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The structure of the retail sector has altered dramatically during the last decade, as high fixed cost structures and static or minimal growth situations have intensified competition in virtually all consumer retail markets. Retailers have become aware of the need to identify with specific market segments, reduce competition and achieve competitive advantage. Franchising has developed as a viable alternative to “traditional” forms of retail organisation. This article examines the development of retail franchising in the UK and European markets and its market penetration, compared with the US, and the potential for franchising as an operational strategy to achieve profitable business growth.

Franchising has been present in the residential real estate brokerage market for many years. Today, nearly one of every five firms in this sector is organized as a franchise and one of every three agents works for an affiliated organization. Despite this high incidence of franchising, no current study has addressed how the decision to franchise impacts productive efficiency levels for these firms. The current paper measures the productive efficiency levels of real estate brokerage firms by employing data envelopment analysis (DEA). DEA was used to estimate overall, allocative, technical, pure technical, and scale efficiency levels for a set of franchised and non‐franchised firms gathered by the National Association of Realtors. The results suggest that firms in general are productively inefficient. Franchised firms were found to be more efficient in allocating resources, while non‐franchised firms were shown to be more scale and technically efficient.

The franchising business becomes an essential to the economy of Malaysia and social. It also considers a popular choice to develop entrepreneurs particularly among Bumiputera in Malaysia. Recognizing the importance of the franchising business, the Government of Malaysia through the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (MDTCA) has developed programs and activities to accelerate growth of the franchising business. In February 2020, a total of 915 franchise systems or franchisors have been registered under Malaysia Franchise and subsequently few franchisors have penetrated worldwide such as in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, United State of America, and Australia. At the same time, Perbadanan Nasional Berhad (PNS) and Malaysia Franchise Association also strongly take part in many franchise initiatives, programs, and activities to support the development of franchising business in Malaysia. Besides that, Malaysia also has developed the Franchise Act to safeguard the franchising industry. Nevertheless, there still exist some issues and challenges. Hence, this paper aims to review the franchising business in Malaysia by discussing the development of franchise business in Malaysia, the supports, and the issues and challenges.

An agency relationship exists whenever one party (the principal) delegates authority to another (the agent). Because agents are assumed to be self-interested and to possess goals that diverge from the principal's goals, the principal must expend resources (called agency costs) to insure that agents act in her interest (Jensen & Meckling, 1976). In chains, the firm can choose as outlet managers either employees who are paid a salary (and perhaps a bonus) or franchisees who are granted the right to their outlet's profits after royalties and other expenses. In both cases, an agency problem is created because the firm delegates local decision-making to outlet managers whose interests are not perfectly aligned with that of the franchisor's (Rubin, 1978).

This study aims to provides the insights on the advantages and disadvantages of international franchising and licensing from the perspectives of legal and business considerations in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Using a quantitative research approach, the authors conducted a survey with 150 business owners and franchisees in the GCC and analyzed the data using descriptive statistics, structural equation modeling and frequency analysis.

The findings reveal that while international franchising and licensing offer significant benefits for business expansion and revenue growth, they also pose risks related to legal compliance, cultural differences and intellectual property protection. Indeed, the results of this study provide valuable insights into the advantages and disadvantages of international franchising and licensing in the GCC from both legal and business perspectives.

There is limited research on the legal and business perspectives of international franchising and licensing in the GCC. This study contributes to the literature by providing a comprehensive analysis of the legal and business perspectives of international franchising and licensing in the GCC.

In attempting to solve agency issues associated with single-unit franchising and international adaptation issues with company-owned outlets, franchisors engage in multi-unit franchising. Extant research has examined the antecedents and positive outcomes of multi-unit franchising, but the dark side has largely been neglected. In a sample of 16 corporations that operate 25 brands from the period of 2005–2012, we examine how the density of multi-unit franchising impacts overall franchise system growth and internationalization growth. The results of our study show that multi-unit franchising negatively impacts franchise system growth and a franchise system’s internationalization efforts. While benefits of multi-unit franchising have been explicated by previous research, our results show that companies should be concerned about the long-term impact of multi-unit franchising and that there is indeed a dark side.

Despite the significance of knowledge sharing for competitive advantage in networked businesses like franchising systems, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding regarding the strategic value of knowledge sharing in the context of franchising. In particular, the specific contribution of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in facilitating interorganizational knowledge exchange among franchising members remains inadequately understood, particularly in emerging economies. Therefore, this study aims to explore the mechanisms involved in the knowledge-sharing process facilitated by a virtual learning environment (VLE) within franchising networks and examine the role of VLEs in facilitating knowledge.

