• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.65-84
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• 2007

The relation between franchiser and franchisee participated the franchise system was studied focused on brand for the correlation of relationship dissolution. Basically the relation among brand equity, internal brand, conflict and relationship dissolution based on brand on franchise system were investigated. The study of external factor and internal one of brand recognized by franchisee was conducted. The questionnaire was carried out for franchisee participated of national franchise system. The results showed that the brand external factor of brand transaction cost, brand equity and brand communication had influence on brand dissolution by the affection of brand identification and conflict classified as brand internal factor. In addition, brand internal reinforcement factor affected brand dissolution also. The structural causal inference between internal factor and external one was examined. Finally, the theoretical and managerial insight were suggested on the brand role for the consecutive relation as well as the limit of the study and future suggestion were included.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.21-47
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• 2004

This study has investigated the effects of relieving and promoting factors on dissolution intention under the condition of low commitment buyer-seller relationships. Based on intensive literature reviews, eight alleviating factors (dependence, cooperation, communication, relational norms, transaction specific investments, relationship termination costs, satisfaction, and trust) and five promoting factors (opportunism, conflict, goal incongruity, attractiveness of alternatives, and unfairness) were included. A total of thirteen hypotheses were testee using data collected from a dining franchising system. Among 300 collected, 79 cases of low commitment buyer-seller relationships were analyzed. The results showed that eight out of thirteen hypotheses were supported. But five hypotheses related to the variables of cooperation, transaction specific investments, relationship termination costs, attractiveness of alternatives, and opportunism were not supported. following a detailed presentation of the analysis results, the paper concludes by discussing the academic and managerial implications of the findings.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.143-160
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• 2014

This study focuses that the business starters can refer to this study, select better franchise headquarter and make the franchise member agreement. The most concerned part for the people who want to open franchise shop is what brand is reliable and safe to them. I have analyzed disclosure report that contains overall information of franchise headquarters and researched 300 franchise shops as sample. I drew the conclusion of the decision factors of franchise member agreement, overlooked demographical status by frequency analysis with SPSS 18.0 and performed disperse analysis to examine the decision factors of franchise member agreement and the difference between sex, service type, shop size and income level. In conclusion, the most concerned factor for the franchise agreement is sales management. Sex, shop size and income level are not meaningful factors, but the cost and training management factors are considered differently based on the service type. I hope 1) this study can be utilized for the franchise business starters judge and refer information level provided by the headquarters and make a successful franchise shop business. 2) this study can make solid relationship between franchise members and present a long term vision to them. Finally, this study can be a foundation to promote franchise field through making and supplementing the law of promoting proficient and good franchise headquarters and fairness of franchise transaction and franchise encouragement.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.1-34
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• 2010

