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As the fast food restaurant industry grows in the Western industrialized world, it has also become increasingly competitive. In such an environment, marketers are concerned about how to increase or maintain market share through better service quality and effective segmentation strategies. This paper reports a two-phase exploratory study conducted to determine the dimensions of service quality in the fast food industry, from the consumer's perspective. Factor analysis revealed 10 dimensions made up of 57 different attributes. The 10 dimensions were able to discriminate among three groups of fast food patrons, namely: frequent, less frequent, and more frequent patrons. Managerial implications of these findings, for market segmentation, targeting, positioning, and promotional strategies are discussed. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678.

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Internationalization of services has gained a great momentum in recent years. This article examines the prospects for developing countries in the international marketing of services. It analyzes past trends of service exports of developing countries and projects these to the year 2010. The projection was based on dynamic shift share analysis. The results show that the market share of developing countries will increase steadily up to the year 2010 in travel, financial, and communications services but will tend to decrease in transport services. A major policy implication of these findings is that developing countries need to change their priorities—from exports of primary commodities and soft manufactures to those of services—if they are to compete effectively in the international market and thrive economically in the twenty-first century. Specific policy initiatives that are required to achieve this goal are discussed.

Political and economic risks dominate the discussion in the international investment literature. Little attention is given to the risks involved with the variability in consumption patterns of countries around the globe. This article treats the issue of consumption risks in international investment and proposes market segmentation as a strategy for reducing them. Using household consumption expenditure based on the ICP (International Comparison Programme), 54 countries of the world were segmented into 5 groupings of relatively homogenous consumption patterns. The same countries were segmented using their income level. Results showed a significant difference between country segments produced by using income level, and the ones obtained with ICP-based consumption pattern. Tested over a 10-year period, using the Rand index, stability of partitions was found to be high for the ICP-based country segmentation. Managerial implications of these results for risk-reducing diversification strategies in international investment and international marketing are discussed. [Article copies available for a fee $om The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678.