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This paper aims to identify and evaluate the factors which influence relationship development between franchisors and franchisees in international service franchise partnerships.

Case studies of two international hotel firms were the focus of the enquiry. Interviews and document analysis were used as the data collection techniques.

Findings demonstrate that role performance, asset specificity and cultural sensitivity influence relationship development in franchise partnerships. The influence of these factors, however, varies in different forms of franchise partnerships, namely individual and master franchises.

The findings are based on case studies in the international hotel industry and therefore may not be generalizable to other industry sectors.

Service firms should adopt a systematic organization‐wide approach to, and management of, relationship development in franchise partnerships. In particular, in the case of cross‐country partnerships, both franchisors and franchisees need to develop and exploit their inter‐cultural skills and adapt their business practices to the cultures of host and home countries where appropriate.

The paper exploits three main streams of research which could inform the antecedents of business‐to‐business relationships, namely power‐dependence, transaction cost theories and international business. It thus advances services marketing and more specifically international franchising literatures by offering a holistic theoretical perspective to our understanding of business‐to‐business relationship development.

This paper aims to evaluate the antecedents of franchise relationship development from the perspective of a sample of Chinese and Turkish franchisees.

This study explores relationship development through semi-structured interviews with Chinese and Turkish franchisees.

The findings of the study demonstrated that both the culturally adapted role performance of franchisors and communication geared towards knowledge transfer contribute to relationship development with franchisees.

This exploratory study evaluated the influence of role performance and communication as factors influencing relationship development. Further research could explore other factors in other countries and industries.

To build and develop long-term relationships with franchisees, franchisors need to invest in continuously improving their franchise infrastructures and enhancing their brand reputations. Communication and knowledge transfer between the franchisors and the franchisees are crucial for the management of dynamic relationships.

This paper advances franchising literature by offering a combined and complementary theoretical perspective to our understanding of the influence of power and social investments in relationship development between franchisees and franchisors. In particular, the study identifies role performance of franchisor and communication with franchisees as the key antecedents of relationship development.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual model for building successful franchise partnerships. The model examines the influence of communication and trust on satisfaction and performance in franchise partnerships, considering that franchises are based on franchisor-franchisee and franchisor-supplier relationships.

The unit of analysis refers to the relationships that the franchisor maintains with the franchisees and the main supplier, from the franchisor’s perspective. A mail survey of 592 franchises was conducted by means of a structured, self-administered questionnaire for data collection. A total of 98 valid questionnaires were received and analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results indicate that communication between franchise partners is related to satisfaction through trust. In fact, communication is a major precursor of trust. Findings also show the direct influence of trust on satisfaction in both relationships. Finally, results evidence that developing satisfactory relationships between partners improves strategic and operational franchise outcomes.

The use of the questionnaire limits the approach to information gathering. In addition, the study focused on the franchisor’s perspective of the relationships and it would be interesting to include other partners’ opinions. Further, research should broaden the study scope to include other factors of franchise partnerships.

This study provides franchisors with guidelines to develop satisfactory relationships. It recommends that franchisors design adequate programs to create, maintain, and enhance franchise partnerships, and also to improve a trust-based culture.

The analysis is conducted taking into consideration the franchisor-franchisee relationship and the franchisor-supplier relationship. Measurement scales are developed and validated for both relationships.

This paper aims to identify the partner selection criteria employed both by franchisors and franchisees in master franchise agreements and evaluate how different selection criteria interact within the selection process and influence the decisions taken.

A single embedded case study of an international hotel firm was the focus of the enquiry. Interviews and document analysis were used as the data collection techniques.

The findings reveal that the establishment of franchise partnership involves a mutual and careful evaluation between franchisors and franchisees to assess whether their partnership criteria are compatible. The partner selection approach determines the extent of importance attached to different task‐ and partner‐related selection criteria. In addition, the study identifies the role that different selection criteria play at different stages of the process.

The findings are based on a single case study in the international hotel industry and therefore may not be generalisable to other firms or industry sectors. Moreover, the study comprised master franchise agreements, and this contextual variable may impact on the findings determined.

This paper illuminates the challenges both international franchisors and franchisees face in selecting their partners and proposes that both franchisors and franchisees should employ clearly defined selection criteria, utilise a defined selection process and choose their selection approach carefully in recruiting partners.

This paper cross‐fertilises the strategic alliance and franchise literature to evaluate the interplay of partner selection criteria, process, selection approach and international franchise recruitment. The findings contribute to the understanding of a largely neglected area, franchise partner selection and recruitment, by taking a holistic approach and incorporating the views of both franchisors and franchisees.

The governance structure of international franchise firms varies from higher control modes, such as wholly owned subsidiaries and joint venture franchising, to lower control modes, such as area development and master franchising. Based on organizational economics, strategic management, and international business perspectives, the purpose of this paper is to use the case study analysis to empirically evaluate an integrative model on the franchisor’s choice of international governance modes.

The study applies qualitative methods, such as in-depth case analysis, to investigate a large set of variables that influence the governance structure decision of the international franchise firm. Specifically, it applies a theory-testing case study with two major competitors in the European automotive rental industry, i.e. Europcar and Sixt. Theory-testing case research is justified by the lack of explanatory research due to the complexity of the franchisor-franchisee relationship phenomena, such as the factors that influence the franchisor’s choice of international governance modes. The investigation of the complex governance structure phenomenon requires a holistic analysis.

The case study shows that environmental, behavioral, transaction-specific, resource-based (system-specific, market-specific, financial resources), and international strategy considerations are important determinants of the governance mode decision of the international franchise firm.

