Nador, S. V. (2017). Determinants of a firm’s efficiency and profitability: evidence from the food and beverage industry in the United States [Master Thesis, Technische Universität Wien; Donau Universität Krems]. reposiTUm. https://doi.org/10.34726/hss.2017.47744
The performance of a company is usually dependent on numerous external and internal factors. In this master’s thesis the focus was centered around the influence of the company’s size and its age on the financial performance of a corporation. More specifically, food and beverage restaurant franchises were examined for their efficiency and profitability potential. The United States was appointed as geographical focus of this research, considering the importance of the franchise sector which is expected to outperform the growth of the national GDP this year again, generating about USD 710 billion output in 2017 and contributing to the job creation with approximately 7.888.500 employments. Out of the 744.437 franchise establishments in the United States, about 30% belong to the food and beverage restaurant sector. The analysis conducted was originally undertaken for 56 food and beverage franchise quoted on the American stock exchange. Through the help of the data envelopment analysis method, the study has revealed the most efficient franchises, which include amongst others Dominos’s Pizza, the Bravo Brio Restaurant Group, Dunkin Brands Group, McDonalds and Bojangles Chicken. The most profitable companies comprise of Yum Brands!, Freshii, Papa John’s International, McDonalds and Popeys’ Louisiana Kitchen. The subsequent linear regression analysis has been undertaken to analyze the relationship between age / size and the newly obtained relative efficiency scores and profitability percentage. The results revealed a significant positive relationship between the size of the company and profitability. A non-significant but positive relationship was concluded on in the case of efficiency and company size as well as efficiency and firm age. The correlation between age and profitability was on the other hand non-significantly negative. Thus these results call for future research on the food and beverage restaurant franchises in the United States.