Problem investigated and objectives: Franchisees often complain that franchisors do not meet their needs, and are generally viewed as being unhappy with the franchise relationship between franchisees and franchisors. The aim of this paper is to investigate the level of satisfaction of franchisees with the franchise relationship, including the following elements: franchisee independence, support with the selection of a distribution point, allocation of geographical trading areas, support with the design and layout of distribution points, comprehensive training programmes, the provision of continuous market and product information and operational support, and advertising and financial support, including systems for bookkeeping. Approach: The data represents two groups of the same franchise, namely franchisees operating for two years and less as franchisees and franchisees who have been operating for longer than two years as franchisees. The extent to which these two groups view the relationship elements differently will be examined. Findings: The findings indicate that both groups had a high level of satisfaction with the franchise relationship between franchisees and franchisors, with the exception of identified opportunities, which could be further developed in order to increase the franchisees’ level of satisfaction with the franchise relationship between franchisees and franchisors. Conclusion: In view of the results of this research, it was concluded that the franchisees of the selected franchisor in the franchise industry displayed a high level of satisfaction with the franchise relationship between franchisors and franchisees. Keywords: Franchisees’ satisfaction, franchisee and franchisor, franchise relationships, marketing orientation, Franchise Association of Southern Africa (FASA), franchise agreement, franchise legislation.

This thesis aims to investigate the performance of different types of franchisees, in terms of perceived market share and profitability, are affected by constrains defined by the theories of franchise selection and contractual terms. The two different types of franchisees researched include novice and parallel. This begins by examining how the constraints defined by the Resource Base, Social Exchange and Equity theories of franchise selection are applicable to entrepreneurs who want to become franchisees, and by examining the differences in the attitude of franchisees toward contractual terms. The main contribution is that the research broadens and extends other franchising and entrepreneurship studies by exploring external and internal factors to examine perceived franchisee performance. Therefore, this study relates the criteria used by franchisees in the selection of potential franchisors and contract clauses, to their performance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Sultanate of Oman in the food and beverage sector. Moreover, existing research has primarily focused on the perspective of franchisors and has not adequately explored the franchisee's perspective on determining success. Therefore, this study contributes to franchising literature by broadening the scope of existing theories. The study has adopted a multi-methodology strategy, employing a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. Qualitative data was collected through 11 face-to-face interviews, 5 franchisees in Oman, and 6 in Saudi Arabia; using semi-structured questionnaires. Quantitative data was collected via a survey. A self-administrated questionnaire was designed, translated, piloted and distributed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Data analysis was conducted on a sample of 123 responses. Factor analysis was implemented to test the scale, followed by the Mann-Whitney U test, regression, and moderation analysis. The qualitative findings show that constraints defined by the resource-based theory are applicable to novice franchisees. However, franchisor training and support were found to be exceptional resources, applicable to both novice and parallel franchisees. Constraints defined by the social exchange theory are applicable to both novice and parallel franchisees; whereas constraints defined by the equity theory are applicable only to parallel franchisees. The quantitative findings indicate that both types of franchisee have different attitudes toward training clauses; support clauses; contract duration clauses; territorial exclusivity clauses; tying arrangement clauses and franchise fees clauses. However, both types of franchisees have similar attitudes toward termination clauses. Moreover, the results show that franchisor brand reputation, technical know-how and high franchise fee factors will increase the franchisee perceived market share. Additionally, franchisor brand reputation and higher franchise fees, will increase franchisee perceived profitability. Furthermore, parallel franchisees believe that a franchisor's local market knowledge will decrease their performance in terms of perceived profitability. Alternatively, novice franchisees believe long contract duration will help them increase their perceived profitability. In addition, imposing higher franchise fees on novice franchisees will increase their perceived profitability more than that of parallel franchisees. Finally, the results show that contract clauses such as: extensiveness of support; long contract duration, and stricter termination clauses, will affect franchisee perceived market share positively. Finally, contract clauses such as extensiveness of support and short contract duration clauses, will affect franchisee perceived profitability positively; whereas extensiveness of training clauses will affect franchisee perceived profitability negatively.