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From catalyst to burden: shopping malls and franchising in Brazil

Marko Grünhagen (Eastern Illinois University Lumpkin College of Business and Technology, Charleston, Illinois, USA)
Maria Jell-Ojobor (Frank J. Guarini School of Business, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy)
Julia E. Hess (Department of Marketing, The University of Texas at Arlington College of Business, Arlington, Texas, USA)
Haroldo Monteiro da Silva Filho (Department of Pós Graduação – Finanças, Centro Universitário IBMEC, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management

ISSN: 0959-0552

Article publication date: 16 December 2024

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Abstract

Purpose

This research links the global advance of the franchise model to the geohistorical foray of shopping malls through an empirical longitudinal study in the largest emerging market in Latin America, Brazil.

Design/methodology/approach

We conducted an analysis of a multi-year set of qualitative interviews with the same franchised mall tenants (23 interviews in 2017 and 12 follow-up interviews in 2022) via an iterative procedure of transcript data coding and theme identification.

Findings

Shopping malls were key catalysts in the pre-pandemic growth of franchising in Brazil, yet during the pandemic, malls became liabilities. Attitudes towards malls as franchise hosts changed, flipping the mall perception from catalytic host to burdensome trap. Mall management companies, as key gatekeepers, deserve more research attention.

Originality/value

Our study reveals the detrimental role shopping malls, with their static rules and high cost structures, have played as franchise businesses struggled to survive during the global pandemic. While franchising represents one of the most influential retail business models today, shopping malls have been among the most important brick-and-mortar retail institutions since the 1950s. Jointly, they constitute a unique retail symbiosis with little attention in the academic literature.

Keywords

Citation

Grünhagen, M., Jell-Ojobor, M., Hess, J.E. and da Silva Filho, H.M. (2024), "From catalyst to burden: shopping malls and franchising in Brazil", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-11-2023-0653

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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