Kentucky Fried Chicken was founded in 1952 by Colonel Harland Sanders and is currently headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky under Yum! Brands, Inc. (“About KFC,” 2014). KFC has since grown into a global company with more than 37,000 restaurants in more than 120 countries around the world (“About KFC,” 2014). I chose to research KFC because I noticed major differences in the presentation and reception of KFC in America compared to its reception in Asia. Although there are different marketing strategies for different countries, the main differences in the perception of KFC concern how local factors influence the reception of KFC. KFC is received in various ways in different geographical areas due to the cultural variation of those places, despite implementing different marketing strategies. The creation of KFC as a franchising company allowed for rapid growth and globalization. In 1952, Colonel Sanders began researching potential franchisees regarding his “original recipe” for Kentucky fried chicken, and by 1963 there were over 300 franchises with combined profits of $500 million (Krug, 2001, p. 420). Kentucky Fried Chicken also routinely hired older workers through “The Colonel's Tradition” program that offered older workers part-time managerial positions with various fringe benefits and a reasonable salary (DeMicco and Reid, 1988, p. 57). In 1986, KFC was sold to PepsiCo who dramatically changed KFC's relaxed culture due to the Colonel's desire to provide his employees with a culture based on competition and performance (Krug, 2001, p. 421-422). By 1998, KFC had saturated the American market and began to focus on international expansion with 50% of its restaurants located overseas (Krug, 2001, p. 426-428). Allowing affiliates to own...... half of paper ......nt Administration Quarterly, 29(1), 56-61.Krug, J.A. (2001). Case: Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Global Fast Food Industry. International Human Resource Management: Managing Diversity in the Workplace, 301.Schröder, M.J., & McEachern, M.G. (2005). Fast food and consumer ethical value: focus on McDonald's and KFC. British Food Journal, 107(4), 212-224. Sparke, Matthew (2013). Introduction to globalization: ties, tensions and uneven integration. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.Witkowski, T. H., Ma, Y., & Zheng, D. (2003). Cross-cultural influences on brand identity impressions: KFC in China and the United States. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 15(1/2), 74-88.Yan, Y. (2000). Of hamburgers and social space: consuming McDonald's in Beijing. Food and Culture: A Reader.Yum! (2014). About KFC. Retrieved from: http://www.kfcfranchise.com/about-KFC-fried-chicken-business.php