The determinants of goal realization and the significant role of self-efficacy in the Malaysian franchise industry

Abstract

The franchising industry in Malaysia is worth more than RM27 billion in 2017 and is rising. However, the local franchisees are still lagging behind their international players in their home country. Hence, the objective of this study is to determine the factors that lead to the innovative goal realization of the local food franchisees. This study utilizes quantitative research design by distributing 400 questionnaires consisting of measurement for seven latent variables. The instruments consist of 45 items adapted to suit the local franchise industry using a 7-point Likert scale. A response rate of 42% (169) was obtained and the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) in AMOS. The path model demonstrates that nine relationships are significant out of twelve hypotheses examined. It signifies that to achieve goal realization, a franchisee needs to undergo a process. It started from goal desire and ends with goal realization. Self-efficacy and goal desire significantly affect goal intention which subsequently effect implementation desire. Next, implementation desire influence implementation intention and self-efficacy. Subsequently, implementation intention and self-efficacy influence plan enactment. Finally, implementation desire and plan enactment are the two significant factors influencing innovative goal realization. Corresponding author: Nik Kamariah Nik Mat Email addresses for corresponding author: drnikuum@gmail.com First submission received: 11th October 2017 Revised submission received: 14th April 2018 Accepted: 10th May 2018 Introduction Malaysia has projected the franchise industry to make up 9.4% of the country's gross domestic products (GDP) by 2020 from 2.2% in 2010, to be supported by four strategic thrusts identified in the National Franchise Development Blueprint (NFDB), 2012-2016. The franchise industry generated a total revenue of RM25.6 billion in 2015, contributed by more than 400 local franchise companies. Despite the importance of franchising business in transforming Malaysian economy, there is still low goal realization among local franchisees which is evidenced from the less than 10% company value of local franchisees as compared to about 23% company value by international counterparts. Top five Malaysian Franchisors operating in Malaysia as at 31 August 2014 are Marrybrown, Secret Recipe, Old town white coffee, Paparich, and The chicken rice shop. The top five international franchisors are KFC, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Dominos and Subway (KPDNKK, 2015). Hence this study intends to examine the factors that could lead to a better goal realization of local franchisees by borrowing from the goal realization theory developed by Dholakia, Bagozzi & Gopinath (2007). Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 13 Issue 2 December 2018 www.jbrmr.com A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM) 13 Review of Literature Goal realization (GR) is defined as the attainment of goal previously chosen by the decision maker (Bagozzi, Dholakia, & Basuroy, 2003). While past studies had tested this model in personal goal realization, very limited studies have explored this model in franchising setting (Sarassina, 2016; Torikka, 2011; Praditbatuga, 2007). This study utilizes the goal realization theory developed by previous researcher (Dholakia, et al., 2007) – hereafter called DBG Model. According to this model, achieving goal realization is a seven-step process whereby it commences with goal desire and perceived self-efficacy, which leads to goal intention, after which it leads to implementation desire, which then leads to implementation intention. From here, the potential decision maker proceeds to plan completeness and plan enactment after which goal realization will be achieved. Plan enactment (PE) is “the degree of successful enactment of the chosen plan” (Bagozzi, et al., 2003). There are several studies that have empirically examined the direct relationships between plan enactment and goal realization. However, the goals being observed are in non-franchise setting such as health: smoking cessation (DeVries Eggers & Bolman, 2013), personal goals (Bagozzi, et al., 2003), snacking behavior (Tam, 2006), volitionally chosen personal goals (Dholakia, et al., 2007) and assigned goals (Bagozzi, et al., 2003). Although the results were found to be consistently significant and positive, however, there are severe shortages of such study in franchise goal achievement (Sarassina, 2016). Goal desire (GD) is defined as the motivational state of mind of the decision maker (Bagozzi, et al., 2003). There are very limited studies investigating goal desire and goal realization in the past. The nearest construct name similar to goal desire that have been examined is ‘need for achievement’ (Zhenhua, Li, & Qing, 2007), and goal frame (Lidenberg & Steg, 2007). Their findings show equivocal results in which ‘need of achievement’ significantly predict goal realization while goal frame does not. Goal desire is also related to goal intention. Previous studies have evaluated the relationship between perceived desirability or goal desire and goal intention show positive and significant result (Krueger, Reilly & Carsrud, 2000; Bagozzi, et al., 2003; Dholakia, et al., 2007). However, the majority of the existing studies only uses students as respondent (Krueger, et al., 2000; Dholakia, et al., 2007; Bagozzi, et al., 2003), and mostly focus on personal goal (Dholakia, et al., 2007; Bagozzi, et al., 2003), and the study stop at intention level (Krueger, et al., 2000; Bagozzi, et al., 2003) and in the Western setting. Thus, a study that studies real entrepreneur will be timely (Carsrud &Brännback, 2011). and the different cultural setting of eastern country such as Malaysia might deliver different result (Hampden-Turner & Trompenaars, 2008). Goal intention (GI) is the intention to perform a specific behavior or a series of behavior (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006). Numerous studies have mostly studied goal intention as antecedents of behavior while only a few studies that uses goal intention as direct antecedent of goal realization (Sarassina, 2016; Dholakia, et al., 2007; Bagozzi, et al., 2003). Previous examination on this linkage has found inconsistent findings (Darmanto & Wahyudi, 2014; DeVries, et al., 2013). Goal intention had been used in very large body of researches and had been proven as a significant and positive direct antecedent of implementation intention. A meta-analysis by (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006). showed that goal intention is indeed the direct antecedent of implementation intention in very diverse field such as collecting coupon (Aarts, Dijksterhuis & Midden,1999), eating low fat diet (Armitage, 2004), public transportation use (Bamberg, 2000), initiation of vocational training (Brandstätter, Heimbeck, Malzacher & Frese, 2003). prospective memory task (Einstein & McDaniel, 2005), new year resolution (Koestner, et al., 2006) exercise (Lippke, Ziegelmann, & Schwarzer, 2004), testicular self-examination and persistence to boring task (Milne, Orbell, & Sheeran, 2002). Goal intention has consistently predicted implementation intention significantly and positively (Ajzen, Czasch, & Flood, 2009; Bagozzi, et al., 2003; Bamberg, 2000). Previous finding shows the tendency of positive and significant relationship between goal intention and implementation desire (Nadkarni, 2009; Dholakia, et al., 2007; Bagozzi, et al., 2003). Implementation desire (ID) measures how much an individual is willing to implement certain steps in achieving their desired goals (Richetin, Perugini, Adjali & Hurling, 2008). Several studies that have studied the relationship between implementation desire and implementation intention have found significant positive linkage, but in no-franchise setting (Bagozzi, et al., 2003; Dholakia, et al., 2007; Nadkarni, 2009). However, the existing study of this relationship is still limited to personal goal (Bagozzi, et al., 2003; Dholakia, et al., 2007) health goal (DeVries, et al., 2013) and patient blood glucose (Nadkarni, Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 13 Issue 2 December 2018 www.jbrmr.com A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM) 14 2009). Furthermore, all studies were conducted in Western setting. Realizing that cultural differences may influence different result across different cultural setting (Hampden-Turner & Trompenaars, 2008), thus, revisiting this relationship in eastern culture is timely. Hence, we formulated the hypotheses based on above discussion. H1: Plan enactment is related positively to goal realization. H2: Goal desire positively influence goal realization H3: Goal intention positively influence goal realization. H4: Intention desire positively affect goal realization H5: Implementation intention positively influence plan enactment. H6: Self efficacy positively influences plan enactment Implementation intention (II) refers to the behavior that needs to be performed in order to achieve goal attainment (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006). Previous studies have shown inconsistent finding explaining the linkage between implementation and goal realization. Furthermore, most of the significant positive results were conducted in non-franchise setting such as entrepreneurship, health, education, social psychology, personal goal and self-management (DeVries, et al., 2013; Hechavarria, Renko & Matthews, 2012; Stadler, Oettingen & Gollwitzer, 2010; Adriannse, et al., 2010) while (Dholakia, et al., 2007) found insignificant result. Very limited studies were conducted in franchising. Past studies examining the relationship between implementation intention and plan enactment are scarce and unrelated to franchising setting. Although previous finding shows that there is consistent significant positive relationship between implementation intention and plan enactment, very little study can justify a sim