Franchisees, Change, and the Life Cycle (original) (raw)

What to Expect After the Honeymoon: Testing a Lifecycle Theory of Franchise Relationships

Journal of Retailing, 2011

This research examines the evolution of interorganizational relationships in a franchising context. Using U-curve theory, we develop three hypotheses and contrast them with traditional lifecycle theory. Three groups of constructs are affected by lifecycle: cooperation variables, dependence variables, and relationship variables. Four distinct stages emerge, with highest levels of variables in the honeymoon stage, lower levels in routine and crossroad stages, and increasing levels in the stabilization stage. Franchisors should strive for "stability on high levels" before operational realities influence the franchisees. Franchisees' intermediate lifecycle phases are most critical for the system, since opportunistic behavior and switching are most likely.

Determinants of franchise conversion: a franchisee perspective

European Journal of Marketing, 2013

Purpose -Conversion franchising is a strategy where franchisors recruit existing franchisees from rival systems or by converting independent businesses to franchisees. The present research investigates the attractiveness of conversion offers and the likelihood of such offers being accepted under different conditions of the franchising agreement.

Reevaluating Successful Franchisees Characteristics

2017

This paper presents the literature reviews of a study that evaluate and identify the criteria of a successful franchisees in Malaysia. The report can be adopted by the franchisors in determining the best candidate for the franchise business. A systematic review was conducted to explore and to gather the findings from the empirical journal articles. Articles from 1997 to 2016 were included and analyzed. This method gave a thorough understanding of the franchisee criteria that contributed to the success factors from various perspectives. The findings indicates that entrepreneurial capacity, professional experience, motivation and financial capacity had given direct impact towards determining the best criteria for the sales performance and franchisee success. In addition, personal franchisee characteristics are important for the franchise business success. Result from this study is expected to contribute and to add on to the body of literature on the above subject matter. The author co...

A Process Study of the Development of Capabilities for Replication in an Evolving Franchise Chain

Business and Economic Research, 2021

The purpose of this paper is to extend insight about processes and routines needed for franchise replication and makes an important contribution to understanding ways through which dynamic capabilities are created. Based on a grounds-up study, this paper utilizes a storyline approach (Miles & Huberman, 1994) to present interview data obtained from interviews with elite informants (IEIs) of the host company and its archival data. Evolution of capabilities, both substantive and dynamic, are captured in the findings section. Of the seventeen interviews, seven subjects were location heads and ten corporate executives. Interviews with corporate executives included questions pertaining to their functional specialty as well. Finally, implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Identity in Franchise Systems: The Role of Franchisee Associations

Journal of Retailing, 2011

Utilizing theories of identity this article presents findings from a qualitative study regarding the significant role independent franchisee associations play within franchise systems. The data reveal that successful franchisee associations help manage the inherent tension that exists between cooperation and conflict in franchise relationships. A distinctive adaptive organizational identity provides an association the capability necessary to reframe its relationship with the franchisor as either combative or cooperative in response to changes in a franchisor's identity. Challenging the views of both franchisor stability and the dyadic form that franchisee-franchisor relationships assume, behavioral insight is provided into the actual functioning of franchise systems and new avenues are suggested for theory building in franchising.

An introspective examination of single-unit versus multi-unit franchisees

Journal of The Academy of Marketing Science

Multi-unit franchisees (MUFees; i.e., franchisees that operate more than one outlet within a franchise system) represent a pervasive and even dominant form of franchise ownership in many sectors. However, much of the franchising literature has been developed with a focus on single-unit franchisees (SUFees). The goals of this article are to introspectively compare MUFees and SUFees in terms of (1) the factors franchisees consider important when initially buying a franchise, (2) how these considerations change when SUFees become MUFees, and (3) how SUFees and MUFees characterize their relationships with their franchisors in terms of relational constructs. Our data reveal significant differences between these two groups in terms of purchase motivations as well as relational sentiments. Importantly, franchisor preferences for multi-unit franchising notwithstanding, it is the SUFees that characterize their dyadic relationships with their franchisors as more relational as compared to their MUFees counterparts.

Franchise Business Development Model: Theoretical Considerations

Business: Theory and Practice, 2011

Franchising is not a popular business development form in Lithuania. Only 0.02% of all Lithuanian companies use franchising for business development, while in most of the developed countries franchise is recognized as a convenient business expansion form. So, what factors determine such differences in the use of franchising? Analysis of related literature showed, that mainly researchers analyse some aspects of franchising, however there is no systematized analysis which covers all the main franchise development elements. Therefore, the aim of this article is to systematize franchise business development phases, main elements and factors, influencing this process and to propose a theoretical franchise system development model. Thus, theoretical considerations about the main phases and elements of franchise system development as well as advantages and disadvantages of the system are analysed in the article. These theoretical considerations are generalized in theoretical franchise system development model, which shows, that development of franchise business consists of particular steps, starting from favourable conditions for the system to emerge; intention and ability of franchisor to form franchise based on his business; the establishment and initial development of franchise system; and its further functioning. The article does not test the model and even does not discuss the operationalization of it. Operationalization of the model as well as empirical evidence is presented by the authors in the forthcoming articles.

Understanding Strategic Interactions in Franchise Relationships

This paper aims to grasp the complexity of how and why franchise partners as strategic alliance partners interact with each other given March’s exploration/ exploitation trade-off (March 1991). A research model is presented that distinguishes five types of responses that partners may adopt in their relationships. The empirical part consists of a case study which focuses on two ‘strategic change Trajectories’ (SCTs) in a franchise system in the Dutch drugstore industry. During these SCTs the franchisor tried to implement strategic changes in the franchise system. This paper discusses what responses franchisees adopted in a reaction to the introduction of these SCTs by the franchisor, what responses the franchisor adopted toward these franchisees in turn, and why both partners adopted these responses. The paper concludes with adding a new response type to the current response typology, with providing insight in why franchise partners adopt certain responses, and with discussing the im...