• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.37-52
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• 2017

Purpose - This study explores the influence of franchisors' supports on franchisees financial performance, overall satisfaction and intention to remain. Research design, data, and methodology - Given the exploratory design of the investigation, purposive sampling technique was used to select twenty-six (26) franchisees as key informants for this study. In-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted leading to generation of rich qualitative data on the phenomenon of support services in the Nigeria franchise system. Results - Results indicate that at both the initial and growing stages, training and management service supports have marked influence on franchisees business outcomes. However, findings revealed that at the initial stage, the impact of training is greatest but this impact subsequently declines as franchisees master the nuances of the business. Management services on the other hand maintains a constant relevance through all stages of franchisees business. Conclusions - Three key conclusions were drawn from the findings of this study. First, the quality of initial and ongoing supports have consequences for the long-term health of franchisees and franchisors' businesses. Second, poor management of franchisees' expectations and perception of supports could damage franchise partnerships. Third, franchisees form their expectation of supports largely from the nature of initial supports provided by the franchisors.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.7-18
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• 2019

Purpose: This study identifies the relative importance of the sub - factors of initial services and continuous services using AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method, and calculates the competitive index for the detailed factors. The purpose of this paper is to propose the establishment of long - term and short - term management strategy for expansion of business of food service franchise, franchisors, long - term and win - win relationship with franchisees, and rationalization of operating system. Research design, data, and methodology: The population for the survey is 92 franchisees in 46 foreign brands and 46 domestic brands in the Seoul metropolitan area (Seoul / Gyeonggi / Incheon). The survey was conducted from July 1 to August 31, 2018 through the survey agency with a telephone interview and a surveyor's direct visit. A total of 100 questionnaires were collected, but a total of 92 parts were used for analysis except 8 parts that were considered to contain false information. Using the AHP method, relative importance and competitiveness index were calculated for the details of initial services and continuous services. Results: The results shows continuous services were significantly higher for both foreign brand franchises, domestic brand franchises, and overall than initial services, This suggests that the continuous services of the affiliated franchisors has a higher relative importance than the initial services. Among the continuous services, brand reinforcement and promotion were significantly higher for both foreign brand merchants and domestic brand franchises. This can be regarded as the most important factor in brand reinforcement and promotion when selecting a food service franchisors. Conclusions: In the Standard Terms and Conditions governed by the Fair Trade Commission, the franchisors should increase the fairness by creating manuals for supporting services, especially after opening, and regularly checking whether the supporting services have been carried out like manuals since the establishment of franchisees. In addition, the Brand Strengthening and Public Relations Committee (tentative name) jointly participated by the franchisors and franchisees for the purpose of strengthening and promoting the brand, suggesting a system for transparent and efficient execution of the brand reinforcement and promotion budget and monitoring afterwards.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.17-21
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• 2012

Purpose - The objective of the paper is to explain the factors affecting on the Re-contract intension of franchisor in the uprising Chinese franchise market. Research design, data, methodology - The study conducted a survey on the 400 franchisors data in China from January to July 2012. By AMOS analyzing the data to examine these hypotheses empirically, we can confirm most hypothesis supposed. Results - This study shows that the high management performance and satisfaction of the franchise headquarters has a positive effect on the Re-contract intention of franchise. In the case of large markets such as China, the franchisor's strategy and the role is very important. Conclusions - This study provides franchisors and practitioners, who plan to extend their franchising business abroad into Chinese market, with some practical knowledge. in order to achieve stable profits, the franchise corporation needs to support the operation of the individual franchisee through incentives and standardization of services.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.65-88
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• 2008

