Evolution in franchising: Trends and new perspectives

Authors

  • Luis Fernando Varotto University Nove de Julho – UNINOVE, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
  • Leonardo Aureliano-Silva University Anhembi Morumbi – UAM, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18568/1980-4865.12331-42

Keywords:

franchising, marketing, theoretical approaches

Abstract

Franchising as a legal or marketing concept was not new. It arose as a structured business system in the US, around 1860´s when The Singer Company established a network of resellers for sewing machines. Nowadays franchising is one of the fastest developing forms of business in the world. The evolution of theories that seek to explain franchise systems have been published in academic journals from time to time, but until now there was not a study that have established a social network analysis to quantify the degree of centrality and cohesion of the relationship between the main authors, journals, methods and theories in franchise. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to extend the knowledge about franchising through an extensive research on its main theoretical perspectives into relevant international academic journals, showing the evolution of the field, highlighting the principal issues, authors and methods. Through a selection of 130 articles ranging from 1966 to 2015 the study investigates five relevant theories in franchising: (1) Resource Acquisition Theory, (2) Agency Theory, (3) Transaction Cost Analysis, (4) Signaling Theory, and (5) Property Rights Theory. A descriptive statistical analysis was done in order to identify the main authors and trends with the most used associated theories in franchise papers. The findings show agency theory and signaling theory, and resource scarcity theory as the main perspectives used in studies about franchising, but other perspectives have been increasing its presence, mainly the institutional theory and resource based-view perspective. The main dependent and independent variables cover a wide range of constructs, but ownership, performance, age, size, growth, geographical dispersion, and internationalization have been the most cited.

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Author Biographies

Luis Fernando Varotto, University Nove de Julho – UNINOVE, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

holds Master's and D.Sc. degree in Business Administration from Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo -EAESP of Fundação Getúlio Vargas EAESP/FGV, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. Also is professor of the Postgraduate Program in Business Administration and Director of the Department of Management Sciences and Communication at University Nove de Julho

Leonardo Aureliano-Silva, University Anhembi Morumbi – UAM, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

holds Master's and D.Sc. degree in Business Administration from the University Nove de Julho - UNINOVE, and a Post-doctorate in Business Administration with emphasis in International Management from Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing – PMDGI/ESPM, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. Also is Professor of the Professional Master's Program in Food and Beverage Management at Anhembi-Morumbi University and lecturer at ESPM

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Published

2017-11-12

How to Cite

Varotto, L. F., & Aureliano-Silva, L. (2017). Evolution in franchising: Trends and new perspectives. Internext - International Business and Management Review, 12(3), 31–42. https://doi.org/10.18568/1980-4865.12331-42

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 3 (2017): September/December

Section

Article

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