Abstract:
The fast-food business is an American concept that has been diffused and adopted all
over the world. During the 90's, Lebanon became one of the countries that adopted the
fast-food concept through management contracts or franchise systems of branded fastfood
restaurants. The American fast-food restaurants are proving to have a good market
in Lebanon. University students are a very impOltant target market for American fastfood
restaurants.
Every market changes with time. The purpose of this thesis disseltation has been to study
the behavior and attitudes of university students in Lebanon towards American fast-food
restaurants. The data used in this research is primary data and secondary data. The secondary data
was collected from books, magazines and the internet. The primary data was collected
from 300 questionnaires filled out with university students at AUB, LAU, USJ, Lebanese
University (a branch in the East and a branch in the West) and the Arab University.
Another way to collect primary data was by conducting 2 focus groups with university
students. In order to get infonnation on each American fast-food restaurant, a few
questions were asked to the managers of the restaurants. Franchising schemes have been around in one fonn or another for more than a century. It
was the fast-food industry, however, that turned franchising into a business model that
would transfoffil the retail economy of Lebanon, competing with the traditional small
businesses such as the falafel restaurants, the manakish restaurants, and encouraging the
spread of chains and unifonnity.