Since the implementation of economic reforms in 1978, the Chinese economy grows rapidly at an average annul growth rate of 9% over the post two decades. Franchising has been widely recognized as an important source of entrepreneurial activity. Trust is important in that it facilitates relational exchanges by permits partners to transcend short-run inequities or risks to concentrate on long-term profits or gains. In the relationship between the franchisors and franchisees, trust has been described as an important source of competitive advantage. However, little research has been done on the factors affecting trust in Chinese franchisor-franchisee relationships. The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors affect the trust in the franchise system in China, and to provide guidelines and insights to franchisors which enter Chinese market. In this study, according to Morgan and Hunt (1994), trust is defined as the extending when one party has confidence in an exchange partner's reliability and integrity. We offered a conceptual model of the empirical study. The model shows that the factors affecting the trust include franchisor's supports, communication, satisfaction with previous outcome and conflict. We also suggested the franchisor's supports and communication like to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and the franchisor's supports, communication and he franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome tend to decrease conflict. Before the formal study, a pretest involving exploratory interviews with owners from three franchisees was conducted to make sure the questionnaire was relevant and clear to the respondents. The data were collected using trained interviewers to carry out personal interviews with the aid of an unidentified, muti-page, structured questionnaire. The respondents comprised of owners, managers, and owner managers of franchisee-owned food service franchises located in Beijing, China. Even though a total of 256 potential franchises were initially contacted, the finally usable sample consisted of 125 respondents. As expected, the sampling method was successful in soliciting respondents with waried personal and firm characteristics. Self-administrated questionnaires were used for all measures. And established scales were used to measure the latent constructs in this study. The measures tapped the franchisees' perceptions of the relationship with the referent franchisor. Five-point Likert-type scales ranging from "strongly disagree" (=1) to "strongly agree" (=7) were used throughout the constructs (trust, eight items; support, five items; communication, four items; satisfaction, six items; conflict, three items). The reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.80. The proposed measurement model was estimated using SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 5.0 analysis package. We conducted A series of exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability. The results indicate reasonable overall fits between the model and the observed data. The overall fit of measurement model were $X^2$= 159.699, p=0.004, d.f. = 116, GFI =.879, NFI =.898, CFI =.969, IFI =.970, TLI =.959, RMR =.058. The results demonstrated that the data reasonably fitted the model. We also examined construct reliability and reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The construct reliability of each construct was greater than.80 and the AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the analysis of Structure Equation Modeling (SEM), the results of path model indicated an adequate fit of the model: $X^2$= 142.126, p = 0.044, d.f. = 115, GFI =.892, NFI =.909, CFI =.981, IFI =.981, TLI =.974, RMR =.057. As hypothesized, the results showed that it is strategically important to establish trust in a franchise system, and the franchisor's supports, communication and satisfaction with previous outcome tend to reinforce franchisee's trust. The results also showed trust seems to decrease as the experience of conflict episodes increases. And we also noticed that franchisor's supports and communication tend to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and communication tend to decrease conflict. If the trust between the franchisor and franchisee can be established in a franchise system, franchising offers many benefits and reduces many costs. To manage a mutual trust of relationship with their franchisees, franchisor's should provide support effectively to their franchisees. Effective assistant services have direct effect on franchisees' satisfaction with previous outcome and trust in franchisor. Especially, franchise sales process, orientation, and training in the start-up period are key elements for success of the franchise system. Franchisor's support is an accumulated separate satisfaction evaluation with different kind of service provided by the franchisor. And providing support definitely can improve the trustworthy image of the franchisor. In the franchise system, conflicts of interests and exertions of different power sources are very common. The experience of conflict episodes seems to negatively relate to trust. Therefore, it is important to reduce the negative side of the relationship conflicts. Communication actually plays a broader role in reducing conflict and establish mutual trust in franchisor-franchisee relationship. And effective communication between franchisors and franchisees can improve franchisees' satisfaction toward the franchise system. As the diversification of Chinese markets, both franchisors and franchisees must keep the relevant, timely, and reliable communication. And it is very important to improve the quality of communication. Satisfaction with precious outcomes seems to positively relate to trust. Franchisors and franchisees that are highly satisfied with the previous outcomes that flow from their relationship will perceive their partner as advancing their goal achievement. Therefore, it is necessary for both franchisor and their franchisees to make the welfare of partner with effort. Little literature has focused on what factors affect the trust between franchisors and their franchisees in China. This study developed the hypotheses regarding the factors affecting trust in the transaction relationship. The results of data analysis supported the hypotheses strongly. There are certain limitations in this study. First, we may point out that some other factors missed in this study could be significantly important. Second, the context of this study, food service industry, limits its potential generalizability for all franchise systems. More studies in different categories of franchise system are needed to broaden its generalizability. Third, the model was tested empirically in a sample in Beijing, more empirical tests of the proposed model in other Chinese areas are needed. Finally, the analysis in this study was solely based on the perception of franchisees and the opinions of franchisors were not included.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.7-12
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• 2019

Purpose - This study examines the status of franchises and qualifications for franchising business, examines the franchising qualifications focusing on overseas cases, and suggests policy directions for strengthening the qualifications of franchising business. In order to achieve these purposes, the study reviewed the cases of USA, China, Australia, and United Kingdom franchising business law. Literature Review - According to the Fair Trade Commission, franchise is defined as a transactional relationship in which a franchiser provides certain support and education to franchisees in order to sell their goods and services more effectively. In addition, a franchise is a legally and financially independent business of franchisers and franchisees, and according to the concept of affiliates, it is necessary to define a franchise as a product and service marketing based on close and continuous collaboration. A franchiser can be defined as a company with the ability to develop a franchise system, create sustainable value based on it, and replicate "KNOW-HOW" to sellers. Case Study - This study examined the requirements for establishing a franchiser in the United States, China, Australia, and United Kingdom. In most countries, the requirements of franchisers must be operated for at least one year, which means that education, manual production, and continuity of stores should be checked. Suggestion - Based on Korea's population density and consumption sales index, we propose a screening system that registers through 2 + 1 systems, which require two stores to be operated for more than a year, by dividing Korea's commercial rights into two and a screening system instead of simple registration. In the case of a small franchisors, at least one franchsing retail store must be operated for at least one year, which should be applied to only one brand.