The Factors Affecting on the Franchisor's Performance and Its Intention of Recontracting with Franchisees : Focused on the Chinese Franchise Market

프랜차이즈 본부의 성과 및 재계약의도에 영향을 미치는 요인들에 관한 연구 : 중국프랜차이즈 시장을 중심으로

Franchises have recently emerged as the most rapidly expanding industry positioned to create a large impact in the domestic economic. The Chinese franchise industry developed rapidly in the period prior and subsequent to WTO accession with more than 50% of new franchises brands emerging since 2000. M&A transactions in the Chinese franchise industry have progressed actively. In the period from 2005-2007, due to the wholesale and retail market opening in accordance with the guidelines laid forth within the MOU by the WTO the Chinese franchise market is now the largest market in the world all despite a short history of only 20 years. The amount of franchise market research on China is disproportional to its current size and development potential. Beginning in the 1990s, market research conducted by the International Franchise Association focused on emerging markets in Eastern Europe and China. While the research dealt with the Chinese investment environment, it insufficiently explained the market region and cultural environment. The purpose of this research is (i) to investigate the determinants of the performance of franchise systems in China and (ii) new contract renewals based on performance factors. This study will complement existing research in terms of the franchisee perspective. This study may also prove of the benefit to the franchise companies entering the Chinese franchise market enabling them to develop an effective strategy. This study shows that support, incentives, and system standardization by franchisor yielded a positive effect on management performance. This is consistent with previous studies by Shin (2000) and Kim (2008) targeting Korean franchises. Therefore, in the Chinese market, the franchisor must focus on support, incentives, and system standardization rather than concentrate only on the recruitment of franchisees in order to improve revenue. Hypotheses regarding franchisor control have been dismissed in existing research, in the opinion of this study, due to their complexity and inability to control the merchant as a one-kind-assessment-standard. Our findings show that the franchisees' financial condition, management ability and entrepreneurial spirit, among franchisee's characteristics, have a positive effect on franchisor's business performance and satisfaction for the franchisee. This is consistent with previous studies on headquarters' management performance of Lussier (1996), Heo and Jang (2008), and franchisees' financial condition, management ability and entrepreneurial spirit effect on franchisor's satisfaction of Weaven and Franzer (2007), Kim (2009), Han (2009), and Yoon etc. (2008). Therefore, when permitting a franchisee, financial condition, management ability, entrepreneurship of the franchisee should be carefully considered. Among relational factors between franchisor and franchisee, trust has the positive influence on the management performance of the franchisor while conflict has a negative effect. However, trust, commitment and conflict factors have been shown not to have any impact on the satisfaction of the franchise headquarters. This result is consistent with the previous studies of Pavlou and Ba (2000), Morrison (1999), Weaven and Frazer (2007), Kim and Park (1994), Sohn (2007) which show that trust between franchisor and the franchisees have a positive effect and that conflict has a negative impact on franchisor's management performance. Other factors causing a negative effective on the franchisor's management performance are a rapid environmental changes and uncertainty in the business. This is consistent with Campbell et al (2007), Kim and Kim (2009), Han and Baek (2008). Finally, the high management performance and satisfaction of the franchise headquarters has a positive effect on the intention of franchise renewal. In the case of large markets such as China, the franchisor's strategy and the role is very important. In this study, we also investigated the characteristics of franchisor and franchisee, relationship, and environmental uncertainty affecting on the management performance and satisfaction of franchisor. Recently, Korean franchises are attempting to enter foreign markets through the rise in popularity of Korean culture and entertainment commonly referred to as the Korean wave. This study provides recommendations for Korean franchises intending on entering the Chinese market. First, in order to achieve stable profits, the franchise corporation needs to support the operation of the individual franchisee through incentives and standardization of services. Second, because trust between the franchisor and franchisee has a positive effect on management performance, on-going discussion and cooperation is necessary to reduce the level of conflict.

본 연구는 세계 최대의 프랜차이즈 시장으로 부상하고 있는 중국 프랜차이즈 시장에서 가맹 본부와 가맹점 간의 재계약 성과에 영향을 미치는 요인에 관한 연구이다. 선행 연구를 토대로 하여 프랜차이즈 재계약 결정요인으로서 가맹본부특성, 가맹점 특성, 본부와 가맹점간 관계적 특성, 환경적 특성 등 4가지로 설정하고, 가맹본부 특성, 가맹점 특성, 관계적 특성, 환경적 특성을 본부의 경영성과와 가맹점에 대한 만족도 영향변수로, 본부의 경영성과와 본부의 가맹점에 대한 만족도를 재계약의도의 영향변수로 하여 연구모형을 설정하였다. 이러한 연구모형을 실증적으로 검증하기 위하여 중국 프랜차이즈 시장에서 가맹본부를 중심으로 설문조사를 실시하여 실증분석을 하였다. 설정한 가설 중에서 경영성과 영향요인으로서 본부특성, 가맹점특성, 관계적 특성, 환경적 특성 요인이 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으나, 본부특성 구성요인 중 가맹점에 대한 통제와 관계적 특성 중 몰입은 경영성과에 유의한 영향을 미치지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 본부의 가맹점에 대한 만족도 영향요인으로는 가맹점 특성이 채택되었지만 관계적 특성인 신뢰, 몰입과 갈등 변수등도 유의하지 않은 것으로 나타났다. 가맹본부의 경영성과와 가맹점에 대한 만족은 가맹본부의 재계약 의도를 높이는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 연구분석 결과는 중국 시장에 이미 진출해 있거나 향후 진출하려는 국제 프랜차이즈 기업의 전략적 분석과 수립에 도움이 될 구체적인 실무지식을 제공해 줄 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.