Assessment of Franchising Practices Adopted by Oil and Gas Firms (Total Nigeria Plc) as Perceived by Retail Marketers in Edo State

Assessment of Franchising Practices Adopted by Oil and Gas Firms (Total Nigeria Plc) as Perceived by Retail Marketers in Edo State.

ABSTRACT

Five research questions were answered by the study while four null hypotheses were formulated and tested at p≤ 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted descriptive survey research design and was carried out in Edo State. The population for the study was 59 retail marketers of Total Service Stations in Edo State.

Due to the manageable size of the population, the entire 59 retail marketers of Total Service Stations in Edo State were involved in the study. The instrument for data collection is a structured questionnaire titled ‘Assessment of Total (Nigeria Plc) Retail Marketers’ Perception of Adopted Franchising Practices Questionnaire (ATRMPAFPQ)’.

The questionnaire was subjected to face validation by three experts. These include two Lecturers from Business Education Unit of the Department of Vocational Teacher Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State and one Lecturer from the Department of Business Administration, University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State.

To obtain the reliability of the research instrument, the instrument was trial tested by administering 15 copies of the questionnaire to dependent marketers (retail marketers) of Oando Nigeria Plc service stations operating in Ondo State. Cronbach Alpha Reliability coefficient of 0.772 was obtained for cluster two, 0.794 for cluster three, 0.826 for cluster four while 0.759 was obtained for cluster five.

The data for the study were collected by the researcher with the help of one research assistant. All the 59 copies of the questionnaire administered were retrieved representing 100% return rate. The data collected were analyzed using frequency, percentage and mean for answering the research questions while Analysis of Variance ANOVA was used for testing hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.

INTRODUCTION

Increased globalization has forced firms to seek entry into foreign regions as markets are becoming more dependent on each other for exchange of resources. The more globalization continues to play an increasing role in the world economy, the more businesses will continue to prudently seek to expand their operations through franchising (Osoteku, 2012).

Franchising is a contractual agreement between two legally independent firms in which one firm, the franchisee, pays the other firm, the franchisor, for the right to sell the franchisor’s product and/or the right to use its trademark and business format in a given location for a specified period of time (Blair and Lafontaine in Penard and Perrigot, 2012).

According to the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act, franchising is defined as an agreement between an oil supplier and an oil dealer in which the supplier permits the dealer to use the supplier’s trademark in connection with the sale of motor fuel (Corrigan, 1980).

The franchisor-franchisee relationship exists between a franchisor, the owner of the trademark or service mark, an idea, a patent and the goodwill and know-how associated with it and licensing of it to a franchisee in return for a service fee or royalty (Kotler, 2000; FASA, 2002).

REFERENCES

Abatzoglou J.(2002). What the franchisee expects from the franchisor. Franchise Book of South Africa. Johannesburg: FASA.

Abizadeh, N. (2010). Adoption of Franchising: Cultural barriers and pitfalls in Iran. An Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Department of Business Administration and Social Sciences, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden 

Abusinessfranchise.co.uk (2013). Understand the legal structure of a franchise.

Adegbulugbe, A.O. (2002). Energy supply and demand balance in Nigeria. Issues and Options: Energy Policy Agenda for Nigeria. Lagos: International Energy Services Ltd

Agbola, E.A. (1979). The role of Roadside Petrol Resellers and Independent Marketers on the National Economy. A Seminar paper on petroleum products marketing held at the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Warri. CSI .doc

Akande-Onada, M. (2012). Starting up in the Petroleum Industry in Nigeria. Retrieved from               industry-in-nigeria

StudentsandScholarship Team.