**6. Conclusions**

This study suggested that franchisors, as business owners, should have to scrutinize the relevant determinants before deciding to expand into the international markets. These determinants assisted franchisors in expanding the potential of the franchise business and increasing their competitiveness. The findings showed four determinants for global franchise expansion, namely: (i) franchise brand; (ii) business location; (iii) product; and (iv) advertising and promotion.

Well-known and popular franchise brands identified a seller's product from a competitor's product. For franchisors, branding is one of the key elements in the marketing mix, because it does not only accommodate an unforgettable impact on customers, but also provide the customers and the prospective franchisees a chance to know what to expect from their company. In addition, product differentiation is a vital element. Product differentiation is a way for franchisors to differentiate their company from the competitors, and explain what they offer, as well as what makes them a better choice.

Moreover, business location is key to successful operations and overall growth of franchise businesses, with consideration of strategic locations in developing their businesses being essential in the global market. Last but not least, promotional and advertising activities were also among the most important elements, as they help in promoting the franchisor's brand and products directly to both customers and prospective franchisees.

#### **7. Limitations and Future Research Directions**

There are some limitations in this study. The first sample in this study is a case from a franchisor; future studies may be from the aspect of the franchisee's experience in exploring the same field of study. Secondly, this study has a limited focus on the food and beverage franchise sector and may not provide significant results regarding the determinants that drove other franchisors in various other industries in seeking to enter the global market. Finally, due to the nature of the case study, no conclusions can be drawn for other industries that are unrelated to the Malaysian franchise industry. Therefore, other similar studies need to be done on other franchise business categories using other salient methods [87]. The findings are also expected to assist the governmen<sup>t</sup> and the agencies involved with franchising in improving related policies, strategies, and programmes. Additionally, this study showed the determinants for global franchise expansion and contributed to the existing literature on international franchising.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10 .3390/su131810328/s1. Document S1: Interview protocols on the Determinants of Global Expansion: A Study on Food and Beverage Franchisors in Malaysia.

**Author Contributions:** N.A.A.A. focused on writing—original draft preparation, methodology, software and analysis, M.R.R. prepared conceptualization and resources. N.S.N.H. and Z.A.A. conducted validation, and data accuration. J.O. managed project administration and H.R.H. conducted writing—review and editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Data available on request due to privacy/ethical restrictions.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
