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1 – 10 of 349This paper seeks to propose a definition of strategic mergers and acquisitions (M&A) that is illustrated by way of case study. It also aims to introduce the strategic concept of …
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to propose a definition of strategic mergers and acquisitions (M&A) that is illustrated by way of case study. It also aims to introduce the strategic concept of “nascent franchise.”
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed definition is based on existing strategic theory, which was extended to the field of M&A. The supporting case analysis is based on the Berkshire Hathaway‐led acquisition of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company (“MidAmerican”) in 1999, and was prepared from publicly available financial information.
Findings
Defining strategic M&A in the manner proposed in this paper proved useful in explaining the dynamics of, and post‐acquisition performance of, the MidAmerican acquisition. It also helped to frame the analysis leading to the concept of nascent franchise.
Practical and research implications
The paper's definition of strategic M&A could help reframe deal deliberations for practitioners, and spur research by strategy scholars. Additionally, the concept of “nascent franchise” could be developed in future research conducted by either practitioners or academicians.
Originality/value
Strategic M&A is defined in a manner consistent with the literature, but extended and illustrated in a unique manner. The valuation presented in this paper, and the concept of nascent franchise derived from the valuation, are based solely on the author's work.
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Kriti Swarup and Anshul Mathur
This case study outlines the strategic and organisational issues faced by an entrepreneurial firm operating in an emerging economy. This case study has been written to equip…
Abstract
Learning outcomes
This case study outlines the strategic and organisational issues faced by an entrepreneurial firm operating in an emerging economy. This case study has been written to equip students with how entrepreneurs can overcome certain barriers and use technology to achieve product–market fit, taking the Indian laundry sector as an example. The following are the key learnings for the case: start-ups need to continuously assess the product–market fit to organise a highly unorganised sector; market entry and expansion modes require proper evaluation of available entry and expansion modes before pursual; franchising decisions require firm-specific and location-specific considerations; and careful consideration given to celebrity endorsement will result in increased sales.
Case overview/synopsis
The Indian laundry market was a highly unorganised market and presented an untapped opportunity. While the market opportunity was enormous, the existing solutions comprised local vendors that may not provide end-to-end services (washing, ironing, etc.). The case study described how a young entrepreneur, Arunabh Sinha, overcame certain challenges to achieve a product–market fit for metro cities and later expanded to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India as well. However, the challenges remained, as the firm expanded by using a franchise model, and other modes of business were required to be evaluated as well.
Complexity academic level
The case study is suitable for students pursuing MBA courses in marketing, service marketing and entrepreneurship development.
Supplementary materials
Teaching notes are available for educators only.
Subject code
CSS3: Entrepreneurship.
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Colleen E. Mills and Faith Jeremiah
This study presents an original empirically based conceptual framework representing mobile microbusiness founders' experiences when converting to a franchise business model that…
Abstract
Purpose
This study presents an original empirically based conceptual framework representing mobile microbusiness founders' experiences when converting to a franchise business model that links individual-level variables to a sociomaterial process.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory interpretive research design produced this framework using data from the enterprise development narratives of mobile franchisors who had recently converted their mobile microbusinesses to a franchise business model.
Findings
The emergent framework proposes that franchisor’s conversion experience involves substantial identity work prompted by an identity dilemma originating in a conflict between role expectations and franchising operational demands. This dilemma materializes during franchise document creation and requires some degree of “identity undoing” to ensure business continuity. By acting as boundary-objects-in-use in the conversion process, the franchise documents provide a sociomaterial foundation for the business transition and the development of a viable franchisor identity.
Research limitations/implications
There is scant literature addressing the startup experiences of mobile microbusiness franchisors. The study was therefore exploratory, producing a substantive conceptual framework that will require further confirmatory studies.
Practical implications
By proposing that conversion to a franchise business model is experienced as an identity transformation coupled to a sociomaterial process centred on system documentation, this original empirically based conceptual framework not only addresses a gap in the individual-level literature on franchise development but also provides a framework to direct new research and discussions between intending franchisors and their professional advisors about person–enterprise fit.
Originality/value
The conceptual framework is the first to address franchisors' experience of transitioning any type of microbusiness to a franchise business model.
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The purpose of this paper is to introduce a model that explores various possible determining factors in the rate of franchising among emerging nations. Emerging markets are some…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a model that explores various possible determining factors in the rate of franchising among emerging nations. Emerging markets are some of the fastest growing economies in the world; moreover, the countries they represent are undergoing substantial economic transformations. Yet despite all this, little is known about the factors influencing country selection for expansion into these markets. In an attempt to enhance the knowledge that managers and scholars have on franchising expansion, the present study examines how market conditions may constrain diffusion of franchising into emerging markets. They are: geographical distance; cultural distance; uncertainty avoidance; individualism; political stability, and corruption. The author also controlled for gross domestic product, the efficiency of contract enforcement, and nascent entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a quantitative approach applied to a sample of 63 Spanish franchisors with 2,836 franchisee outlets operating across the emerging countries.
