly, 22% agreed with the same however 38% of the respondents gave a neutral reaction on the same. 18% gave an unfavorable reaction for the same. The overall evaluation reveals that the food was served quickly and correctly at McDonald’s (Eser, 2012) Australia however a significant percentage of respondents gave the positive response for the same. Hence the stated aspect was effective for the consumers. 

Theme 8:Employees faced issue in understanding international consumers’ order

Findings and analysis: The stated theme focused on evaluating the role of employees for international consumers. On being asked the same, 30% of the respondents raveled that employees were facing critical issues in understanding orders while 36% agreed with the same. Thus aggregate response of 66% for the given aspects reveals that employees are not able to understand the order of international consumers due to various issues. This is one of the significant challenges for the organization which creates a significant impact on business growth and development. 

 Findings and analysis:This theme of the study was critical to analyze as the study focused on evaluating the response of international consumers for the stated company. The study reveals that 10% strongly agreed and 16% agreed that Food taste and ingredient were similar to the domestic nation of the consumers. 30% respondents however gave neutral reaction for it 36% however disagreed with the statement and 8% strongly disagreed with the same hence it can be clearly analyzed that Food taste and ingredient was not similar to consumers’ domestic nation
Theme 10:Menu board was not easy to read

Findings and analysis:

The given theme focuses on evaluating the access of menu and its accessibility in the country. 12% of the respondents strongly agreed with the aspect, 18% of the respondents agreed while 16% of the respondents gave a neutral reaction. On contrary to this 44% of the respondents disagreed that Menu board was easy to read while 10% strongly disagreed with it. Hence the overall evaluation states that easy access and readability is one critical challenge for the organization. 

Theme 11: McDonald’s Australia was easy to locate

 Findings and analysis: This theme focused on analyzing the location aspect of the organization. 18% of the respondents strongly agreed with that the food outlet was easy to locate, 48% of the respondents agreed with the same. 22% of the respondents gave a neutral reaction on the statement however the remaining respondents disagreed with the same. Hence the overall evaluation states that McDonald’s Australia was easy to locate. This helps the business in creating a well defined impact on consumer response. 

Theme 12: Employees were cooperative and friendly

Findings and analysis: The theme focused on evaluating the soft skills offered by the company. On being asked about employee behavior by the consumers 18% strongly agreed that employees were cooperative and friendly, 56% agreed with the given statement, 22% of the respondents however gave a neutral response on the issue. Thus majority of the people gave a favorable response. 4% however disagreed about employees being friendly and cooperative. Thus overall analysis reflects that effective employee base has been managed by McDonalds which is helping the organization in providing effective consumer service. 

Theme 13: The prices of the products are competitive

Findings and analysis: The stated theme focuses on analyzing the pricing aspect of the firm. The findings of the study evaluates that 22% respondents strongly agreed that prices of the products offered by McDonald’s are competitive. 30% of the respondents agreed with the given statement. 16% of the respondents however were neutral for the same, 26% of the respondents disagreed with the stated aspect and 6% strongly disagreed that prices of the products are not competitive. Hence it can be evaluated that pricing is one of the crucial factor to deal with international consumers in Australia. 52% of the cumulative data points a positive response for the same. Thus the results reveal that McDonald’s Australia is offering competitive prices to its consumers. 

Theme 14:The food provides high value of money

 Findings and analysis: The stated theme focuses on analyzing the value for money offered by the company. The findings revealed that on being asked that whether McDonald’s provide value for money the evaluation reflected that 22% of respondents strongly agreed with the same, 38% of the respondents agreed with the given statement, 30% of the respondents however has a neutral reaction for the same which states that they neither agree or disagree with the give aspect. 8% of the respondents disagreed with it however 2% of respondents highly disagreed. Thus the overall evaluation stated that McDonald’s offers effective value for which helps in developing high level of trust and loyalty within consumers. 

Theme 15: Factors which were highly dissatisfying for consumers
Findings and analysis: McDonald’s has developed a significant brand identity within the economy. The above theme focused on analyzing the issues that the consumers faced. The findings revealed that consumers found a significant difference in taste of food offered by the organization (Shimmura, Takenaka and Akamatsu, 2012). The organizational policy of think global act local may be the reason for the same. In addition to this language issue was another factor which affected the people’s experience. Tourists and travelers who were mono-linguistic found it difficult to read and order from the menu. Moreover they said that Australian menu differed from the local or their regional menu thus they found it difficult to understand and order. 

6. Conclusion 

    This is the final section of the study which focuses on developing a clear and well defined analysis of the overall research findings and analysis. The given study developed a detailed understanding about the operations of fast food chains and the issues related to international consumers. The study has been carried out in an effective and structured manner which helped in attain accurate and clear results for the analysis. This section will summarize the overall research finding and develop effective recommendations on the aspect. 

    The study aimed at analyzing the challenges of Fast Food Restaurant Chain when Dealing with International Customers. Case analysis of McDonalds Australia was undertaken because the stated organization is one of the most renowned and largest fast food chains within the economy (Frash Jr, DiPietro and Smith, 2015). Well structured analysis was undertaken to attain the stated aim.

Adopting qualitative analysis helped in efficiently attaining consumer responses on the subject. In addition to this, questionnaire was designed and developed with closed ended questions so that consumers could response efficiently in limited time frame. Hence the results of the study attained are reliable and accurate. The findings of the study reflected that international consumers have significant issues with the food options offered by the food chain. The evaluation concluded that consumers were not satisfied with the food quality and variety as well. Moreover the aspects associated with culture are another major challenge which is affecting the sale of the business. The overall study has been summarised on the basis of research objectives.

