Franchising in the Phillippine Food Industry: A comparative study of International and Local Brand

This thesis examines why and how local and international food franchise brands in the Philippines compete and perform differently, focusing on strategy, structure, and culture in the quick-service, casual dining, and food cart business. This thesis uses a qualitative design grounded in Agency Theory, Resource Scarcity Theory, and Internationalization Theory that analyzes the mode of entry, ownership structures, menu localization, and brand positioning by conducting semi-structured interviews with franchisees and their representatives from both local and international brands across multiple cities in the Philippines. The findings show that international brands enter the market by master franchising or are development agreements that focus on standard operations, brand prestige and strict control, while local brands grow through lower-cost units of franchising, flexible format, and culturally inclined to value proposition that focuses to the Filipino taste, family orientation and price sensitivity. Local franchises outperform international competitors when it comes to their brand recognition, number of outlets, and provincial reach due to cultural understanding, price sensitivity, and adaptation to local demand. On the other hand, international brands dominate the highly urbanized cities in which global brand image and perceived quality command higher prices. The study concludes that long-term competitive success in the Philippine food franchising industry depends less on brand origin than on the ability to balance control and autonomy, align rules with franchisee needs, provide resource efficiency for different capital profiles and localized menus, pricing and digital engagement to various Filipino consumers across different areas in the country.