Practical implications – Saturated with the US restaurant market selling fast-serving and cheap meals, a growing number of US fast-food restaurant franchises began to explore foreign markets to increase world-wide customer bases. However, it is not easy for them to duplicate their domestic success in foreign soils due to different needs, tastes, and preferences of foreign customers. This paper helps the fast-food restaurant franchises develop viable market penetration and localization strategies and then provides practical guidelines for enhancing their competitiveness in the emerging foreign markets.