Introduction The purpose of this research is to develop overall model which involves the effect of ongoing support services by franchisor on franchisee's relationship quality(trust, satisfaction, and commitment) and business performance(financial and non-financial performance), and to investigate the relationships among trust, satisfaction, commitment, financial and non-financial performance. This study also suggests franchise business or franchise system should be based on long-term orientation between franchisor and franchisee rather than short-term orientation, or transactional relationship, and proposes the most effective way of providing on-going support services by franchisor with franchisee thru symbiotic relationship among franchisor and franchisee Research Model and Hypothesis The research model as Figure 1 shows the variables on-going support services which affect the relationship quality between franchisor and franchisee such as trust, satisfaction, and commitment, and also analyze the effects of relationship quality on business performance including financial and non-financial performance We established 12 hypotheses to test as follows; Relationship between on-going support services and trust H1: On-going support services factors (product category & price, logistics service, promotion, information providing & problem solving capability, supervisor's support, and education & training support) have positive effect on franchisee's trust. Relationship between on-going support services and satisfaction H2: On-going support services factors (product category & price, logistics service, promotion, information providing & problem solving capability, supervisor's support, and education & training support) have positive effect on franchisee's satisfaction. Relationship between on-going support services and commitment H3: On-going support services factors (product category & price, logistics service, promotion, information providing & problem solving capability, supervisor's support, and education & training support) have positive effect on franchisee's commitment. Relationship among relationship quality: trust, satisfaction, and commitment H4: Franchisee's trust has positive effect on franchisee's satisfaction. H5: Franchisee's trust has positive effect on franchisee's commitment. H6: Franchisee's satisfaction has positive effect on franchisee's commitment. Relationship between relationship quality and business performance H7: Franchisee's trust has positive effect on franchisee's financial performance. H8: Franchisee's trust has positive effect on franchisee's non-financial performance. H9: Franchisee's satisfaction has positive effect on franchisee's financial performance. H10: Franchisee's satisfaction has positive effect on franchisee's non-financial performance. H11: Franchisee's commitment has positive effect on franchisee's financial performance. H12: Franchisee's commitment has positive effect on franchisee's non-financial performance. Method The on-going support services were defined as an organized system of continuous supporting services by franchisor for the purpose of satisfying the expectation of franchisee based on long-term orientation and classified into six constructs such as product category & price, logistics service, promotion, providing information & problem solving capability, supervisor's support, and education & training support. The six constructs were measured agreement using a 7-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree)as follows. The product category & price was measured by four items: menu variety, price of food material provided by franchisor, and support for developing new menu. The logistics service was measured by six items: distribution system of franchisor, return policy for provided food materials, timeliness, inventory control level of franchisor, accuracy of order, and flexibility of emergency order. The promotion was measured by five items: differentiated promotion activities, brand image of franchisor, promotion effect such as customer increase, long-term plan of promotion, and micro-marketing concept in promotion. The providing information & problem solving capability was measured by information providing of new products, information of competitors, information of cost reduction, and efforts for solving problems in franchisee's operations. The supervisor's support was measured by supervisor operations, frequency of visiting franchisee, support by data analysis, processing the suggestions by franchisee, diagnosis and solutions for the franchisee's operations, and support for increasing sales in franchisee. Finally, the of education & training support was measured by recipe training by specialist, service training for store people, systemized training program, and tax & human resources support services. Analysis and results The data were analyzed using Amos. Figure 2 and Table 1 present the result of the structural equation model. Implications The results of this research are as follows: Firstly, the factors of product category, information providing and problem solving capacity influence only franchisee's satisfaction and commitment. Secondly, logistic services and supervising factors influence only trust and satisfaction. Thirdly, continuing education and training factors influence only franchisee's trust and commitment. Fourthly, sales promotion factor influences all the relationship quality representing trust, satisfaction, and commitment. Fifthly, regarding relationship among relationship quality, trust positively influences satisfaction, however, does not directly influence commitment, but satisfaction positively affects commitment. Therefore, satisfaction plays a mediating role between trust and commitment. Sixthly, trust positively influence only financial performance, and satisfaction and commitment influence positively both financial and non-financial performance.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.339-342
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• 2008

Franchisors court additional franchisees as marketing partners for continued growth in sales revenue. Competitive climate, potential franchisees have their choice of suitors and are likely to scrutinize them carefully. As this research makes, franchisors affiliated with chains that forge strong partnerships are to achieve superior performance. The chain that promises a strong partnership is more have its choice of prospective franchise partners. Developing strong partnerships can use to recruit high quality franchisees. If franchisors with to experience the benefits of a strong franchise partnership, they must be willing to work on behalf of the partnership, perform roles that may extend beyond their traditional boundaries, and resolve their disagreement to the benefit of the partnership rather than to their own benefit. Strong partnerships require sacrifices on the part of both the franchisees and franchisors. However, These sacrifices have substantial payoffs in terms of franchisor performance as well as the performance of the relationship as a whole.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-25
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• 2012

The studies of franchise companies are underway with the development of the franchise industry. Franchisor performance, franchisee performance, and relationship characteristics on performance, financial performance, non-financial performance, including research on the topic or purpose of the franchise performance and related discussions from a variety of perspectives have been proposed. Presented so comprehensive a discussion regarding the existing performance of the franchise and qualitative aspects such as satisfaction, long-term orientation to emphasize the limits. Therefore, this study was conducted by the franchise company's performance than the need to be clearly presented. Propose a quantifiable and quantified to reflect the characteristics of the franchise quantitative performance indicators. Franchise contract management systematically analyze the status of the enterprise contract management(ECM) and proposed contract management, leverage as an indicator for a more quantitative analysis. Contract management leverage is the franchise as an indicator of the merchant and the growth of the contract showing any significant changes in the coming changes in the Franchisee's sales growth target analysis results, notable implications could be found. This study are new methodology for the practical dimensions of performance of franchise companies.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.49-71
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• 2010

