A Study of Cross-Cultural Adaption of Kfc in China

Chapter One INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................1
1.1 Significance of the Study .............................................................................................1
1.2 Research Purposes .....................................................................................................3
1.3 General Organization ...................................................................................................4
Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................6
2.1 Cultural Patterns...........................................................................................................6
2.2 Cultural Adaptation Theory .........................................................................................8
2.2.1 Adaptation ...........................................................................................................9
2.2.2 Kim’s Cross-cultural Adaptation Theory and Model ........................................ 11
2.3 Related Studies........................................................................................................... 18
2.3.1 Studies abroad ................................................................................................... 18
2.3.2 Studies in China ................................................................................................ 29
Chapter Three METHODOLOGY....................................................................................... 22
3.1 Research Questions .................................................................................................... 22
3.2 Subjects ...................................................................................................................... 23
3.3 Instruments................................................................................................................. 23
3.4 Procedure ................................................................................................................... 25
3.5 Data Collection .......................................................................................................... 25
Chapter Four RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS .................................................................. 26
4.1 Discussionsof the results of the Questionnaire .......................................................... 26
4.1.1 Discussions of the Results on Environment...................................................... 26
4.1.2 Discussions of the Results on Reasons of Choosing KFC................................ 30
4. 1. 3 Comparison of Promotion Strategies ................................................................ 37
4.2 Results and Discussions of the Follow-up Survey......................................................... 39
4.3 Comprehensive Discussions of the Whole Investigation ............................................. 44
Chapter Five CONCLUSION .............................................................................................. 48
5.1 Major Findings........................................................................................................... 48
5.2 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies....................................................... 51
References............................................................................................................................ 53Appendix I ........................................................................................................................... 58
AppendixⅡ.......................................................................................................................... 62List of Figures
Figure 1 Forms of Acculturation.......................................................................................... 11
Figure 2 Relationships among Items Associated with Cross-cultural Adaptation............... 12
Figure 3 Factors Influencing Cross-cultural Adaptation: Kim’s (1988, 1995, 2001)
Structural Model .................................................................................................. 15
Figure 4 The Comparison among all the Promotion Strategies ........................................... 37List of Tables
Table 1 Choices concerning Host Receptivity ................................................................... 27
Table 2 Choices concerning Host Conformity Pressure and Ethnic Group Strength .......... 29
Table 3 Choices concerning Quality of Food and Services ............................................... 31
Table 4 Choices concerning Promotion Strategies ............................................................ 31
Table 5 Choices concerning Cross-cultural Adaptation Measures ...................................... 31
Table 6 Choices concerning Effect of Cross-cultural Adaptation Measures ..................... 35
Table 7 Choices about other Reasons for Choosing KFC .................................................. 36Chapter One
INTRODUCTION
The first chapter serves as an introductory part of the thesis, in which the significance and research objectives will be elaborated and then the general organization of the thesis will be laid out and expounded respectively.
1.1 Significance of the Study
The ongoing process of globalization and the increase of the linkage among the world’s unique cultural groups make contribution to a potential consequence called cultural homogenization, the convergence of the indigenous cultures of the world into a universal culture, which is definitely of hybrid characteristics (Wang Chunyang, 2007).
Generally speaking, the globalization-localization dialectic entity suggests that on one hand the globalization involves the linkage of their own locales to the wider world; on the other hand, the localization incorporates trends of globalization. As a result, cultures should be developing hybrid characteristics.
Marketing across cultures is a kind of cross-cultural communication itself, so as cultures go through such changes, international marketing has to obey the rules. What is more, the era of global marketing has come, which will be proved by the following numbers: the percentage of China gross domestic products coming from international trade having ballooned about 20% in the recent years and the percentage of U.S.A. gross domestic products coming from international trade jumping from 5% to 20% in the last 25 years. Global advertising spending topped $400 billion for the first time in 1998, which has been increasing gradually (Wang Chunyang, 2007). Seeking market research information on a global basis is the first step to face and take up the international marketing challenges.
Every year more than 4000 products are introduced into the global marketplace while 85% of the products fail (Wang Chunyang, 2007). Most of these products failed because the
1businessmen did not obey the cultural rules or recognize the present cultural developing tendency，even if these products were of high quality and sold at reasonable prices with sound marketing strategies.
As a successful case, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) creates extraordinary achievements in the Chinese market, which shows not only the value of marketing strategies and the importance of quality but also the function of cross-cultural adaptation.
The thesis is to expound cross-cultural adaptation process of KFC in China. KFC, a traditional American fast food brand, creates unparalleled achievements in China, which means to defeat the long-term counterpart Mc-Donald in terms of economic benefits, the numbers of branches and brand recognition degree by the Chinese consumers. According to the results of an investigation carried out by a world renowned and authentic company,
AC Nielsen in 30 cities in China in the form of 16677 questionnaires in 1999, KFC as the first foreign fast food restaurant in China has been a famous brand of tens of thousands brands in China because of its unique taste, services with high quality as well as attractive promotion strategies. In a word, it has been playing a more and more important role in promoting the whole culinary industry.
When it comes to the great success of KFC in China, it is inevitable for the researchers to mention the creative cross-cultural adaptation measures taken by KFC in the
Chinese market. After all, market especially international market represents the functions of culture and business cultural environment is a crucial factor for the development and enlargement of market. On the basis of Kim’s cross-cultural adaptation theory and structural model, the thesis is to elaborate the underlying relationships between the cross-cultural measures taken by KFC and its development and great success in the
Chinese market. So although KFC is a typical American cultural product, in China it not only shows American cultural features but also denotes Chinese traditions and characteristics. In addition, the thesis pays attention to exploring the factors impeding or facilitating cross-cultural adaptation process, with Kim’s cross-cultural adaptation structural model as the theoretical foundation.
2In a word, the author sincerely expects that the study of the successful promotion of
KFC in the Chinese market, to some extent, brings the future researchers some instructive suggestions in conducting cross-cultural marketing. Besides, the study also attempts to help improve cross cultural communicative competence in the field of international marketing and help the businessmen handle international businesses especially cross-cultural marketing effectively from the cultural perspective.
1.2 Research Purposes
From the elaboration above, the study of the cross-cultural adaptation of KFC in
China is of great significance in the field of cross-cultural communication as well as cross-cultural marketing. With the rapid development of economic globalization, international business communication and cooperation have been carried out in all dimensions and levels. International trading and manufacturing activities not only cross the geographic boundaries but also cross the cultural ones, which make international business activities a special kind of cross-cultural communications.
As there are different cultures and social norms, there are a lot of differences among the consumers from different cultural groups. However, people all over the world at the same time can easily get access to the new channels, such as internet, e-commerce, to have their common heroes, music types, commodities, etc. That is to say the increasing wealth of nations has created a group of consumers who may have more in common despite profound cultural differences. In addition, these new channels also make a contribution to getting rid of the cultural obstacles and reinforcing the common sympathy concerning the consumption and life quality. KFC, Mickey, Nike and so on are no longer unacquainted even in the relatively backward societies nowadays.
Therefore, an investigation in the form of questionnaire which is followed up by a survey was conducted in Hefei, Anhui Province in order to investigate KFC’s success in the Chinese market. The whole investigation, consisting of one questionnaire and a
3follow-up survey, mainly aims at three aspects: environment, predisposition and intercultural transformation, all of which serve for the core category called host communicative competence in Kim’s cross-cultural adaptation structural model. The questions in the questionnaire and follow-up survey mainly cover the three aspects and they are designed to find out the answers to the following questions:
1) What is the environmental influence on the success of KFC in Chinese market?
2) What is the predispositional influence on the success of KFC in Chinese market?
3) To what extent does the intercultural transformation make contribution to the successful promotion of KFC in China?
4) To what extent does the whole cross-cultural adaptation process contribute to the success of KFC compared with other business promotion strategies?
The data collected from the questionnaires and follow-up survey will be analyzed respectively from the three aspects and the results will be presented in the form of tables which are followed by further discussions. It is sincerely hoped that the thesis can make some contribution to the studies on cross-cultural adaptation as well as enriching the studies on cross-cultural communication in business contexts.
1.3 General Organization
The whole thesis includes five chapters, of which Chapter Four serves as the core.
Chapter One introduces the significance and objectives of the study as well as the overall organization of the thesis. Chapter Two, serving as the theoretical foundations, consists of two parts: the first part is to introduce and explain some related terms such as cultural pattern and cross-cultural adaptation; the second part is to review related studies at home and abroad. Chapter Three covers the methodology which the thesis has employed in the whole investigation, including research questions raised, the subjects chosen, instruments applied, procedures followed and the process of data collected. As the main body of the thesis, Chapter Four analyzes the results of the questionnaire and follow-up survey and the
4results are stated in the form of tables and charts, followed by further discussions. In the last chapter, major findings of the study are summarized and the limitations are also stated out with some advice proposed for the further studies.
5Chapter Two
LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, the theoretical foundations are elaborated in terms of related items, theories and relationships among them. Firstly, the author explains cultural patterns, which is fundamental to the subsequent chapters. Secondly, cultural adaptation theory is presented and analyzed including the elaboration of adaptation as well as related items such as assimilation, integration, separation and marginalization and Yong Yun Kim’s cross-cultural adaptation theory and structural model. Finally, the relevant studies both at home and abroad are presented.
2.1 Cultural Patterns
There is a strong relationship between the foundations of cultural patterns and cross-cultural competence (Lusting & Koester, 2007, p. 105). Thus, cultural patterns will be defined and discussed in order to have a better understanding of Kim’s cross-cultural adaptation structural model (2001). Besides, the review and analysis of cultural patterns may contribute to our better understanding of importance of cross-cultural adaptation to human civilization development and business prosperity.