The study responds to the recent call in organizational economics, marketing, strategic management, and international business literature to develop and test a multi-theoretical framework to explain the governance structure of inter-organizational networks, such as franchise networks.

Few previous studies in international franchising have used more than one theoretical perspective to explain the governance structure of the international franchise firm. This study contributes to the theory-testing case study literature by applying a rigorous method of conducting case research. This includes developing a theoretical framework and a systematic research design. A systematic research design requires a holistic analysis by investigating the international franchise governance modes from a variety of theoretical perspectives which are the organizational economics, strategic management, and the strategy-structure perspective.

Higher education institutions possess a plethora of knowledge at the institutional, departmental and individual levels. Therefore, knowledge management plays a vital role in assisting partnerships to synergise knowledge and strengthen market competitiveness when working collaboratively. The purpose of this study is to identify and critically discuss the role of knowledge management concepts that support development of UK higher education partnerships. This knowledge management research was undertaken with the purpose of exploring components of behavioural constructs in assisting the development of successful partnerships between higher education institutions.

This research embraces a qualitative methodology and makes use of an expert panel method to gather field data and assess the relevance, robustness and applicability of a conceptual model developed in the context of higher education partnerships. Guided by two research questions, the researchers elicited knowledge from eight experts, academics and practitioners, who had initiated and led partnership development between UK higher education institutions. The experts were invited and selected to attend the panel using the criteria of “Years of Experience in the Higher Education sector”, “Job Positions and Experiences” and the “Partnership Scope and Impact”.

Depicting in a tree analogy, the conceptual model indicates that effective knowledge management will require higher education executives, managers and practitioners to centre on nurturing “tree roots” presented as behavioural knowledge management constructs and include institutional culture, trust, absorptive capacities and communication channels. The research findings elaborate on previous research and provide a categorisation of partnership outcomes between higher education institutions, explaining that partnership outcomes can be of an “Academic”, “Marketing and Finance” or “Managerial” nature. Importantly, practical use of the model could be implemented using audit methods or benchmarking methods, whereby the categorised elements of the model are used as a criterion of assessment for audit teams.

The conclusion extracted experiential insights to provide guidance as to how higher education executives, managers and practitioners can make use of knowledge management behavioural constructs and activities to assist collaborative undertakings in the higher education sector. This paper provided a new, modified, knowledge management higher education partnership tree, thus giving researchers and academic practitioners a holistic viewpoint of important partnership knowledge management factors.

There has been over the last decade an emergence of new democratic states in Eastern Europe and a growing aspiration by many of these states to enter the EU. There would appear to be six front runners in this move towards EU membership – Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. Slovenia, though a small state and previously part of Yugoslavia, is one of these front runners with aspirations for early entry into the EU. This paper is intended to give an insight into Slovenia, giving some comparison of its case to other aspiring EU entrants. It looks at the culture and background of Slovenia, the extent of western European penetration into its fashion market, the extent of its clothing industry and considers the implication of EU membership to this emerging democracy. The paper takes a broad look at a country that may soon be a fellow member of the EU and a potential partner in EU projects.

To investigate the role of prior knowledge in the international franchise partner recruitment process and to evaluate how cultural distance influences the role of prior knowledge in this process.

A single embedded case study of an international hotel firm was the focus of the enquiry. Interviews, observations and document analysis were used as the data collection techniques.

Findings reveal that prior knowledge of the franchisor enables the franchisor to coordinate more efficiently with prospective partners. However, the case study firm experienced a great deal of cultural distance in different country markets. The greater the cultural distance, the more challenges the firm has to face in terms of upgrading and adapting its prior knowledge to local needs.

The findings are based on a hotel franchise chain, and may not be generalisable to other firms or industry sectors, although the literature on international management does not indicate any substantial differences between hotel firms and other types of organisations. Despite this limitation, the findings shed light on the importance of critically evaluating a firm's prior knowledge in a complex, multinational context.

This paper illuminates the challenges international franchisors face, and highlights the need to adapt their prior knowledge base to the local needs. The findings also reinforce the message that selecting prospective franchisees that are familiar to the franchise business format and willing to adopt the franchise system is crucial to the long‐term success of the franchise system.

This paper cross‐fertilises literature of organisational learning and franchising and evaluates the interplay of prior knowledge, cultural distance and international franchise recruitment. The findings provide further evidence on the mixed influences of prior knowledge on international franchise partner recruitment, and caution firms to critically evaluate their prior knowledge in international expansion. The findings also contribute to the understanding of franchise partner selection and recruitment, and bring in new addition to the body of existing franchising literature which largely examines the operations of the franchise system.

The purpose of this paper is to show students the problems that a Brazilian franchise in the fast food sector faced while internationalizing its business to Mexico and Spain. Specifically, discuss how the entry mode of master franchise used by Spoleto presented problems to the company's managers.

This is a teaching case, designed to make students reflect on issues related to international business and international marketing. The primary data were collected through interviews with Edwin Junior, International Expansions Manager of Spoleto. The information gathered in the interviews was complemented by secondary data from newspapers, business magazines, internet sites and the Spoleto sites in Brazil and Mexico.

The choice to make partnerships with companies that already have experience in managing big multinational franchises might not be the best move for a brand that is unknown outside of its country. This aspect of master franchise partnerships is scarcely discussed in the literature, which instead tends to focus on other negative aspects of this kind of arrangement. It is also important to point out that close control over the master franchisees actions, especially in the initial phases of international expansions, is important to guarantee that operations will be up to standards in all countries.

The value of this study is in the discussion it raises about the mistakes, rather than the successes, made by a Brazilian franchise in its first attempts to expand internationally.