Internet for franchising: current use and areas of improvement. Results of an empirical research

The internet provides numerous business opportunities to brands approaching the market with vertical marketing systems. In franchising networks, the internet offers the affiliating enterprise (franchisor) the possibility to approach the end user and the 'community' of franchisees by providing services to both - information, relationships and the possibility of online purchasing to the former, and information, training, sales and procurement support to the latter. This paper explores the impact of the internet on franchising with the objective of discovering how franchisors use their web sites. Results are presented from a preliminary study on a multi-sector and multi-national sample of 305 franchisor websites, illustrating the content and features available online . A further aim of the study is to evaluate the customer orientation adopted by franchisors in their websites and to compare online behaviors with other economic sectors analyzed, using the same methodology. The results of the study should help to significantly inform debate on this subject and serve as a starting point for future research on the impact of the internet on franchising growth strategies

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Three Bacillus species (B. subtilis LFB-FIOCRUZ 1270, B. subtilis LFB-FIOCRUZ 1273, and B. licheniformis LFB-FIOCRUZ 1274), isolated from the poultry industry, were evaluated for keratinase production using feathers or feather meal as the sole carbon and nitrogen sources in a submerged fermentation. The three Bacillus spp. produced extracellular keratinases and peptidases after 7 days. Feather meal was the best substrate for keratinase and peptidase production in B. subtilis 1273, with 412 U/mL and 463 U/ml. The three strains were able to degrade feather meal (62-75%) and feather (40-95%) producing 3.9-4.4 mg/ml of soluble protein in feather meal medium and 1.9-3.3 mg/ml when feather medium was used. The three strains produced serine peptidases with keratinase and gelatinase activity. B. subtilis 1273 was the strain which exhibited the highest enzymatic activity