Even if you have had limited contact with people from other cultures, you will know that they differ in both obvious and subtle ways. An obvious cultural difference is in the food people eat, for example, people identify pasta with Italy, stuffed grape leaves with
Greece and Turkey, sushi with Japan, curry with India and Southeast Asia and kimchi with
Korean (Lusting & Koester, 2007, p. 84). However, what is more important than what we see or hear is what is behind. Simply speaking, these shared beliefs, values, norms and social practices that are stable over time and that lead to similar behaviors across similar
6situation are known as cultural patterns, and Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1960) believes that each culture selects a preferred set of choices to address common human issues and affect perceptions of competence. Although they cannot be seen, heard, or experienced directly, they are important in the development and maintenance of cultures and play a crucial role in shaping judgments about cross-cultural competence. Cultural patterns focus on the way in which cultures orient themselves to activities, social relations, the self, the world and time, of which the orientation to activities, especially to culinary styles is what the thesis will pay attention to. According to the studies conducted by the former researchers, the differences about eating habits between China and the Western countries are found in three aspects: the values, the etiquettes and the concrete menu (Gao Yongchen,
2006, p. 171).
As for cultural patterns, four key terms should be discussed: beliefs, values, norms and social practices which altogether constitute the major components (Lusting & Koester,
2007, p. 87).
According to the interpretation of these four terms in Intercultural Competence:
Interpersonal Communication Across Cultures (5 th Edition), a belief is an idea which people assume to be true about the world and beliefs are a set of learned interpretations that form the basis for certain cultural members to decide what is and what is not logical and correct. As the desired characteristics or goals of a culture, values involve what a culture regards as good or bad, right or wrong, fair or unfair, just or unjust, beautiful or ugly, clean or dirty, valuable or worthless, appropriate or inappropriate, and kind or cruel. Unlike beliefs and values, norms which are defined as the socially shared expectations of appropriate behaviors may change over a period of time. The last crucial term, social practices, are the predicable behavior patterns that members of a culture typically follow.
Therefore, among the four terms, social practices are the outward manifestations of beliefs, values and norms.
Many scholars such as Florence Kluckhohn and Fred Strodtbeck (1960) have been working for many years to study the functions of cultural patterns and have described
7systematic variations both between and within cultures. Therefore, the food a group of people eating and the table manners a group of people observing through time have been arousing the attentions of anthropologists.
To summarize, cultural patterns provide a specific framework to investigate cultural differences and clearly display the beneath reasons of differences. Although the world is going through changes, it is difficult for people to abandon their long-time established beliefs and values. So it is no wonder that KFC has to obey these deeply rooted principles for its everlasting prosperity in Chinese market. However, with the development of globalization on one hand and keeping cultural diversity and uniqueness on the other hand, cultures gradually own hybrid characteristics as cross-cultural adaptation processes go on.
Thus, it is just the first step for researchers to analyze the differences and similarities, because conquering the differences while keeping the uniqueness of every nation’s own culture at the same time is of profound significance. Then, it is of great necessity to carry out investigations on cross-cultural adaptation which is a way for cultures to develop and evolve. 2.2 Cultural Adaptation Theory
The previous part about cultural patterns indicates that people from different cultural groups think and act in different ways. However, contacting with others has never been stopping under any circumstances since the ancient times. Cross-cultural communication is a long established subject in human civilization history. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of historical and contemporary evidence suggesting that contacts between members of different cultures do not always lead to good feelings (Lusting & Koester, 2007, p. 157).
According to William Gudykunst (2007), although the factors leading to cordial and courteous interactions among people from different cultural groups are very complicated, the outcomes of such contacts are replete with references to individual, which are made to people who go native and who adjust or adapt to life in the new cultures, and cultural
8changes, which are made to those who retain their own cultural identity by living in cultural ghetto. It is generally accepted that cross-cultural communication creates stress for most people and most people gradually find themselves incorporating at least some behaviors from the new culture into their own repertoire. So it is the same with KFC under the pressure of Chinese cultural traditions in the Chinese market. When facing such pressure, some choose to persist in the traditions, but others choose to be part of it with their own features, which leads to the hybrid characteristics of cultures. The latter way is said to be cross-cultural adaptation.
2. 2.1 Adaptation
Anyone who is challenged by unfamiliar surroundings to be engaged in is at least experiencing some new cultural leanings and modifications in old cultural habits to a certain extent. The process of this phenomenon involves cross-cultural adaptation.
Efforts to understand and explain the cross-cultural adaptation phenomenon, which is complicated in nature and manifests itself in variety of existing conceptions, have crossed the boundaries of disciplines.
During 1930s’, the term acculturation was formally adopted as a concept representing the new area of study dealing with those phenomena which result from the following situations: groups of individuals from different cultures come into firsthand contact with subsequent changes in the original pattern of either or both groups (Redfield, Linton, &
Herskovits,1936, p.149). By viewing acculturation as a group phenomenon, anthropological studies traditionally observed the dynamics of changes in primitive cultures, the presence of kin, friends and ethnic community organizations in supporting immigrants (Eames & Schwab, 1964).
Lusting and Koester (2007, p. 161) proposed that adaptation was the process by which people established and maintained relatively stable, helpful and mutually shared relationships with others upon relocating to unfamiliar cultural settings. Lusting and
9Koester commented that this definition suggested when individuals tried to adapt to another culture, they must learn how to “fit” themselves into it. Adaptation includes physical, biological and social changes. Alternatively, the cultures itself may change because of the influence of people from other cultures. Societies have sometimes expressed the distress as the Westernization or Urbanization of their own cultures. Therefore, adaptation is preferred to refer to the pattern of accommodation and acculturation that result from people’s contact experience with another culture.
As a complex process, ample efforts have been made to study adaptation process, which is not as simple as the U—curve and the W—curve hypotheses (Lusting & Koester,
2007, p. 163) provided, because a lot of researchers found that adaptation process has multiple dimensions or factors associated with it, for example, Mitchell R. Hammer,
William B. Gudykunst and Richard L. Wiseman (1978, pp. 382-393) and Guo-Ming Chen
(1992, pp. 33-41).
As for the types of adaptation, four important terms should be mentioned: assimilation, integration, separation and marginalization which are the different outcomes produced in intercultural communication, resulting from different answers to two important questions: the first one is whether it is important to maintain one’s cultural identity and to display its characteristics; the second one is whether people believe it is important to maintain relationships with their outside groups (Lusting & Koester, 2007, p. 166).
Lusting and Koester (2007) clarified in their book entitled Intercultural Competence:
Interpersonal Communication Across Culture (5 th Edition) that assimilation occurred when it was deemed relatively unimportant to maintain one’s original cultural identity but it was important to establish and maintain relationships with other cultures, which meant taking on the new culture’s beliefs, values, norms and social practices. However, when individuals or groups retained their original cultural identity while seeking to maintain harmonious relationships with other cultures, integration occurred. When individuals or groups did not want to maintain positive relationships with members of other groups, the outcomes were starkly different. If a culture did not want positive relationships with another culture and if
10it also wished to retain its cultural characteristics, separation may result. Different reasons may lead to different separations, called segregation and seclusion respectively. If a separation occurred because the more politically and economically powerful culture wanted the cross-cultural contacts, the result of the forced separation was called segregation. If non-dominant groups choose not to participate in the larger society in order to retain their own ways of life, the separation was called seclusion. But when individuals or groups neither retained their heritage nor maintained positive contacts with the other groups, marginalization occurred. This form of adaptation was characterized by confusion and alienation. The choice of separation and marginalization were reactions against other cultures. What the four terms come down to is what Figure 1 displays: the complicated underlying relationships among the four items.
Figure 1: Forms of acculturation
Source: John W. Berry, Unichol Kim and Pawel Boski, “Psychological Acculturation of
Immigrants,” Cross-cultural adaptation: Current approaches, ed. Young Yun Kim and William Gudykunst. Cited from Lusting & Koester (2007, p. 161).
2.2.2 Kim’s Cross-cultural Adaptation Theory and Model
The complex nature of cross-cultural adaptation manifests itself in the variety of
Is it considered valuable to maintain cultural identity and characteristics?
(Yes) (No)
Is it considered valuable to maintain (Yes) relationships with other groups?
( No)
Integration Assimilation
Separation Marginalization
11conceptions. Therefore, a variety of terms have been applied to refer to what is essentially the same process, for example, assimilation, adjustment, acculturation and even coping are used to describe how individuals respond to their experiences in other cultures and how people from other culture react to prolonged contacts with those from another one.
Through investigation and library-reading, Kim makes an inclusive comparison about the terms and forms her own understanding of the process. So the thesis is to mention her
Cross-cultural Adaptation Structural Model (2001).
According to Kim’s paper entitled Adapting to an unfamiliar culture: An interdisciplinary overview in Cross-cultural and intercultural communication
(Gudykunst, 2007, pp. 243-245), assimilation has often been employed to emphasize acceptance and internalization of the host culture while acculturation has been defined as the process by which individuals acquire some aspects of host culture ( see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Relationships among Terms Associated with Cross-cultural Adaptation
Enculturation Assimilation
Acculturation
Source: Cross-cultural and intercultural communication by Gudykunst (2007, p. 245).
The term adaptation in the title of Figure 2 is employed to refer to the dynamic process by which individuals, upon relocating to an unfamiliar cultural environment, establish and maintain a relatively stable, reciprocal, and functional relationship with the environment (Kim, 2001). At the core of the definition is the goal of achieving an overall person to environment fit for maximization of one’s social life changes. Adaptation, thus, is an activity that is almost a compromise, a vector in the internal structure of culture and the
De -culturation
12external pressure of the environment (Sshlins, 1964, p. 136).
Firstly, cross-cultural adaptation is a phenomenon that occurs subsequent to the process of childhood enculturation or socialization of individuals into recognizable members of a given cultural community.
Secondly, all individuals entering a new and unfamiliar culture undergo some degree of new cultural learning, that is, the acquisition of the native cultural practices in wide-ranging areas, particularly in areas of direct relevance to the daily functioning of the re-settlers, from attire and the food habits to behavioral norms and cultural values.
Finally, as the new learning occurs, de-culturation or unlearning of some of the old cultural habits has to occur, at least in the sense that new responses are adopted in situations that previously would have evoked old ones. The act of acquiring something new is inevitably the losing of something old in much the same way as “being someone requires the forfeiture of being someone else (Thayer, 1975, p. 240). As the interplay of acculturation and de-culturation continues, newcomers undergo an internal transformation in the direction of assimilation, a state of the highest degree of acculturation and de-culturation theoretically possible.