Findings
Results conclude that geographical distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, political stability, corruption, gross domestic product, efficiency of contract enforcement, and nascent entrepreneurship are able to constrain the spread of franchising across emerging nations.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides readers with a general overview of the current state of global franchising diffusion overseas. Results obtained in this study are useful for understanding and predicting the demand for franchising in emerging countries.
Practical implications
The present manuscript develops and tests a model that can be useful not only to academics interested in broadening their knowledge regarding global franchising, but also to firm managers wanting to establish new outlets in emerging nations. Thus, franchisors may use the results of this study as a starting point for identifying the emerging regions whose characteristics best meet their needs of expansion.
Originality/value
This paper explores how certain market conditions may drive international diffusion of franchising into emerging markets. The scant theoretical or empirical attention given to this topic has usually been examined from a US base and focused on developed markets. To fill this gap, the present study analyzes the international spread of the Spanish franchise system, which since 2008 has ranked fifth worldwide in terms of both the number of franchisors and the quantity of franchisee outlets across emerging markets.
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Monica Diochon and Yogesh Ghore
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of how a social enterprise opportunity is brought to fruition in an emerging market.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of how a social enterprise opportunity is brought to fruition in an emerging market.
Design/methodology/approach
This real-time longitudinal case study tracks the emergence of a micro-franchise start-up from conception to inception. Using a narrative perspective as a conceptual lens focuses attention on the relational, temporal and performative elements of the interactive process that occurs between social entrepreneur(s) and the environment(s). While interviewing provides the primary source of evidence, multiple data collection methods were utilized.
Findings
The analysis of the process elements centres on the narratives of the micro-franchise co-founders and other key informants that prompt action aimed at bringing the opportunity to fruition, showing how the social entrepreneurs bring the inside out and the outside in.
Research limitations/implications
Despite challenges to the appropriateness of Western management theory within emerging markets, this study has shown that theory at a sufficiently high level of abstraction can be useful. It also demonstrates the need to study process over time and be inclusive of the range of stakeholders and contexts that influence it.
Social implications
The findings indicate that social enterprise start-up is a co-creative process that evolves in unpredictable ways over time. Beyond start-up, only time and further study will determine whether social enterprise will prove to be the panacea for poverty and marginalization that governments expect.
Originality/value
This research gains real-time insight into social enterprise emergence. It underscores the multi-dimensional nature of context and provides evidence indicating that the relationship and influence between social entrepreneur(s) and their environment is not one way.
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This paper, using a case study on Jibu, a water distribution chain that distributes bottled water in Africa, aims to underline the importance of social relationships and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper, using a case study on Jibu, a water distribution chain that distributes bottled water in Africa, aims to underline the importance of social relationships and communication within franchise chains operating in the social sector in developing countries and their contribution to the clarification of the concept of social franchising.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is based on a case study of Jibu, a water distribution chain composed of 122 franchised units and 2,100 independent retailers. The primary data were gathered through an analysis of in-depth interviews with 67 people (Jibu co-founder, headquarters staff, franchisees, micro-franchisees and customers) in Uganda and Rwanda.
Findings
The findings showed that the extent and richness of social relationships and communication existing within the Jibu chain are not limited to top-down and build a feeling of belonging to a family. These social relationships and communication are key characteristics of social franchising.
Practical implications
This research can assist franchise experts, franchisors and franchisees to better assess the importance of social relationships and communication in social franchise chains in developing countries and help national and local governments better understand how franchising works in the social sector.
Social implications
Franchising is not limited to hotels, restaurants and retail businesses. Franchising can be applied to businesses that have social goals, in addition to profit goals. For example, the Jibu franchise is a relevant and efficient solution to providing the African people with access to drinking water at an affordable resale price. This paper, thus, contributes to increasing the awareness of this franchising phenomenon in social sectors in developing countries and in Africa, in particular.
Originality/value
Access to drinking water is an important issue in many developing countries, above all in African countries. Franchised water services are an innovation in terms of a business model in developing countries with micro-treatment plants run by franchisees and small units run by micro-franchisees or retailers, both franchisees and micro-franchisees being local entrepreneurs.
