Nasri B., Collazzo P., 2016. Competitiveness of local retail food franchises in the middle east at home market: the influence of foreign franchises, EURAM 2016 Conference, EURAM, Paris, France

Résumé

The purpose of this research is to answer the basic question “How did foreign retail food franchises imported to the Middle East contribute to the creation of rival local concepts?” Research about franchising in the Middle East is minor, and is mainly concerned with retail franchise developments caused by imported foreign franchises. Emergence of local franchises, food and non-food, and reasons and circumstances which accompanied their emergence, their competitiveness at local and hosting markets, were hardly addressed in literature. This research proposes that foreign franchises contributed to the creation of local ones and their respective competitiveness by being a benchmark for them at various business functions being competition, strategy, marketing and operations, as by effect of founders’ backgrounds characterized by extensive contact with and exposure to foreign franchises. The research deals with the research question by a further proposition that setbacks which faced certain foreign franchises in the region contributed to the establishment of competing local franchises based on avoiding these setbacks. Qualitative case study methodology was applied and a case of prominent local retail food service franchise has been selected from each of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. The research reaches to the conclusion that foreign franchise backgrounds of local entrepreneurs did inspire them to start-up their own local food franchise concepts. Foreign franchises were a benchmarking reference for local entrepreneurs in all four of the above proposed business functions against which they established their competing local food franchises. Additionally, this research concludes that setbacks and difficulties which faced foreign franchises, in some cases not successfully overcome, were a significant factor that led to creating local franchise counterparts. Further research findings and implications for theory, practice and future research are brought in the research.

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Pablo Collazzo-Externe

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Italie Uruguay

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