Abstract:

Micro-franchising has been gaining its popularity since it promotes sustainable form of entrepreneurship for the people of the base of pyramid (BOP). The concept of micro-franchising has been in existence for decades, but the publicity about the concept was only made back few years ago. Micro-franchise is expected to help the low income people or people at the lower or “grass root” level of the economy to actually start a successfully proven business with minimum capital, training and supervision. The objective of this paper is to assess the micro franchise industry in Malaysia and also to analyze the suitability of the micro-franchise package to be offered for the people at the base of pyramid (BOP). This study employed qualitative method where semi-structured interviewed was conducted to the micro-franchisor.  Content analysis were used to analyze the data.  The preliminary findings revealed that micro-franchise in Malaysia is still at infancy stage as the number of   participation from the franchisors to create a scalable business model is still low. The findings also revealed that the micro franchise package that currently available in Malaysia possessed the essential elements for needs of the people at the base of pyramid (BOP) such as simple and effective business concepts, high profit margin for sustainability and shorter period for break-even point.