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Rosa Azalea Canales García and Oscar Javier Montiel Méndez
Entrepreneurship and family businesses are fundamental factors in economic activity since, through the generation of new ideas, it is possible to generate new businesses that…
Abstract
Entrepreneurship and family businesses are fundamental factors in economic activity since, through the generation of new ideas, it is possible to generate new businesses that trigger employment, innovation, and economic growth. Recently, an emphasis on seeing both research streams from a kaleidoscope perspective has given new insights into the development and evolution of this area. Thus, exploring the differentiation between true and false entrepreneurs seems vital for today's efficient allocation of resources. A theoretical model is proposed, including micro, meso, and macro analytical spheres, adding the behavioral aspects that determine whether a person is a true or false entrepreneur and the effects that can have on the business. To observe the viability of the approach, the case of an enterprise, called “family business S,” is examined. Specifically, the results show the feasibility of applying the analytical proposal to observe the positive and negative behaviors of the family business. In the case of S, these are false entrepreneurs, given that free time and unemployment were the main reasons for starting the company, but they lacked the will and long-term vision. Also, a novel view on how to diagnose a real entrepreneur for taking over a family business is proposed, where a clinical history approach might help in the succession process.
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Séverine Lemaire, Bertrand Gael, Gloria Haddad, Meriam Razgallah, Adnane Maalaoui and Federica Cavallo
This paper aims to refer to the knowledge transfer of entrepreneurial skills between digital incubators and nascent entrepreneurs. It questions the role of the context and of the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to refer to the knowledge transfer of entrepreneurial skills between digital incubators and nascent entrepreneurs. It questions the role of the context and of the richness of the ecosystems in which these women evolve, as defined by Welter and Baker (2021) on such an attempt.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is based on a qualitative study that refers to case studies of women nascent entrepreneurs who evolve into two different contexts – one rich zone and one deprived economic one of the French Parisian Region – and who integrated the same digital incubator.
Findings
Context does partly matter: besides the “Where”, the “Who” and, moreover, the level of education and previous entrepreneurial experience really matters, and only educated women, whatever the other components of context, seem to be capable to receive the “best” knowledge transfer from incubators. Second, incubators can be considered as to be a knowledge hub that allow knowledge transfer not only from trainers and coaches to women nascent entrepreneurs but also among women entrepreneurs. This paper concludes with a discussion on the role of digital training and coaching in such knowledge transfers.
Research limitations/implications
Findings are limited to a specific place (the region of Paris). Therefore, women entrepreneurs evolve in more different contexts but the national entrepreneurial and institutional context remains the same. There should be need to explore the role of an incubator that evolves into more contrasted contexts.
Practical implications
If results can be generalized, this means incubators should differentiate their services, teaching and coaching expertize according to the education level of nascent entrepreneurs: This is a plaidoyer against institutionalized incubators that claim to be capable of targeting any nascent (women) entrepreneurs.
Social implications
This study is also a plaidoyer for more digital incubator to mix persons from different contexts, especially to welcome persons from more deprived economic zones.
Originality/value
The research reveals the role of context – and, some components of the context – intro coaching and training that are provided by online incubators. It contributes to the literature on knowledge transfer that is brought about by incubators. It also contributes to the literature in entrepreneurship by showing that some components among the others that define what we call “the context” matter more than others.
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The divergent interests of franchisor and franchisee give rise to significant ex-post conflict following the purchase of a franchise. Australian regulators have sought to assist…
Abstract
Purpose
The divergent interests of franchisor and franchisee give rise to significant ex-post conflict following the purchase of a franchise. Australian regulators have sought to assist transparency in franchising decision making by legislating for disclosure documents that expose key variables that theoretically determine choice on the part of prospective franchisees. The purpose of this paper is to explore the value proposition of the disclosure document and tests its normative effectiveness using a signal-theoretic perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Potential investors were asked to consider selected attributes through a choice-based survey, consistent with consumer theory, and focussing on an attribute-based determination of value. However, complex decision making in general and choice modeling can place severe cognitive burdens on respondents and induce satisficing rather than maximizing behavioral patterns. Best-worst scaling (BWS) provided a means for potential purchasers to respond coherently.
Findings
Findings indicate limited capacity for potential investors to rationalize the simplistic choices presented, suggesting that franchise choice is determined to a large degree by non-rational factors.
Research limitations/implications
This research is embryonic (exploratory) in nature with the findings providing an imperative for further investigation into workable attributes of franchise systems. Analysis is limited to prospective franchisees’ perceptions and needs to be triangulated with franchisor and policy-makers perspectives.
Practical implications
Both franchisors and policy makers can utilize this research to improve transparency in the disclosure document. Prospective franchisees should then be able to make more effective decisions about the franchise systems of choice.
Social implications
A reduction in conflict within the franchising sector (no matter how trivial) will improve the business operations, franchisee and employee welfare throughout the sector. Progress on this topic will improve the sustainability and overall attractiveness of the sector.
Originality/value
Conjoint analysis has not been used previously in franchising research. The use of BWS on prospective franchisee perceptions is innovative providing a basis for much research to be done in this field of research.
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