• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.77-86
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• 2008

This study investigated how the franchisor's supportive activities influence the franchisee's loyalty and consequently their perceived performance in the franchised restaurants. The study found that the franchisor could increase the franchisee's loyalty through supportive activities and the franchise performance in results. However, the franchisor's advertising and promotion supports did not influence the franchisee's loyalty increase, but increase the franchisee's perceived performance. In summary, supportive activities such as efficient franchise system and advisory activities could be a starting point towards high franchise performance.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.67-85
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• 2015

This study attempts to measure the performance of franchise brands using the Enterprise Contract Management(ECM) and Franchise Contract Management Leverage(FCML). The data were collected from 14 chicken franchise brands and 16 coffee franchise brands. This research suggests some implications as follows. Chicken franchise brands are confronted with the slow growth, but coffee franchise brands still have the potential growth. According to FCML, as well, it shows that chicken franchise brands should focus on qualitative performance through franchise store management to achieve sustainability, and coffee franchise brands need the managerial strategies to maximize franchisees' sales profit, which leads increasing franchisor's business performance ultimately.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.75-89
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• 2007

The start point of a franchise system such as Lotteria was in 1979. Since 1990, the franchise systems in Korea have rapidly spread over all industry types. As 'Franchise Law' was enforced in 2002, the expansion of a franchise picked up its' speed. The barbers and beauty parlors business has the same expansion trend. However, there was no study about the franchise systems in the barbers and beauty parlors business. The purpose of this study was to find the goodness of fit of the structured equation model proposed and identify the significances of relationships in the variables of justice perceptions, trust, satisfactions, business performances, switching barriers, switching cost etc. This study tries to find a solution for a good development between franchisor and franchisee in the barbers and beauty parlors business in Korea. The theoretical considerations about justice of this study is limited in reciprocal relation justice and procedure justice. And it did make simplify for trust, satisfaction, business performance, switching barrier. And switching barrier did measure as dimension of switching coot. From October 26, 2005 to October 29, this study collected 250 survey questionnaires from the franchisees located in Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Ulsan, and Keoyng-Nam. In analyses of using SPSS Windows 11.0 and LISREL 8.14, this study used 208 cases because 48 cases did not response appropriately. Tn conclusions. reciprocal justice perception and procedure justice jointly determined trust. Secondly, reciprocal justice perception significantly determined satisfaction. Procedure justice perception negatively determined satisfaction, but this relationship was not significant. Thirdly, reciprocal justice perception positively influenced business performance, and procedure justice negatively influenced business performance, but the last relationship was not significant Fourthly, trust positively significantly influenced satisfaction and business performance. Fifthly, satisfaction positively influenced business performance and true determined switching barrier positively. This study shows following: firstly, a composition concept did make structural relationship and secondly, a reciprocal relation justice of a franchisor did appear as an important variable and it gives positive influence to trust, satisfactions, business performance, switching barriers of the franchisees.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.101-125
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• 2008

This research suggests an ideal role between franchisee and franchisee for survival and development of the Korean franchise business by identifying causal relationships between entrepreneurship of franchisees and their business performance. Besides, when considering multi-dimensional features of a franchise system, this study aims to show that the market orientation of the franchisee and the relationship commitment between franchisee and franchisee will play an important mediating role to achieve a better business performance. Thus specific causal relationships among sub-dimensional constructs of entrepreneurship and market orientations were investigated. They are innovativeness, risk-taking propensity, pro-activeness, information creation, intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, response design, response implementation. The results demonstrate that pro-activeness of franchisee plays a crucial role for franchisee's business performance. It was noted that franchisor's market orientation and innovativeness is also important for high market orientation of franchisor. The higher the market orientation of franchisor was, the higher relationship commitment of franchisee was formed. By identifying the mediation effect of relationship commitment and market orientation of franchisor, this paper showed that relationship commitment positively affect the improvement of franchisee's business performance. Above all, it should be noted that this research empirically identified the relationship between franchisee's entrepreneurship and business performance that most of the previous researchers have ignored. Furthermore, the analysis was conducted at sub-dimensional construct level. It is expected that empirical results from this study will be able to provide a meaningful framework and theoretical basis for future research on franchise, entrepreneurship and market orientation.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.1-11
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• 2021