This theory provides the framework to study cross-cultural adaptation process because it not only defines adaptation and related terns, but also elaborates the whole process step by step. However, they are just the preliminary steps, because such theories lack field work and they could not provide any method to investigate the factors facilitating or impeding the whole process. It is easy to guess the macro-process, but as a social phenomenon cross-cultural adaptation process is changeable and unstable. So it is necessary to put forward a set of controllable variables to monitor the whole process, especially short-term adaptations which lack researches and begin to increase during 1960s stimulated by the
Peace Corp movement, the increase in international students exchange programs and multinational trading. Many companies find that their overseas operations are hampered because their staff members and sometimes their measures are not effective in coping with the unfamiliar social and business practices. If there are no controllable variables for
13investigators to monitor cross-cultural adaptation processes, these problems could not be solved. Therefore, many investigators have proposed models to explain the phenomenon after field work to search generalized patterns of cross-cultural adaptation process.
Incorporating these related concepts, Kim (1988, 1995 and 2001) has proposed an integrative communication-based multidimensional model named Kim’s Structural Model, which shows a way to understand the commonalities in both the long term and short term adaptation. What is more, the Structural Model is placed in a broader explanatory system by focusing on multitudes of other adaptation facilitating or adaptation impeding factors of individual predisposition, the new environment and communication activities linking the person and the environment (see Figure3).
Figure 3: Factors Influencing Cross-cultural Adaptation: Kim’s (1988, 1995, 2001)
Structural Model.
Source: Adapted from Cross-cultural and Intercultural Communication by William W.
Gudykunst (2007, p. 251)
Notes: HC = host communication, HCC = host communication competence,
EC = ethnic communication, Com = communication
Environment：
Host receptivity, host conformity pressure and ethnic group strength
Predisposition:
Preparedness for changes; ethnic proximity; Adaptive personality Social Com.
HC HCC
EC
Personal Com.
Intercultural
transformation:
Functional fitness; psychological health; intercultural identity.
14According to Gudykunst’s (2007) comments on the structural model, adaptation applied in Figure 3 is neither an independent variable nor a dependent variable but as the entirety of the phenomenon itself, with six dimensions of factors and their interdependent relationships to expound the differential rates at which adaptation process unfolds over time. At the core of this structural model is host communication competence (HCC), which serves as the engines of the adaptation process. Inseparably linked with host communication competence are activities of host communication and ethnic communication. The highlights of the structural model are the three identified conditions called environment, predisposition and intercultural transformation. Environment in Figure
3 covers host receptivity, host conformity pressure and ethnic group strength; predisposition consists of preparedness for the life in the host environment, the degree of the individual’s ethnic proximity to the dominant ethnicity of the environment and the degree of openness and strength of the individual’s personalities; intercultural transformation includes functional fitness, psychological health and intercultural identity.
The three conditions are not of equal positions in the structural model, because environment and predisposition are explained in this theory as facilitating or impeding one’s intercultural transformation embodied in his or her functional fitness, psychological health, and intercultural identity development (Gudykunst, 2007, p. 252).
Cross-cultural adaptation is a two-way process, so it is necessary to take the inside aspect (environment) and the outside aspect (predisposition) into consideration during the research process.
In Kim’s Structural Model, adaptation is defined on the basis of communication including personal and social ones. Cross-cultural adaptation assumes that attitudes and behaviors will ultimately change. Without an understanding of positive conditions bringing about the changes, ethnic people can remain trapped, victims of negative experiences that prevent acculturation. In the long run, adaptation processes result from stretching and experiencing the inevitable stresses and Kim explained the growth process in her
15stress-adaptation-growth model (Gudykunst, 2007, pp. 248-249). Kim’s research proposes that adaptation is an accumulation but progressive series of positive and negative experiences. There may be two steps forward and one step backward, as we move toward adaptation only to be pulled into stress. We do not always adapt in a smooth, continuous process. Pictured as a soiled spring which stretches and grows but is pulled back by its own tension, the stress-adaptation-growth dynamic ultimately depicts adaptation in the new culture (Dodd, 2006, p. 163-164).
To sum up, the adaptation process can be viewed, as Kim indicates, as a model predicting adaptation.
Kim links a person’s adaptation predisposition with host culture’s receptivity. These two together influence the immigrant’s communication competence and social participation in interpersonal and mass communication. These communication factors, in turn activate adaptation outcomes (including stress, intercultural identity and functional abilities). In a word, the idea is that one’s personal motivation and the host culture’s facilitation open up windows of possibility for immigrants to communicate interpersonally and be exposed to mass communication. Communication with the host culture and, to a lesser extent, with members of the ethnic culture, leads to cross-cultural adaptation (Dodd,
2006, p.166). As an engine during the cross-cultural adaptation process, host communication competence plays a crucial role in carrying out the communication activities linking the environment and people in society. Intercultural competent communicators integrate a wide array of culture-general knowledge into their behavioral repertoires and they are able to apply that knowledge to the specific cultures with which they interact. They are also able to respond emotionally and behaviorally with a wide range of choices in order to act appropriately and effectively within the constraints of each situation. They have typically and extensive intercultural communication experiences and they have learned to adjust to alternative patterns of thinking and behaving (Lusting, 2007,
p. 168).
Predisposition which consists of preparedness for change, ethnic proximity as well as
16adaptive personality mainly focuses on the newcomers’ preparedness for adjusting to the new cultural environment as well as their adaptive capability. So predisposition mainly covers dimensions such as preparedness for change, ethnic proximity as well as adaptive personality, which are employed to investigate the newcomers’ capability to accustom to the new cultural environment.
To the contrary, environment refers to host receptivity, host conformity pressure and ethnic group strength which altogether discuss the host’s attitudes towards the outsiders as well as their cultures. The attitudes provide pre-conditions for cross-adaptation actions in the future. Therefore, it is of significance to conduct a deep-going research on the environment from the perspective of receptivity as well as cultural pressure of the host for the newcomers to conform.
Except for the predisposition and host environment, Young Yun Kim and Brent Ruben
(1988, p. 313-314) also proposed the term: intercultural transformation which is used to describe the process by which individuals move beyond the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of their initial cultural framework to incorporate other cultural realities embodied in functional fitness, psychological health and intercultural identity. The process is proposed by Yong Yun Kim and Brent Ruben in their work entitled Intercultural transformation: A system Approach (1988) as follows:
The process of becoming intercultural---of person transformation from cultural to intercultural—is a process of growth beyond one’s original cultural conditioning. One consequence of extensive communication experiences and the subsequent internal transformation is the development of a cultural identity that is far from being “frozen.” An intercultural person’s cultural identity is characteristically open to further transformation and growth. This does not mean that a highly intercultural person’s identity is cultural-free or cultureless. Rather, it is not rigidly bound by memberships to any one particular culture. … A second consequence [of an intercultural transformations] …is a cognitive structure that enables a broadened and deepened understanding of human conditions and cultural differences and a view of things that are larger than any one cultural
17perspective…The increased cognitive depth and breadth is, in turn, likely to facilitate corresponding emotional and behavioral capacities a s well.
To summarize, this is a complete model to monitor cross-cultural adaptation process with three controllable variables. However, Kim’s field work just focuses on immigrants as human beings. As the development of multi-national corporations, the products these corporations offer also experience a kind of cross-cultural communication, during which some fail to begin so-called product life cycle, because they fail to adapt to the local culture. 2.3 Related Studies
2.3.1 Studies abroad
In the West, the study of cross-cultural adaptation could be traced back to 1960s’ and there have been abundant works and papers on it, ranging from abstract theories to concrete practices.
It is reported that there are at least 15 theories covering different aspects of intercultural communication, among the thesis focuses on how communicators adapt to each other (Gudykunst, 2007, p. 171): intercultural adaptation theory (e.g. Ellingsworth,
1983; Kim, 1988, 1995, 2000).
Ellingsworth (1983) assumed that all communication involved some degree of cultural variability. He suggested that explaining intercultural communication and cultural factors needed incorporating. His theory (1983) is designed to explain how communicators adapt to each other in “purpose-related encounters.” In 1988, he updated his theory by expanding discussion of the laws and propositions.
In 1977, Kim published Communication Patterns of Foreign Immigrants in the
Process of Acculturation; in 1988, she finished Communication and Cross-cultural
Adaptation: An Integrative Theory, in which she elaborated the intercultural adaptation including the definition, the classification and the components of the theory. She compared
18different concepts in this field and finally proposed the integrative theory. In the following investigations, she observed the immigrants in America from different countries and she was gradually perfecting her former theory. In 1989, she finished Personal, Social and
Economic Adaptation: the Case of 1975-1979 Arrivals in Illinois and then in 1995 she republished Cross-cultural Adaptation: An Integrative Theory, which was considered to be a revised version of the one in 1988.In addition, in 2001, she published Becoming
Intercultural: An Integrative Theory of Communication and Cross-cultural Adaptation, in which the Cross-cultural Adaptation Structural Model was much more comprehensive and inclusive. However, the facts and materials in her investigation are mostly drawn from the lives of immigrants in America, so the study is mainly confined to daily life of those immigrants. To sum up, the Western scholars mainly focus on the individual’s adaptation to personal and social life in a new and unfamiliar cultural environment but not a corporation in an unfamiliar marketing environment, because most of Kim’s and Giles’ field work focusing on the immigrants’ daily life and their adaptation process. Kim’s (2001) theory is based on extensive researches within the immigrants to the United States of America. She has conducted researches with Korean immigrants, Japanese Americans and Mexican
American, among others (Gudykunst, 2007, p. 181).
In conclusion, these mature theories and work are extremely valuable and important for this investigation and provide solid theoretical foundation and methods to carry out the investigations conducted by the author.
2.3.2 Studies in China
In China, the academic study of intercultural communication in linguistic circle didn’t begin until Professor Hu Wenzhong in1980s’ wrote Intercultural Communication and What
It Means to Chinese Learners of English, which laid the foundation to study cross-cultural adaptation. More and more people conduct researches on cross-cultural adaptation in recent years and there also emerge abundant works and papers.
