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This study explores the question of whether repurchasing of service establishments is an inherent characteristic of service franchising. The answer to this question holds substantial consequences for the economy and for public policy toward franchising.

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Franchising is the primary force in the growth and survival of the hospitality industry. Franchise systems contain legally independent, economically interdependent, and politically affective franchise organizations. Strategic management in hospitality franchise systems with emphasis on implementation methods is investigated in the present study. Impact of sources of power (economic and noneconomic), held by the franchisors, on franchisees’ strategy implementation process and eventual performance are also included in this study. Single unit Quick Service Restaurant (OSR) franchisees from six different concepts have participated in this study. A total of ten research hypotheses are empirically tested using various statistical procedures. The current study demonstrates that implementation plays an important role in determining performance (satisfaction) of an organization. It also shows that sources of power impact organizational performance (satisfaction) whether measured as revenues or profits. The QSR franchisees’ satisfaction with franchise arrangements is affected by the nature power sources. The results indicate that some implementation models are more effective than others, and different performance objectives demand different implementation models. The "match" between the outcome objectives and the implementation model is essential to achieve the desired performance. Different sources of power (coercive, legitimate, referent, and information) have varying effects on organizational performance, financial or nonfinancial. Originality of the instrument is one of the major methodological contributions of the study. Positive and statistically significant results achieved in the current study offer empirical validity to the instrument. Another major contribution is the confirmation of earlier studies by several authors on relation between power and satisfaction, and power and performance using the hospitality industry setting. The results also indicate that for long term survival, the OSR franchisees must consider different implementation models and their congruence with the nature of power present in the franchise system. / Ph. D.

Firms' participation in exporting or foreign direct investment is an extremely rare behavior: only 4 percent of over 5.5 million U.S. firms were exporters in 2000. Exporters are generally larger (e.g. output and employment) and more productive than firms serving only domestic markets. Such heterogeneity within a narrowly defined industry cannot be fully explained by either comparative advantage arguments or the presence of scale economies and consumers' love of variety. Recent studies of heterogeneous firms show that a reduction in trade costs, i.e. policy, geographic and institutional barriers, has two effects within an industry previously not recognized in trade literature: (i) exit of low productivity firms, and (ii) resource reallocation in favor of high productivity firms. These two effects combine to raise an industry's average productivity and overall welfare, but can adversely affect some regions of an economy with firm closures or job losses. The objective of this dissertation is to examine the effects of trade costs on firm entry, exit, and employment at a regional level in the United States. For this purpose, industry-specific trade costs by U.S. regions are derived and their underlying sources are examined. The chosen trade-costs measure, based on the gravity equation, captures the variation over time in trade fictions among countries. Data from the Census Bureau and the World Bank are employed to quantify trade costs by U.S. industries and regions. Results show that a single measure of trade costs for the United States does not adequately represent the large number of and diverse regions through which trade in agriculture and manufacturing occurs. Moreover, geographic factors appear to be relatively more important than policy barriers in explaining the level of trade costs faced by U.S. regions. Drawing on recent heterogeneous firms models, this dissertation specifies an empirical framework to examine: (i) firm entry or exit arising from changes in trade costs, i.e. extensive margin, and (ii) changes in employment of surviving firms creation arising from changes in trade costs, i.e. intensive margin. These two hypotheses are tested using regional business dynamics data from the Census Bureau and trade cost measures derived earlier. Results show that trade cost changes affect firm exit and employment as hypothesized. That is, lowering trade costs increases the likelihood of firm exit, presumably of the low-productivity ones. Thus, trade costs, by way of the extensive margin, affect an industry's average productivity. Similarly, trade costs appear to affect the employment of surviving firms suggesting that the intensive margin also operates to improve average productivity of an industry, such as through resource reallocation towards high-productivity firms. The intra-industry reallocation of resources to high productivity firms is an important source of gains from trade to the whole economy. Nonetheless, some regions face firm exit and job losses. In assessing the gains from trade, attention must be paid to the distributional consequences of resource reallocation within an industry as well as a country. / Graduation date: 2013

The purpose of this research project was threefold: 1) to establish a set of research questions, propositions and hypotheses about the nature of international fast-food franchising; 2) to identify the distinctive strategies employed by fast-food franchise firms in foreign markets and 3) to provide a set of guidelines for managers which will assist them in dealing with the challenges of initiating and expanding a fast-food franchise system in a foreign country. A multiple-case study approach was used focusing on how U. S . franchise firms have adapted their domestic business practices to the Canadian, Japanese, and Russian Markets. Special attention was given to the degree to which their firms have modified franchise objectives, expansion strategies, marketing mix elements, control system and support services. A principal finding of this research project is that fast-food companies do in fact extend domestic franchise strategies to foreign markets when expanding internationally. However, they do make certain alterations in their domestic method of doing business. The alterations are in the areas of expansion strategies, franchise objectives, control systems and support services. These alterations do not follow a consistent pattern. They vary from country to country and from firm to firm. / Ph. D.

This ethnography is a study of the cultural scene at one store of a chain of twenty-eight retail "discount department stores"--the Bi Mart Company, a subsidiary of the Pay 'n Save Corporation. It is an exercise of an ethnographic method developed by James Spradley that is used to uncover and describe the cultural grammar of acquired knowledge which Bi Mart employees use to define and interpret their situation and to generate and understand their work. The method is based on the assumption that culture is best learned and best described (as much as possible) from the "native" point of view.