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2014. / The business literature has long heralded franchising as an economically efficient business strategy for sustainable job, wealth and value creation, economic transformation and small business development. However, opportunism, being the tendency of the parties involved in the franchise relationship to act in their self-interest at each other’s expense resulting in misaligned incentives, may undermine the long-term efficacy of the franchising system. Such opportunism may be enacted at different times by either the franchisor or the franchisee. For the above reasons, this thesis focuses on the role of opportunism, a key aspect of Transactions Cost Economics theory, within the franchising system. Following an extensive review of the franchising, opportunism and related literatures, the thesis goes on to theorising and investigating a two-dimensional conceptualisation of opportunism, namely ‘opportunistic orientations’ and ‘opportunistic actions’. Secondly, the thesis theorises and investigates various key antecedents and consequences of opportunistic orientations (OO) and opportunistic actions (OA) from the perspectives of both franchisors and franchisees. Ultimately, this thesis proposes an integrated model combining structural, contextual and strategic factors as antecedents affecting OO which, in turn, leads to OA. The model further proposes that OA impact the growth, competitiveness and survival of franchise systems. In order to test this model, this thesis used a mixed methods strategy to undertake empirical fieldwork conducted separately among x franchisors and franchisees. The franchisor study was based on questionnaire data gathered from 111 purposefully sampled franchisors analysed principally through multivariate correlational techniques including structural equation modelling and canonical correlations. The franchisee study involved gathering semi-structured interview data from a purposeful sample of 30 Johannesburg-based franchisees, analysed through content analysis. To a large extent, while the results of the empirical fieldwork supports the proposed model as outlined above, the results of the franchisor study produced some unexpected outcomes. These relate mainly to the findings that structural and strategic factors directly affected the competitiveness of franchise systems and that contextual and strategic factors also directly affected the growth and survival of franchise systems and not through the intervening variables, that is, OO and OA. These findings suggest that structural, contextual and strategic factors may create entrepreneurial orientations (EO) and not OO within franchise systems. Nevertheless, this thesis makes several important and unique contributions to the study of franchising in South Africa, possibly with broader applications elsewhere, which include the following: - extending the opportunism construct by conceptualising the OO notion which helps to increase understanding of the manifestation of opportunism as a central problem within franchise relationships; xi - examining the antecedents and consequences of OO and OA in the same model to test the opportunism-performance hypothesis probably as the first study to do so among franchisors and franchisees in general and particularly in this country and continent; - applying TCE and RET theories to explain OO and OA and strategies to curb or minimise it within franchise relationships; and - incorporating some aspects of the country’s marriage laws into the franchise relationship to provide for secured tenure among franchisees by expunging the expiry clauses from franchise contractsWithin the context of Relational Exchange Theory, this thesis mainly and uniquely suggests the use of: - psychological contracts between franchisors and franchisees to help align the incentives of these parties largely through mutually agreed norms of acceptable behaviour, role expectations and objectives; - independent and statutory bodies such as the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), law societies and medical or nursing councils as dispute resolution mechanisms to help mediate or resolve franchising disputes fairly, quickly and cheaply; and xii - “evergreen” franchise contracts which make no provision for expiry clauses to attenuate opportunism among franchisees through secured tenure. On the whole, this thesis recommends the use of the above interventions as governance mechanisms to help improve franchisor-franchisee relationships and the reputation of franchising in South Africa by aligning the incentives of the parties and creating an environment in which franchise relationships can flourish. Finally, the thesis also implores future researchers to investigate the impact of existing legislation such as the Consumer Protection Act and the measures suggested above on franchising in this country and the rest of the continent; and the relationship between EO and the growth, competitiveness and survival of franchise systems.

O fenômeno do franchising é usualmente abordado pela literatura econômica no sentido de buscar-se explicações para os motivos que levam as organizações à franquear, ou seja, os fatos motivadores do início da franquia. O presente estudo investiga se esta literatura econômica de franquias é suficiente para explicar não somente a origem da rede franqueada, mas também três características de suas operações: o crescimento da rede, a sua qualidade, bem como a satisfação dos franqueados em relação ao papel do franqueador. Para tanto, o trabalho utilizou-se de uma amostra com 107 redes franqueadas e do método estatístico da regressão múltipla. Os dados foram obtidos por meio de duas fontes combinadas, a Associação Brasileira de Franchising (ABF) e de pesquisa da Serasa em parceria com a revista Pequenas Empresas & Grandes Negócios. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que a literatura econômica sobre franquias é insuficiente para explicar o crescimento, a qualidade e a satisfação nas redes franqueadas e assim há evidências da necessidade da ampliação da teoria existente a fim de compreender-se de forma mais ampla o fenômeno estudado. / The franchising phenomenon is usually approached by the franchising economic literature in search for the reasons that drive organizations toward the franchising model, the motivation factors to begin the franchising itself. The present study investigates whether this literature is capable of explaining not only the origins of the franchising network, but also three patterns of its operations: growth and quality of the network besides the franchisee satisfaction regarding the franchisor. Therefore it was gather a sample of 107 franchising networks to use the statistic linear regression method. The data were gathered combining two different sources: the Brazilian Franchising Association and the research of Serasa in a partnership with the Brazilian small business magazine Pequenas Empresas & Grandes Negócios. The results suggest that the franchising economic literature is not enough robust to explain the growth, quality and satisfaction of the franchising networks and thus there is evidence of the need for development of the current theory in order to understand deeply the franchising phenomenon.