19One of the worth mentioning figures is Professor Jiazu Gu. In 1999, he published a paper entitled Coexistence of Globalization and Localization in which he elaborated the underlying relationships between the two forces and laid a key note for the studies on cross-cultural adaptation process.
Guoming Chen found that communicator adaptability and interaction with others were major positive contributors to international students’ ability to cope with adjustment difficulties in the United States in his paper named Communication adaptability and interaction involvement as predictors of cross-cultural adjustment ( Guoming Chen, 1992, pp. 33-41).
Another relevant scholar is Professor Gao Yongchen. In the paper Cultural
Globalization and Disciplinary Development of Intercultural Communication Mission,
Tendency and Perspectives in 2008, she visualized the future tendency of this dialectic process. With the help of Professor Gao, the author got Professor Zhang Weidong’s unpublished paper: Case study of Mc Donald and Chinese cuisine, in which he pointed out how the foreign culture interacts with Chinese culture.
Besides the professors in linguistic circle, many scholars in other fields, business and international trade in particular, also touch up on cultural studies and make more efforts to investigate the intercultural communication, for example, Wang Chunyang in his book entitled Intercultural Business Communication puts forwards some ideas about intercultural marketing with many authentic business cases as supporting details. Dou
Weling’s book entitled A Case Study of Intercultural Business Communication suggests the importance of cultural adaptation in intercultural business communication. Xiong Yuanbiao focuses on the world marketing and the compatibility and integration capability of localization. More specifically, it is Ma Yong who has written a paper entitled Cultural
Adaptation in International Marketing, in which he expounded the importance of cultural adaptation to international marketing success.
From the above-mentioned researches and writings, we can see that abundant researches and studies have been done in this field both on theoretical level and practical
20level at home as well as abroad.
To sum up, there are many sound works and papers serving as references for the thesis both at home and abroad. On the basis of these previous achievements, the thesis attempts to conduct a study on KFC’s cross-cultural adaptation in the hope that it can enrich the study of cross-cultural adaptation to a certain extent.
21Chapter Three
METHODOLOGY
This chapter is to deal with the methodology applied in the study. It begins with the major research questions followed by a description of the subjects and the instruments employed. And then the procedures of the whole investigation are introduced and elaborated. Finally, the author expounds how the way to collect data from both questionnaire and follow-up survey.
3.1 Research Questions
The international trading and manufacturing activities not only cross the geographic boundaries but also cross cultural ones, which makes international business activities a special kind of cross-cultural communication. The successful promotion of KFC is of great significance for the study on international marketing and cross-cultural adaptation process.
It is said that KFC has been gradually incorporating Chinese cultural elements and features into itself, from the menu, the decoration to the market strategies applied. However, it still remains its unique American style and flavor. By means of cross-cultural adaptation, KFC, the traditional American fast food, adapts itself to the Chinese market successfully and achieves extraordinary achievements in the Chinese market. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct an investigation to thoroughly explore the cross-cultural adaptation process initiated by KFC, which will ultimately enrich the studies on international marketing and cross-cultural adaptation processes. The most important purpose is to identify the cross-cultural adaptation facilitating and impeding factors during the processes.
To sum up, the investigation intends to find answers to the following questions:
1) What is the influence of the present situations of environment on the success of KFC
22in Chinese market?
2) What is the influence of the present situations of predisposition on the success of
KFC in Chinese market?
3) To what extent does the intercultural transformation make contribution to the successful promotion of KFC in China?
4) To what extent does the whole cross-cultural adaptation process contribute to the success of KFC compared with other business promotion strategies?
3.2 Subjects
With respect to the subjects, a random sample of the population was taken and then the statistic on the sample was calculated. There are ten branches of KFC in Hefei, Anhui
Province. So finally 400 copies of questionnaire were delivered among students ranging from high middle school students to the college students as well as others including the civil service men, workers, and teachers, etc. But only 307 questionnaires were valid in the end, because the answers to the statements on the 93 invalid questionnaires were the same from the very beginning to the end. Therefore, these 93 questionnaires were deleted and the statistics were drawn from only 307 valid questionnaires. Among the responders of the
307 questionnaires, those who were younger than 15 years old cover 6.6%; the responders aging from 16 to 23 accounts for 76.7% and the others take up 16.7%. The author mostly chose the young as the target, because they are the majority of the consumers of KFC according to KFC’s consumer level investigation reports.
After the questionnaire, a follow-up survey was conducted in the form of questions by means of e-mail. The subjects of the follow-up survey were three managers of KFC in
Hefei.
3.3 Instruments
In the thesis, two kinds of instruments named questionnaire and follow-up survey
23were employed to investigate the cross-cultural adaptation process initiated by KFC in the
Chinese market. The whole investigation targeted at environment, predisposition and intercultural transformation in Kim’s Cross-cultural Adaptation Structural Model (2001).
In order to guarantee the amount of data in short time, the approach of questionnaire was adopted and the questions applied in the investigation were designed by the author with the help of her classmates. The questionnaire in mandarin is attached in Appendix Ⅰ.
The design of the questionnaire is on the basis of the Wen Qiufang’s Applied Linguistics:
Research Method and Thesis Writing and the questionnaire of Professor Gu Peiya’s students majored in Business English in Suzhou University, who carried out an investigation to go through KFC’s successful promotion in Suzhou.
The mode of the questionnaire is by person to collect data about people’s experience/behaviors, opinions as well as background information. The questionnaire is made up of two parts: one is about personal details of the responders such as age, gender; the other part covers 30 statements on a five-point-scale:
① I strongly disagree with the statement.
② I disagree with the statement.
③ I am not sure.
④ I agree with the statement.
⑤ I strongly agree with the statement.
The questions on the questionnaire mainly covered environment, predisposition and intercultural transformation in Kim’s Cross-cultural Adaptation Structural Mode as well as other successful promotion strategies taken by KFC. However, the questionnaire mainly focused on the environment and intercultural transformation of all the three ones and the data was mostly from the consumers’ perspectives.
In order to make the investigation more comprehensive and reliable, a follow-up survey was carried out as a supplement of the investigation. It was of great necessity to conduct the follow-up survey, because cross-cultural adaptation process, as a two way activity, should take the opinions and experience of the KFC staff into consideration. The
24responders are the staff of high level in branches of KFC and they have done an excellent job in their positions, so to a large extent, they are more familiar with the operation and management of KFC. What is more, they all have received enough training in this field and mastered the general principles. The follow-up survey consists of ten specific questions concerning predisposition and intercultural transformation in Kim’s Structural Model.
Besides, the follow-up survey also aimed at the host communication competence and the other strategies taken by KFC to promote its business in the Chinese market.
3.4 Procedure
Firstly, the investigation in the form of questionnaire was carried out in Hefei, Anhui province from July to October, 2008. The questionnaire papers were handed out in the streets or in the classrooms before classed started. The following requirements were made clear to the subjects: 1) they would be expected to read each statement carefully before ticking the choices; 2) they would be expected to tick the choices as realistically as possible according to what they would actually do in their real daily lives.
Secondly, the follow-up survey was conducted with the help of many other friends majored in international trading and business and family members. The survey was in the form of e-mail, consisting of 10 specific questions for the managers.
3.5 Data Collection
All of the responses collected from the questionnaires and follow-up survey are mainly divided according to their relationships with host environment, predisposition and intercultural transformation on the basis of Kim’s Cross-cultural Adaptation Structural
Model. The data will be presented in the form of tables and a pie chart. Based on the data collected, an in-depth analysis will be presented, followed by further discussions and elaborations. 25Chapter Four
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter mainly deals with the results collected from the questionnaires and follow-up survey in Hefei, Anhui Province and elaborates the collected data. Firstly, the results are presented in the form of tables. Secondly, the results are divided into three aspects (host environment, predisposition and intercultural transformation) according to
Yong Yun Kim’s Cross-cultural Adaptation Structural Model to conduct further discussion.
It is done to find out the multitude of adaptation facilitating or impeding factors of individual predisposition, the new environment and communication activities linking the person and the environment. Thirdly, the different reasons to explain the great success of
KFC are compared in the form of pie-chart. Finally, the author presents results of the follow-up survey followed by elaborations and discussions.
4.1 Discussions of the Results of Questionnaire
After the investigation, the author summarized the results and made a specific analysis of the results. Totally, 400 copies of the questionnaire were handed out and altogether 307 copies were valid in the end. The results, divided into different categories according to Kim’s Cross-cultural Adaptation Structural Model, are now presented in tables, followed by respective elaborations.
4.1.1 Discussions of the Results on Environment
The results and analysis began with the first condition called environment in Kim’s
26Structural Model. Here the environment refers to the host environment which consists of host receptivity, host conformity pressure and ethnic group strength. Of all the cross-cultural communication activities conducted by human beings all over the world, no two kinds of cultures are always the same, because of the disparities in terms of economic power, political power and cultural history. China, as one of the four ancient countries, is a nation with a long-established history, during which all kinds of unique traditions have emerged and become part of its people’s life-long habits. Although China has ingrained culture legacy, the unequal development between China and America leaves a great space to let American culture exert great influence on the Chinese society in all levels and fields.
Since the Reform and Opening up policy initiated by Deng Xiaoping, China has gone through sharp changes and gradually melted into the world developing trends.
The first eight questions from Question 1 to Question 8 in the questionnaire were designed to investigate the present situation of host receptivity. Table 1 illustrates the results of each choice concerting host receptivity made by all the subjects.
Table 1 Choices concerning Host Receptivity
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8
1 6.1% 6.1% 21.1% 0 0 6.1% 0 0.9%
2 20.4% 30.1% 36.3% 10.6% 15.9% 34.5% 7.1% 13.3%
3 52.2% 23.0% 31.9% 29.2% 32.7% 25.7% 18.6% 23.0%
4 14.2% 32.7% 5.3% 53.1% 42.5% 30.1% 62.8% 51.3%
5 7.1% 7.1% 5.3% 7.1% 9.7% 4.4% 13.3% 19.5%
The figures in Table 1 explain that Chinese culture’s receptivity to the exotica abroad is strong and sound, although it is an ancient country with a long-established history. This is the bright side for China to play an important role in international events. When talking about other foreign brands about food or restaurants, 52.2% of the responders are still in an uncertainty position. To the contrary, they showed great familiarity to KFC, because 32.7% of the responders chose ④, when they answered Question 2. So it is not exaggerating to say that KFC’ s image building project is successful and the brand has won wide
27recognition at least in Hefei. But the result shows a little contradition with respect to the results of Question 3, as 36.3% of the responders would not go to KFC frequently, when they went out. There may be some possible reasons such as the relatively high price.