This study uses a multiple-case study approach involving 24 franchisees and the franchisor within a Brazilian franchising network operating in the furniture market to examine the role played by a VLE.

The results of the study reveal that the introduction of a VLE has played a significant role in fostering enhancements in the knowledge-sharing process among the franchisor and franchisees in the network. Moreover, the results indicate that VLEs play a significant role in overcoming geographical obstacles, thereby enabling efficient knowledge sharing between franchisees and franchisors operating in extensive territorial contexts. Finally, findings indicate that intracommercial competition acts as a prominent barrier, leading to low levels of cooperation and knowledge-sharing intent among franchisees within the network.

This study contributes to the existing knowledge by enhancing the understanding of how ICTs can facilitate knowledge sharing in organizations operating within franchising systems. Furthermore, this paper advances the comprehension of the role of networking franchising configuration and governance in supporting organizational improvements. Additional actionable insights are provided.

That social franchising programs induce favorable outcomes is readily taken for granted, albeit lacking robust empirical support. Addressing this situation, this paper takes a closer look at a fractional social franchising program in the public health-care sector in Vietnam to better understand how such programs work. This paper aims to expand the nascent body of empirical research that has examined the inner workings of social franchising programs from the perspective of clients by focusing on the health professionals who work there.

Using an exploratory qualitative research design, the authors conducted 25 semistructured interviews with health professionals of a fractional franchising program called Sisterhood, which introduced reproductive health and family planning services into existing health facilities in Vietnam. Interviews were triangulated with Sisterhood’s internal documents as well as with publicly available reports.

The analysis highlights two pathways through which the social franchising program brought about positive change. On the one hand, the analysis suggests that many of the positive outcomes reported by public health professionals were consistent with the stated goals and measures used by the Sisterhood program, providing evidence that improving the quality of health care for disadvantaged communities can be achieved through careful design and execution. On the other hand, the analysis revealed beneficial outcomes that were outside the scope of the Sisterhood program and, in this sense, “unexpected.” Specifically, the paper sheds light on unintended knowledge spillover effects in which nonfranchised health professionals began to adopt new practices and principles introduced by the social franchising program.

The paper taps into a largely under-researched phenomenon – fractional social franchising – from the perspective of health professionals. Unpacking how the social franchising program created favorable outcomes, some by design and others by accident, the paper opens new empirical and policy insights into how social franchising can improve public health in hard-to-reach communities in the global South. Based on the findings, the authors argue for the intentional promotion and institutionalization of knowledge transfers from franchised to nonfranchised health facilities to reinforce and scale up the positive impact of social franchising. The authors conclude by emphasizing the need for future research to adopt a complexity-sensitive approach that accounts for the dynamic, nonlinear adoption pathways social franchising can take. Such an approach is essential to uncover the beneficial outcomes that can result from social franchising programs but cannot be readily predicted by program design.

This paper aims to identify the driving variables in the franchise decision to expand abroad. It also explores the effect of a set of factors on the intensity of the internationalization process pursued by franchise companies. To achieve this goal, the author considered the following variables: the role of management and franchising experience, brand awareness and the sector of activity (product versus service). The international franchise ratio and the size of the chain were also considered.

This study uses a quantitative approach applied to the Spanish franchise system, which occupies the second position in Europe in terms of the number of franchisee outlets (65,810) and the first position in Europe in terms of the number of franchisors (1,232). Moreover, in early 2016, a total of 302 Spanish chains were doing business in 137 foreign countries with 20,891 outlets established abroad. Data were obtained from secondary sources (i.e. the Spanish Franchise Association, the leading Spanish franchising Consultant Group, etc.) The most important international franchising associations were also considered. Multiple regression analyses were used to test the research hypotheses.

Results conclude that that franchisor’s brand awareness plays an important role in the decision of becoming a global franchise chain. In addition, the franchising experience, business orientation (product versus service), the international franchise ratio and the company size have significant impacts on the intensity of the internationalization process pursued by the franchisors.

The scant attention given to this topic has usually been examined from the US and British base and has focused on a reduced number of sectors of activity such as hospitality and manufacturing doing business in a single region (i.e. developed or emerging nations). To fill this gap, this work analyzes the international spread of the entire Spanish franchise system, which in early 2016 had presence in 137 foreign countries and operated in a total of 52 different sectors of activity.