Effects of Core Competence and Resource Sharing on the Relational Bond among Franchisees and on Re-contract Intention in the Franchising Parent Companies

프랜차이즈 모기업 핵심역량 자원이 가맹점 관계결속과 재계약의도에 미치는 영향

Purpose - The domestic franchise industry has made significant contributions to industry such as investment, employment, and community economy development, facilitating growth potential. The franchise industry provides management knowhow transfer between parent companies and franchisees as per contracts addressing use of business signs, franchisees' independent position, franchisor support, and royalties to be paid to the franchisors. However, many franchisors lack management knowhow and provide insufficient support because of poor control of franchisees and not having a systematic approach to support. This results in dissatisfied franchisees and failure to establish long-term relationships. Few studies have examined relational commitment and/or re-contract intention by support resources between franchisors and franchisees, despite a considerable output of theories and studies of the growth of the franchise industry. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to examine the effects of the ability to provide resources on relational commitments and re-contract intention, and to suggest causal relationships and implications. Research design, data, and methodology - The subject was domestic franchisors registered with the Association of Franchise with more than 50 franchisees. Franchisees under contract for 2 years and considering re-contract of their franchise 2 years later were used. The subjects totaled 300 franchisees in Seoul. A questionnaire survey was used to investigate the subject of franchisees' concessions during the 10 days from November 21, 2013 to November 30, 2013. After excluding 16 surveys with poor answers, 284 responses were finally used. Four areas and 44 questions were used. A nominal scale was used for four common characteristics questions including gender, ages, educational background, and franchise managing time. Questions regarding ability, relational commitment, and re-contract intention made use of a Likert 5-point scale. Data coding and data cleaning were used. SPSS 18.0 was used as follows. First, frequency analysis was done to investigate demographic characteristics. Second, exploratory factor analysis was done to verify validity of testing tools, and Cronbach's α coefficient was used to verify reliability. Third, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were done. An exploratory factor analysis was done to verify validity of concepts. A correlation analysis was done to test relationships between the variables, and multiple regression analysis was done to verify franchisor's ability, franchisees' relational commitment, and re-contract intention. Results - The following were the outcomes. First, store operation management, finance operation management, and human resource management affected the calculated bond. Second, store operation management and finance operation management affected the emotional bond. Third, store operation management, finance operation management, human resource management, and marketing management affected the prescriptive bond. Fourth, calculated bond and prescriptive bond had an effect on re-contract intention. Conclusions - As stated above, in franchise management, parent companies' offer and instruction of core competence to their franchisees as an information resource could improve the relational bond by helping them grow together through the resource sharing. Consequently, core competence factors were promoting factors that could improve franchisees' re-contract intention for a long time.