Question 1, Question 2 and Question 3 are designed not as specifically and concretely as Questions 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, for the first three ones are to ask for general opinions on environment as well as the host’s familiarity to the exotica. To sum up, Chinese people tend to accept the exotica and they would love to try the new things which they have never experienced in their own environment. This provides a crucial precondition for the development of KFC in China and it paves the way for KFC to initiate the cross-cultural adaptation process.
Questions 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 are direct ones concerning Chinese environment receptivity and ethnic conformity pressure. From the responses of the questionnaire, the following conclusions could be reached: Chinese people prefered to try new things, as high up to
53.1% of the responders chose ④ and 7.1% of them chose ⑤. In addition, 42.5% of the responders thought that Chinese were creative and had competence to accept and internalize the exotica. Moreover, as high as 62.8% of the responders agreed that the compatibility of the Chinese culture was powerful. However, 34.5% of the responders considered that Chinese culture was not apt to incorporate and accept exotica, when they had to answer the questions head-on.
To summarize, both the Chinese people and the Chinese culture are of a tendency to accept and incorporate exotica and this kind of open-minded attitude is crucial to the success of KFC, because it serves as an important precondition for market development and exploration. As for the responses of Question 8, as high as 51.3% of the responders chose ④ and 19.5% of the responders chose ⑤.
Besides host receptivity, environment also includes host conformity and ethnic group strength which altogether refer to the pressure coming from the environment for the outcomers to conform to the local traditions. Although cultural globalization is the tendency and Western cultures are influential and powerful, as one of the ancient countries
28with brilliant civilization achievements, China stills prefers to its deep-rooted traditions, which makes KFC under great pressure to incorporate some Chinese features into it in order to keep flourishing in the long run. Question 4 to 6 and Question 9 mainly concentrate on host conformity and ethnic group strength.
Table 2 Choices concerning Host Conformity Pressure & Ethnic Group Strength
Q4---Q6 Q9 Q28 Q29
1 Indicated in Table 1 0 0 5.1%
2 Indicated in Table 1 0.9% 13.1% 19.0%
3 Indicated in Table 1 22.1% 37.2% 24.4%
4 Indicated in Table 1 29.2% 39.8% 43.5%
5 Indicated in Table 1 47.8% 8.9% 6.1%
Although Question 4 to Question 6 was designed to investigate the host receptivity, they also could provide information about host conformity pressure from the opposite side.
As indirect ones, the results of Question 4 to Question 6 indicated that the Chinese environment was inclined to accept the exotica, which meant the pressure from the host was relatively less. There are many possible reasons to explain this tendency, for example, the high-compatibility of the Chinese culture. But one of the outside forces could not be ignored. So Question 28 and Question 29 were supplemented at the end of the questionnaire to investigate the external pressure from influential cultures such as the
American culture to influence Chinese people’s consumption behaviors. As globalization goes on, the popular cultures also cross the national geographical boundaries to influence more and more people all over the world. The results of Question 28 and Question 29 showed that consumption behaviors were greatly influenced by popular cultures because high up to 39.8% of the responders chose ④ and 43.5% of the responders chose ⑤. At the first glance, the two conclusions that the Chinese prefer to traditions and they are greatly influenced by American culture are contrary to each other. However, they just proves the dialectic relationship between globalization and localization and they shed light on promoting cultural diversity as well as dealing with cultural globalization.
29Question 9 was designed as direct one to collect responders’ opinions or experience about host conformity as well as ethnic group ethnic. Although the results of Table 1 explained that the Chinese culture was characterized by openness and high-compatibility,
China still tends to adhere to its traditions. So KFC still confronts high pressure to conform to the local cultural traditions. The results of Question 9 showed that 29.2% of the responders believed that these deep-rooted traditions put KFC under great pressure. In addition, 47.8% of the responders strongly agreed with it. Therefore, KFC has to conduct cross-cultural adaptation process, no matter how influential the American culture is.
4.1.2 Discussions of the Results on Reasons of Choosing KFC
The rest questions, from Question 10 to Question 30, were designed to investigate the reasons of great success of KFC in the Chinese market. According to the information in many business papers and magazines such as Food Guide and Restaurants, the reasons to account for the success of culinary industry were classified into three general categories by the author: the quality of food and services, marketing strategies and cross-cultural adaptation measures. The results of each category would be displayed in Table 3, Table 4 and Table 5 respectively.
Questions 10, 11, 12, and 13 were to study the effect of the quality of food and services of KFC and the results were presented in Table 3.
Questions 14, 15 16 and 17 in Table 4 aimed at the marketing promotion strategies adopted by KFC.
Questions 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 in Table 5 targeted on the cross-cultural adaptation measures taken by KFC in recent years and the next five ones in Table 6, from Question 23 to Question 27, were to deal with the effect of cross-cultural adaptation measures.
Questions 28, 29 and 30 in Table 7 concentrated on the other minor reasons or unidentified ones.
30Table 3 Choices concerning Food Quality and Services
Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13
1 0.9% 1.8% 0.9% 1.8%
2 20.4% 9.7% 13.3% 10.6%
3 44.2% 27.4% 35.4% 16.9%
4 32.7% 53.1% 42.5% 59.3%
5 5.3% 19.5% 7.1% 12.4%
Table 4 Choices concerning Promotion Strategies
Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17
1 2.7% 1.8% 0% 2.7%
2 31.0% 15.9% 5.3% 21.2%
3 23.9% 28.1% 25.2% 28.3%
4 31.9% 43.1% 61.9% 36.5%
5 8.9% 9.4% 8.5% 8.7%
Table 5 Choices concerning Cross-cultural Adaptation Measures
Q18 Q19 Q20 Q21 Q22
1 2.7% 2.7% 1.8% 0% 0%
2 19.5% 21.2% 15.9% 17.6% 4.4%
3 31.0% 28.3% 28.3% 37.2% 38.9%
4 40.7% 36.3% 43.4% 39.8% 45.1%
5 6.1% 8.9% 8.9% 4.4% 8.9%
To sum up, Table 3, Table 4 and Table 5 together targeted on the question that why you as a consumer chose KFC. The question was a little exhaustive and comprehensive because of the complicity of the problem itself. Finally, four kinds of reasons were summrized to design the concrete questions on the questionnaire paper. Each of the categories was accompanied by several specific questions for the responders to collect their
31opinions, experience as well as feelings.
As flavor is an important factor in culinary industry, Question 10 is designed to investigate how the flavor affects consumption behaviors. However, out of the expectation high up to 44.2% of the responders chose ③, which showed their uncertainty about the reason. 32.7% of the responders chose ④ to show their agreement and 5.3% of them strongly agreed to the statement that flavor was very important to attract and keep the customers. Totally speaking, the agreeing voice (32.7% plus 5.3%) is much greater than disagreeing one (0.9% plus 20.4%), hence the flavor was of great significance for the success of KFC.
The results of Question 11 showed the importance of good surroundings to attract consumers, because high up to 53.1% of the responders chose ④ and 19.5% of them chose
⑤, the highest positive responses ever in the investigation concerning the choice.
Question 12 focused on the effect of food quality in culinary industry. As indicated in
Table 3, the results, 42.5% of the responders chose ④ and 7.1% of the responders chose ⑤, claiming that food quality indeed influenced the consuming behaviors like the flavor.
Question 13 targeted on the effect of convenience and time-saving factor. With social development, the life tempo is much faster than ever before, convenience and time-saving are becoming the factors with increasing importance to influence consumption choices.
Therefore, as for Question 13, 59.3% of the responders thought that KFC was convenient and time-saving which led them to choose it. Moreover, 12.4% of the responders chose ⑤, which was relatively high with respect to this choice. As important aspects with increasing significance, convenience and time-saving were of unequal importance for consumers from all levels, because these two aspects have their own consumption groups. Thus, it is no wonder that high up to 16.9% of the responders chose ③ and 12.4% of the responders chose the negative answers to show their disagreement.
To summarize, the results in Table 3 showed that high quality of food and service were of great importance in culinary industry. However, as the pace of life is faster and faster, more and more consumers take time-saving and convenience into considerations.
32Because at least 69.7% of the responders chose the positive answers including agreeing and strongly agreeing voices concerning this question. In addition, nice and bright eating surroundings are also very important and should be paid attention to, as the positive voice concerning this point is as high as 72.6%.
The four questions, from Question 14 to Question 17, in Table 4 aimed at the marketing strategies which were indispensable for marketing exploration and development of corporation. What is more, every year most corporations spend a large amount of capitals on marketing measures ranging from advertisements (ads) to tokens. The figures in
Table 4 showed the overall outcomes of these marketing promotion measures.
Question 14 and Question 15 mainly aimed at the marketing activities, carried out by
KFC. Advertising was always an effective way to promote new products and becoming one of the most indispensable channel for marketing promotion. 31.9% of the responders chose
④ and 8.9% of them chose ⑤. To the contrary, the negative voice took up 33.7%, of which
2.7% of the responders strongly disagree to the statement.
Question 15 mainly focused on the effect of tokens, the most common measures taken by culinary corporations, and 43.1% of the responders chose ④ and 9.4% of them chose ⑤.
At the same time, as only 1.8% of the responders chose ① and 15.9% of them chose ②, so the negative voice concerning the question was comparatively weaker than the positive one. Question 16 focused on the advertisements (ads) of KFC by means of TV. The TV ads including the design of logo, slogan and jingle indeed left deep impression on the audiences and the frequency was also enough for the mass to realize existence of the brand.
Because high up to 61.9% of the responders chose ④ and claimed that the wall-to-wall hypo made KFC familiar enough to them and it was the most common channel for them to know the brand and get access to the new products. Besides, 8.5% of the responders chose
⑤ to show their strong support. To summarize, the figures concerning Question 17 in
Table 4 displayed that the positive voice (61.9% plus 8.5%) was much stronger than the negative one (0% plus 5.3%).
