MGT2064 International Business: Value Chain Analysis of McDonald's

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of McDonald's value chain process using the value chain model to identify its strengths and weaknesses. It leverages secondary research data to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of McDonald's current approaches. The study identifies positive and negative factors, including employee issues in Malaysian operations. The report concludes that while McDonald's value chain is generally effective, there are areas for improvement, and it recommends steps to address identified shortcomings, such as reducing dependency on particular suppliers and further research into the identified shortcomings to enhance the value chain process.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
International business
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1INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
1.0 Executive summary
The aim of this report is to discuss about the value chain process of McDonald’s by using the
value chain model. This model is being used in order to identify the major elements of value
chain process of McDonald’s. The core objective of this research paper is to identify the
strengths and weaknesses of the existing value chain process of McDonald’s. This report used
the secondary research data for further analysis. Secondary research data is being used in
identifying the current approaches of vale chain process of McDonald’s. This report concluded
that the current approach or process of value chain of McDonald’s is effective and efficient with
having some areas of improvement (Holweg & Helo, 2014). In this report, both the positive and
negative factors are being identified in relation to the value chain process of McDonald’s. One of
the major gap areas being identified in their value chain process is issues with the employees in
their Malaysian operation. It is reported that foreign employees in the McDonald’s Malaysia are
not being paid properly. In accordance to the identified shortcomings in this report, there are few
recommended steps also being discussed in this report. This will help McDonald’s to overcome
the identified issues effectively.

2INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
2.0 Introduction
In the current business scenario, competitive advantages determine the business
effectiveness of the organizations. Competitive advantages refer to the elements that help a
particular business organization to in staying ahead in the competition. These factors may be the
cost leadership or differentiated products. In the current time it is important for the organizations
to gain competitive advantages due to the reason that the contemporary market scenario is much
more competitive in nature and thus gaining competitive advantage can only help the business
organizations to have some strategic factors over their competitors (Ahi & Searcy,2013).
However, it is also to be noted that gaining competitive advantages involves considerations of
different factors.
The aim of this report is to discuss about the value chain process for McDonald’s.
Different factors and aspects in the value chain analysis will be discussed in this report from the
perspectives of McDonald’s. The major objective of doing this research is to identify the pros
and cons of the current value chain process of McDonald’s (Marques Vieira et al., 2013). In
addition, it is also the objective of this report to recommend a few steps to overcome the
identified shortcomings.
McDonald’s is one of the major fast food chains in the world and is having their
operation in number of countries. This company is being selected due to fact that value chain
process of McDonald’s is well known for the extensive approach and efficiency. In this report,
value chain model will be used to determine the effectiveness of McDonald’s. This model will
help to gain the insights about the gap areas and strength areas for McDonald’s in their value
chain process.

3INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
8.0 Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that there are number of negative and positive factors being
identified in the current value chain process of McDonald’s. This report identified the factors by
extensively using the value chain model on the value chain process of McDonald’s. The most
promising factor of this research paper is the extensive use of only one model. In majority of the
researches being done, number of models and theories are being used that further may dilute the
core objective of the paper. This paper only used the value chain model to identify all the
relevant factors in the value chain process of McDonald’s (McMichael, 2013). However, it can
also be concluded that there are scope of future research on the shortcomings being identified in
this paper. There are number of shortcomings identified and recommended steps are also being
discussed. However, more effective research is required to further concentrates on these factors.
This report concluded that McDonald’s should always have alterative options in terms of their
value chain process. This will help them in reducing the dependency on a particular supplier.

4INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Reference
Ahi, P., & Searcy, C. (2013). A comparative literature analysis of definitions for green and
sustainable supply chain management. Journal of cleaner production, 52, 329-341.
Holweg, M., & Helo, P. (2014). Defining value chain architectures: Linking strategic value
creation to operational supply chain design. International Journal of Production
Economics, 147, 230-238.
Marques Vieira, L., Dutra De Barcellos, M., Hoppe, A., & Bitencourt da Silva, S. (2013). An
analysis of value in an organic food supply chain. British Food Journal, 115(10), 1454-
1472.
McMichael, P. (2013). Value-chain agriculture and debt relations: contradictory outcomes. Third
World Quarterly, 34(4), 671-690.