Research Topics: Maternal Child Pathophysiology

Mantero Seta Spa : case study

Mantero Seta Spa Executive Summary             This case analysis is cantered on the investigation of Mantero Seta Spa, a leading textile and silk industry in Italy who now operates through E-commerce and plans to operate in China and UK. The recommended company mission states that the firm should be driven to become the global leader for business-to-business (B2B) textile and silk distribution. The recommended values statement, on the other hand, emphasised the importance of fulfilling the company’s corporate social responsibility in the drive towards achieving organisational goals. Four company objectives were suggested, which included the improvement of their website and the diversification of their business ventures through lucrative business collaborations. An analysis then ensued, which comprised of the political, economic, social, technological and environmental aspects, as well as the state of competition and the underlying economics within the textile and silk industry (using Michael Porter’s Five Forces Framework). The analysis presented a generally favourable and conducive external environment for which Mantero Seta Spa could conveniently operate in. From such examination, it could be garnered that Mantero Seta Spa has the right mix of core competencies to be able to survive this industry perpetrated by E-commerce.   Recommended Mantero Seta Spa Mission To become the global leader for business-to-business (B2B) textile and silk distribution to all business sizes and to further improve market leadership.   Recommended Mantero Seta Spa Values Statement In line with our mission to become the world leader in textile and silk distribution, the fulfilment of our corporate social responsibility would take precedence over any profitability objective. The environment, community, diversity and ethics are positively connected to our aimed corporate growth, and would therefore take a holistic approach to doing Mantero Seta Spa business.   Recommended Mantero Seta Spa Company Objectives <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> To provide the highest quality products and services to consumers worldwide in order to further improve market leadership.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> To expand to more business regions in order to establish a truly global presence in the textile and silk industry.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> To improve on the company website for better user experience.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> To further diversify our business ventures through studying potential business collaborations and determining which of the possibilities would present the most benefits for the company.</li> </ul>   Introduction It is now a widely held view that the world economy has entered a much more complex phase where individual national economies have become inextricably linked. In this new world economy, resources and markets have ceased to have the indelible national identity of the past. Restricted resources and markets that were once legally isolated have become much more accessible to enterprises that have acquired a global strategic vision. To the more visionary global enterprises, the world is but a borderless environment with homogeneous consumers who have developed an unforgiving taste for the most sophisticated and high-quality products. In response to the needs of these global consumers, the enterprises have developed global products. How such homogenised consumers are served, however, is a question of the strategic orientation of the enterprises and their ability to exploit the ever-evolving global economic environment. With this regard, the Mantero Seta Spa, a company from Italy engaged in textile manufacturing and a leader in silk business plans to enter the Chinese and UK market.  From the given case, there are lots of factor that directly hit the business of Mantero Seta Spa. Basically, this paper will be discussing the status of Mantero Seta Spa with respect to four important details in an organisation i.e. Product Life cycle/Value chain, Key success factors, Competitive advantage and Market attractiveness.   Product Life cycle/Value chain  (1985) in his seminal work of value chain proposed it as a tool to identify and to analyse the origins of competitive advantages and suggested that the activities of the business could be grouped into two: primary and support activities. What activities a business undertakes is linked to achieving its competitive advantage, and Mantero Seta Spa seemed to be best prepared to implement a global strategy, because of the superior competitive advantages of its foreign operations compared with other textile and silk business. It was not until 2003 attack in America that Mantero Seta Spa focused on developing a global strategy as a means to enhance its competitive position in the industry. Before then, Mantero Seta Spa largely focused on building a strategy that would allow the company to maintain its competitive position in its own home market, which was essential for progress. An analysis of the structural and institutional factors that shaped Mantero Seta Spa’s strategic response both to the new industry rules and the short-term challenges posed by other industry competitors explains this paradox. A number of broad sustainability challenges set the context for all of the value chain activities. These issues apply across the value chain: (1) Population growth; (2) Urbanisation; (3) Child mortality; (4) Maternal health; (5) Infectious diseases; (6) Biodiversity; (7) Loss of ecosystem services; (8) Poverty; (9) Education; and (10) Gender Equality. All these issues are attended to by the Mantero Seta Spa in alignment with their efforts to maintain sustainable competitive advantage through preserving the good public image that their clients expect from them.   Key Success Factors The key success factors affecting the operations of the Mantero Seta Spa business comprising of the political, economic, social, technological and environmental aspects, as well as the state of competition and the underlying economics within the industry (using Michael Porter’s Five Forces Framework) is important because these range of factors would influence the business organisation’s decisions and its performance, leading to a better deployment of the firm’s resources within its external environment in order to satisfy its long-term goals. Political.  With regards to the terrorist attack in 2001 and SARS crisis, there is a global economic slowdown in which most of the textile businesses suffers.  Since Mantero Seta Spa is in the process of globalising their scope of operations, they are naturally subject to international trade regulations, which make business operations considerably more intricate to perform. Consumer protection also is a major consideration, with the increasing number of consumer-protection laws abound in the China and UK market that seeks to look after the right of consumers, most notably in terms of product and service quality. Economic. Economic growth for the target markets is extremely positive. China and UK are the targeted markets by Mantero Seta Spa current CEO. Actually, these areas are good textile and silk market in the world, next to the United States, whose market is now in its saturation stage, and the textile and fashion industry itself is shown to have a highly optimistic position in the future of the world economy, with what the increasing number of consumers in which their fashion sense is evolving. The movement to further industry growth would significantly increase the demand for the products and services that Mantero Seta Spa has to offer. Additionally, prior to the introduction of the euro, the dollar exchange rates are relatively stable. However, since its creation and adoption and off course terrorism cases, the exchange rate of the US dollar has show significant variability (2006). There is therefore the current need to coordinate and stabilise exchange rates on a world scale, as the US dollar is a key currency. This instability would significantly affect the way Mantero Seta Spa deploys their corporate resourced in the fulfilment of organisational objectives. Lastly, the textile and silk supplies industry is only in the early stage of the business cycle in the rest of the world where Mantero Seta Spa has yet to penetrate in, which spells out huge potentialities for business growth and development. Social. Income distribution among target market of most businesses is uneven, as observed by several experts on the subject ( 1992;  2003; 2004), although an exclusive focus on the matter would give the impression that countries has done a way better job of maintaining income inequality low, which is directly affected by the industry’s business cycle. The primary consumers of the textile and silk industry are large business organisations engaged in fashion, that’s why most of the companies in this industry is classified as B2B. Businesses have fewer tendencies to change suppliers than individual consumers, as the cost to shift to another supplier is more costly for the former than for the latter, so it could be safely assumed that once the client is acquired, chances of changing suppliers is pretty slim. The main business is involved in the provision of textile and silk industry and it is much subject to fashion and fads, similar to the mobile communications industry or the clothing industry, in which consumer taste and preferences are relatively not predictable throughout the business cycle.             Technological. In accordance to the development in Mantero Seta Spa, the B2B process in which they are engaged in is focused on information technology (IT) platform research, as opposed to product research and development focus of other industries, because most of the industry players’ main marketing vehicle is the Internet. Large government spending on IT platform research is observed of the Italy, while the China scene is on its way to developing more laws supportive of such research nature. As a result of the focus on IT platform research, very fast technological transfer is characteristic of the industry. Likewise, a very fast rate of technological obsolescence is also an attribute. Legal. As with any other business industry of the world, there are rules and regulations that restrict or support the facilitation of the business in the textile and silk industry in the areas where Mantero Seta Spa operates. Currently, the Italy, UK and Chinese governments express support for this increasingly expanding and consolidating sector of the economy due to the large sums of taxes that it generates for the government. Environmental. There are currently no major environmental issues faced by the industry, except for the ever-present textile and silk production issue which catch environmentalists’ attention die to the fact that some of its raw materials and from the skin of rare animals. Threat of New Entrants. The threat of new entrants is very high due to low entry barriers to the industry. The economies of scale, i.e. the very competitive prices in the industry, the not-so-large amount of capital and investment requirements and the easy access to industry distribution channels are some of the contributors to the low barrier of entry to the textile and silk industry. Threat of Substitutes. Threat of substitutes is also high, as the price to shift from one textile and silk provider is relatively small. As companies are often looking for ways to save on company resources through buying cheaper textile and silk products, the buyer’s willingness to substitute is pretty high. Also, the relative price and performance of the substitutes, coupled with the relatively low cost of switching to substitutes present a grave threat. Bargaining Power of Buyers. As there are still a few B2B textile and silk retailers worldwide, the bargaining power of buyers is not as great coupled with the industry being a key supplying group for the buyers, which in this case, are large companies. Bargaining Power of Suppliers. There are a lot of dominant suppliers in the industry, but they so far have not threatened to integrate forward to the industry, or threaten to set up their own retail outlets due to absence of strong Internet presence and powerful IT platform, so the bargaining power of suppliers is relatively controlled. Intensity of Rivalry between Competitors. Rivalry is not very intense, as there are only a few dominant industry competitions, and fewer still have powerful and fully integrated IT platforms. Competitive Advantage Mantero Seta Spa’s competitive advantage in the textile and fashion industry of the Italy is mainly their admirable portfolio of references. With their years of experience and dominance in the market in providing textile and silk products, they have gained a long list of loyal clients who have impressive business backgrounds by themselves. This promotes the corporate image of Mantero Seta Spa to potential customers as one of trustworthiness and quality. If such companies in Mantero Seta Spa’s references were deeply satisfied with the products and services that Mantero Seta Spa provides, larger chances of attracting possible additional clients in their already long list are sizeable. This portfolio of clients could be Mantero Seta Spa’s most effective marketing tool yet. On a more general context, the competitive advantage of Mantero Seta Spa could be pointed at their good record in being able to keep clients satisfied, which is an attribute that not all rivals in the business can boast of. Another competitive advantage of the organisation is their ability to maintain market leadership in the Italy even after the entrance of multinational companies in the same line of business with better technologies and more market scope than Mantero Seta Spa.             Another Mantero Seta Spa aspect which can be considered as a core competency is their strategic business planning. Their planning is about setting a direction for the business, a direction to which everybody, executives and employees become committed. It ensures that every part of the company is in harmony, moving towards a clear business purpose that will give Mantero Seta Spa further competitive advantage and improve its performance even more. With the planning of Mantero Seta Spa’s business come actions or decisions with high impact, or those decisions that affect the company strategically, rather than those that merely concern its normal operating routine. Most of those decisions concern for instance, changing the business model, focusing on new market sectors, fundamental improvements in customer service, making critical investment decisions or obtaining a better return on research and development expenditure. Such action or decisions affect Mantero Seta Spa’s long-term performance and enable it to achieve its competitive advantage.   Market Attractiveness It cannot be denied that the world is full of competition and it is essential that every individual should have the ability to compete especially those who are assigned to mange people in organisation. Perhaps, it can be considered as the greatest challenge in every organisation particularly to international organisations to have members who will contribute to the growth and development of an organisation.  Furthermore good management skills are very important in order to achieve the mission and reach the vision of a certain organisation. Every organisation has work to do in the real world and someway it has responsibility to measure how well that work has been done. With regards to the market attractiveness, three factors should be considered i.e. segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies of the company. In the same manner, the justifications on the decisions on employing these strategies will also be given.    Segmentation  (2004) defined the segmentation activity as “the act of dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers.” This indicates the process have to deal with the general market and possible buyers of the products of Mantero Seta Spa. In looking at the market, it seems that it could be identified and considerably large to acquire some level of profit for the company. With the platform used by the company, i.e. the internet, the consumers could easily reach the company provided that they have ready access to the web. In the same manner, those who intend to purchase the products of the company are easily reached by the company given that an account will be made on their name. However, given that the company is rather new in the market of China and UK, the potential consumers may yet display some responsiveness on the site of the company. Although the company is engaged in B2B marketing, they can now also get the individual users because of the internet,      Targeting In the same account,  (2004) defined targeting as “the act of developing measures of segment attractiveness and selecting one or more market segments to enter.” Although, the company is most likely related to B2B system, they may now target individual who have access to the internet. These segments are targeted given that these individuals have more time to access the web and are more inclined to purchase head gears as a part of their fashion statement. Based on the market, there is no particularly strong competitor that holds most of the market share. However, there are a considerable number of sites that offer the same services and products as those offered by the company. Being an online company, the consumers are able to substitute the services and products forwarded by the company with those in malls and other specialty shops within their community. However, it must be emphasised that the designs, artworks, and quality of the products of the company are exclusively distributed by the company. This means that there is some equal footing in the context of power with the suppliers and buyers in the market.      Positioning The act of positioning is characterised as “the act of designing a set of meaningful differences to distinguish the company’s offer from competitors’ offers.” (2004) Given that there is a considerable number of players in the industry and possible competitors in the web, the company has to position itself in terms of high quality items and well designed works along with a prompt service delivery. Along with these, the company will also attempt to sell the items in a slightly lower price as compared to its other competitors in the web.  On this manner, the consumers will be able to find more value for their money. On the same account, the company will be using marketing techniques such as word-of-mouth and product endorsements such that the public may become aware of the brand and products of the organisation.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Mantero Seta Spa : case study

