프랜차이즈 브랜드자산이 가맹점 종업원의 고객지향성과 근속의향에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how the work of store owners and employees with the realization of the value of the franchise brand equity affects customer orientation and continued work of such store owners and employees. The following inquiries have been made for the purpose of this study. With the recent expansion of franchise businesses, if employees working at franchisee stores recognized the value of the franchise brand equity, how will it affect the work attitude of the store employees? Detailed study objectives that can be presented based on such inquiries are as follows. First, the study examines the following question. If employees working at a franchisee store recognized the value of the franchise brand equity, how will it affect the employees' attachment to the organization and organizational commitment. Second, the study then examines the following question. If such employees realizes an attachment to the organization, how will it affect the employees' attachment to customers, the possibility that it will transfer to customer orientation and the employees' intention to continue to work. Third, the study further examines the whether the effects of the level of recognition of the franchise brand equity on customer orientation or level of attachment or intention to continue to work will potentially be carried over to the level of organizational commitment of such employee. In order to conduct this study, data was collected by utilizing questionnaires completed by seven restaurant franchise stores located in Gwangju, Jeollanam-do between October 1, 2012 and November 2, 2012. A total of 270 questionnaires were distributed and 230 copies were retrieved. Except for those questionnaires that were not sincerely responded to, a total 201 questionnaires were utilized as data for this study. The questionnaire was composed by using brand equity as an independent variable. The questionnaire sought to examine the effects of the level of recognition of the brand equity of the restaurant franchise on the employee's organizational commitment, the effects of organizational commitment on the employee's level of customer loyalty and its relationship to the employee's intent to continue to work (intent to change jobs). The positive research results of this study are as follows. Where the employees' level of recognition of the brand equity of the franchise business in which such employee worked was high, such employees' customer orientation demonstrated to be high and the intent to change jobs to a different occupation significantly decreased. Moreover, organizational commitment partly acted as an intermediary for such relationship. In other words, although the level of customer orientation increased and the intent to change jobs decreased solely based on a high level of recognition for brand equity, such relationship became more or less evident depending upon the level of organizational commitment of the employee. Therefore, although companies need to increase the level of brand awareness to promote their brand image among consumers, they must also improve the value of their brand equity to maintain a longer continuance of employment and customer loyalty among their employees who are also their internal customers. According to hypothesis, it can be said that employees with a higher level of recognition of brand equity of their employer have a relatively higher level of customer orientation and a relatively lower intent to change jobs to another company than employees with a low level of recognition of brand equity of their employer. Furthermore, the study showed that employees' high level of recognition of brand equity of the franchise business also increased the level of organizational commitment by the employees. Moreover, where the level of brand equity recognition and organizational commitment were high, the level of customer orientation was high and the intent to change jobs were low. Such results offer a new direction with respect to the most difficult aspects of operating a restaurant franchise business - manpower shortage and customer orientation. Today, many restaurant franchise businesses introduce various alternative measures such as incentives to maintain long-term employment of employees due to the fact that the restaurant business is subject to physically and mentally strenuous work for its employees. However, restaurant franchise businesses have shed new light on their brand equity from diverse angles and if businesses could establish a direction for their brand equity to promote self-esteem among its internal constituents rather than focusing on a brand equity intended for general consumer satisfaction, then such efforts alone may result in higher levels of organizational commitment and customer orientation and maintenance of long-term employees and lead to further generation of revenue for franchise businesses.