| Author: | Li, Yongyi |
| Title: | Facilitating prospective franchisees to enter into a franchise contract : the effect of three marketing tactics in the Chinese catering industry |
| Advisors: | Zhang, Xubing (MM) |
| Degree: | D.B.A. |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Subject: | Franchises (Retail trade) Caterers and catering -- China Restaurants -- China Food service -- China Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Faculty of Business |
| Pages: | vii, 121 pages : illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The catering market in China has surpassed RMB 4.6 trillion yuan and is expected to become the largest market worldwide within seven years. In 2020, the growth rate of restaurant chains in Chinese first-tier cities exceeded 20%, and the rate is increasing annually. Although China's restaurant franchise industry is prospering, it confronts various challenges. Besides the unstable market environment, simple business models, inadequate brand development, and information asymmetry, franchisors cannot promote prospective franchisees to sign a franchise contract. As a result, many prospective franchisees could not finalize the deal during the communication and negotiation processes, thereby limiting the rapid development of China's restaurant franchise industry. This research focuses on the role of three tactics, namely, digging pain, creating a dream, and creating a sense of urgency, in promoting prospective franchisees to enter a franchise contract. A research framework is developed to explore how these tactics change the impact of prospective franchisees’ emotional and social needs on their willingness to join a franchise and the impact of their willingness to join a franchise on signing the franchise contract. Survey data from 272 prospective franchisees were used to test the hypothesized relations. The analysis shows that creating dream has a positive, significant impact on the willingness to join for all the prospective franchisee customers. Salespersons' “digging pain” tactics can negatively impact customers' willingness to join. Digging pain has a more pronounced effect on customers with stronger emotional belonging needs. It confirms that willingness to join is positively related to signing the contract. Among customers with a sufficiently high willingness to join, creating a sense of urgency has a stronger positive effect on signing the contract for customers without franchise experience than those with the experience. However, among customers with low willingness to join, there is no significant effect of creating a sense of urgency on signing a contract, regardless of their previous franchise experience. This research fills a research gap in the academic literature. It has significant practical implications for franchisors who seek to effectively communicate and negotiate with their prospective customers to close the deals. The research findings inform franchisors to utilize the three tactics to recruit franchisees effectively and to expand their franchise enterprises. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7183.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 1.01 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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