Mantero Seta Spa Executive Summary This case analysis is cantered on the investigation of Mantero Seta Spa, a leading text...

World Health Organization

Research Essay Project: World Health Organization               The World Health Organization (WHO) is the health directing and coordinating body within the United Nations system. It provides leadership on matters of global health, thus molding the research agenda, and norms and standards, communicating evidence-based policies, and providing technical support to different countries around the world, to help monitor and assess their health trends and problems (  2007). Its headquarters is located in Geneva, Switzerland, and its member states are divided into six geographical regions, namely, Africa, Southeast Asia, Eastern Mediterranean, the Western Pacific, the Americas, and Europe. It was established on April 7, 1948, when three physicians, namely, Dr.  of China, Karl Evang of Norway, and Geraldo de Paula Souza of Brazil suggested formulating a single health organization in 1945, which would be responsible in addressing the health problems and needs of the people around the world. The proposition of the three doctors was then approved during the approval of its constitution in 1946. The main concern of the organization was to address certain health problems including malaria, tuberculosis, diseases caused by parasites, bacteria and viruses, mental health, maternal and child health, public health administration, and environmental sanitation (2007).              The establishment of the World Health Organization in April 7, 1948 has continually been celebrated to be the World Health Day ( 2007). Member states and donors, including various non-government organizations, pharmaceutical industries, and foundations, have continuously funded it. Eight thousand five hundred health workers and support staffs based in the headquarters and in all six regional offices, and individual representation in 147 countries around the world carry out internal and external work. In addition, its Goodwill Ambassadors is representing the mission and vision of the organization (2007).                 The main objective of the World Health Organization is to promote health and well-being of all the peoples around the world. It preserves, maintains, and improves the health of many peoples through education, nutritional support, health-related activities, disease outbreaks management, emergencies response, and various funding programs (2007). Specifically, it has six agendas, which enable the organization to respond to the different health problems and needs of the peoples of the world. This includes 1) promoting health development despite poverty and social problems; 2) fostering health security through collective action to combat health security threats; 3) strengthen health systems as a poverty-reduction strategy; 4) harness research, information and evidence for setting priorities, define strategies and measure results; 5) enhance partnerships through support and collaboration with partners; and 6) improve performance through participation in ongoing reforms aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization ( 2007). In line with the agendas of the World Health Organization are its programs (2007), which include the following: <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Health education – through promotion of breastfeeding </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Food, food safety and nutrition – through support of food production that improve local diets, and distribution of supplementary foods</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Safe water and basic sanitation</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Immunizations – tuberculosis, measles, tetanus, polio</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Prevention and control of local endemic diseases</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Treatment of common diseases and injuries</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Provision of essential drugs</li> Such programs would not be executed and achieved by the World Health Organization without the support of other international organizations and agencies. Such international agencies include the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, and the UNCTAD. In addition, WHO also focuses in monitoring its workplan, being an ongoing process, and allows the organization to have a detailed review of the delivery of its products and services to the all the individuals concerned (2007). It uses effective and efficient means of communication in order to coordinate and cooperate with its member states, staffs, and all the concerned peoples around the world. It also undergoes extensive researches and evaluation in order to effectively assess the needs and health-related problems of populations around the world. In this regard, for the organization to be able to achieve its objectives, it uses both its internal and external sources effectively to produce its desired outcomes.  It collaborates with different local and international organizations to be able to obtain relevant information and come up with effective health programs in order to promote health and well-being in all populations of the world. Particularly, it focuses on education and provision of health and medical services, in order to help prevent and inform many individuals regarding the condition of health in respective countries or populations. Furthermore, it collaborates with health care and medical institutions to help facilitate medical missions to provide cure and treatment to persons afflicted with diseases and illnesses.      Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

World Health Organization

Research Essay Project: World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is the health directing and coordin...

The Sociological Imagination

The Sociological Imagination   Introduction             Sociological imagination was coined , a famed sociologist. It covers the aspect of viewing one’s life events as if it were part of a greater and grander sociological scheme. According to , the men of today feel that they live in a place where there are a “series of traps”. According to him, it was because people chose to look at their lives in a limited scope. If one were to view it in a grander scale, one would see that the issues in one’s personal life is greatly influenced and interlocked with public issues.             In the context of healthcare, sociological imagination can help broaden the minds of the people involved in the issues and can greatly help in pushing upward the state of healthcare organizations. In individual contexts, one can help move himself from the rot he has fallen into if he views himself as a part of a grand scheme. In this paper, sociological imagination is discussed, in the context of healthcare organization.   Discussion             Illness and disease are fast spreading in our community.  In reality, hunger kills more than a million people each day. Diseases and illnesses claim a million more. A book by Dr.  entitled, “As Sick as It Gets”, describes the factors that affect a lot of people. According to some reviews, America is the only country that charges its citizens for healthcare. “Dr.  explains the economic, political, medical and moral necessity of a universal healthcare system for the United States. The only advanced, industrialized nation, that does not have a national healthcare system is the United States. Americans pay 40% more for health care than the next highest-paying country.  The Pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable business in the U.S.     Drug companies alone made billion in profits in 2002, that’s nearly 18% profits after taxes.  The World Health Organization rates American healthcare 37th in the world.   There are 42,000,000 people who have NO insurance and another 45 million underinsured in America.. Patterns of illness are difficult to determine, were it not for the Sociological Imagination paradigm brought up by . “ (quoted from “As Sick As it Gets”, )             How does one view the situations above? One must try to use the ability of sociological imagination. Let us take for example hunger. Why is there excessive hunger in the world? According to The Hunger Site, “It is estimated that one billion people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition. That’s roughly 100 times as many as those who actually die from these causes each year. About 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. This is down from 35,000 ten years ago, and 41,000 twenty years ago. Three-fourths of the deaths are children under the age of five. Famine and wars cause about 10% of hunger deaths, although these tend to be the ones you hear about most often. The majority of hunger deaths are caused by chronic malnutrition. Families facing extreme poverty are simply unable to get enough food to eat. The Hunger Site began on June 1, 1999. In 1999, a year marked by good economic news, 31 million Americans were food insecure, meaning they were either hungry or unsure of where their next meal would come from. Of these Americans, 12 million were children. “ ( 2007).             Examining the reasons and facts pointed out above, hunger is really a very persistent problem in the world. But taking sociological imagination into perspective, one can note that hunger is a part of a much larger happening in the world. According to some, it may be famine. Famine is in turn a great happening occurring on all sides of the globe. Being able to see such things can well determine the solution to the constant problem of hunger in the world. In another light, let us examine health care. Primary health care or PHC is the very much needed health care act based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and country can afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self-reliance and self determination (1978). Primary health care is an approach for building interventions that can lead to improved health outcomes for an entire population (1997). Primary health care incorporates five principles: (a) Equitable distribution, (b) Appropriate technology, (c) A focus on health promotion and disease prevention, (d) Community participation and (e) A multi-sectoral approach ( 2004).     Deep concern about health care for the majority of the world’s population, specifically low life expectancies and high mortality rates among children led to the global health strategy of primary health care. The WHO declaration emphasized health or well-being as a fundamental right and a worldwide social goal. It attempted to address inequality in health status of persons in all countries and to target government responsibility for policies that would promote economic, social, and health development. Both economic and social developments are considered basic to the achievement of health for all. Rapid advancements in science and technology, along with investor dollars, have created major advances in medical care. These emerging technologies in medicine, which were increasingly housed in hospitals and physicians’ offices, not only laid the groundwork for the coming shift in the way health care was delivered, but also increased healthcare costs.             When it comes to the workplace, it is first important to discuss the role of health care professionals in the provision of primary health care in order to understand how it is applied to a specific workplace where individuals work. The health care process is a systematic, scientific, dynamic, on-going interpersonal process in which the health care professionals and the patients are viewed as a system with each affecting the other and both being affected by factors within the behavior. From this, one could surmise that not only the health care professionals are essential for the provision of effective health care but it also needs the cooperation of the patients.             In the hospital, which is the health care setting providing the most commonly used health care services, the principles and conditions of primary health care are also demonstrated. In this current work environment, the health care professionals work closely with all the other members of the health care team to plan, coordinate, and deliver care for patients. In this work environment, primary health care looks beyond primary care with essential elements that include health education, proper nutrition, maternal/child health care, family planning, immunizations, and control of locally endemic diseases. This model being followed by the hospital is consistent with primary health care principles and conditions.             The growth in the number of elderly, coupled with the previously-mentioned large increases in the cost of health care, are making long-term care for the elderly populations very expensive (1993). Although many of the most promising medical innovations will result in better health and longer life for the elderly populations, they will also increase–not decrease—healthcare costs and spending. This age group uses an uneven share of medical resources. In the elderly group, the social and personal requirements of residents who need some assistance with daily activities and health care are emphasized. Its an important distinction, in that the design of housing, services, activities, employee training, and such is truly customer-centered, or in other words, suited to their age group/population. At present there are many institutions or organizations that are specifically for the elder populations in the United States.             Almost all healthcare consumers would want to go to the “best” hospital in town, see their own doctor, and have access to the same new medicines. When one falls ill, gets a certain level of medical care, and tells the neighbor about it, the other’s expectations are raised accordingly (2001). Each individual consumer shares a common need for health and a desire for the absence of illness through the demand for health care services and products. This in return affects the healthcare costs. The role of the government in regulating health care providers will be limited to ensuring that providers and payers do not engage in anticompetitive practices and that the safety of consumers and patients is protected ( 1998). This means that the government tries its best to reduce the healthcare costs at all levels for the consumer’s benefits.                 Conclusion             In the sociological perspective, one can surmise that, the healthcare organizations can be viewed in a broader manner. Many people need a lot of medical attention. And healthcare organizations exist for that reason. The organization of healthcare can be influenced and changed through sociological imagination.             Illnesses and healthcare organizations can be changed and more or less accurately predicted by sociological imagination. Sociological imagination can provide the solution to other problems that surmount every now and then.                             Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

The Sociological Imagination

The Sociological Imagination Introduction Sociological imagination was coined , a famed sociologist. It covers the aspec...