Franchise businesses in South Korea have contributed to economic growth and job creation, and its growth potential remains very high. However, despite such virtues, domestic franchise businesses face many problems such as the instability of franchisor's business structure and weak financial conditions. To solve these problems, the government enacted legislation and strengthened franchise related laws. However, the strengthening of laws regulating franchisors had many side effects that interrupted the development of the franchise business. For example, legal regulations regarding franchisors have had the effect of suppressing the franchisor's leadership activities (e.g. activities such as the ability to advocate the franchisor's policies and strategies to the franchisees, in order to facilitate change and innovation). One of the main goals of the franchise business is to build cooperation between the franchisor and the franchisee for their combined success. However, franchisees can refuse to follow the franchisor's strategies because of the current state of franchise-related law and government policy. The purpose of this study to explore the effects of franchisor's leadership style on franchisee's commitment in a franchise system. We classified leadership styles according to the path-goal theory (House & Mitchell, 1974), and it was hypothesized and tested that the four leadership styles proposed by the path-goal theory (i.e. directive, supportive, participative and achievement-oriented leadership) have different effects on franchisee's commitment. Another purpose of this study to explore the how the level of franchisee's self-efficacy influences both the franchisor's leadership style and franchisee's commitment in a franchise system. Results of the present study are expected to provide important theoretical and practical implications as to the role of franchisor's leadership style, as restricted by government regulations and the franchisee's self-efficacy, which could be needed to improve the quality of the long-term relationship between the franchisor and franchisee. Quoted by Northouse(2007), one problem regarding the investigation of leadership is that there are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are people who have tried to define it. But despite the multitude of ways in which leadership has been conceptualized, the following components can be identified as central to the phenomenon: (a) leadership is a process, (b) leadership involves influence, (c) leadership occurs in a group context, and (d) leadership involves goal attainment. Based on these components, in this study leadership is defined as a process whereby franchisor's influences a group of franchisee' to achieve a common goal. Focusing on this definition, the path-goal theory is about how leaders motivate subordinates to accomplish designated goals. Drawing heavily from research on what motivates employees, path-goal theory first appeared in the leadership literature in the early 1970s in the works of Evans (1970), House (1971), House and Dessler (1974), and House and Mitchell (1974). The stated goal of this leadership theory is to enhance employee performance and employee satisfaction by focusing on employee motivation. In brief, path-goal theory is designed to explain how leaders can help subordinates along the path to their goals by selecting specific behaviors that are best suited to subordinates' needs and to the situation in which subordinates are working (Northouse, 2007). House & Mitchell(1974) predicted that although many different leadership behaviors could have been selected to be a part of path-goal theory, this approach has so far examined directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented leadership behaviors. And they suggested that leaders may exhibit any or all of these four styles with various subordinates and in different situations. However, due to restrictive government regulations, franchisors are not in a position to change their leadership style to suit their circumstances. In addition, quoted by Northouse(2007), ssubordinate characteristics determine how a leader's behavior is interpreted by subordinates in a given work context. Many researchers have focused on subordinates' needs for affiliation, preferences for structure, desires for control, and self-perceived level of task ability. In this study, we have focused on the self-perceived level of task ability, namely, the franchisee's self-efficacy. According to Bandura (1977), self-efficacy is chiefly defined as the personal attitude of one's ability to accomplish concrete tasks. Therefore, it is not an indicator of one's actual abilities, but an opinion of the extent of how one can use that ability. Thus, the judgment of maintain franchisee's commitment depends on the situation (e.g., government regulation and policy and leadership style of franchisor) and how it affects one's ability to mobilize resources to deal with the task, so even if people possess the same ability, there may be differences in self-efficacy. Figure 1 illustrates the model investigated in this study. In this model, it was hypothesized that leadership styles would affect the franchisee's commitment, and self-efficacy would moderate the relationship between leadership style and franchisee's commitment. Theoretically, quoted by Northouse(2007), the path-goal approach suggests that leaders need to choose a leadership style that best fits the needs of subordinates and the work they are doing. According to House & Mitchell (1974), the theory predicts that a directive style of leadership is best in situations in which subordinates are dogmatic and authoritarian, the task demands are ambiguous, and the organizational rule and procedures are unclear. In these situations, franchisor's directive leadership complements the work by providing guidance and psychological structure for franchisees. For work that is structured, unsatisfying, or frustrating, path-goal theory suggests that leaders should use a supportive style. Franchisor's Supportive leadership offers a sense of human touch for franchisees engaged in mundane, mechanized activity. Franchisor's participative leadership is considered best when a task is ambiguous because participation gives greater clarity to how certain paths lead to certain goals; it helps subordinates learn what actions leads to what outcome. Furthermore, House & Mitchell(1974) predicts that achievement-oriented leadership is most effective in settings in which subordinates are required to perform ambiguous tasks. Marsh and O'Neill (1984) tested the idea that organizational members' anger and decline in performance is caused by deficiencies in their level of effort and found that self-efficacy promotes accomplishment, decreases stress and negative consequences like depression and emotional instability. Based on the extant empirical findings and theoretical reasoning, we posit positive and strong relationships between the franchisor's leadership styles and the franchisee's commitment. Furthermore, the level of franchisee's self-efficacy was thought to maintain their commitment. The questionnaires sent to participants consisted of the following measures; leadership style was assessed using a 20 item 7-point likert scale developed by Indvik (1985), self-efficacy was assessed using a 24 item 6-point likert scale developed by Bandura (1977), and commitment was assessed using a 6 item 5-point likert scale developed by Morgan & Hunt (1994). Questionnaires were distributed to Korean optical franchisees in Seoul. It took about 20 days to complete the data collection. A total number of 140 questionnaires were returned and complete data were available from 137 respondents. Results of multiple regression analyses testing the relationships between the each of the four styles of leadership shown by the franchisor as independent variables and franchisee's commitment as the dependent variable showed that the relationship between supportive leadership style and commitment ($\beta$=.13, p<.001),and the relationship between participative leadership style and commitment ($\beta$=.07, p<.001)were significant. However, when participants divided into high and low self-efficacy groups, results of multiple regression analyses showed that only the relationship between achievement-oriented leadership style and commitment ($\beta$=.14, p<.001) was significant in the high self-efficacy group. In the low self-efficacy group, the relationship between supportive leadership style and commitment ($\beta$=.17, p<.001),and the relationship between participative leadership style and commitment ($\beta$=.10, p<.001) were significant. The study focused on the franchisee's self-efficacy in order to explore the possibility that regulation, originally intended to protect the franchisee, may not be the most effective method to maintain the relationships in a franchise business. The key results of the data analysis regarding the moderating role of self-efficacy between leadership behavior style as proposed by path-goal and commitment theory were as follows. First, this study proposed that franchisor should apply the appropriate type of leadership behavior to strengthen the franchisees commitment because the results demonstrated that supportive and participative leadership styles by the franchisors have a positive influence on the franchisee's level of commitment. Second, it is desirable for franchisor to validate the franchisee's efforts, since the franchisee's characteristics such as self-efficacy had a substantial, positive effect on the franchisee's commitment as well as being a meaningful moderator between leadership and commitment. Third, the results as a whole imply that the government should provide institutional support, namely to put the franchisor in a position to clearly identify the characteristics of their franchisees and provide reasonable means to administer the franchisees to achieve the company's goal.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.39-58
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• 2011