To investigate the major challenges faced by fast food restaurant McDonalds when dealing with international customers in Australia
    The findings of the study revealed different aspects which affects the consumer need and demands from the food industry. The study focused on specifically analyzing the issues faced by international consumers. The primary and secondary data analysis revealed that consumer needs and demands are varied and diverse. It is difficult for the businesses to analyze and understand the same in the current competitive era (Chow and et.al., 2013).

However the major issues revealed in the research concludes that Australia is multicultural country which has population from different countries and region. To understand individual need and demand of these consumers is difficult for the company. Moreover the organization policy being ‘think global act local’ is critical aspect of business functioning. Thus issues related to language, menuunderstand, taste difference etc are faced by the business. This creates a significant impact on employee satisfaction for the organization. It has also been evaluated that consumer demand for healthy food is increasing within the economy.

The impact of the same was observed on consumer choices and demands. Product variety and quality was not readily accepted by the buyers which effectively points out that the stated factors pose significant challenge for the business unit. To examine effective strategies to satisfy employee demand and needs in Australian fast food chain
    There are different measures and strategies which the organization can adopt in order to effectively satisfy individual needs and demands of the employees. The primary data revealed that developing sales promotion aspects such as combo discounts, digital coupons, promotion through travel agents are the common measures of promotion within the country.

In addition to these adopting specific strategies such as porter generic forces may also help the company in managing competitive edge within the market. The stated strategy will focus on cost leadership, product differentiation and Focus on niche market (Panibratov, 2012). This will be critical and highly effective for business growth and development. The findings successfully analysed the major issues which are faced by the international consumers in Australian food chains.

 For example as per the analysis it was observed that Food taste and ingredient was not similar to consumers’ domestic nation, Menu board was not easy to read, Consumers do not like the food variety offered by McDonald’s, Consumers rated the food quality of McDonald’s Australia as average, They did not like the variety of items offered by McDonald’s Australia and also that McDonald’s culture is not similar to the culture of the Domestic country. In order to overcome the stated issues and attain high success and growth within the economy effective strategic aspects could be successfully adopted. It may include aspects such as collaboration with universities, expanding through opening new physical sores or developing online chain of food supply.

All the stated aspect will be effective and well defined for business growth. However focus on individual consumer needs along with diversity factors is significant to be understood and analyse (Vijayvargy, 2014). Developing Bilingual menu or creating effective technology of translation of order may be a very successful strategy. In addition the findings also reveal that need on adopting multicultural efficiency for the business is also significant for the business.

It was also analysed that sustainable business practices is another significant aspect of enhnacing consumer demand for the organzational products and services. Consumers enhnaces trust and loyalty for the organzation which operates with perspective of social well being and environemntal effectiveness. Thus this aspect may develop an effective growth measures for the business enhnacemnet in the current competitive economy. 

6.2 Recommendations
    The study helped in effectively analyzing the challenges faced by Fast food chain of Australia. There are effective strategies which the company may adopt in order to overcome the same within the market. In order to overcome the challenges the organizations may focus on the following aspects:

?Developing multicultural environment: Focusing on cultural aspects of the countries is one of the major factors in the current competitive era. McDonalds must thus focus on enhancing its menu based on cultural needs and demands. This will help the company in enhancing high development measures within the market. Including vegetarian options is one of the major factors for the same (Silvennoinen and et.al. 2012). In addition to this developing menu with healthy food options will also help the business in enhancing sales and resolving cultural challenges. 

?Technological development: Adopting technologies which may resolve the issues related to language may help the company in attain high success with the market. this can be done by printing menu in multiple languages. In addition developing translation technology for ensuring effectiveness for ordering by foreign consumers is also an effective aspect which may help the business growth. 

?Employee training and development: Employee training and development is critical aspect of organizational success (Duarte Alonso and et.al.,  2013). Developing effective training facilities for employees to deal with consumers with foreign languages may help in enhancing value for services offered by McDonalds. This will also be favorable in enhancing consumer loyalty and trust for the services. 

?Sales promotion: Sales promotion techniques such as discounts, online offers and offers while collaborating with travel agencies may also prove to be an effective measure for the business. Australia is one of the major tourist destination and adopting the stated technique will ensure in enhancing tourist demand for the organizational products and services. It will also help in enhancing brand equity for the organizations.

Different techniques such as cultural attractive measures may also helps the travelers in ensuring high organizational growth and development. For example serving food with chop-sticks and rice based products may be useful for attracting Japanese consumers. Moreover developing menu in different languages may also be an effective cultural technique for the consumers.  In addition to this planning discounts on the basis of cultural events of the country may also be an effective approach.

For example Christmas is a major holiday for USA and UK buyers. Similarly February is a new year for China. Indian consumers celebrate Diwali in the month of November. Thus recognition of these festive seasons in organization may represent a cultural link for the business unit. 
?Developing product range: as per the evaluation it was analyzed that product variety and quality was not effectively accepted by the buyers. This creates an insignificant impact on business growth and development (Vijayvargy, 2014). In order to overcome the same McDonald’s must focus on developing new range of products for the consumers.

Including a range of healthy food products will help in attracting international buyers. This will also minimize the issue of health for the consumers. 
?Adopting eco-friendly practices: Food and beverage industry is one of the fastest growing and developing sectors. McDonalds must thus ensure to adopt sustainable practices such as low wastage, adopting environmental friendly practices, minimizing paper packaging, avoiding non biodegradable products etc. In addition to this, minimizing use of plastic will help the business unit in communicating environmental friendly step for the consumers.

Sustainable practices such as minimizing wastage by making maximum utilization of food products is also essential for business growth. Developing effective brand identity helps the sector in growing and developing a high demand within the market. Eco-friendly practices for the organization will help the company in creating a positive influence on the consumers by changing perspective for the firm’ product and operations. This will also help in developing a competitive edge for the business unit. 

References