Proceedings of 10th Asian Business Research Conference
6 - 7 October 2014, Novotel Bangkok on Siam Square, Bangkok, Thailand, ISBN: 978-1-922069-62-7
The Study Of the 2012 TFQA Certified Thai Food, Beverage, and
Bakery Franchisor’s Readiness to Expand Internationally
Arunee Lertkornkitja*
Food, beverage, and bak ery franchises are considered a major player in Thailand’s
franchises, representing 48% share. However, slight among them go international mark et
even the Thailand Franchise Quality Award certifies franchisors from Department of
Business Development, Ministry of Commerce while the ASEAN Economic Community
(AEC) is approaching in 2015. This exploratory study is aimed at assessing the readiness
to expand internationally of the 2012 TFQA certified food, beverage, and bak ery
franchisors toward various anticipated factors affecting the expansion.
Mixed-methods research was used in this study. A semi-structured question was used to
interview 4 TFQA certified franchisors who expanded overseas whereas questionnaire was
used to collect data from 13 TFQA certified franchisors. The finding revealed that the 2012
TFQA certified food, beverage, and bak ery Thai franchisors were moderately ready for the
overseas mark et when considering the overall perspective of the anticipated factors. The
highest rank ing factors were training, franchise operation system, and franchisees
selection procedure respectively. Constraints of international expansion were the
availability of capital investment and ability to admit a non-mak ing profit, franchise legal
and regulations, after sales follow-up, organization and functions, strategy and goal, and
administrative time from a least to average score. Furthermore, the depth interview
revealed that to successfully expand internationally; franchisors must firmly grow in host
country before expansion. ASEAN countries were the main target due to the geographic
and cultural distance.
The implications of these finding suggest franchise entrepreneurs should continuously
assess their readiness before moving overseas. Preparation for readiness increases
opportunities to strengthen competitive capacity both in domestic business and oversea
mark et in the long run. Finally, recommendations concerning the government and
entrepreneurs’ roles in increasing the opportunity to strengthen firm’s competitiveness in
both domestic and in the ASEAN mark ets, are discussed, effectively leading them to
become a successful part of the AEC in this very future.
Keywords: Franchise, Readiness, ASEAN Economic Community, Thailand Franchise Quality
Award
*
Ms. Arunee Lertkornkitja, a lecturer, Faculty of Business Administration, Stamford International University, Bangkok,
Thailand. Email : arunee@stamford.edu