O fenômeno do franchising é usualmente abordado pela literatura econômica no sentido de buscar-se explicações para os motivos que levam as organizações à franquear, ou seja, os fatos motivadores do início da franquia. O presente estudo investiga se esta literatura econômica de franquias é suficiente para explicar não somente a origem da rede franqueada, mas também três características de suas operações: o crescimento da rede, a sua qualidade, bem como a satisfação dos franqueados em relação ao papel do franqueador. Para tanto, o trabalho utilizou-se de uma amostra com 107 redes franqueadas e do método estatístico da regressão múltipla. Os dados foram obtidos por meio de duas fontes combinadas, a Associação Brasileira de Franchising (ABF) e de pesquisa da Serasa em parceria com a revista Pequenas Empresas & Grandes Negócios. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que a literatura econômica sobre franquias é insuficiente para explicar o crescimento, a qualidade e a satisfação nas redes franqueadas e assim há evidências da necessidade da ampliação da teoria existente a fim de compreender-se de forma mais ampla o fenômeno estudado. / The franchising phenomenon is usually approached by the franchising economic literature in search for the reasons that drive organizations toward the franchising model, the motivation factors to begin the franchising itself. The present study investigates whether this literature is capable of explaining not only the origins of the franchising network, but also three patterns of its operations: growth and quality of the network besides the franchisee satisfaction regarding the franchisor. Therefore it was gather a sample of 107 franchising networks to use the statistic linear regression method. The data were gathered combining two different sources: the Brazilian Franchising Association and the research of Serasa in a partnership with the Brazilian small business magazine Pequenas Empresas & Grandes Negócios. The results suggest that the franchising economic literature is not enough robust to explain the growth, quality and satisfaction of the franchising networks and thus there is evidence of the need for development of the current theory in order to understand deeply the franchising phenomenon.

Botswana is a middle-income economy. It has become dependent on non-renewable resources. Agriculture and manufacturing have failed to develop in a significant way. The small population has not provided adequate demand. The Government has tried a number of strategies in order to diversify the economy. One of these is the promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Unfortunately, SMEs have failed to thrive, so far. A number of researchers have concluded that SMEs will not thrive due to the fact that Botswana have low entrepreneurial skills. High failure rates are experienced where enterprises are established. The thesis identifies an alternative strategy in the development of enterprises in Botswana. It is generally believed that a franchisee does not need high levels of entrepreneurial skills to succeed. If this is so, Botswana can solve her problem of lack of sufficient enterprises by promoting franchising. The thesis uses the interview technique to assess whether existing franchisees in Botswana have low levels of entrepreneurial skills. Indeed it proves that franchisees have low skill levels compared to non-franchised entrepreneurs. Secondly, the thesis proves that franchisees in Botswana operate as employee-managers. Thirdly, the thesis establishes that franchisees perform better than non-franchised entrepreneurs, even though they have low entrepreneurial skill levels. Lastly, the thesis, using evidence from findings above, and from responses of experts interviewed, establishes that the promotion of franchising is a viable alternative strategy to one that depends solely on non-franchised enterprises.While there are some methodological limitations, like those stemming from a low and unknown franchisee population in Botswana, the use of ordinal data, use of techniques to rate their own skills, and a relatively small sample for franchised and non-franchised entrepreneurs, the statistical techniques used are powerful enough to generate reliable findings. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / D.B.L

CSR har varit ett välbekant ämne sedan 1950-talet och antal franchisesamar- beten i Sverige ökar visar Svenska Franchiseförenings undersökning från 2018. Teorin beskriver även vikten av en tydlig kommunikation och strategi för franchisekoncernens CSR-arbete, trots detta finns det ett gap av studier specifikt inriktade på CSR inom franchising. Därför avser studien att bidra med en fördjupad förståelse för hur CSR-arbete kommuniceras till och av lo- kala franchisetagare. Studien utgick från en induktiv kvalitativ fallstudie på ICA Gruppen där empirisk data insamling skedde via analys av organisat- ionsdokument i form av den centrala hållbarhetsredovisningar från redovis- ningsår 2017 och 2018. Empirisk data insamlades även via semi-strukture- rade intervjuer med två stycken ICA Maxi franchisetagare. Empirisk data i form av den centrala hållbarhetsredovisningen avsågs bidra med förståelse för hur CSR-arbetet kommuniceras till lokala franchisetagare, medan de se- mistrukturerade intervjuerna avsågs bidra med förståelse för hur den lokala franchisetagaren tolkar och implementerar det centralt kommunicerade CSR- arbetet. Studiens slutsats är att franchisegivaren redogör för en global kom- munikationsstrategi gällande CSR-arbetet i hållbarhetsredovisningen, medan franchisetagaren i sin tur utformar sitt CSR-arbete anpassat till de lokala för- utsättningarna och möjligheterna.

