Choosing a travel agency franchise by mean of a global composite indicator: an application in Spain

Abstract

This paper highlights the complexity of the franchise partner selection process from a franchisee's perspective. The purpose of this article is, firstly, to propose the definition of a system of indicators which include all the relevant information which the potential franchisee should take into consideration when choosing a chain secondly, to obtain a global composite indicator for the construction of a ranking of franchisors. In order to illustrate the procedure, a sample of travel agency franchisors in Spain and a suitable database to quantify the indicators are considered. The paper concludes constructing a complete order of the franchisors in the travel agency industry. In addition, the results show the most important characteristics of franchisors that potential franchisees must take into account. The value of the paper is significant as it provides a practical frame – work for potential franchisees in the selection of franchisors.

Keywords:

• indicator
• franchisee
• choice of franchisor
• data envelopment analysis
• travel agency
• Spain

JEL Classification:

• C61
• M19
• L83

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Francisco J. Blancas-Peral

Francisco Javier BLANCAS-PERAL is Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History at Pablo de Olavide University (Seville, Spain). He has publications in more than twenty-five national and international conference proceedings. His research focused on constructing composite indicators and sustainable tourism analysis. He has published some research papers in international journals that are taken are reference in composite indicators literature. Among these journals Ecological Indicators, Ecological Economics, Social Indicator Research, Journal of Gender Studies or Science of the Total Environment can be remarked

Ignacio Contreras

Ignacio CONTRERAS is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History, Pablo de Olavide University of Seville, Spain. His research topics include DEA, multicriteria decision analysis and group decision making process. He has published several papers in journals like European Journal of Operational Research, Decision Support Systems, Journal of the Operational Research Society or Group Decision and Negotiation, among others.

José M. Ramírez-Hurtado

José Manuel RAMIREZ-HURTADO. He is Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History at Pablo de Olavide University (Seville, Spain). He received his PhD in Applied Economics from Pablo de Olavide University in 2007. His main research interests include franchising, preference studies, marketing management and tourism analysis. In 2008 he was awared the Spanish National Award in Franchising from the Salón Internacional de la Franquicia, las Oportunidades de Negocio y el Comercio Asociado (SIFandCo). He has published papers in journals such as Journal of Business Economics and Management, Service Business, Journal of Applied Economic Sciences, Journal of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration and Tourism Analysis.