Critical Analysis of Childhood Obesity in UK using two Sociological Approaches

Childhood Obesity   Introduction Obesity is a growing public health concern in the United Kingdom. In 2001, estimates for England suggest that some 8.5 per cent of 6 year olds and 15 per cent of 15 year olds are obese. Childhood obesity is a concern because it is an important risk factor for mortality and a range of chronic diseases in adult life (2003). The prevalence of obesity among children, aged 2 to 10, rose, between 1995 and 2003, from 10% to 14%. The increase in obesity was most marked among older children aged 8-10, rising from 11% in 1995 to 17% in 2003 ( 2005). The increase in childhood obesity has become an increasingly important issue on the public health agenda, with concerns being raised not only about the risks to children’s health but also the current and future drain on the National Health Service (NHS) resources. Obesity is a casual factor in a number of chronic diseases and conditions including hypertension (high blood pressure), heart disease and type 2 diabetes. In 1998, the cost of treating diseases attributable to obesity was £470 million. This sum does not include the impact of being overweight (but nit technically obese), which can also be a significant risk factor for these diseases and conditions. By 2002, this cost was estimated to be approximately £1.075 billion. By 2010, if the current trend continues, the annual cost to the economy has been estimated to be £3.6 billion a year (2006).     Main Body   Obesity is a common condition where weight gain has got to the point that it poses a serious threat to health (  2003). A person is considered obese if his body weight is more than normal for a particular age, gender, and height. The degree of obesity can be assessed through BMI (Body Mass Index) calculations that are based on a person’s height and weight. A person gains weight when the energy input (food) exceeds output (exercise, activity). Every output comprises the thermal effect of food and activity. Even a small imbalance between energy input and output can lead to significant weight gain over time. Most obese children demonstrate a slow but consistent weight over several years (2003).             There is now abundant evidence that childhood obesity adversely affects health and is not simply a cosmetic issue. One of the most widespread consequence of overweight and obesity in children is psychological ill health. Social and psychological consequences can include stigmatization, discriminations and prejudice. Children are aware of the negative view held by society towards obese people and it this may have adverse impact on their developing sense of self and self esteem. Obesity has in general been linked to low self-image, low self-confidence and even depression in some obese children. The processes that lead to cardiovascular disease in later life are strongly associated with childhood obesity. Cardiovascular risk factors have been identified in obese children. These include the raise in blood lipid and insulin levels, and high blood pressure and abnormalities in the size and function of left ventricular mass. Childhood obesity is also associated with increased risk of asthma, and with exacerbation of existing asthma. There is a marked increase in risk of ill health in adulthood that arises from obesity in childhood, independent of adult weight (2006).   Functionalism The central idea of ‘function’ relates to activities necessary for the maintenance of the species, society or social group. These functions include such things as reproduction, economic production, education, religion and recreation and much more, all of which have to be undertaken for a society to achieve a stable existence. Functionalism lays down a general systems theory of human society drawing the ideas of biological imperatives such as reproduction and the maternal instinct. Functionalism views society as an organism that strives to resist change and maintain itself in some sort of balance or equilibrium. Stability and order are considered natural and desirable, whereas conflict and disorder are evidence of defiance and dysfunction in the system (1995;1997). In this way, functionalism is a remarkably conservative set of ideas that generates clear rules about what is ‘functional’, and therefore ‘good’ for society, and what is not ‘functional’, and is therefore ‘bad’ for society (1997). Within the functionalist perspective, roles provide the link between the individual and society in a fairly determinist fashion. As individuals we are linked to the various institutions of society by filling roles. At home, in the institution of kinship, we fill the roles of child or parent. Interaction between individuals is stabilized on the basis of a common value system; we agree on what should happen. Conflict which may occur is to be understood as poor role performance (1999). Childhood Obesity as a social problem can be considered as a product of poor role performance in the family. Childhood obesity occurs when the parents perform their role inside the family poorly. It is a well-accepted idea that the dietary practices of parents have a profound influence on the eating behavior of their children. As children grow, they learn to prefer some foods to others. This might happen because of the types of food that their parents offer them, which in turn might depend on the parent’s food preferences. In a study conducted by Oliveria et al. (1992), children having one parent who habitually ate foods with high total fat content were likely twice as likely to eat similar foods that were children whose parents had low total fat intakes. But when both parents consumed high fat foods, the probability of their children having high fat intakes was 3 to 6 times greater than in children whose parents had normal intakes (1999). Childhood obesity is caused by developing dysfunctional behaviours from a society that promotes excessive food intake and discourages physical activity (2004). Children with two obese parents are more than six times as likely to become obese than children with non-obese parents. Children raised in families who do not regularly prepare and eat family meals together are more likely to be overweight. Children whose parents exert an excessive degree of control over what and how much their children eat are more likely to be able to regulate their food in a healthy manner. Children are more likely to be overweight if they lack opportunities to participate in active recreation and sports and/or not encouraged to engage in physical play. Children who spend several hours daily watching television, playing video games, or working on the computer are at a greater risk for weight gain. Poverty and low education are predictors of obesity. The lower the family income, the greater the likelihood of being overweight (2004).   Symbolic Interactionism Symbolic interactionism is concerned primarily with meaning as a product of human interactions and how that meaning influences behaviour in social situations. It is assumed that people do not act randomly to objects and situations when they are in interactions with others (1996). A symbolic interactionist approach emphasizes that human thought is shaped by social interaction, that interaction is made possible by the meanings and symbols that people develop, and that people may change those meanings and symbols. Meanings are critically important to interactionalists. The nature of an object, according to the interactionalist perspective, consists of the meaning that it has for the person for whom it is an object (1999). According to symbolic interactionists, personal experience is derived from ongoing interaction with important social groups. This interaction is mediated through the use of symbols, allowing people to understand, shape, and share their experience, including their actions within the social world (2004). The meanings created by the children’s interaction with other members of the society, particularly the parents, are critical in their construction of obesity as a problem or not a problem. Parental influence is important during childhood. During this phase, the child develops behaviors from his/her ongoing interaction with his/her parents. If a child interacts in an environment, where the people encourage poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyle, then the child will adapt those behaviours. Both the school environment and the family environment are responsible for the rising incidence of childhood obesity. For nine to ten months of the year, children attend school five out of every seven days, for six to eight hours per day. The school cafeteria provides food choices, the physical education program determine the time allocated to physical activity, and the school curriculum controls opportunities to learn about the relationship personal behaviours and health. Away from school, the family environment strongly influences child health. Parents who decide to buy high-calorie foods and/or allow their children to engage in long periods of sedentary activity facilitate the imbalance between energy intake and expenditure that causes children to gain weight. ( 2004). Family behaviours and interactions contribute greatly to childhood obesity. In attacking disease epidemics, public health workers look for three components: the host, the agent, and the environment. In the childhood obesity epidemic, the home harbors all three – the host is the child, the agent is excess calories from food and drink, and the environment encompasses the behaviour, lifestyle, and surroundings that promote excess eating and sufficient activity. Once babies move from breast milk or formula solids, eating patterns emerge and taste preferences come into play. Most aspects of social development and acculturation of children involve food. The factors that shape children’s eating habits are availability, accessibility and convenience. Influences beyond the home such as advertising, peers, and school lunches – will affect children, but usually not to a significant degree until they reach kindergarten age. For young children, parents are the decision-makers (2004). By age three, children develop likes and dislikes for certain foods, notably vegetables. Younger children are easier to induce to try novel foods and to change preferences for familiar foods than older children. Children learn food preferences through repeated exposure to new food; a minimum of eight to ten times is required for children to accept and develop a preference for it. Children’s acceptance of foods follows the example of parents and siblings. Social atmosphere influences children’s food habits: a positive meal experience increases preference for a food; a negative meal decreases it ( 2004). It goes without saying that mealtimes are vital time and place to develop children’s eating behaviours and food preferences. However, mealtimes these days are more like flextime. Families who set a table and gather for a home-cooked dinner are growing increasingly rare. Fewer families regularly eat meals together at home because family members eat throughout the day, and overloaded schedules leave little time for meal preparation (2004). As children get older and move into adolescence, they may begin turning to food for reasons having more to do with their psychological needs than with their appetite. The parent-child relationship and the home setting may work together to foster an environment that makes eating the best response to emotional distress (2004).   Conclusion Childhood obesity is one of the major public health issues in the United Kingdom. It is a growing threat to children’s health as well as a current and future drain on the National Health Service (NHS) resources. Obesity is a condition where weight gain reached a point that it poses a serious threat to health. A child is considered obese if his/her body weight is more normal for his/her age, gender and height. Childhood obesity has adverse effects on health. One of these is psychological ill health. Childhood obesity is strongly associated with cardiovascular diseases and increased risk of asthma. Social and psychological consequences can include stigmatization, discriminations and prejudice. Functionalism views society as an organism that strives to resist change and maintain itself in some sort of balance and equilibrium. Within the functionalist perspective, roles provide the link between the individual and society. Obesity, based on the functionalist perspective is caused by the poor role performance in the social unit, the family in particular. Poor parental role can cause childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is caused by developing dysfunctional behaviours from a society that promotes excessive food intake and discourages physical activity. The symbolic intearctionist approach is primarily concerned with meanings as products of human interactions and how that meanings influences behaviour in social situations. A symbolic interactionist approach emphasizes that human thought is shaped by social interaction, that interaction is made possible by the meanings and symbols that people develop, and that people may change those meanings and symbols. A Child’s behaviour toward food is shaped by the meaning he or she attaches to his or her interactions with people in the society. The meanings created by the children’s interaction with other members of the society, particularly the parents, are critical in their construction of behaviour towards obesity. Parental influence plays an important role in the development of a child’s behavior. If the parents encourage poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyle, these bahaviours will be adapted by the child.                 Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Critical Analysis of Childhood Obesity in UK using two Sociological Approaches

Childhood Obesity Introduction Obesity is a growing public health concern in the United Kingdom. In 2001, estimates for England suggest ...