33Except for the direct marketing promotion strategies, KFC’s enthusiasm in taking social responsibilities and charities also aroused 36.5% of the responders’ attention and
8.7% of the responders chose to strongly agree to the statement (see figures concerning
Question 17).
Question 18 to Question in Table 5 showed the results of cross-cultural adaptation measures in influencing consumption behaviors. These specific statements were concerning the embodiments of cross-cultural adaptation such as menu, external and internal decoration, logo and translation of the food names. The results indicated that the cross-cultural adaptation measures worked well in the Chinese market, because high up to
40.7% of the responders chose ④ and 6.1% of them chose ⑤ concerning Question 18 and they thought that such measure attracted their attention and influenced their consumption choices. As more and more food with Chinese style came into market, more and more people were attracted by KFC, because at least they were curious about such untraditional
Chinese food in their minds.
Question 19 was designed to investigate responders’ opinions as well as feelings about these cross-cultural adaptation measures. 28.3% of the responders chose ③ and the responders choosing positive answers accounted for 45.2% (36.3% plus 8.9%)..
Question 20 mainly focused on translation of food names as well as the creation of logo, slogan and jingle which suggested Chinese cultural features such as reunion of the whole family. 43.4% of the responders chose ④ and 8.9% of them chose ⑤. So the total positive voice was 34.6% greater than the negative one (1.8% plus 15.9%).
The slight modification of the logo was also taken into consideration (see Question
21), as the Chinese red was always considered to be one of the symbols in Chinese culture.
The previous cross-cultural communication studies ( Gao Fang, 2006; Chen Lili, 1996; Xin
Ju & Zhang Jinping, 2006; Peng Qiurong, 2001; Cheng Qiong, 2006) suggested that
Chinese red in Western culture meant blood, violence and even wars. So it was a little out of expectation to see that KFC changed the traditional black suit into Chinese red apron.
Although for this question 37.2% of the responders chose ③. 39.8% of the responders and
344.4% of them chose ④ and ⑤ respectively to show their agreement that Chinese red made them feel comfortable and caused them to increase the consumption times. Only 17.6% of the responders showed negative attitudes towards this statement. The possible reason for such results could be that Chinese red had been so deep-rooted in Chinese people’s mind as one of the national symbols, so they showed familiarity towards this color.
The results of Question 22 indicated that most responders believed the decoration and arrangement also embodied Chinese cultural spirit, because 45.1% of the responders chose
④ and 8.9% of them chose ⑤. Except for 38.9% of the responders chose ③, only 4.4% of the responders chose negatively and no one chose ①.
To summarize, the cross-cultural adaptation project was carried out on a large scale and had won the recognition of more and more Chinese people.
Table 6 Choices concerning Effect of Cross-cultural Adaptation Measures
Q23 Q24 Q25 Q26 Q27
1 0.9% 0 4.4% 0 6.1%
2 2.7% 5.3% 21.2% 8.0% 23.0%
3 20.4% 25.7% 44.2% 35.4% 24.8%
4 65.5% 61.9% 24.8% 50.4% 38.1%
5 9.7% 8.0% 4.4% 6.1% 6.1%
Table 6 showed the results on the effect of cross-cultural adaptation measures. From the results presented in Table 4 and Table 5, it was no wonder to see that when responders confronted Question 23, 65.5% of them chose ④ and 9.7% of them chose ⑤ to show that KFC on one hand kept its own original features; on the other hand it incorporated some Chinese features into itself. So it is no wonder that 61.9% of the responders chose ④ and 8.0% of them chose ⑤ to show their approval of the 24 th statement.
Although only 24.8% of the responders (see figures concerning Question 25) chose
④ and claimed that the cross-cultural adaptation measures exerted great influence on their consumption decisions, 50.4% of the responders thought these measures made a great contribution to the increase of their consumption times and no one chose ① to show their
35disapproval to this statement.
Since Question 27 was about the concept on the position of KFC in people’s daily lives, it was a little abstract for the responders. Beyond imagination, 38.1% of the responders considered KFC as a part of their daily life like other Chinese brands in culinary industry and 6.1% of them chose to agree to the statement strongly, because they thought that KFC in Chinese market not only showed American culture and eating habits but also showed Chinese culture as well as traditions. Sometimes they tried the new products of KFC to experience the re-creation of Chinese traditional food.
Table 7 Choices about other Reasons for Choosing KFC
Q28 Q29 Q30
1 0 5.1% 0%
2 13.1% 19.0% 21.2%
3 37.2% 24.4% 48.6%
4 39.8% 43.5% 24.8%
5 8.9% 6.1% 4.4%
No matter how exhaustive a survey was, there were still a lot of aspects which could not be covered. So in Table 7 other unidentified reasons to influence the consumption behaviors were added to make the investigation more reliable.
In Table 7, Question 28 and Question 29 were concerned with the influence of
Western Culture, American culture in particular and the last one was about other unidentified reasons to account for their choices of KFC, such as health, balanced diet, etc.
The results of Question 28 and Question 29 explained that most of the consumers were strongly influenced by Western culture, because 39.8% of the responders chose ④ and
8.9% of them chose ⑤. However, the degree of such influence from popular cultures, represented by American culture, had been reducing gradually, as China is getting stronger and stronger in terms of economy, politics and culture. But the agreeing voice, high up to
39.8% and 43.5%, could not be ignored at present, as nowadays such cultures still exert great influence in leading people’s behaviors in many fields.
36Question 30 was designed to investigate other unidentified reasons to affect the comsumption bahaviors.The results showed that the two voices of agreeing and disagreeing to the statement were close to each other, 24.8% vs. 21.2%.
4.1.3 Comparison of Promotion Strategies
Supplemented by the results and analysis above, the pie-chart (Figure 4) below would show the contribution of each strategy mentioned in Table 2, Table 3 and Table 4, and then the further discussion and elaboration would be presented as follow-up.
Figure 4: The Comparison among all the Promotion Strategies
24.7%
51.4217.9%
24.1%
20.9%
12.4%
Notes: 24.7%------quality of food and services (flavor, surroundings, services, convenience); 24.1%------cross-cultural adaptation;
20.9%------influence of influential Western culture represented by American culture; 17.9%------business promotion strategy (ads, tokens, etc.);
12.4%------other unidentified reasons.
The pie chart, Figure 4, presented the real value of each kind of strategy from consumers’ perspective, because the figures were calculated on the basis of the data collected maintly from the consumers directly.
Firstly, quality of food and services topped number one in the pie-chart, 24.7%, among the five ones. Due to the limited space of the thesis, the investigation of this strategy only consisted of several typical factors including flavor, surroundings, quality of
37food and services and convenience or time saving in the questionnaire. Among these factors, flavor and the quality of food were of great significance, because the results of
Question 10 in Table 3 showed that 32.7% of the responders chose ④ and they thought flavor was a very important factor to attract them and affect their consumption behaviors.
Besides, 5.3% of the responders strongly agreed to the statement. As for the surroundings,
53.1% of the responders believed that KFC’s environment was spacious and bright which attracted them. What is more, the principle of standardization in producing all the products was popular with most of the responders, for high up to 42.5% of them showing positive attitudes. It was said that the principle could ensure the quality of food and services in KFC, no matter when and where you ate. This was quite different from Chinese traditional restaurants, because the quality of food offered in most Chinese restaurants was full of uncertainties and it varied from time to time. The following factor concerning quality of food and services was cross-cultural adaptation measures. The total negative voice concerning this statement covered 14.2%, of which 0.9% of the responders chose ① and
13.3% of them chose ②. As the life tempo is getting faster and faster, 59.3% plus 12.4% of the responders preferred the time-saving restaurants to save their time as well as energy.
Therefore, this advantage of KFC attracted 71.7% of the responders in all. In average, every factor included in this strategy won the supports of 46.8% of all the responders.
What is more, in average 11.075% of the responders strongly supported these statements.
To sum up, all the figures concerning the concrete factors explained the indispensable and fundamental position in affecting marketing success. Hence, to provide food and services of high quality is the basic principle for success in culinary industry, which could be possibly decided by the nature of this industry.
Secondly, cross-cultural adaptation strategy took up 24.1%, the second highest one exceeding 20%. The figure as well as the second position among all the five strategies showed the increasing importance of cross-cultural adaptation strategy during the long-term marketing process. In addition, the figure also displayed that cross-cultural adaptation measures worked well in Chinese market. The results in Table 5 showed that, in
38average, 41.6% of the responders were sure of the positive influence of cross-cultural adaptation actions taken by KFC and 7.44% of the responders strongly believed this and they could easily recognize the cross-cultural adaptation actions. In conclusion, the cross-cultural adaptation measures performed well in attracting more and more Chinese consumers and keeping the prosperity in long run and it will play a more and more important role in market enlargement and development. One advantage of cross-cultural adaptation strategy compared with others such as business promotion strategy is the long-term function in propelling the marketing success.
Thirdly, the influence of popular and influential Western cultures, American culture in particular, took up 20.9% which topped the third position among the five ones. Although the influence of American culture has been getting weaker and weaker with the growth of
China, such influence could not be denied and ignored.
Fourthly, business promotion strategy accounted for 17.9%. The results presented in
Table 4 showed that in average 43.35% of the responders agreed to these statements and they believed that such business promotion strategies pushed them to increase their consumption times. At the same time, 8.875% of the responders strongly agreed to these statements and thought that these promotion actions reached the expected purposes to attract new consumers as well as to keep the previous regular ones. So it could be concluded that promotion strategy contributed much to the building-image projects.
However, such contribution was evident at the beginning of marketing process. As times goes by, KFC needs more and more other strategies to attract and keep the consumers.
Finally, it was about the other unidentified reasons which took up 12.4%. The figure left much more space for the researchers who would love to devote themselves into cross-cultural marketing studies.
To summarize, although business promotion strategy is of great significance in the marketing process, it is necessary for the international culinary corporations to carry out cross-cultural adaptation processes on the basis of products of high quality.
