Product details

This macro-marketing case describes the uneasy relationship between expanding fast food chains (also known as quick service restaurants or QSR''s) and their fans and detractors in the Middle East. The case examines cross-cultural consumer behaviour, especially the adoption of Western style fast food and ambivalent attitudes towards this by Muslim consumers, and documents the rise of boycotts as a means of protest. The case begins with a realistic consumer behaviour scenario, and proceeds to examine the context in which expanding QSR''s operate, where societal and factional debates raged over globalisation, westernisation, and modernisation. Muslim and traditional food prescriptions and local culture are analysed. The case is intended for business students conversant with the fundamentals of marketing and international business. It is based almost exclusively on information that is available on the Internet, thereby facilitating student access in a rapid and comprehensive manner when students use the web addresses in the case text and footnotes.