Many of the fast food operations are entering markets in Middle Eastern countries. In the United States, breakfast items are very popular and are responsible for a majority of the profit from sales, primarily from drive-in customers

However, to their dismay, managers found that there was practically no demand for breakfast items. Firstly, due to hot weather conditions, people sleep late and wake up late. Secondly, they do not eat burgers, and sausage or bacon is prohibited. Also, drive-in business is not popular since people go to work at different periods of time. Explain the reasons why these facts were not discovered by marketing research.

When conducting research in a foreign country one has to be free from any kind of bias or prejudice as possible. A person's home-country values and beliefs may consciously or unconsciously influence the assessment of a foreign culture or country. This is referred to as SRC (self-reference criterion). The SRC tendency underscores the importance of understanding the cultural environments of global markets. As in the above case, assumptions based on home-country marketing success turned out to be wrong when applied in a Middle Eastern country. A marketing program that is successful in one country does not guarantee success in another country. Thus, marketers must be aware of the SRC and its impact. Such awareness can have several positive effects. It can enhance management's willingness to conduct market research in the first place. Also, an awareness of SRC can help in ensuring the validity of research with minimal home-country or second-country bias. In other words, the research will have potentially useful results which managers will be able to accept and implement.