394.2 Results and Discussions of the Follow-up Survey
This part mainly presents the results of the follow-up survey and deals with the interpretations of the collected data. The results are displayed in detail at first and then a further analysis would be presented as a follow-up. This follow-up survey is of great significance, because the data from the questionnaires were mostly collected from the consumers and the results drawn from such data were just from the consumers’ perspective directly. So even if the follow-up survey mainly covered the similar topics like the questionnaire, it aimed to collect data from the managers’ perspectives. With the help of many people, the author finally sent three survey papers to managers by e-mail.
The ten questions on the follow-up survey targeted at predisposition, intercultural transformation, environment as well as host communication competence.
As a popular saying goes in China, Only when it becomes the nation’s, then it’s of the world’s (Lu Xun, 1973) and KFC makes full sense of this proverb. Therefore, it takes a series of cross-cultural adaptation measures to adapt to the new environment, for example,
KFC’s double cultural identity. Although KFC adopts franchise operation form, it pays much attention to the local cultural backgrounds. Simply speaking, all the stores must be tailored to the local cultural background, which reflected the owners’ sharp or keen awareness of the slight differences between the two regions even in the same city in China.
The ten questions on the follow-up survey targeted at predisposition, intercultural transformation, and promotion strategy as well as host communication competence respectively as follows.
The first five question (Question 1 to Question 5) and Question 10 on the follow-up survey paper attached in Appendix Ⅱ were concerned with predisposition including preparedness to live in the host environment, the degree of the individual’s ethnic proximity to the dominant ethnicity of the environment and the degree of openness and strength of the individual’s personality. By the way, the so called individual refers to KFC which tries to survive in Chinese market as an individual person from another quite different cultural background.
40As for the first five questions from Question1 to Question 5, the three managers answered positively and showed similar attitudes. As for the preparedness to live in the host environment, the three managers all confirmed that they had invested much more capital and time as well as human resources to investigate the architectural styles, flavor preference, special local traditions or traditional customs of any potential business location.
They were huge money and time consuming projects, but the outcomes were worth the efforts, because all the information they acquired through the tough jobs formed and perfected the data base which would in turn promote KFC’s future development in the long run. For example, through such data they knew when they should hold huge promotion activities and how they can design and decorate the store internally and externally to be in harmony with the surroundings nearby.
All of these jobs paved the way for conducting cross-cultural adaptation project and taking a series of cross-cultural adaptation actions which were embodied in the intercultural transformation to promote the business in Chinese market.
Firstly, menu is the most important point in this aspect. It is reported that KFC appointed at least 10 experts to study, perfect and put forward new products which are accustomed to Chinese people’s eating flavors and habits. As a giant in fast food industry, its specialty is fried chicken, sliced salads and mushy potatoes. However, since KFC arrived in China, it has presented a lot of new products with strong Chinese features and flavors, such as cruller (油条)，Old Beijing roasted chicken tied ham (老北京烤鸡肉卷），spicy chicken wings（辣鸡翅）, Saliva chicken （口水鸡）, cotton rose vegetable soup（蔬菜芙
蓉汤）which could be a sharp change for KFC, a long-established store laying emphasis on traditions and standardization in America.
Secondly, when Chinese customers have a glance of the Chinese names of the food provided in KFC, they find nothing special. However, if they at the same check the English counterparts, they will definitely find a sharp contrast. Take “Quanjiatong (全家桶)” for example, its counterpart in English is Big Bucket which has nothing to do with whole family or reunion at all. But when it is translated into Chinese, it denotes a special meaning
41which Chinese culture emphasizes much----the importance of reunion of the whole family.
The most possible reason that Chinese consumers cannot find the cultural denotation out is that such concepts have been deeply rooted in minds and the influence of these concepts works jus as automatically as breathing the air or Chinese people have never paid attention to the English counterparts.
Thirdly, given China’s economic and political situation and Chinese people’s characteristics, KFC’s franchising operating model is also of Chinese feature: no one brings with nothing, which means that KFC sells a successful and profit-making strategy to the new members so as to avoid many trivial jobs such as selecting the locations, employing workers, training and improving staff. In addition, there is no risk to the new members at all, because KFC will cover the cost, if the shops do not run well.
Last but not least, the decoration and the background music as well as the advertisement with jingle ( 有了肯德基，生活好滋味) and logo also embody the preparedness to adapt itself to the Chinese market, although these are just trivial points.
Captain Sanders in the new logo keeps the traditional bow-ties, but the classic black suit has changed into Chinese red apron. As it is known that the red specifically called Chinese red is what Chinese appreciate much in their traditions and the Chinese people consider it as happiness in the culture (Chen Lili, 1996; Peng Qiurong, 2001; Gao Fang, 2006).
To sum up, KFC surely makes full preparedness to live in China to keep its prosperity in the long run. Besides, KFC has taken a series of cross-cultural adaptation measures to adapt itself into Chinese culture and environment, which in turn explained the high degree of openness and strength of American culture, because as a long-established brand, KFC could change itself and try to adapt itself into the new cultural environment. In fact, the previous studies on American culture had proved that America was a melting pot of different cultures which endowed American culture with openness and high compatibility
(Xu Lisheng, 2004). As for the last open question, Question10, in the follow-up survey, the managers showed affirmation that they would add more new products with Chinese features into KFC’s menu, although they still have no exact ideas at present. But
42surprisingly they prefer soybean milk, which is the choice hit frequently by surfers in an online test.
Question 6, Question 7 and Question 8 aimed at the marketing strategies and management of KFC in China, which were designed to examine the effect of such business strategy. The results showed that KFC indeed had spent a large amount of capital on ads in the form of TV advertisements and posters on lamps and bus stop display-windows. As time goes by, when the image of KFC has deeply rooted in people’s mind, the function of ads as a way of building image could be weaker and weaker, but the investment was highly paid compared with the profit generated. It is acknowledged that ads boost the sales on a large scale. Although KFC also faces segmentation of consumers, KFC still prefers to enjoy wide market shares, with the hope of attracting more potential consumers to meet the future pipelines. Since it is a kind of fast food restaurants, it should be operated as everyone could become the consumers. Whatever the strategies are, KFC wants popularization rather than something else like segmentation.
Question 9 was designed to investigate the host communication competence which served as an engine of the cross-cultural adaptation process. From the managers’ professional perspective, the author could get a full panorama of Chinese cultural communication competence as well as the characteristics about host environment covering host receptivity, host conformity pressure as well as ethnic group strength. The answers of the managers showed that the environment tended to accept something new, while it also refused to go beyond the cultural boundaries which have confined Chinese people into their own cultural circle. How to lead the positive tendency to accept the exotica and how to make full use of this tendency are tough questions for the businessmen who are responsible for cross-cultural marketing. But cross-cultural adaptation measures taken by
KFC showed great contribution in leading and attracting those kinds of consumers in
China, because the results in Table 6 displayed that 50.65% of the responders in average agreed that they were sure of these cross-cultural adaptation measures and those measures greatly influenced their consumption choices, Besides, 38.1% of the responders believed
43that KFC had been becoming a part of their daily lives and 6.1% of them strongly supported this statement.
To summarize, the results of the follow-up survey showed that cross-cultural communication competence greatly influences international businesses, marketing planning in particular. As the managers in marketing department, they have to be aware of cross-cultural communication competence.
4.3 Comprehensive Discussions of the Whole Investigation
The results of the three months’ investigation showed the underlying relationships between the success and cross-cultural adaptation process.
In the process of cultural globalization, KFC realizes the irreversible tendency of maintaining cultural diversity and uniqueness, which leads KFC to adapt to Chinese culture. In order to clarify KFC’s cross-cultural adaptation process, investigations were conducted on the basis of Kim’s Cross-cultural Structural Model to study cross-cultural adaptation facilitating or impeding factors. Based on Kim’s theory, there are three conditions (environment, predisposition and intercultural transformation) involved in the process and each of the condition consisting of several sub-fields. According to the results and analysis of questionnaire and follow-up survey, several important conclusions concerning the three conditions mentioned in Kim’s Cross-cultural Adaptation Structural
Model have reached in the thesis.
Firstly, speaking of the environment represented by host receptivity, host conformity pressure and ethnic group strength, 47.125% of the responders in average (Question 4,
Question 5, Question 6 and Question 7) thought that Chinese culture tended to accept the exotica and it is of high compatibility. Meanwhile, 8.625% of the responders strongly supported this conclusion. In addition, such atmosphere of the Chinese market and cultural environment provided crucial pre-condition to conduct cross-cultural adaptation process, which was supported by 51.3% of the responders. In order to account for the phenomenon,
44another external force which must be mentioned was the omnipresent influence of
American culture. The results of Question 28 and Question 29 in Table 2 showed that high up to 46.65% of the responders in average agreed that their consumption choices were greatly influenced by American culture and 7.5% of the responders in average strongly agreed to the statement. Therefore, the high degree of openness and receptivity resulted form the high compatibility of Chinese culture as well as the external influence of
American culture.
However, the degree of host receptivity and openness was only confined into certain circle, because the results of Question 9 in the questionnaire showed that 29.2% of the responders thought Chinese culture put KFC under great pressure to adapt itself into
Chinese market. What is more, 47.8% of the responders strongly agreed to the statement.
The possible reasons to explain the results were patriotism and the deeply-rooted traditional culture which made Chinese people adhere to their own traditions. So influence of cultural patterns could not be denied and ignored in cross-cultural adaptation process studies. Even there was high host conformity pressure, the cross-cultural adaptation steps really made a great contribution to the success of KFC in the Chinese market, because averagely speaking 30% of the responders thought that cross-cultural adaptation measures worked well in the Chinese market to keep business prosperity.
