preview

Cmba

Better Essays

International Business & Economics Research Journal – August 2009

Volume 8, Number 8

The Franchising Decision: The Perspective Of The Franchisee In The Hospitality Industry
Ramon Diaz-Bernardo, Instituto de Empresa Business School, Spain

ABSTRACT Franchising is a major trend in the hotel industry. Despite the fact that almost two-thirds of branded hotels in the U.S. are franchised, there is a lack of empirical research on franchising in the hospitality industry. In this article, I reviewed one of the most relevant lines of research in franchising literature, usually referred as creating franchising systems, and we have concentrated on analyzing the reasons and motivations to use franchising from franchisee perspective within the …show more content…

We will do so by reviewing the relevant literature on the subject and by comparing what the theory says with the opinions of our panel of experts, as well as with the empirical information collected from public sources of information regarding the hotel industry. THE DECISION TO BE A FRANCHISEE: A THEORY OF FRANCHISE DEMAND AND ITS APPLICATION IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY As described by Fulop and Forward (1997), a lot of theoretical and empirical research has been devoted to explain why firms franchise. However, few studies have aimed to explore the importance and the advantages of the franchise system from the perspective of the franchisee; that is, the entrepreneur choice of franchise vs. independent ownership – a theory of franchise demand. Given the relevance of franchising to the development of businesses, it is interesting to learn why so little attention has been paid to the decision of would-be entrepreneurs to eschew the independent operation and become franchisees. The issue of franchisee motives, though widely recognized and frequently discussed by franchisors, still remains largely unexplored in empirical research terms. From a managerial point of view, a better understanding of the franchisee‟s motivation will provide some interesting insights to franchisors as to how to position their offer in the franchise market. Franchising is not only an organizational system, it is also a market

Get Access