This thesis aims to investigate the performance of different types of franchisees, in terms of perceived market share and profitability, are affected by constrains defined by the theories of franchise selection and contractual terms. The two different types of franchisees researched include novice and parallel. This begins by examining how the constraints defined by the Resource Base, Social Exchange and Equity theories of franchise selection are applicable to entrepreneurs who want to become franchisees, and by examining the differences in the attitude of franchisees toward contractual terms. The main contribution is that the research broadens and extends other franchising and entrepreneurship studies by exploring external and internal factors to examine perceived franchisee performance. Therefore, this study relates the criteria used by franchisees in the selection of potential franchisors and contract clauses, to their performance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Sultanate of Oman in the food and beverage sector. Moreover, existing research has primarily focused on the perspective of franchisors and has not adequately explored the franchisee's perspective on determining success. Therefore, this study contributes to franchising literature by broadening the scope of existing theories. The study has adopted a multi-methodology strategy, employing a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. Qualitative data was collected through 11 face-to-face interviews, 5 franchisees in Oman, and 6 in Saudi Arabia; using semi-structured questionnaires. Quantitative data was collected via a survey. A self-administrated questionnaire was designed, translated, piloted and distributed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Data analysis was conducted on a sample of 123 responses. Factor analysis was implemented to test the scale, followed by the Mann-Whitney U test, regression, and moderation analysis. The qualitative findings show that constraints defined by the resource-based theory are applicable to novice franchisees. However, franchisor training and support were found to be exceptional resources, applicable to both novice and parallel franchisees. Constraints defined by the social exchange theory are applicable to both novice and parallel franchisees; whereas constraints defined by the equity theory are applicable only to parallel franchisees. The quantitative findings indicate that both types of franchisee have different attitudes toward training clauses; support clauses; contract duration clauses; territorial exclusivity clauses; tying arrangement clauses and franchise fees clauses. However, both types of franchisees have similar attitudes toward termination clauses. Moreover, the results show that franchisor brand reputation, technical know-how and high franchise fee factors will increase the franchisee perceived market share. Additionally, franchisor brand reputation and higher franchise fees, will increase franchisee perceived profitability. Furthermore, parallel franchisees believe that a franchisor's local market knowledge will decrease their performance in terms of perceived profitability. Alternatively, novice franchisees believe long contract duration will help them increase their perceived profitability. In addition, imposing higher franchise fees on novice franchisees will increase their perceived profitability more than that of parallel franchisees. Finally, the results show that contract clauses such as: extensiveness of support; long contract duration, and stricter termination clauses, will affect franchisee perceived market share positively. Finally, contract clauses such as extensiveness of support and short contract duration clauses, will affect franchisee perceived profitability positively; whereas extensiveness of training clauses will affect franchisee perceived profitability negatively.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:764927 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Al-Zawawi, Alawiah Sami |
| Contributors | Yen, D. ; Athreye, S. |
| Publisher | Brunel University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/16400 |
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