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS: FORD MOTOR COMPANY

INTRODUCTION In this fiercely aggressive business world, the goal of most firms is to establish distinctive or unique capabilities to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace through utilising the most of their core competencies. Competencies refer to the fundamental knowledge owned by the firm (knowledge, know-how, experience, innovation and unique information), and to be distinctive they are not confined to functional domains but cut across the firm and its organizational boundaries (, 2002). Today, business enterprises in developed countries operate in a more complicated, and more regulated, environment. The strategic task, then, is to create a distinctive way ahead, using whatever core competencies and resources at its disposal, against the background and influence of the environment. Through these distinctive capabilities the organisation seeks sustainable competitive advantage. Competition in many domestic and international markets appears to be entering a new phase, in which product quality and performance are becoming more important to customers than price. In such markets, the effective management of the new product development process is the essence of competitive advantage. Due to such changes, a review of the organisations’ strategic capabilities is a must if they are to keep up with the demands of the changing times. This paper analyses the strategic capabilities of Ford Motor Company in face of the ever-stiffening competition in the automotive industry, as a potential tool to further strengthen Ford’s position in the automobile market. BRIEF FORD BACKGROUND[1] Few companies are as closely identified with the history and development of industry and society throughout the 20th century as Ford Motor Company. Ford Motor Company entered the business world on June 16, 1903, when Henry Ford and 11 business associates signed the company’s articles of incorporation. As with most great enterprises, Ford Motor Company’s beginnings were modest. With ,000 in cash, the pioneering industrialists gave birth to what was to become one of the world’s largest corporations. With the company’s first sale came hope—a young Ford Motor Company had taken its first steps. The company went public and, on Feb. 24, 1956, had about 350,000 new stockholders. Today, With about 300,000 employees and 108 plants worldwide, the company’s core and affiliated automotive brands include Aston Martin, Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercury and Volvo. Its automotive-related services include Ford Motor Credit Company. They are currently headquartered at Dearborn, Michigan (US), and distribute automobiles, including cars and trucks, in 200 markets spanning six continents. Perhaps Ford Motor Company’s single greatest contribution to automotive manufacturing was the moving assembly line. The line proved tremendously efficient, helping the company exceed the production levels of their competitors by a sizeable amount—and making the vehicles more affordable. The company is beginning its second century of existence with a worldwide organization that retains and expands Henry Ford’s heritage by developing products that serve the varying and ever-changing needs of people in the global community. SWOT ANALYSIS                Strengths. One of Ford’s most potent strength is that they are one of the world’s best known brands. As they have been in the business for 100 years now, the experience that they have in manufacturing cannot be overemphasised. They already have built a solid reputation for being a dependable automaker. Additionally, they have the strength of being diverse with respect to their product lines, having affiliated automotive brands including Aston Martin, Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercury and Volvo, which allows clients to choose from a variety of car models to fit their lifestyle. They are also known to be supportive of societal causes, in particular the fight for breast cancer and support after the September 11 attacks in the U.S. They pioneered the moving assembly line, which became their mechanism for making vehicles more efficiently and faster, therefore more affordable. Traditionally Ford’s international operations were a source of that allowed the company to maintain its position as the second largest auto maker in the world and to respond to GM’s competitive moves. During the worst years of the industrial recession in 1970s, those operations provided the cash that saved the company from bankruptcy, and gave it key products that were essential to stem its competitors’ moves while it invested in new product development (Studer-Noguez, 2002). Today, and even if its US operations still represent the bulk of Ford’s total operations and world assets, its foreign operations still make substantial contributions to the company’s strong performance and leadership in the industry.                Weaknesses. The company’s organizational structure has become inefficient as the company became more complex. This hindered Ford’s ability to manage its international network of subsidiaries, branches, and companies. The weakness of its organizational strategy has, in fact, contributed to Ford’s loss of relative competitive advantage during the 1930s and 1940s (Appel, 1993). Additionally, there are a lot of speculations over the likely performance of Ford in the future, as the company’s financing section is swamped down by hefty outstanding debts. The firm is not in risk of bankruptcy, but the Ford management is in a tight spot, and has to be extremely vigilant to not make it any tighter. There is also a notable management issues within the company, with the ousting of former CEO Jacques Nasser, replaced by William Clay Ford, Jr. in the Ford helm. Finally, because of the increasing competition, the company has witnessed a decline in overall sales, a weakness on their part as they have somehow failed to overcome the challenges that additional competition brings. Opportunities. Ford Motors Company has the distinct opportunity to have cleaner engine emissions, in alignment with their corporate responsibility to become environment-friendly. Through working with environmental groups to help clean the environment, they also have the opportunity to further enhance their image to the general public. Since they have already started investing in Solar Power, the end is a more viable prospect. Ford could further widen the scope of their opportunities through specialising and rationalising its worldwide operations on a regional basis and to develop a network organization in which its subsidiaries would increase their transnational linkages. Besides Ford learning about the possibilities of producing quality automotive products in their areas of operation at a comparative cost advantage, other relevant factors could bring about new opportunities for exporting vehicles: the parent company’s efficiency-seeking strategy; its competitive disadvantage in the small-car segment of the market and the competitors’ moves in this market-segment; and the new more flexible regulations in the respective countries in which they have manufacturing plants. Further, with Ford’s existing capability to innovate on automobiles, they have the opportunity to penetrate a still larger scope of market.             Threats. As with any firm in the automotive industry, Ford faces very tight competitive rivalry in the auto market. Competition is escalating, with the threat of new entrants continuously flowing into the market from South Korea, China and new plants in Eastern Europe. For Motors is also exposed to the risk of movement in the price of raw materials such as steel, glass, rubber and fuel. The key economies in the US, Europe and the Pacific are also experiencing slow downs lately. These economic factors are latent threats for the company under analysis. Further, substitute products such as Natural gas, Electricity, Ethanol, Vegetable oil, Sunlight, Water poses a distinct threat to the sustainability of company sales. While Ford strategies responded to the local opportunities and competitive advantages that were built over time in different national markets, the competitiveness of foreign operations was also dependent upon the company’s management capabilities and its overall position in the industry worldwide. If such factors were to perform under expectation, their competitiveness in the international scene would suffer seriously. RESOURCE AUDIT A resource is a basic element that a firm controls in order to best organise its operational processes. A resource, or set of resources, can be used to create competitive advantage (, 2002), that is why an audit of the resources of a firm is a must if it is to utilise them to create the latter. The sustainability of a company’s competitive advantage depends upon the ease with which the resources can be imitated or substituted (, 1993). When resources are combined they can lead to the formation of competencies and capabilities ( & , 1990). Financial Resources. Although Ford Motor’s 2006 financial results showed a full-year net loss of .7 billion[2], their track record during the 100 years that they have been operating shows that they are the type of firm who is able to rebound from such downturn in profits. The decline in results reflected losses at the Ford North America business unit, an impairment charge for long-lived assets of Jaguar/Land Rover operations, and higher charges for personnel reduction programs, offset partially by more favourable market performance at Land Rover and improved results of Ford South America business unit, Other Automotive, and Ford Asia Pacific and Africa/Mazda segment. The automotive sector’s revenue, income and cash are generated primarily from sales of vehicles to Ford dealers and distributors, while their financial services sector’s revenue is generated primarily from interest on finance receivables, net of certain deferred origination costs that are included as a reduction of financing revenue. To improve the business and its profitability, Ford plans to reduce their costs through material cost actions, health care cost reductions and capacity and personnel reductions. Human Resources. The approximate number of individuals employed by Ford and their consolidated entities (including entities that they do not control) as of 2006 is at 300,000. There is a marked decrease (approximately at 8%) from December 31, 2004 to December 31, 2005, which primarily reflected the sale of Hertz, partially offset by the formation of ACH which employs approximately 17,700 Ford hourly workers who were previously assigned to Visteon and approximately 2,500 former Visteon employees. Physical Resources. To date, they have 108 plants worldwide which houses the 300,000 employees that they have in their payroll. They also have a worldwide engineering release system (WERS), a computerized global communications network, established in 1989 – before 2000 was launched – to facilitate the co-ordination between subsidiaries and affiliates. Today, this system allows about 20,000 Ford workers around the world to share design and manufacturing information as they develop new products. Ford did not choose to expand its manufacturing operations in low-cost production sites or rationalize its operations (closing more plants, downsizing the labour force further, or increasing the movement of parts and components between various locations) on a worldwide basis. Intangible Resources. Finally, a discussion of Ford‘s global strategy would be incomplete if no reference were made to the strategic alliances and international joint ventures with other auto companies (most notably with Mazda, but also with other Asia, European, and even some US auto makers) that have been established in order jointly to develop, engineer, design, market, and even produce vehicles in the United States and abroad. These associations, which preceded Ford 2000, have proliferated and have become vital in maintaining a competitive position for a company not only in specific local markets but also at the global level. They also represent a marked change both from Ford‘s previous practices that maintained full ownership of their operations and protected know-how and other ownership advantages, and from the US anti-trust laws that prohibited large firms from entering into such associations. Through them, Ford was able to serve local and global markets, to reduce production, development, and marketing costs, and to cope with excess capacity in the industry. These partnerships also contributed to the geographic dispersion and inter-regional integration of different functions of the value-chain of production. While this integration took place outside the borders of the corporation, it complemented Ford‘s efforts to design a global configuration for its organization and network of subsidiaries. VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS  (1985) in his seminal work of value chain proposed it as a tool to identify and to analyse the origins of competitive advantages and suggested that the activities of the business could be grouped into two: primary and support activities. What activities a business undertakes is linked to achieving its competitive advantage, and Ford seemed to be best prepared to implement a global strategy, because of the superior competitive advantages of its foreign operations compared with GM and Chrysler. Paradoxically, Ford’s rivals showed a greater disposition to use resources from outside of the United States. It was not until 1994 that Ford focused on developing a global strategy as a means to enhance its competitive position in the industry. Before then, Ford largely focused on building a strategy that would allow the company to recover its competitive position in its own home market, which was essential for survival. An analysis of the structural and institutional factors that shaped Ford’s strategic response both to the new industry rules and the short-term challenges posed by other industry competitors explains this paradox. A number of broad sustainability challenges set the context for all of the value chain activities (see appendix 1). These issues apply across the value chain: (1) Population growth; (2) Urbanization; (3) Child mortality; (4) Maternal health; (5) Infectious diseases; (6) Biodiversity; (7) Loss of ecosystem services; (8) Poverty; (9) Education; and (10) Gender Equality. All these issues are attended to by the Ford Motor Company in alignment with their efforts to maintain sustainable competitive advantage through preserving the good public image that their clients expect from them. CORE COMPETENCIES Ford has several core competencies which they could utilise to further gain advantage over their competitors, and if possible, overtake General Motors in its market leadership in the automotive industry. One core competency of the company is their brand management. The strength of their automotive marketing has been such that their brand is known even in the parts of the world where cars are not the common medium of transportation. Another core competency is their supply chain management, which links to their ability to maintain a steady stream of raw materials coming in for production because of their long-term good standing with their steel, glass, plastic and other raw materials supplier. Their highly coordinated logistics system handled by outsourced firms also form part of their core competencies, leading to excellent inventory management and always on schedule production activities. Another marked core competency is their ability at the moving assembly line. Being the pioneer of such mass production system, they were able to get ahead of the competitors manufacturing processes-wise and were also able to save on costs and time. Yet another core competency is Ford’s focusing on its product development technology under a single product-information-management program through standardising and incorporating them. If sustainable development is to achieve its potential, it must be integrated into the planning and measurement systems of business enterprises. And for that to happen, the concept must be articulated in terms that are familiar to business leaders. Many observers believe that more stakeholders — investors, consumers, nongovernmental organizations and others — will insist that companies to take environmental and social costs as seriously as they take purely financial costs. In addition, investors are expected to increasingly seek out sustainable companies and avoid firms with poor environmental performance, judging the sustainable companies as better risks over the long term. Likewise, consumers are expected to search for products that perform well environmentally. Appendix 1. Ford’s Value Chain                                             REFERENCE Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS: FORD MOTOR COMPANY