Purpose: The franchise system started by Singer Sewing Machine in the US is acting as a national economic growth engine in terms of job creation and economic growth. In China, the franchise system was introduced in the mid-1980s. And since joining the WTO, it has grown by 5-6% every year. However, compared to the growth rate of franchises, studies on shared growth between the chain headquarters and franchisees were insufficient. Accordingly, recent studies related to shared growth between the chain headquarters and franchisees have been active in China. The purpose of this study is to examine the knowledge transfer system between the knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, and the use of knowledge by franchise chain headquarters in China. In addition, the relationship between franchise satisfaction and performance is identified. Research design, data, and methodology: The data were collected from franchise stores in Sichuan, China, and were conducted with the help of ○○ Incubation, a Sichuan Province-certified incubator. From November 2020 to January 2021, 350 copies of the questionnaire were distributed in China, and 264 copies were returned. Of these, 44 copies with insincere answers and response errors were excluded, and 222 copies were used for analysis. The data were analyzed with SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0 statistical packages. Result: The results of this study are as follows. First, knowledge creation has been shown to have a statistically significant impact on knowledge sharing and knowledge utilization. In particular, the effectiveness of knowledge creation was higher in knowledge sharing than in knowledge utilization. And we can see that knowledge sharing also has a statistically significant e ffect on knowledge utilization. Second, knowledge sharing was not significant for transaction satisfaction and business performance, and knowledge utilization was significant for transaction satisfaction and business performance. These results can be said to mean less interdependence of the Chinese franchise system. Finally, transaction satisfaction was statistically significant to business performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the importance of knowledge management to secure long-term competitive advantage for Chinese franchises. This study shows that knowledge sharing is important for long-term franchise growth. And we can see that there is a lack of knowledge sharing methods in the case of franchises in China. I n addition, it was found that the growth of Chinese franchises requires systematization of communication, information sharing measures and timing, help from chain headquarters, and mutual responsibility awareness.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.37-52
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• 2023

Purpose: This study is to investigate the causal relationship between franchise headquarters' franchise cost and franchise satisfaction and management performance, and to verify the structural relationship between franchise cost and corporate permanence. Research design, data and methodology: The data were collected from 200 medium-sized franchisees in Seoul and analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the validity of the measurement model and the structural equation model (SEM) to identify the impact of franchise costs on corporate performance with the Amos 28.0 program. Result: Franchise costs were found to have a negative effect on franchise satisfaction and corporate permanence. It was confirmed that franchise satisfaction had a significant positive effect on management performance and corporate permanence. Franchise costs had a sequential mediating effect on franchise satisfaction and management performance, which had a significant impact on corporate permanence. Conclusions: This study expanded the theoretical scope by applying the expectation confirmation theory to corporate transactions. In addition, the franchise headquarters proposes ways to create a culture of franchise business with trust by presenting appropriate franchise costs to improve management performance and corporate permanence through franchise satisfaction.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.81-89
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aims to analyze the effects of job satisfaction regarding the franchisee's continuous operation intention. In addition, it intends to investigate the mediating effect of work engagement in the relationship between job satisfaction and sustainable performance of the franchisee. Research design, data and methodology: 361 survey data were collected and analyzed using SPSS 24 and AMOS 24. To assess the model for goodness of fit, indexes such as TLI, CFI, RMSEA were used. Moreover, SEM method and bootstrapping were used for hypotheses testing. Results: The results of this study are as follows. First, the relationship between job satisfaction and the employee's continuous operation intention was significant. Second, it confirms that indeed job satisfaction positively affects work engagement. Third, it was found that work engagement had positive (+) effects on the franchisees' financial performance along with its continuous operation intention. Fourth, work engagement was found to mediate the relationship between job satisfaction and continuous operation intention of the franchisee. Conclusion: We found that job satisfaction of the franchisee is related with continuous operation intention through work engagement and financial performance. Hence, by demonstrating the empirical evidence which has been insufficient so far, this study contributes to the theory accumulation regarding the franchisee's continuous operation intention.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.25-35
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• 2019