Botswana is a middle-income economy. It has become dependent on non-renewable resources. Agriculture and manufacturing have failed to develop in a significant way. The small population has not provided adequate demand. The Government has tried a number of strategies in order to diversify the economy. One of these is the promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Unfortunately, SMEs have failed to thrive, so far. A number of researchers have concluded that SMEs will not thrive due to the fact that Botswana have low entrepreneurial skills. High failure rates are experienced where enterprises are established. The thesis identifies an alternative strategy in the development of enterprises in Botswana. It is generally believed that a franchisee does not need high levels of entrepreneurial skills to succeed. If this is so, Botswana can solve her problem of lack of sufficient enterprises by promoting franchising. The thesis uses the interview technique to assess whether existing franchisees in Botswana have low levels of entrepreneurial skills. Indeed it proves that franchisees have low skill levels compared to non-franchised entrepreneurs. Secondly, the thesis proves that franchisees in Botswana operate as employee-managers. Thirdly, the thesis establishes that franchisees perform better than non-franchised entrepreneurs, even though they have low entrepreneurial skill levels. Lastly, the thesis, using evidence from findings above, and from responses of experts interviewed, establishes that the promotion of franchising is a viable alternative strategy to one that depends solely on non-franchised enterprises.While there are some methodological limitations, like those stemming from a low and unknown franchisee population in Botswana, the use of ordinal data, use of techniques to rate their own skills, and a relatively small sample for franchised and non-franchised entrepreneurs, the statistical techniques used are powerful enough to generate reliable findings. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / D.B.L

Made available in DSpace on 2009-11-18T19:01:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2002 / The present dissertation studies the conflict in the relationship among franchisors and franchisees. A theoretical reference is presented, where franchisingfits in the marketing channels framework, as well as the most relevant causes that give rise to conflicts among franchisors andfranchisees and their existing solutions. Also, in this dissertation, the results ofan exploratory research are presented, focusing on retail franchise network. In this case study, we try to show and discuss how its members preveni and manage conflicts that arise within the franchisor-franchisee relationship. / A presente dissertação investiga questão dos conflitos no relacionamento entre franqueadores franqueados. apresentado um referencial teórico onde franchising se insere no contexto dos canais de marketing, bem como as causas mais freqüentes de surgimento de conflitos entre franqueadores franqueados e as formas de solução existentes. Em seguida, são apresentados os resultados de uma pesquisa exploratória, baseada no Estudo de Casos, realizada junto a uma rede de franquias atuante no ramo varejista, onde se procura destacar os conflitos observados no contexto da relação franqueador franqueado evidenciar como seus integrantes os previnem os administram. Por fim, recomendações são apresentadas.