INTRODUCTION In this fiercely aggressive business world, the goal of most firms is to establish distinctive or unique capabilities to gai...

McDonald’s in Beijing: The Localization of Americana

CHAPTER 1 McDonald’s in Beijing: The Localization of Americana   On April 23, 1992, the largest McDonald’s restaurant in the world opened in Beijing. With 700 seats and 29 cash registers, the Beijing McDonald’s served 40,000 customers on its first day of business. 1Built on the southern end of Wangfujing Street near Tiananmen Square–the center of all public politics in the People’s Republic of China–this restaurant had become an important landmark in Beijing by the summer of 1994, and the image of the Golden Arches appeared frequently on national television programs. It also became an attraction for domestic tourists, as a place where ordinary people could literally taste a bit of American culture. New McDonald’s restaurants appeared in Beijing one after another: two were opened in 1993, four in 1994, and ten more in 1995; by the end of 1996, there were 29 outlets in Beijing. 2According to Tim Lai, the company’s General Manager, the Beijing market is big enough to support 100 McDonald’s restaurants, and McDonald’s plans to open 600 outlets in China by century’s end. 3 The astonishing growth of the Beijing McDonald’s has to be understood in the context of recent changes in Chinese society. There is a new tendency to absorb foreign cultural influences and transform them into local institutions, a trend that the Chinese political system resisted during the Maoist era ( 1949). In the case reviewed here, both the McDonald’s management and staff on the one hand and the Beijing customers on the other have been active participants in the localization process. To analyze this process, I first examine the image of McDonald’s in the minds of ordinary Chinese people. Then I look at McDonald’s efforts to fit into the Chinese market, as well as the ways in which Beijing consumers have appropriated McDonald’s for their own use.   The Big Mac as a Symbol of Americana   In October 1, 1993, National Day in China, a couple in their early seventies had dinner at the McDonald’s restaurant on Wangfujing Street. They had been invited to celebrate the holiday at McDonald’s by their daughter and son-in-law, who spent almost 200 yuan for the dinner, an unimaginably large sum in the view of the elderly couple. The experience of eating in a foreign restaurant struck them as so significant they had their picture taken in front of the Golden Arches and sent it to their hometown newspaper, along with another photo they had had taken on October 1, 1949, in Tiananmen Square-celebrating the first National Day of the People’s Republic of China. Their story was later published by the newspaper, with the two contrasting photographs. In the 1949 photo, the two young people appear in identical white shirts, standing slightly apart, their thin faces betraying undernourishment in hard times. In the 1993 photo, a portly woman proudly holds her husband’s left arm, and the two are healthy looking and fashionably dressed. They took a taxi to McDonald’s and, while rossing Tiananmen Square, they remembered how poor they had been in 1949 and realized how much China has changed in the interim. 4 At first glance, this news story reads like the typical propaganda skit that one still finds in official Chinese media, with its constant play on “recalling the bitterness of old China and thinking of the sweetness of the new society” (yiku sitian). However, in this case it is McDonald’s–a capitalist, transnational enterprise–that symbolizes the “sweetness” of current life. What is even more interesting, the headline of the story reads: “Forty-Four years: From Tu to Yang.” The terms tu and yang have been paired concepts in the everyday discourse of Chinese political culture since the nineteenth century. In common usage, tu means rustic, uncouth, and backward, whereas yang refers to anything foreign (particularly Western), fashionable, and quite often, progressive. The juxtaposition of these common terms demonstrates how McDonald’s and its foreign (yang) food have become synonymous with progressive changes that make life more enjoyable in contemporary China. In the eyes of Beijing residents, McDonald’s represents Americana and the promise of modernization. 5McDonald’s highly efficient service and management, its spotless dining environment, and its fresh ingredients have been featured repeatedly by the Chinese media as exemplars of modernity. 6McDonald’s strict quality control, especially regarding potatoes, became a hot topic of discussion in many major newspapers, again with the emphasis on McDonald’s scientific management as reflected in the company’s unwavering standards. 7According to one commentator who published a series of articles on McDonald’s, the company’s global success can be traced to its highly standardized procedures of food production, its scientific recipes, and its modern management techniques. As the title of his article (“Seeing the World from McDonald’s”) suggests, each restaurant represents a microcosm of the transnational, 8so much so that, according to another article by the same author, many American youths prefer to work at McDonald’s before they leave home to seek work elsewhere. The experience of working at McDonald’s, he continues, prepares American youth for any kind of job in a modern society. 9 Other news items associate the success of transnational food chains with their atmosphere of equality and democracy. No matter who you are, according to one of these reports, you will be treated with warmth and friendliness in the fast food restaurants; hence many people patronize McDonald’s to experience a moment of equality. 10This argument may sound a bit odd to Western readers, but it makes sense in the context of Chinese culinary culture. When I asked my Beijing informants about the equality factor, they all pointed out that banquets in Chinese restaurants are highly competitive: people try to outdo one another by offering the most expensive dishes and alcoholic beverages. It is typical for the host at a banquet to worry that customers at neighboring tables might be enjoying better dishes, thus causing him or her to lose face. To avoid such embarrassment, many people prefer to pay the extra fees necessary to rent a private room within a restaurant. Such competition does not exist at McDonald’s, where the menu is limited, the food is standardized, and every customer receives a set of items that are more or less equal in quality. There is no need to worry that one’s food might be lower in status than a neighbor’s. For people without a lot of money but who need to host a meal, McDonald’s has become the best alternative. During the autumn of 1994 I conducted an ethnographic survey of consumer behavior in Beijing. I discovered that the stories commonly told about McDonald’s have taken on a surreal, even mythic tone. For instance, it is believed among a number of Beijing residents that the potato used by McDonald’s is a cube-shaped variety. A 20-year old woman working at McDonald’s told me in all seriousness about McDonald’s secret, cube-shaped potatoes, the key to the corporation’s worldwide success. She was also fascinated by the foreign terms she had learned in the short time she had worked there, terms such as weisi (waste), jishi (cheese), and delaisu (drive-through). The first two are straight transliterations of the English terms, but the third is both a transliteration and a free translation: it means “to get it quickly.” These half-Chinese, half-English terms are used by employees and customers alike, making their experiences at McDonald’s restaurants exotic, American, and to a certain extent, modern. In this connection the ways Beijing McDonald’s presents itself in public are also worth noting. By the autumn of 1994, McDonald’s had not yet placed any advertisements on Beijing television. According to the General Manager, it was pointless to advertise McDonald’s on television because Chinese commercials, unlike their counterparts in the West, appear only during the interval between programs. After watching one program, audiences tend to switch to another channel, which means that advertisements have little chance of being seen. Newspapers and popular magazines were regarded as a better way to present McDonald’s public image. In the Beijing region, McDonald’s relied on Berson-Marsteller, a transnational public relations company, to deal with the Chinese news media. The main source of information about McDonald’s in China is a short booklet that sketches the history of the American-based corporation and its famous business philosophy, QSC & V, or quality, service, cleanliness, and value. The absence of what might be called hard news has led Chinese reporters to repeat McDonald’s corporate philosophy of QSC & V–which, incidentally, reinforces the Chinese government’s promotion of upgrading and modernizing the local business environment. McDonald’s local management has also made efforts to promote the corporation’s image as an exemplar of modernity. For instance, a five-minute tour of the kitchen is provided upon request at each of the Beijing restaurants. I went on three such tours at different locations, and all were identical. My guides–McDonald’s employees responsible for public relations–showed me all the machines, stoves, and other special equipment and explained how they work. I was then shown the place where employees wash their hands (following strict procedures) and the wastebins that contained food that was no longer fresh enough to meet the McDonald’s standards. Throughout the five-minute tour, one message was emphasized repeatedly: McDonald’s foods are cooked in accordance with strict scientific methods and are guaranteed fresh and pure. In addition to the freshness and purity of its food, McDonald’s management also emphasizes its nutritional value. In a published interview, a high-level manager maintains that the recipes for McDonald’s foods are designed to meet modern scientific specifications and thus differ from the recipes for Chinese foods, which are based on cultural expectations. A central feature of this “scientifically designed” food is that it includes the main nutritional elements a human being needs daily: water, starch, protein, sugar, vitamins, and fat. Thus when one spends 10 to 15 yuan to have a standardized meal at McDonald’s, one is guaranteed enough nutrition for half a day. 11The idea that McDonald’s provides healthy food based on nutritional ingredients and scientific cooking methods has been widely accepted by both the Chinese media and the general public. In Japan, too, until the mid-1980s, McDonald’s food was believed to be nutritious and healthy; it is only in recent years that the Japanese public has begun to worry about the negative effects of fast food. 12 Given the general eagerness for modernization, shared by both the government and ordinary people, and, in the realm of consumption, the growing appetite for all things foreign, or Western (yang), McDonald’s has benefited greatly from the cultural symbolism it carries. Bolstering the “genuineness” of its food, the Beijing restaurant keeps its menu identical to that of its American counterpart. By 1994 the sale of Big Mac hamburgers accounted for 20 percent of local McDonald’s sales, a figure higher than the comparable one for Taiwan. 13This figure has been interpreted by McDonald’s management as an indicator that Beijing customers have no problem accepting American-style cuisine. But what is it that the Beijing customers have accepted–the hamburgers or the ambience? My ethnographic inquiry reveals that whereas children are great fans of the Big Mac and french fries, most adult customers appear to be attracted to McDonald’s by its American “style” rather than its food. Many people commented to me that the food was not really delicious and that the flavor of cheese was too strange to taste good. The most common complaint from adult customers was chi bu bao, meaning that McDonald’s hamburgers and fries did not make one feel full; they are more like snacks than meals. I conducted a survey among students at a major university in Beijing and collected 97 completed questionnaires.    TABLE I Evaluation of McDonald’s Food   Male (N = 29) Female (N = 68)   Sensation after eating “Filling” “Unfilling” “Filling” “Unfilling” Total Perceived as for- mal meal 3 2 17 1 23 Perceived as snacks 3 21 20 30 74 Total 6 23 37 31 97 SOURCE: Survey carried out by the author at Beijing University on Oct. 11 and 14,1994. formants’ response to two questions: (1) Is McDonald’s food a formal meal or a snack? (2) Does McDonald’s food make you feel full? Only one-fourth of my informants regarded McDonald’s food as a formal meal, and most of these respondents were women students (18 out of 23). Accordingly, 24 of the 29 men students (83 percent) perceived McDonald’s food as snacks (xiaochi). Regarding the sensation of fullness, 54 informants (56 percent) did not feel they had had a “satisfying” meal at McDonald’s, and, not surprisingly, this sentiment appeared most commonly among young men–23 of the 29 male students (79 percent)–while fewer than half the women respondents found McDonald’s food unsatisfying. Those who treated McDonald’s food as a formal meal were more likely to feel full: only 3 of 23 such informants complained of chi bu bao (not feeling full). One implication of the findings is that the perception of McDonald’s as a provider of meals or of snacks is largely determined by the capacity of the food to make one feel full. It seems that women are more likely to feel full, and hence a larger proportion of women are ready to accept McDonald’s food as a formal meal. The Chinese food system is based on a basic division of fan (grains and other starches) and cai (vegetable and/or meat dishes). “To prepare a balanced meal, it must have an appropriate amount of both fan and ts’ai [cai], and ingredients are readied along both tracks.” 