=+9. McDonald’s conducts extensive marketing research for all its new products, including new menu items for its overseas stores.

Because of cultural and other differences and preferences, the company cannot always extrapolate its results from one country to another. For instance, Croque McDo fried ham-and-cheese sandwiches are unlikely to be as popular in the United States as they are in France, which invented the croque monsieur sandwich on which the McDonald’s product is based. Can you think of any other kinds of firms that share this limitation on global applications of their research? In contrast, what sorts of questions could multinational firms answer on a global basis? Why?