Purpose - The major objective of this study was to investigate the effect of franchisor's (economic and philanthropic) CSR in inspiring franchisee's loyalty for the franchisor. Another aim of this investigation also was to clarify the mediating role of economic and social satisfaction in the relationship between franchisor's CSR and franchisee's loyalty. Research design, data, and methodology - This study explores the structural relationship between franchisor's CSR and franchisee's loyalty and in these relationships, the mediating role of relationship satisfaction. Data were gathered from employees(above manager) in food-service franchisee companies in Seoul, Korea. The questionnaires were distributed to managers of the franchise stores. A total of 251 questionnaires were collected. Data management and analysis were performed using SPSS 21.O and SmartPLS 3.0. Evaluation of measurement model and structural model was carried out using confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis. Result - The results of this study show as follows. First, economic CSR had positive effects on economic satisfaction and social satisfaction. Second, philanthropic CSR had positive effects on social satisfaction. Third, economic satisfaction and social satisfaction had positive effects on franchisee's loyalty to the franchisor. Conclusions - The important implications of this study have as follows. First, this study has found that economic CSR can create a high economic satisfaction and social satisfaction of franchisee. Second, this findings suggest that the philanthropic CSR can improve the social satisfaction of franchisee. Third, this results demonstrate, for the first time, that the economic satisfaction and social satisfaction of franchisees can play a crucial role to improve their loyalty for the franchisor and pursue mutual development by maintaining the stable business relationship with a franchisor. In this investigation there are at least three limitations. First, Because the research sample is limited to the foodservice franchisee in Seoul, it is not possible to be representativeness of the national franchisee. Second, CSR activities are mostly focused on large franchise companies. Therefore, there is a limit to the research approach. Finally, this study examined the effect of economic CSR and philanthropic CSR on the loyalty of franchisors, but in the future study, it is necessary to analyze the relationship between CSR and loyalty of franchise companies by collecting specific quantitative data such as re-contract rate and management performance of franchisees.

• 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.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.59-68
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• 2018

Purpose - This study empirically examines the effects of environmental dynamics(dynamics of one's own company, dynamics of competitors, and dynamics of customers), within the franchise industry, on the dependence and conflict(dysfunctional conflict and functional conflicts) and the business performances(financial and non-financial). Furthermore, we empirically examined the effects of the dependence of franchise on the conflicts(dysfunctional conflict and functional conflict) and business performances(financial and non-financial). Finally, we empirically examined the effects of the conflicts of franchise (dysfunctional conflict and functional conflict) on the business performances(financial and non-financial). Research design, data, and methodology - Our study conducted a survey on the managers and owners of the franchises located in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon. The total number of valid samples was 230, and the structural equation model was analyzed by using AMOS program. Results - First, the environmental dynamics(dynamics of one's own company, dynamics of competitors, and dynamics of customers) in the franchise industry were shown to have statistically significant positive effect on the dependence of franchise. Second, among the environmental dynamics in the franchise industry, the dynamics of one's own company and the dynamics of the customers were shown to have a statistically significant positive effect on the dysfunctional conflicts of franchisees. However, in the franchise industry, the dynamics of competitors did not have a statistically significant effect on the dysfunctional conflict of the franchise. Third, in the franchise industry, the environmental dynamics(dynamics of one's own company, dynamics of competitors, and dynamics of customers) did not have a statistically significant effect on the functional conflicts of the franchises. Fourth, the dependence of franchise was shown to have a statistically significant positive effect on the conflicts(dysfunctional conflict and functional conflict). Fifth, the dysfunctional conflict of franchisees was shown to have a statistically significant negative effect on the business performances(financial and non-financial). Sixth, the functional conflicts of franchises was shown to have a statistically significant positive effect on business performances(financial and non-financial). Conclusions - From the franchise industry researches, the environmental dynamics were selected as the preceding factors and the relationship leading to dependence, conflict, and business performance were constructed into model.