This paper describes a research made among Brazilian fast-food franchisees, measuring their perception about the competitive strategies practiced by their respective franchisors and their assessment of the franchisor-franchisee relationship quality. Based upon Porter's (1980) theory on competitive strategies, it was tested if the difference in the average performance among strategic groups of franchisees could be explained by the difference in the franchisor-franchisee relationship quality as perceived by these franchisees. In order to accomplish that, the relationship quality latent variable was represented by different observable variables present in the franchise system and measured through a qualitative scale of the franchisees' satisfaction.
strategy; performance; franchise