15According to these principles, the McDonald’s hamburger–a patty of meat between layers of bread–is not a properly prepared meal. As a Beijing worker commented, at best a hamburger is the equivalent of xianbing, a type of Chinese pancake with meat inside, which no one would treat as a daily meal. In Chinese terms, foods like xianbing are classified as “small eats” (xiaochi), a term close to “snack.” The logic is very clear: a McDonald’s hamburger is reinterpreted as a foreign (yang) form of xianbing and thus as foreign “small eats” (yang xiaochi). No doubt this is why 75 percent of my informants classified McDonald’s foods as snacks, and 55 percent of them did not feel full after eating at McDonald’s restaurants. It seems ironic that although people have reservations about the food at McDonald’s, they are still keen on going there. Why? Most informants said that they liked the atmosphere of the restaurant, the style of eating, and the experience of being there. In other words, the attraction of McDonald’s is that it offers, not filling food, but a fulfilling experience. Or, as a local writer says, it is the culture of fast food that draws Beijing consumers to these restaurants. 16 In fact, before McDonald’s entered the Beijing market, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), followed by Pizza Hut, had aroused considerable consumer interest in imported fast foods. According to an early report on KFC, people did not go to KFC to eat the chicken; instead they enjoyed “eating” (consuming) the culture associated with KFC. Most customers spent hours talking to each other and gazing out the huge glass window that overlooks a busy commercial street–thereby demonstrating their sophistication to the people who passed by. 17Some local observers have argued that the appeal of Chinese cuisine is the taste of the food itself, and that, by contrast, Western food relies on its presentation. The popularity of imported fast food is thus taken as a demonstration that consumers are interested in the spectacle, the show, that this new form of eating permits. 18Prior to McDonald’s opening in Beijing, the company’s name was already popular among trendy consumers and it was only natural that, when the first restaurant was opened in Beijing in April 1992, thousands lined up for hours in order to partake of the experience, along with the new cuisine offered by this famous restaurant. By the end of 1994, although more foreign restaurants such as the Hard Rock Cafe and Pizza Hut had opened, McDonald’s remained a fashionable, popular restaurant. Eating at McDonald’s had become a meaningful social event for Beijing residents, though to be sure, different people came to the restaurant for different reasons. Many people, especially those constrained by their moderate income, visited McDonald’s restaurants only once or twice, primarily to satisfy their curiosity about American food and culinary culture. A considerable proportion of customers were tourists from outlying provinces who had only heard about McDonald’s or seen its Golden Arches in the movies. Tasting American food has recently become an important aspect of Chinese tourism in Beijing, and those who achieve this goal boast about it to their relatives and friends back home. There are also local customers, however, who frequent McDonald’s regularly. A “Trade Area Survey” conducted by the management of Beijing McDonald’s in one of its outlets shows that 10.2 percent of their customers frequented the restaurant at least four times a month in 1992, a figure that jumped to 38.3 percent in 1993. 19Based on my observations and interviews, frequent customers fall into three groups: yuppies, young couples, and children (accompanied by their parents). Despite differences in social background, all except for the children mentioned McDonald’s eating environment and good service as the primary reason they came, and most, if not all, of my informants emphasized that eating at McDonald’s was a significant culinary and cultural experience. For younger Beijing residents who have higher incomes and wish to be “connected” more closely to the outside world, eating at McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, or Pizza Hut has become an integral part of their new lifestyle, a way for them to participate in the transnational cultural system. As one informant commented: “The Big Mac doesn’t taste great; but the experience of eating in this place makes me feel good. Sometimes I even imagine that I am sitting in a restaurant in New York City or Paris.” One late morning I talked with a young man, age 22, a graduate of the Beijing Institute of Foreign Languages, while we sat in a McDonald’s restaurant. He ordered two Big Macs, one chicken sandwich, one Filet-o-Fish, one large Coke, and an ice cream sundae–all for himself. During our conversation, he told me that he was working for a Japanese company, earning a monthly salary of 3,500 yuan (more than 0), which in 1994 was ten times the average wage of an ordinary worker. When I asked how much he spent on fast food, he said he didn’t know and didn’t care: “I think I am better off than my friends who went to study abroad. Staying in my hometown, I can enjoy all such foreign goods as long as I make money. You see, today I have to attend a formal banquet for a business lunch and I will only drink when I get there. Unlike those tu [rustic] guys, I prefer eating at McDonald’s to a noisy Chinese restaurant.” Throughout my fieldwork I talked with more than a dozen yuppies like this young man, all of whom were proud of their newly attained habit of eating foreign fast food. Although some emphasized that they just wanted to save time, none finished their meals within 20 minutes. Like other customers, these young professionals arrive in small groups or come with girl- or boyfriends and enjoy themselves in the restaurant for an hour or more. Eating foreign food, and consuming other foreign goods, has become an important way for these Chinese yuppies to define themselves as middle-class professionals. Young couples from all social strata are also frequenters of McDonald’s because the eating environment is considered romantic and comfortable. The restaurants are brightly lit and clean and feature light Western music; except during busy periods they are relatively quiet. In addition to the exotica of hamburgers, the restaurant offers milk shakes, apple pie, and ice cream, all of which makes McDonald’s one of the best places in Beijing to conduct courtship. As mentioned above, the variety of foods offered is, by Chinese standards, limited, and the expenditure is predictable, meaning that no one need fear being drawn into a competition of conspicuous consumption at McDonald’s. This is particularly important for young men who need to take their girlfriends or wives out for a treat but have limited budgets: they know they will not lose face in this foreign cultural context. By 1994, McDonald’s seven Beijing restaurants had all made efforts to create a relatively re- mote, private service area with tables for two only. In some of these restaurants, the area was nicknamed the “the lovers’ corner.” There is another special enclosure in every Beijing McDonald’s called “children’s paradise.” Unlike the quiet, romantic “lovers’ corner,” this area is always noisy, full of children who are running around and playing while they eat. As in other parts of East Asia (notably, as Chapters 2 and 3 show, Hong Kong and Taipei), Beijing children are loyal McDonald’s fans. One employee told me that parents often asked her why their children liked McDonald’s food so much. Some even suspected, she said, that the Big Mac contained a special, hidden ingredient; otherwise their children would not be so attracted to this exotic food. During my interviews with students in a primary school, one nine-year-old boy told me that his dream is to buy a huge box of hamburgers and eat them every day. Several youngsters expressed the desire to open a McDonald’s restaurant of their own when they grow up. I will have more to say about how McDonald’s appeals to children in the next section. Here I want to emphasize that children do not come alone: they are usually brought to McDonald’s by their parents or grandparents. I once interviewed a middle-aged woman whose daughter had just won an essay contest at McDonald’s. She told me that she did not like the taste of hamburgers, and her husband simply hated them. But their daughter loved hamburgers and milk shakes so much that their family had to visit McDonald’s nearly every week. Children’s fondness for McDonald’s, however, may present difficulties for parents with limited economic resources. As one man, a worker, noted, although his salary did not allow him to eat out, when his son asked him to go to McDonald’s, he never said “No.” He would cut back his expenses in some other area so he could afford the meal. It should be noted that eating at McDonald’s is still a big treat for low-income people, and that as of 1994, a dinner at McDonald’s for a family of three normally cost one-sixth of a worker’s monthly salary. The price is definitely not considered a bargain and is not the reason why Beijing consumers come to McDonald’s. As a young woman worker commented: “It’s rather expensive to eat here at McDonald’s. I have to work for two days in order to have a Big Mac set meal. But for a highfashion restaurant the price is okay.” Thus, working-class families have to save their money to eat at McDonald’s. As noted in my opening vignette, many feel they should arrive by taxi, making the trip more luxurious and memorable. For such people, the McDonald’s experience has less to do with food than it does with a chance to explore American culture or to give their children a special treat. The representation of McDonald’s as a symbol of American culture not only has drawn Beijing customers to new forms of dining but also has led them to accept new patterns of behavior. For instance, in 1992 and 1993 customers in Beijing (as in Hong Kong and Taiwan) usually left their rubbish on the table, letting the restaurant employees do the clean-up work. The main reason for this kind of behavior was that people regarded McDonald’s as a formal restaurant where they had paid for full service. However, during the summer of 1994 I observed that about a fifth of the customers, many of them fashionably dressed youth, carried their own trays to the wastebins. From subsequent interviews I discovered that most of these people were regular customers, and they had learned to clean up their tables by observing what foreigners did. Interest- ingly enough, several informants told me that when they threw out their own rubbish, they felt they were more “civilized” (wenming) than other customers because they knew the proper behavior. It was also obvious that McDonald’s customers spoke in lower tones than customers in other, Chinese-style eateries. They were also more careful not to throw rubbish on the ground or to spit near McDonald’s outlets. Similarly, a comparison of customer behavior in McDonald’s and that in comparably priced or more expensive Chinese restaurants shows that people in McDonald’s were, on the whole, more self-restrained and polite toward one another. One possible explanation for this difference is that the symbolic meanings of the new food, along with customers’ willingness to accept the exotic culture associated with fast food, has affected people’s table manners in particular and social behavior in general. 20   Fast Food Slowing Down: Appropriation and Localization   A further question arises: Is the Beijing McDonald’s genuinely American? In the United States it is commonplace to equate McDonald’s food with low cost and fast service. Americans worry about the nutritional value and the fat content of McDonald’s hamburgers, but the restaurants remain popular because of the savings they offer in money and time. Few Americans (of my acquaintance, at least) think of McDonald’s as an elegant place to relax and “be seen.” From a cultural point of view, McDonald’s, like many other products of industrialization and modernization, is treated by most Americans as simply a necessity of modern life. 21In Beijing, by contrast, the Big Mac was rapidly transformed into a form of haute cuisine, and McDonald’s became a place where people could gain status simply by eating there. A scrutiny of social interactions in Beijing’s McDonald’s reveals that what appears to be the same institution represents radically different things in the two societies. These differences are so profound that the presumed “American style” of the Beijing restaurants has itself been transformed; McDonald’s has become a caricature of its intended symbolic association. It represents a localized, Chinese version of Americana, as reflected in the following five aspects. First, Beijing McDonald’s consciously presents itself as a Chinese company, on the grounds that the Chinese partner owns 50 percent of the business. The company also emphasizes that 95 percent of the food used by Beijing McDonald’s, including potatoes and beef, is locally produced, and, of 1,400 staff members in 1994, only three held foreign passports, and all of them were ethnic Chinese. 