The discussion about patrons' expected and acceptable wait time has been in the spotlight in the restaurant
management research. The purpose of the study is to examine the differences between American and Thai with
regards to the expectations and the acceptable wait time of fast-food restaurants service. First of all, service quality
literature was thoroughly reviewed. Then, based on Hofstede's cultural dimensions, potential cultural differences
between America and Thai were proposed, thus hypothesized. To empirically test the hypothesized argument, data
was collected from 151 US fast-food consumers and 160 Thai consumers. In total, 311 samples were used for the
data analysis. The independent sample t-test and the Mann-Whitney U test were conducted respectively. The results
show that even though the service expectations were fairly similar between both groups, Americans and Thai,
cultural differences still played an important role in shaping the service expectations of customers. Also, there is a
significant difference of the acceptable wait time for the entire order transaction at a fast-food restaurant. Also, Thai
expected the shorter wait time than Americans for the entire order transaction at a fast food restaurant. Therefore,
international franchising restaurant companies should reduce wait time in the collectivism-oriented countries. Based
on the findings, the theoretical and empirical implications were discussed. The findings provide new insights into
cross-national comparison study in the food service area. Also, it is expected that restaurant managers can have
practical guideline in the management of expected/acceptable wait time.
Key Words : expected service delivery time, service quality, fast food, cross-national comparison, Hofstede's cultural
dimensions