Submitted by Alison Vanceto (alison-vanceto@hotmail.com) on 2017-01-23T12:00:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissFCR.pdf: 2723464 bytes, checksum: f96af7bdb3ee7df0e296403ac8ce42b5 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Camila Passos (camilapassos@ufscar.br) on 2017-01-23T15:45:55Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissFCR.pdf: 2723464 bytes, checksum: f96af7bdb3ee7df0e296403ac8ce42b5 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Camila Passos (camilapassos@ufscar.br) on 2017-01-23T15:46:28Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissFCR.pdf: 2723464 bytes, checksum: f96af7bdb3ee7df0e296403ac8ce42b5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-23T15:46:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissFCR.pdf: 2723464 bytes, checksum: f96af7bdb3ee7df0e296403ac8ce42b5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-04 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / The Transaction Costs Economics is an important analytical tool in the study of microeconomic organization of firms, especially concerning governance structures adopted by them. Although it is a widespread theory, as the New Institutional Economics as a whole, its empirical application is still incipient in the context of organizational plurality, given that it aims deterministic solutions where transactional attributes align to an optimum governance, which minimizes transaction costs. However, companies often combine alternative forms of governance for the same type of transaction in a given institutional environment, which suggests that the understanding of governance is richer than the choice of alternatives modes of coordination. Therefore, it is extremely desirable the incorporation of plural forms phenomenon to Transaction Costs Economics, so in this research it is proposed, through two case studies, to identify the factors that influence the adoption of plural forms of governance on small size regional franchises from agrifood sector, on structuration and those are suppliers/producers of premiums goods. The choice of franchises as study object due to the fact that these are empirical cases of organizational plurality by excellence, because is usual the concomitant operation of owned and franchisees stores, besides the abundant data about the sector. Moreover, the focus in the agrifood segment is justified by its importance to the Brazilian economy, and mainly by the intrinsic peculiarities of its products – such as perishability and seasonality –, inducing agents to adopt solutions that are faster and more efficient in the management of their businesses. Size, niche market, time and operating range are regularities observed in both cases, similarities that allow comparing them to obtain higher-level theoretical findings, which abstract from the specificities of units analysis. Not only it was listed the reasons why such franchises adopt the organizational plurality, but also this study contributed to the incorporation of plural forms in the analytical scope of traditional Transaction Costs Economics. This research contributed to it in three ways: a) it was evident that the particularities of agrifood chains and products play an important role in the use of organizational plurality in the cases examined; b) the concepts of complexity, strategic behavior and ambiguity proved to be empirically valid and robust at the explanation of the phenomenon of plural forms, and the attributes of transactions contributed to this due to the various interfaces found between them and the other studied constructs; and c) the traditional factors that usually define the optimal hierarchical level in a franchise network, also help to justify why to adopt the organizational plurality in the examined companies, mainly to lead to an increased market power and better strategic positioning of the franchisor front of their franchisees. / A Economia dos Custos de Transação é um importante ferramental analítico no estudo da organização microeconômica das firmas, especialmente no que tange às estruturas de governança por elas adotadas. Mesmo sendo uma teoria amplamente difundida, tal como a Nova Economia Institucional como um todo, sua aplicação empírica ainda é incipiente no contexto da pluralidade organizacional, dado que visa, em primazia, soluções determinísticas em que os atributos transacionais estejam alinhados a uma governança ótima, minimizadora dos custos de transação. No entanto, as empresas frequentemente combinam modos alternativos de governança para o mesmo tipo de transação dentro de um determinado ambiente institucional, o que sugere que o entendimento da governança é mais rico do que a escolha de modos alternativos de coordenação. Assim sendo, torna-se extremamente desejável a incorporação do fenômeno das formas plurais à Economia dos Custos de Transação, de modo que se propõe na presente pesquisa, por meio de dois estudos de caso, apontar os fatores que influenciam na adoção de formas plurais de governança em franquias regionais em estruturação, de pequeno porte, do setor agroindustrial e ofertantes/produtoras de bens premiums. A escolha de franquias como objeto de estudo deve-se ao fato de que estas são, por excelência, casos empíricos de pluralidade organizacional, haja visto que é usual a operação concomitante de lojas próprias e franqueadas em uma rede, além de serem abundantes dados sobre o setor. Ademais, justifica-se o foco no segmento agroindustrial não apenas pela sua importância que para a economia brasileira, mas principalmente pelas peculiaridades intrínsecas de seus produtos – como perecibilidade e sazonalidade –, as quais induzem os agentes a adotarem soluções mais rápidas e eficientes na gestão de seus negócios. Quanto ao porte, nicho de mercado, tempo e raio de operação, tratam-se de regularidades observadas em ambos os casos, similaridades essas que permitem compará-los para obtenção de achados teóricos de mais alto nível, que se abstraiam das especificidades das unidades de análise. Portanto, não somente foram elencadas as razões que levam tais franquias à adotarem a pluralidade organizacional, como também se colaborou para incorporação das formas plurais ao escopo analítico da Economia dos Custos de Transação tradicional. A presente pesquisa contribuiu de três formas para isso: a) ficou evidente que as particularidades das cadeias e produtos agroindustriais têm importante papel no uso da pluralidade organizacional nos casos analisados; b) os conceitos de complexidade, posicionamento estratégico e ambiguidade mostraram-se empiricamente válidos e robustos na explicação do fenômeno das formas plurais, tendo os atributos das transações contribuído para isso devido às diversas interfaces verificadas entre eles e os demais constructos estudados; e c) os fatores tradicionais, que usualmente definem o nível ideal de integralização em uma rede de franquias, também auxiliam a justificar o porquê da adoção da pluralidade organizacional nas empresas examinadas, principalmente por levarem a um maior poder de mercado e melhor posicionamento estratégico do franqueador frente a seus franqueados.