ABSTRACT
McDonald’s is the quintessential American brand, but McDonald’s is not an exclusively American company. Founded in 1940 as a restaurant by Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California, and later redeveloped as a franchised hamburger stand identified by the company’s now-familiar Golden Arches, the business was purchased by Ray Kroc in 1955 and its headquarters moved to Oak Brook, Illinois. The degree to which people are comfortable with ambiguous situations and with the inability to predict future events with assurance is called uncertainty avoidance. At one extreme of this dimension, people with weak uncertainty avoidance feel comfortable even though they are unsure about current activities or future events. Hofstede used the term masculinity to refer to the degree to which a culture is founded on values that emphasize independence, aggressiveness, dominance, and physical strength. The collectivist perspective emphasizes that group welfare is more important than personal interests.