22Here the intriguing point is that localization was precisely the goal of McDonald’s management in Beijing. A spokesman stated in 1993: “McDonald’s wants to be here long term. The hedging strategy is localization and expansion.” 23During a 1994 interview, Tim Lai, General Manager of Beijing McDonald’s, told me, “Ours is a company that provides millions of people with good service and high-quality fast food. In Beijing, McDonald’s should be local rather than American or exotic. It should become China’s McDonald’s.” He also emphasized that his goal was to make McDonald’s food part of the everyday diet of ordinary Beijing residents. While McDonald’s remains essentially American in terms of menu, services, and management, the company has made serious efforts to adapt to the Chinese cultural setting. To present itself as a local company, all the McDonald’s restaurants in Beijing actively participated in community affairs and established special relations with local schools and neighborhood committees. For instance, every year at the beginning of the new school term, McDonald’s presents small gifts, such as caps and stationery, to the first graders in the nearby schools, and offers Ronald McDonald Scholarships to those who excelled as students the previous year. 24On Teachers’ Day 1994, the staff members visited local schools and presented gifts to teachers. 25McDonald’s also delegated employees to help police officers direct traffic during rush hours and clean the street in front of its restaurants. More interestingly, the company hoists the Chinese national flag every morning in front of its major restaurant near Tiananmen Square, and a special flag-raising ceremony was organized on September 26, 1994, in anticipation of the Chinese National Day (October 1). People’s Liberation Army soldiers who guard the national flag in Tiananmen Square were invited to participate in this ceremony, turning the event into an important news story. 26 The second feature of the localization process is that McDonald’s, with its climate-controlled environment and soft music, has become a place to “hang out”–a function that contradicts its original, American purpose. During off-peak hours it is common for people to walk into McDonald’s just for a drink or a snack. Sitting with a milk shake or a packet of fries, customers often spend 30 minutes to an hour, and sometimes longer, chatting with one another, reading newspapers, or holding business meetings. I once observed two people seated in a McDonald’s restaurant for over two hours, discussing handbag sales. As indicated earlier, young couples and teenagers are particularly fond of frequenting McDonald’s because they consider the environment romantic. Women in all age groups tend to spend the longest time in McDonald’s, irrespective of whether they are alone or with friends. By contrast, unaccompanied men rarely linger after finishing their meal. The main reason for this gender difference, according to my informants, is the absence of alcoholic beverages at McDonald’s. My research confirmed the impression that most customers in Beijing claim their tables for longer periods of time than do their American counterparts. The average dining time in Beijing (autumn 1994) was 25 minutes during busy times and 51 minutes during slack periods. American-style fast food has obviously slowed down in Beijing. An interesting footnote to this phenomenon is that 32 percent of my informants in a survey of 97 college students regarded McDonald’s as a symbol of leisure and emphasized that they go there to relax. Similar views appear to be common among older people. In August 1994, I had an intensive interview with two retired women in their late fifties after I had seen them for the third time in less than two weeks at the same McDonald’s restaurant. They were sisters who lived in different parts of the city, one in the south and the other in the north. When the elder sister read the news of McDonald’s opening in April 1992, they decided to meet at the restaurant on Wangfujing Street, which is midway between their residences. It has become a routine for them to order a hamburger and a drink and then chat for one or two hours–sometimes even longer. They told me that they liked the setting; it is clean, bright, and air-conditioned, better than their memories of Beijing’s old-style teahouses. They were quite knowledgeable about McDonald’s; they knew about grand openings for restaurants in Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin, and closely followed news about working conditions and management issues. When I asked if there were other regular older customers like themselves, they said “of course,” and, smiling, told me they had made some new friends at McDonald’s. Beijing consumers have appropriated the restaurants not only as leisure centers but also as public arenas for various personal and family rituals. The most popular ritual (and also the one promoted by McDonald’s) is, of course, the children’s birthday party, about which I have more to say below. Although less formalized (and without the restaurant’s active promotion), private ceremonies are also held in the restaurants for adult customers, particularly for young women in peer groups (the absence of alcohol makes the site attractive to them). Of the 97 college students in my survey, 33 (including nine men) have attended personal celebrations at McDonald’s: birthday parties, farewell parties, celebrations for receiving a scholarship to an American university, and term-end parties. One academic couple in their early fifties told me that they have held family celebrations at McDonald’s restaurants to mark three occasions: their youngest son’s return after graduating from a university in another city, their thirtieth anniversary, and the wife’s recent salary increase. They chose McDonald’s as the site of these ceremonies for two reasons: (1) it is new and more stylish than what they perceive as the vulgar traditional Chinese restaurants; and (2) it is relatively inexpensive for a decent family banquet (they pointed out that it was difficult to spend more than 30 yuan at McDonald’s, whereas a good Chinese banquet may cost 100 yuan a head). Until its recent relocation, 27McDonald’s flagship restaurant near Tiananmen Square remained the most popular site for personal rituals and group activities. In May 1993, a group of young contemporary artists organized an exhibit to be held in this McDonald’s restaurant, displaying trendy art and fashionable clothes. Some items were politically charged, including a cowboy jacket with the former USSR national flag upside down on the back. This exhibit was sponsored by two research institutes in Beijing and, through personal connections, the organizers were able to mobilize some high-ranking officials and famous scholars to attend the show. At the last minute, Beijing public security closed the exhibit, on the grounds that it would cause a traffic jam. The real reason for police interference, according to several people involved, was the exhibit’s timing (close to the June 4th anniversary of the 1989 democracy demonstration) and the location (three blocks from Tiananmen Square). To date this is the only event with political implications involving a McDonald’s restaurant, but it does illustrate the ritual function that the fast food chain has assumed in the public perception of Beijing consumers. The multifunctional use of McDonald’s is due in part to the lack of cafes, teahouses, or ice cream shops in Beijing; it is also a consequence of the management’s effort to attract as many customers as possible by creating an inviting environment. It is clear that the local management has accepted their customers’ perceptions of McDonald’s as a special place which does not fit preexisting categories of public eateries. They have not tried to educate Beijing consumers to accept the American view that “fast food” means that one must eat fast and leave quickly. How does the management solve problems of space during busy hours? I was told that the problem was often selfresolved, because a huge crowd of customers naturally creates pressure on those who have finished their meal and, more important, during busy hours the environment is no longer relaxing. The emphasis on creating a Chinese-style family atmosphere constitutes the third feature of the localization process. The interior walls of local restaurants are covered by posters and slo gans emphasizing family values. To enhance the family atmosphere, McDonald’s has deliberately hired employees from different age groups and assigned some older employees to work in the dining area as receptionists (more on this below). It has become increasingly common for people of multiple generations in a family to have their Sunday lunch or dinner at McDonald’s. Given that many parents do not live with their married children in Beijing and that eating out is an important family event, such a meal embodies the harmony and solidarity of an extended family–the ideal of private life in Chinese culture. Understandably, Beijing McDonald’s has made its leading slogan, “Get together at McDonald’s; enjoy the happiness of family life” (huanju meidanglao; gong xiang jiating le). During holidays, such as Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival, the restaurants extend their hours, offer small gifts, and host various activities, such as performances by volunteers. The idea behind these activities, according to the General Manager, is to make McDonald’s seem like a real home for those customers who are unwilling or unable to go home for holidays. This family atmosphere has been repeatedly featured in local newspapers, which has in turn brought more customers into the restaurants. 28As a result, people coming alone to McDonald’s to save money and time, common in the United States, are rare in Beijing’s restaurants. It is well known that McDonald’s in the United States also presents itself as a family restaurant, and this image has been widely accepted by American consumers. According to Conrad Kottak, McDonald’s popularity partly rests on the fact that the restaurant offers a sanctuary, a home away from home, to Americans who are traveling or at home. “In this familiar setting, we do not have to consider the experience. We know what we will see, say, eat, and pay.” 29In other words, what makes McDonald’s a family restaurant in American society is its ordinariness, its predictability, and, of course, its low prices. Americans therefore frequent McDonald’s for a casual lunch rather than a formal dinner. For the same reason, Americans usually do not go to McDonald’s to celebrate a personal or family event, nor do they visit McDonald’s on holidays. In Beijing, by contrast, it is precisely the experience of eating foreign food that draws people to McDonald’s; in every respect (including the absence of chopsticks), McDonald’s represents the unfamiliar, extraordinary, nonroutine, and unhomelike. Thus, people frequent McDonald’s not for a casual lunch but for a formal meal or even a celebration. Consequently, Sundays and holidays are the busiest time for McDonald’s restaurants in Beijing. What makes McDonald’s a family restaurant is the restaurant’s effort to provide a pleasant and fashionable place for people to celebrate their family harmony and solidarity in public. The fourth feature of the localization of McDonald’s in Beijing is that, in contrast to the American practice of substituting technology for human workers, 30the Beijing McDonald’s relies heavily on personal interactions with customers. In everyday operations, one or two public relations staff in each outlet are always available to answer customers’ questions. Each restaurant assigns five to ten female receptionists to take care of children and talk with parents. These receptionists are referred to by the kinship title “Aunt McDonald,” following the common term for Ronald McDonald, known as “Uncle McDonald” in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Beijing. One task of these receptionists is to establish long-term friendships with children and other customers who frequent the restaurant, in the at tempt to personalize what might otherwise be a purely business transaction. 31Ms. Chen, a 21-year old “Aunt McDonald,” told me that after working in the restaurant for seven months, she had made more than 100 young friends, ranging in age from three to twelve. Children ran into the restaurant every day, she said, and greeted her: “Aunt McDonald, how are you?” (or, “Aunt Chen” if they know her last name). She usually talked with the children and their parents before they went to the counter to order food. Although admitting that making friends was her duty, she added: “This also makes me feel good, as if I am in a big family. I feel particularly happy and proud of myself when I walk down the street and children recognize me.” The feeling is obviously mutual: as several parents told me, their children come to McDonald’s not only for the food, but also for fun and the special attention they receive from the receptionists. A mother said: “The best part is the feeling that there is some renqtng [goodwill, concern, sentiment] at McDonald’s.” In a sense, therefore, McDonald’s management has responded to a local expectation of social interactions-namely, the need to build good personal feelings (renqlng) between staff and customers–to secure a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship. 32 Interestingly enough, Aunt and Uncle McDonald do not confine their activities to the restaurant. After making friends with the youngest customers, the staff members who play Aunt or Uncle McDonald record the children’s names, addresses, and birthdates on a special list called “Book of Little Honorary Guests.” Later they visit the children’s families and their kindergarten and primary schools. Congratulatory letters are sent to the children prior to their birthdays, with warm greetings from Uncle McDonald. 