The Study on the Influence of Selection factors of Franchise System and Franchisee's Satisfaction in the Food Service Franchise Industry. Franchisors can use franchisee selection criteria as a key input control to enhance the outcomes of their future franchisees. A business technique based on long term contractual arrangements between two legally independent businesses and relying on certain inputs from both parties for success and survival has significant potential for conflict. Furthermore,with many independent small businesses falling to reach their full potential, it is important to evaluate franchising as an alternative system of business management and to identify the characteristics of franchisor and franchisees which contribute to the satisfactory operation of a franchised small business. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate a possible relationship between franchisee satisfaction and certain characteristics of the franchisor and of the franchisees themselves. In accordance with results of a hypothesis verification, a Selection factors of Franchise affects positively a Franchisee's Business Satisfaction.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.339-348
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• 2022

As the Chinese franchise industry grows rapidly, efforts to find a source of competitive advantage continue to be made. Establishing a knowledge transfer system is important in the franchise industry as a source of competitive advantage. However, research in China was insufficient. This study is to explore factors and consequential factors for establishing a knowledge transfer system in the franchise industry. As a result of this study, first, it was found that not only human assets but also system assets are important for the management of knowledge transfer systems in China. Therefore, investment in system assets must proceed first. In addition, it could be seen that the management of the knowledge transfer system, human assets, and system assets affect the satisfaction of the franchise's transaction relationship and consequently improve franchise performance.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.91-107
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• 2021

As competition in the domestic franchise industry is more heated than ever, we examined the factors that affect the profitability of the coffee franchise industry, which has grown rapidly over the last decade, and explored what effect preparatory startup education has on the profitability of coffee franchise stores. Specifically, this study looked into whether preparatory startup education can increase store competitiveness, provide insight into store location selection, generate innovative management, and ultimately contribute to store profitability. To test these hypotheses, we employed structural equation modeling. Results showed that preparatory startup education has a significantly positive (+)effect on 1)business characteristics: taste, quality, price affordability, menu diversity, store ambiance, 2)location characteristics: suitability, and 3)innovation management: accessibility, delivery service, and SNS marketing. The factors with a significantly positive (+)effect on store profitability were taste, quality, and price affordability with regard to business characteristics, suitability in terms of location characteristics, and SNS marketing in respect to innovation management. We expect that this study will have practical implications for increasing the profitability of coffee franchise stores, which are facing excessive competition, and its findings will be useful for coffee franchise head offices as well as government when making relevant policy decisions. In addition, it is intended to deliver a message to franchise head offices, central government, and local governments that they should provide institutional support to coffee franchise stores such that delivery services can lead to substantial improvement in profitability, even when delivery costs are considered.