THE ASEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY AND TRANS-BORDER FRANCHISING: EVIDENCE FROM JAPANESE CONVENIENCE STORE CHAINS

Abstract

Although trans-border franchising is an important factor to achieve the objectives of the ASEAN Economic Community to 2015 and to 2025, Southeast Asia remains a fragmented franchising area. This argument is substantiated by infrastructure, institutional and regulatory factors. The authors explore the activity of convenience store chains in Southeast Asian countries and distinguish their intra-country and pan-regional specificity to finally reveal the extent to which franchising has proved effective for developing this business across the region. Premised on the analysis of Japanese convenience store chain 7-Eleven, the authors conclude that although franchising has been efficiently implemented by 7-Eleven, the obtained results are a function of broader macro-factors generated by Japanese industrial and technological policy in Southeast Asia as key prerequisites for success. The article adds academic and expert value to the existing literature on ASEAN, as it analyzes the ASEAN Economic Community from a trans-border franchising perspective in Southeast Asia, since this analytical focus has been absent to date.