Secondly, as for the predisposition including preparedness for changes, ethnic proximity and adaptive personality, KFC as a typical embodiment of American culture indeed had done a lot of investigation before its entry to Chinese market. As it is known to all of us, America is a melting pot, which means American culture owns a relatively strong adaptive personality. As America has been the superpower since World WarⅡ, American culture has been in a leading position during civilization progress. There is no exaggeration to say that there is no intact place without any American style or influence. The characteristic of American culture can be illustrated by following aspects including 8 corresponding cultural sides: the combination of religious culture and secular culture; the fusion of internal culture and external culture; the mix of essential culture and unessential
45culture; the joint of traditional culture and modern culture; the association of classical culture and racial culture; the closeness of elite culture and common culture; the cooperation of foreign culture and domestic culture (Dong Xiaochuan, 2002). At the same time, Ni Shixiong and Wang Yiwei (2002) hold that the progress of America has experienced such developmental stages as following the European traditions (colonization) through self identification, pursuing Americanization (nationalization) by self reform, and seeking internationalization (globalization) in self representation. These developmental stages coincide the three periods of American cultural progress. These periods are marked by features of multi dimension, modernity and internationalization respectively. In the context of the accelerating globalization, American culture faces a paradoxical situation.
On one hand, United States tries to promote the spread of its political and social values and the penetration of its popular culture around the world, with the intention of Americanizing the world cultures; on the other hand, it is fully preoccupied with the increasing social demands for the development of ethnic cultures and the cultural conflicts, due to the multiethnic and multiracial structure of the American society (Zhu Quanhong, 2004).
Therefore, the ethic proximity is not a big matter for American culture compared with others, bacause American culture is always characterized by plurality, multi-dimension, modernity and internationalization. So KFC could change itself and take Chinese cultural elements into consideration to conduct cross-cultural adaptation process with less anti-force. Thirdly, the thesis is to elaborate intercultural transformation which covers functional fitness, psychological health and intercultural identity according to Kim’s theory (2001).
From the responses of the investigation, KFC performs well in Chinese market in terms of the sales, popularity, development rates, image buildings, etc. As for the intercultural identity or double cultural identity, the results of Question 23 showed that 65.5% of the responders in average shared the idea that KFC in China had double cultural identity which was embodied by menu, decoration, new logo, translations as well as operation models. In the follow-up survey, the three managers also claimed that KFC in China was tailored to
46the local traditions. Given the sales and market shares of KFC, those cross-cultural adaptation measures have won recognition of Chinese people which was supported by
69.9% (61.9% plus 8.0%) of the responders. Besides recognition, 50.4% of the responders believed those measures influenced their consumption behaviors and increased their consumption times. Meanwhile, 38.1% of the responders thought KFC was not exotica and had been a part in their daily lives.
Finally, the last conclusion is concerned with the core in Kim’s theory, namely host communication competence which serves as the engine of the adaptation process. The results of the questionnaire and the follow-up survey explained that Chinese cultural environment is characterized by high degree receptivity and compatibility. Therefore, the host communication competence as the engine of the cross-cultural adaptation process makes a great contribution to the success of KFC. It plays an important role in international business, international marketing in particular. Therefore, cross-cultural communication competence should rouse the attention of people in Human Resource department and should be one of the subjects among various kinds of training programs.
47Chapter Five
CONCLUSION
After the analysis of the results from the questionnaire and follow-up survey, this chapter mainly focuses on major findings as well as limitations of the whole investigation.
At first, the major findings are summarized, and then the limitations are pointed out and finally the suggestions for further studies are made at length.
5.1 Major Findings
In the thesis, a questionnaire as well as a follow-up survey was designed to investigate the cross-cultural adaptation process initiated by KFC in the Chinese market. The whole investigation mainly targeted environment, predisposition and intercultural transformation in Kim’s Cross-cultural Adaptation Structural Model (2001).
Cross-cultural adaptation process is a two-way interaction activity, so the findings of the investigation are divided into two categories: one focusing on the host environment, specifically speaking, whether the Chinese culture tends to accept and absorb exotica or not; the other one focusing on KFC’s efforts (predisposition). Except for the two points, the thesis also concentrates on the different promotion strategies including cross-cultural adaptation to attract the Chinese consumers in the long run. From the results as well as the discussions presented in the previous chapter, some major conclusions are drawn as follow:
The first finding is concerned with the environment which consists of host receptivity, host conformity pressure and ethnic group strength. The results of questionnaire and follow-up survey indicate that Chinese are still likely to observe Chinese principles concerning culinary system. The underlying reason could be that China is an ancient country with a long-established history and the cultural value systems have so deeply
48rooted in the minds that it can not be easy for the people to change and accept exotica completely and abruptly. Although it has been a long time since reform and opening-up policy and many aspects of culture are subject to changes, the deep structure of the Chinese culture still resists major and extensive changes concerning covert elements in cultural patterns. Culinary activities, as one kind of the basic activities for human beings’ survival, are a typical embodiment of national culture. Therefore, no matter how intensive the external force is, it keeps and will keep its traditions firmly, for example, the values associated with culinary activities such as table manners, contents of meals deeply embedded in culture. It is the same with the concepts on culinary culture underneath the cultural iceberg being passed down from generation to generation and profoundly rooted in
Chinese people’s minds. This point is of profound significance, because it puts KFC under great pressure and forces it to conduct cross-cultural adaptation process, if it wants to keep flourish in the Chinese market in the long run.
However, on the other hand society is dynamic especially with the advances in science and technology. So are the cultures, which are more likely subject to fluctuations, seldom remaining constant (Samovar, 2000, p: 45). The young generation do not merely copy the culture raised by their forefathers, instead, each generation adds something unique to the long time developed spiritual and material embodiment of certain nation. Great changes have taken place due to importation and assimilation of the Western cultures, which has been considered to be influential and powerful since 19 th century. For modern people they have more opportunities to expose themselves to the Western cultural products and they prefer to accept and absorb a new culture fast, so it is no wonder that the young’s social behaviors have a tendency to be westernized gradually. In addition, education has been playing a significant role in initiating change, that is to say, English teaching has accomplished great achievement by paying more attention to culture teaching, which greatly influences the young’s thinking patterns and preferences. Therefore, no matter how strong the force to adhere to the traditions is, the Western culinary cultures have influenced
Chinese people’s choice and behaviors to a great extent in this area. Facing the dilemma,
49KFC carries out cross-cultural adaptation project and takes many related measures to make full use of the influence of globalization and localization at the same time. Among all the strategies concerning marketing promotion and image building such as tokens, ads( logo, slogan and jingle), taking social responsibilities( donation, Hope Projects, School aids), cross cultural adaptation measures takes a relatively large percentage concerning the contribution to success. The intercultural transformations represented by menu, food names, internal and external decoration and etc as above mentioned, endows KFC dual-identity in
Chinese market, that is to say KFC as American fast food representative is assimilated by local Chinese cultural flavors, which to a large degree helps Chinese cross over the traditional boundaries both in reality and in conceptions.
The second finding is concerned with KFC’s efforts to survive in the Chinese market, namely predisposition including preparedness for changes, ethnic proximity ans adaptive personality. The Western cultures especially American culture which are recognized to be influential all over the world, play an important role in cultural circle. The results from the questionnaire indicate that the Western cultures have been influencing Chinese people’s culinary traditions as well as preferences. American culture, mentioned as a big melting pot
(Xu Lisheng, 2002), is characterized by plurality, multi-dimension and modernization. On one side, the United States tries to promote the spread of its political and social values and the penetration of its popular culture around the world, with the intention of Americanizing the world cultures. On the other side, it is fully preoccupied with the increasing social demands for the development of ethnic cultures and the cultural conflicts, due to the multiethnic and multiracial structure of the American society (Zhu Quanhong, 2000).
Because of such paradoxical personalities, KFC, the representative of American culture, makes full preparation for changes in the new environment. Moreover, it has fewer obstacles and less anti-force from traditions. At the same time, the strong and persistent adaptive ability facilitate KFC to adapt itself to the new environment (the Chinese market) which always prefers to adhere to its long-time established traditions. Thus when KFC has to survive in the old ancient China, it carries out cross-cultural adaptation project and takes
50a series of relevant measures to make full use of globalization and localization in order to keep long time prosperity in Chinese market.
The third finding is concerned with intercultural transformation. The results from both the questionnaire and the follow-up survey explain that KFC owns intercultural identity which works well in attracting new customers as well as keeping its long-term prosperity in Chinese market. The intercultural identity embodies not only in menu but also in decoration, translation of the food names, logo modification, etc. Moreover, such intercultural identity is getting recognition of more and more people, which has been proved by the results of Questions 25, 26 and 27 on the questionnaire paper.
The last finding is concerned with the contribution of cross-cultural adaptation process to the success of KFC. The figures of the pie-chart in the previous chapter account for the contribution of most strategies concerning marketing promotion and image-building project such as tokens, ads including logo, slogan and jingle, taking social responsibilities and cross-cultural adaptation. Among all the strategies taken by KFC, cross-cultural adaptation measures tops the second position, taking up 24.1% concerning the contribution to the success. The figure is just below the contribution of service and quality factor including flavor, surroundings, taste and convenience, which is the fundamental principle for the success of culinary industry.
5.2 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Study
This thesis targets at dealing with a study of cross-cultural adaptation process of KFC in the Chinese market by means of investigation in the forms of questionnaire and follow-up survey. Although there were several tentative distributions during the investigation, there are still some limitations in designing the questionnaire and survey papers. Moreover, the ideas and argumentation in the thesis are far from perfect and mature. Firstly, since the multiple—choice questions in the questionnaire are not sufficient
51enough to cover all the aspects about the three conditions in Cross-cultural adaptation model, the questionnaire paper are not comprehensive and inclusive for the author to collect date. Moreover, the interview with the marketing mangers was in the form of papers and mails, so the author can not capture the facial expressions when they were answering the ten questions.
Secondly, among the subjects of the questionnaires, the young aging from 16 to 23 is the absolute majority. Though they are the most frequent consumers of KFC, there must be other voices which are ignored by the author.
Thirdly, it is hard to tell to what extent the responses to the questionnaires represent the performances in real situation. There are probably other factors influencing what they actually do or think in spontaneous situations.
Finally, the results and discussions of the investigation are not conclusive and complete due to the author’s limited scope of knowledge.
However, although there is still much work to do in this field, the author sincerely hope that the thesis can shed light on further studies, As far as the author is concerned, the questionnaires need improving to a certain degree and in order to ensure validity and accuracy of the results. The follow-up survey should be more professional to be in face-to-face form, if it is possible. Besides, maybe other instruments should be employed to enhance the reliability of the collected data.
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