Perceived Benefit and Franchisor Assistance Supporting the Competitiveness of Non-retail Franchise Business with Application to Ready-mixed Concrete Industry in Thailand

There are several strategies aiming for market expansion which firms can consider to implement strategies, which are the most suitable for their internal and external environment. The ready-mixed concrete franchise business in Thailand is business format franchise which Hoffman and Prebles (1993) explained the business format franchise that franchisees replicate in their local community an entire business concept, including product or service, trade name and methods of operation and Rubin (1978) stated that business format franchise controls by the franchisor may extend over products sold, price, hours of operation, condition of the plant, inventory, insurance, personnel and accounting and auditing. In driving franchise network competitiveness, there are two keys factors namely Franchisee Perceived Benefits and Franchisor Assistances were identified. The Franchisee Perceived Benefits consist of sales force enhancement, sales referral and tolling, asset networking, access to government projects, access to national and international contractors while Franchisor Assistances consist of commercial assistances, technical assistances, supplier relations and consultation assistances. Findings of key factors supporting the franchise network competitiveness and with the use of Structuring Equation Modeling (SEM) can explain the influence of the factors to the non-retail franchising business model. The result from the study can be applied to other non-retail businesses and also can be developed for further study in other non-retail franchise businesses.