33 Finally, McDonald’s localization strategies have centered on children as primary customers. Because of the Chinese government’s single-child policy, 34in most families children are the object of attention and affection from up to half a dozen adults: their parents and their paternal and maternal grandparents. The demands of such children are always met by one or all of these relatives, earning them the title “Little Emperors” or “Empresses.” When a Little Emperor says, “I want to eat at McDonald’s,” this means that the entire family must go along. It is no wonder that McDonald’s management knows that “Children are our future.” The above-mentioned “Book of Little Honorary Guests” is only one of the strategies that Beijing McDonald’s has devised to introduce its product into the heart of Chinese families via the fantasy world of children. Birthday parties are a central feature of this strategy. Arriving with five or more guests, a child can expect an elaborate ritual performed, free of charge, in a special enclosure called “Children’s Paradise.” The ritual begins with an announcement over the restaurant’s loudspeakers–in both Chinese and Englishgiving the child’s name and age, together with Uncle McDonald’s congratulations. This is followed by the recorded song “Happy Birthday,” again in two languages. Aunt McDonald then entertains the children with games and presents each of them with small gifts from Uncle McDonald. During the ceremony all food and drinks are served by Aunt McDonald, making the children feel important. A feature of the “Little Emperor” phenomenon in contemporary China is that most parents want their one child to become an important personage in the future and thus make various investments in his or her education. It is common, for instance, for working-class parents who know little about mu sic or computers to attend a weekly piano lesson or computer class with their child. During the class they work even harder than their child does, because they want to be able to help with homework. Taking parents’ great expectations of their children into consideration, the McDonald’s management decided to promote learning in their restaurants. Paper and pens are provided so children can draw pictures; essay contests are held for primary and secondary school students; and children’s programs, with parents acting as the audience, are hosted in some restaurants. For instance, in September 1994, eight McDonald’s outlets in Beijing and Tianjin sponsored a “My Teacher” essay contest, to celebrate Teachers’ Day (September 10); the 160 winners of this contest received gifts and a Certificate of Merit from the restaurants. 35Every evening in a McDonald’s located in east Beijing, two “Aunt McDonald” receptionists lead children in dance for twenty minutes and then give the participants small gifts. The manager of this restaurant told me that, in order to make sure every child can participate in dancing, staff members create new kinds of dance for the children. “We want the parents to know,” she explained, “that children are attracted to our restaurant not only by food–there are a lot of things children can learn here.” In August 1994, the first McDonald’s “theme restaurant” was opened, inspired by famous theme parks such as Disneyland. The interior of the restaurant was decorated like a large ship, and staff members wore blue-and-white sailor uniforms instead of traditional McDonald’s uniforms. The restaurant has developed a program called Uncle McDonald’s Adventure, which encourages children to imagine that they are traveling around the world on a big ship guided by Uncle McDonald. The basic idea, according to the manager, is to increase chil dren’s knowledge of world geography and encourage them to create an imagined world by and for themselves. During my interviews with pupils in a primary school, I discovered that Ronald McDonald is a very popular figure among children. Not one of the 68 youngsters (from the third to sixth grade) I spoke with failed to recognize the image of Ronald McDonald; most students appeared very excited when I asked about him. All the children said they liked Ronald because he was funny, gentle, kind, and–several added–he understood children’s hearts. About one-third believed that Ronald McDonald came from America; the majority insisted that he came from the McDonald’s headquarters in Beijing. When I asked these children to tell me the most interesting experience they had had at McDonald’s, a sixth grader said it was the time he went to McDonald’s with four friends to celebrate his birthday, unaccompanied by adults. They made a reservation so that Aunt McDonald had prepared a table for them in advance and helped them recite poems, sing songs, and play games. A third-grader said she was very happy when she heard her own name announced over the loudspeakers at McDonald’s, accompanied by “Happy birthday to you.” When I was about to leave after finishing my group interview, a third grade boy ran up to me and asked: “Are you Uncle McDonald?”"No, I’m not. Why?”"You have his eyes.” Assuming a serious demeanor, the boy then showed me a pen with a small hamburger on it–a gift he had received from Ronald McDonald. It became clear to me that for this little boy and many of his friends, Uncle McDonald is real, and, as such, he is also an important influence on these children’s lives.   Conclusion: The Golden Arches in the Local-Global Nexus   McDonald’s experience in Beijing is a classic case of the “localization” of transnational systems. Efficiency and economic value–the two most important features of McDonald’s in the United States–appear to be far less significant in Beijing’s cultural setting. When Chinese workers load their families into a taxi and take them to McDonald’s, spending onesixth of their monthly income in the process, efficiency and economy are the least of their concerns. When customers linger in McDonald’s for hours, relaxing, chatting, reading, enjoying the music, or celebrating birthdays, they are taking the “fast” out of fast food. It is clear that McDonald’s restaurants in Beijing have been transformed into middle-class family establishments, where people can enjoy their leisure time and experience a Chinese version of American culture. This Chinese version of American culture, as stated at the beginning of this chapter, is a result of the interactions between the McDonald’s management and staff, on the one hand, and Beijing customers on the other hand. As a symbol of Americana and modernity, McDonald’s food became popular among the newly emerging middle class and also among ordinary citizens who were curious about American food. A consequence of the powerful appeal of representing Americana is the conversion of McDonald’s hamburgers and fries, ordinary daily fare in America, into precious and stylish foreign cuisine in Beijing. Such a transformation, however, is not to the company’s long-term advantage. Like other leading transnational corporations, McDonald’s development relies on its capability to increase consumer demand and expand the fast food market. McDonald’s foods are intended for large numbers of ordinary consumers and thus must be, as Sidney Mintz has noted, “transformed into the ritual of daily necessity and even into images of daily decency.” 53In other words, to build on their initial success, McDonald’s restaurants must localize their foods (and some of their cultural associations as well), converting them into something that is routine and ordinary for Beijing residents, while somehow maintaining their image as the symbol of the American way of life. This is why McDonald’s management has gone to such extraordinary lengths to fit into the local cultural setting. The other side of the localization process has two dimensions: (1) Beijing consumers’ appropriation of McDonald’s food and culture; and (2) the responses of local catering businesses and the rise of Chinese-style fast foods. The first dimension has been examined earlier in this chapter (one of the most obvious results of appropriation is the multifunctional use of McDonald’s outlets). The notion of fast food (kuaican) itself is not new in Chinese culinary culture, which also has something to do with the way consumers have appropriated McDonald’s food. I discovered that many informants regarded McDonald’s, together with KFC and Pizza Hut, as but one of many cuisines available in the national capital. The real fast food, they said, is hefan (which literally means “boxed rice”), the various foods in styrofoam boxes sold at street stalls. When people sit at a table in a comfortable restaurant like McDonald’s, they treat it as a formal event, and consequently spend as much time as possible over their food. The success of foreign fast food chains posed a challenge to the local catering industry and, starting in 1990, many local restaurants met this challenge by creating their own versions of fast food. They started by imitating KFC, and several kinds of fried chicken soon appeared on the market, with names like Ronghua Chicken and Xiangfei Roast Chicken. The competition between local imitators and foreign fast food chains peaked in 1992 and early 1993. Beijing media termed it the “fast food war.” 54Since then, most local competitors have turned to Chinese-style fast food, such as noodles, rice dishes, and Chinese pancakes. The best known example is the Beijing Fast Food Company, a corporation established in 1993 and comprising nearly a thousand local restaurants and street stalls. The company offered more than 50 varieties of food, including five set meals: roast duck, stir-fried rice, dumplings, noodles, and meat pancakes, all served with soup and an appetizer. 55Several of the leading figures in this business, former employees of KFC or McDonald’s who had learned management techniques on the job, claimed that, by combining modern methods of preparation and hygiene with traditional Chinese cuisine, they could recapture Beijing’s fast food market from the control of foreign chains. 56Interestingly enough, a key feature of this indigenization process is that McDonald’s has been taken as a model of management and food hygiene by local imitators as well as by government officials. I was told by a public relations officer that every month McDonald’s conducts several dozen tours of its restaurants for the benefit of local government officials or catering companies. 57The most famous restaurant in Beijing–Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant–sent its management staff to McDonald’s in 1993, and then introduced its own “roast duck fast food” in early 1994. 58 This study demonstrates that analysts would be well advised to pay more attention to the responses of local people before drawing grand conclusions about the impact of transnational corporations. The emerging global culture is marked by diversity rather than uniformity, because local cultures, as Richard Adams notes, “continue to yield new emergent social entities, new adaptive forms brought into being in order to pursue survival and reproduction both through and in spite of the specific work of capitalism.” 59Daniel Miller’s analysis of an American soap opera in Trinidad reveals, for instance, that Trinidadian audiences have positively appropriated this foreign product into their social life. The geographic origin of imported culture has become increasingly less relevant; what really matters is its local consequence. 60 In my view, the most significant contribution made by transnational institutions like McDonald’s is that people can use them as bridges to other cultures. In the present case, it is American culture that makes the Beijing McDonald’s ultimately attractive to Chinese consumers. The customers want a “taste” of America, and the outcome of their pursuit is the creation of a Chinese version of American fast food culture. McDonald’s success in Beijing can therefore be understood only in the context of this localization process. Given the centuries-long development of Chinese cuisine, it is only natural that foreign foods have undergone the transformative process of localization. It is also tempting to predict that, twenty years from now, the “American” associations that McDonald’s carries today will become but dim memories for older residents. A new generation of Beijing consumers may treat the Big Mac, fries, and shakes simply as local products.                                                       Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

McDonald’s in Beijing: The Localization of Americana

CHAPTER 1 McDonald’s in Beijing: The Localization of Americana On April 23, 1992, the largest McDonald’s restaurant in the worl...