Research Proposal: Finding Best Food/Restaurant Business Location

This research proposal investigates the crucial factors for selecting an optimal location for a food or restaurant business, particularly focusing on Taco Bell's expansion in New Delhi. The study addresses the problem of how a perfect location significantly impacts a restaurant's growth and profitability, emphasizing factors like convenience, visibility, and population demographics. By employing a case study approach, the research aims to identify and evaluate the relative importance of these factors, contributing to both academic knowledge and practical decision-making for restaurant businesses. The expected outcome is to provide insights into the interdependence of various location-related aspects and their influence on business growth, with implications for future research, restaurant strategies, and societal benefits such as increased employment opportunities.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research proposal on 'Finding Best Food/Restaurant Business Location based on many aspects'
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Title: 'Finding Best Food/Restaurant Business Location based on many aspects’
Introduction/background
This research study will explore the factors for finding a best business location for food
or restaurant business in a particular area. It is extremely important to analyze the locational
advantages and disadvantages before setting up a food or restaurant business, as location is a
major player in determining the direction and outcome of the business. However, there are many
factors, such as, convenience, cost of living, visibility, parking facilities, food offered and
population base and type, that influence the business locations and the selection of the best
location for any such business depends on the assessment of these factors (Self, Jones & Botieff,
2015). It is quite an interesting topic for research. The growth of a business depends on many
aspects, both internal and external. On one hand, internal factors like human resources, capital
resources, tools and equipment and strategies are important, similarly, external factors, such as,
economic condition, socio cultural aspects, tastes and preferences of the consumers, market
competitiveness as well as restaurant locations are also important in determining the business
growth (Parsa et al., 2015). Taco Bell, an American Tex-Mex fast food restaurant chain, wants to
open its second branch in New Delhi, the capital city of India. Hence, it wants to study the
factors for selecting the best possible location for a profitable outcome. Thus, the researcher will
study the factors that play a significant role in selecting the best location for a food or restaurant
business, like Taco Bell.
Problem statement
Many aspects affect the profitability of a business, and location is one of them. Especially
for a food/restaurant business, location is an extremely important aspect that contributes

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significantly in its growth. Choosing a wrong location can affect the business of the restaurant in
a major way. If visitor footfalls reduce due to inaccessibility or inconvenient transport, then the
business growth would get affected. Hence, the problem statement for this research proposal is
that the importance of a perfect location should be clearly understood by the restaurant
businesses, and what factors influence the selection of a business location. Thus, this study will
explore and evaluate the relative significance of the factors that influence the choice of a feasible
and profitable business location for Taco Bell to open a second branch in New Delhi.
Purpose of the study
The purpose of this study is to focus on the area of selection of a profitable business
location for restaurant businesses. It will be conducted for a specific restaurant as a case study.
Taco Bell is an American fast food chain that serves Mexican fast foods, like, Tacos, Burritos,
Quesadillas, Nachos, Salsa dip, etc. It wants to open a new branch in New Delhi. Thus, choosing
the best location is extremely important for Taco Bell to increase its market share and
profitability. Hence, it is significant to investigate about the factors that are considered while
choosing the best location for a restaurant business, especially when it serves nontraditional food
items.
Evaluation of the factors of business growth and profitability for a food or restaurant
business is a vast research topic, as there are multiple factors contributing in the business growth,
and all of which are highly important. However, it is not possible to study all the factors in a
detailed manner in a limited time and budget. Thus, the study has been narrowed down to the
evaluation of the factors of choosing the best location for the food or restaurant business.
Narrowing down the research topic helps in addressing the issue in a more specific manner and

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finding out different aspects of that particular research topic in an in-depth manner (Sekaran &
Bougie, 2016). Jung & Jang (2019) focused on geographic clustering done by the restaurants
segments. The authors found that the high priced restaurants make stronger clusters than the
lower priced ones. This implies that restaurants with hedonic values prefer to cluster more than
the restaurants with utilitarian values. However, it is also found that location factor plays a major
role in this attitude of the restaurants. Location in a central business district (CBD) influence the
business segments, that is, quick service restaurants in the CBD have stronger cluster than the
casual ones outside the CBD. Xiao, Yang & Iqbal (2019) performed a study on the purchasing
factors for the Generation Y students in Nilai, Malaysia regarding the fast food restaurants. They
also found that convenience of location is a major factor in influencing the purchasing intentions
of the students from the fast food restaurants. Ling & Yeung (2018) conducted a study on
relocating a restaurant and the impact on its loyal customers. The authors found through a survey
that relocation will have an impact on the loyal customers and the restaurant must invent ways to
retain their customers along with attracting the new customers in the new location. Sudhagar &
Rajendran (2017) studied the Chinese customers for their selection criteria and dining habit. The
authors found that the selection criteria of the Chinese customers for fast food restaurants
depends on factors like price, quality of food and service, speed of service, promotional offers,
along with the convenience of location. Thus, it can said that various authors have found that
location is an important factor that influences the purchasing behavior of the customers and
hence, the success of the restaurants.
The expected outcome of the study is to illustrate the important factors, such as,
visibility, accessibility, transport convenience, population of the region and their lifestyle, tastes
and preferences etc. that can help a restaurant business to choose their location with rationality

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and the relative importance of those factors hold in the growth of the business. At the same time,
the study will also focus on assessing the importance of the location factor for an unconventional
restaurant like Taco Bell. As the other aspects are quite influential in the selection of the best
location for a restaurant, the location factor is in turn crucial for profitability, thus, these factors
or aspects are interdependent. Thus, an in depth study of this aspect would help in decision
making regarding setting up branches for the restaurants.
The study will also contribute in the academic world by providing useful information
regarding selection of best possible locations for restaurants, especially for one that serves
unconventional food for the Indian culture. A case study approach has been taken to address this
particular research issue. Taco Bell has been considered as the case study restaurant, as it serves
nontraditional food than the typical Indian food. Mexican food is a new type of cuisine that is
being introduced in the Indian societies and hence, it is important to review the factors that can
bring success to this new cuisine. Thus, using Taco Bell as the case study business, the research
study will explore the importance of the location factor in the business growth. The outcome is
expected to contribute significant information not only in the field of academics for future
researchers to take help from for further research works, but also for the restaurant businesses
that want to expand the outlets and increase market share. The outcome will also be beneficial
for the societies as business growth of the restaurants indicates more contribution in the economy
in terms of revenue as well as employment. When a new restaurant opens up and runs
successfully, it increases employment opportunities for the locals, which improves quality of
living of individuals (Giloth, 2019). Thus, the research study has important implications for the
researcher, future researchers, for the restaurant and the society.

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Research question
1) What are the factors that influence the selection of the location for a new restaurant
business?
2) How does location impact the business growth of an unconventional cuisine, that is, food
from a different culture, like, Taco Bell in India?
3) Is customer retention is dependent on the location of the restaurant?
4) How Taco Bell can choose the best location for its new branch in New Delhi?
5) What is the scope of this research study? Is the scope of the research questions
reasonable?
Back up question:
1) What are the factors that affect the growth of the restaurant businesses?
Research hypotheses
Hypothesis 1
H0 (null hypothesis): Location of a restaurant does not have significant impact on the success of
the restaurant
H1 (alternative hypothesis): Location of a restaurant has significant impact on the success of the
restaurant
Hypothesis 2
H0 (null hypothesis): Customer loyalty of a restaurant does not depend on the location of the
restaurant

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H1 (alternative hypothesis): Customer loyalty of a restaurant depends significantly on the
location of the restaurant
Both the primary and secondary data will be required for this study. Primary data will be
collected from the customers of the first branch of Taco Bell, New Delhi about their opinion on
the importance of location for the new branch. Secondary data will be collected from various
academic journals, books, magazines, online publications, annual reports, newspaper articles for
an extensive literature review, which would be helpful in validating the findings from the
primary data analysis. These secondary sources will be accessed from Google Scholar.

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References
Giloth, R. (2019). Jobs and economic development. Advancing Equity Planning Now, 149.
Jung, S. S., & Jang, S. S. (2019). To cluster or not to cluster?: Understanding geographic
clustering by restaurant segment. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 77,
448-457.
Ling, B., & Yeung, D. (2018). Retaining customer loyalty when moving to a new location: A
case study on a small restaurant.
Parsa, H. G., van der Rest, J. P. I., Smith, S. R., Parsa, R. A., & Bujisic, M. (2015). Why
restaurants fail? Part IV: The relationship between restaurant failures and demographic
factors. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 56(1), 80-90.
Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Self, J. T., Jones, M. F., & Botieff, M. (2015). Where restaurants fail: A longitudinal study of
micro locations. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 18(4), 328-340.
Sudhagar, D. P., & Rajendran, G. (2017). Selection criteria of customers of Chinese restaurants
and their dining habits. International Journal of Knowledge Management in Tourism and
Hospitality, 1(1), 57-75.
Xiao, A., Yang, S., & Iqbal, Q. (2019). Factors Affecting Purchase Intentions in Generation Y:
An Empirical Evidence from Fast Food Industry in Malaysia. Administrative
Sciences, 9(1), 4.

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