IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jouret/v87y2011i3p406-417.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Franchising and firm financial performance among U.S. restaurants

Author

Listed:
  • Madanoglu, Melih
  • Lee, Kyuho
  • Castrogiovanni, Gary J.

Abstract

Franchising has attracted the attention of retailing and entrepreneurship scholars in the past three decades, but evidence pertaining to how franchising affects financial performance is mixed and inconclusive. Thus, the question remains as to whether franchising firms exhibit better financial performance than non-franchising firms in the same industry. In order to find an answer to this question, our study compares the risk-adjusted financial performance of franchising versus non-franchising restaurant firms over the 1995–2008 interval, using five different performance measures: the Sharpe Ratio, the Treynor Ratio, the Jensen Index, the Sortino Ratio, and the Upside Potential Ratio. For each measure, the results revealed that franchising restaurant firms outperformed their non-franchising counterparts. Thus, we provide very robust evidence that franchising is superior on average in the restaurant industry, which can help explain the increasing popularity of franchising as a business form.

Suggested Citation

  • Madanoglu, Melih & Lee, Kyuho & Castrogiovanni, Gary J., 2011. "Franchising and firm financial performance among U.S. restaurants," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 406-417.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jouret:v:87:y:2011:i:3:p:406-417
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretai.2011.02.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002243591100011X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretai.2011.02.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael C. Jensen, 1968. "The Performance Of Mutual Funds In The Period 1945–1964," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(2), pages 389-416, May.
    2. Norton, Seth W, 1988. "An Empirical Look at Franchising as an Organizational Form," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(2), pages 197-218, April.
    3. Hausman, Jerry, 2015. "Specification tests in econometrics," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 112-134.
    4. James G. Combs & David J. Ketchen, Jr., 1999. "Explaining interfirm cooperation and performance: toward a reconciliation of predictions from the resource‐based view and organizational economics," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(9), pages 867-888, September.
    5. Olav Sorenson & Jesper B. Sørensen, 2001. "Finding the right mix: franchising, organizational learning, and chain performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(6‐7), pages 713-724, June.
    6. Mick Carney & Eric Gedajlovic, 1991. "Vertical integration in Franchise systems: Agency theory and resource explanations," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(8), pages 607-629, November.
    7. Francine Lafontaine, 1992. "Agency Theory and Franchising: Some Empirical Results," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 23(2), pages 263-283, Summer.
    8. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    9. Michael, Steven C., 2000. "The effect of organizational form on quality: the case of franchising," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 295-318, November.
    10. Combs, James G. & Ketchen, David Jr. & Hoover, Vera L., 2004. "A strategic groups approach to the franchising-performance relationship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 877-897, November.
    11. Rick Newby & Malcolm Smith, 1999. "A comparison of the impact of franchising on return and risk for two Australian industries," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 193-205, June.
    12. Richard P. Rumelt, 1991. "How much does industry matter?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 167-185, March.
    13. Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Titman, Sheridan, 1993. "Returns to Buying Winners and Selling Losers: Implications for Stock Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 65-91, March.
    14. Savin, N Eugene & White, Kenneth J, 1977. "The Durbin-Watson Test for Serial Correlation with Extreme Sample Sizes or Many Regressors," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(8), pages 1989-1996, November.
    15. Frédéric Perdreau & Anne-Laure Le Nadant & Gérard Cliquet, 2010. "Plural Form and Franchisors Performance : Early Empirical Findings From Europe," Post-Print halshs-00522601, HAL.
    16. Fishburn, Peter C, 1977. "Mean-Risk Analysis with Risk Associated with Below-Target Returns," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(2), pages 116-126, March.
    17. Bürkle, Thomas & Posselt, Thorsten, 2008. "Franchising as a plural system: A risk-based explanation," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 39-47.
    18. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    19. Gary J. Castrogiovanni & James G. Combs & Robert T. Justis, 2006. "Shifting Imperatives: An Integrative View of Resource Scarcity and Agency Reasons for Franchising," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(1), pages 23-40, January.
    20. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    21. Mathewson, G Frank & Winter, Ralph A, 1985. "The Economics of Franchise Contracts," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(3), pages 503-526, October.
    22. Noel Capon & John U. Farley & Scott Hoenig, 1990. "Determinants of Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(10), pages 1143-1159, October.
    23. Martin, Robert E, 1988. "Franchising and Risk Management," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(5), pages 954-968, December.
    24. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    25. William F. Sharpe, 1964. "Capital Asset Prices: A Theory Of Market Equilibrium Under Conditions Of Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 425-442, September.
    26. Michael, Steven C., 2002. "Can a franchise chain coordinate?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 325-341, July.
    27. Lafontaine, Francine & Bhattacharyya, Sugato, 1995. "The role of risk in franchising," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 2(1-2), pages 39-74, October.
    28. Rubin, Paul H, 1978. "The Theory of the Firm and the Structure of the Franchise Contract," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 223-233, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sofie De Schoenmaker & Philippe Van Cauwenberge & Heidi Vander Bauwhede, 2014. "Effects of local fiscal policy on firm profitability," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(16), pages 1289-1306, December.
    2. Muriel Fadairo & Cintya Lanchimba, 2012. "Performance in distribution systems : What is the influence of the upstream firm's organizational choices ?," Working Papers halshs-00727382, HAL.
    3. Anna Sadovnikova & Manish Kacker & Saurabh Mishra, 2023. "Franchising structure changes and shareholder value: Evidence from store buybacks and refranchising," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(5), pages 1098-1117, September.
    4. Hsu, Liwu & Kaufmann, Patrick & Srinivasan, Shuba, 2017. "How Do Franchise Ownership Structure and Strategic Investment Emphasis Influence Stock Returns and Risks?," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 350-368.
    5. Tomislava Pavic Kramaric & Marko Miletic & Petar Pepur, 2023. "The Treynor Ratio as a Risk-adjusted Return of Croatian Listed Firms," International Journal of Economic Sciences, European Research Center, vol. 12(2), pages 92-106, November.
    6. Patel, Pankaj C. & Kim, Kyoung Yong & Devaraj, Srikant & Li, Mingxiang, 2018. "Family Ties that B(l)ind: Do Family-Owned Franchisees Have Lower Financial Performance than Nonfamily-Owned Franchisees?," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 231-245.
    7. Kwanglim Seo, 2016. "The effect of franchising on debt maturity in the US restaurant industry," Tourism Economics, , vol. 22(6), pages 1404-1422, December.
    8. William E. Gillis & James G. Combs & David J. Ketchen Jr., 2014. "Using Resource–Based Theory to Help Explain Plural Form Franchising," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(3), pages 449-472, May.
    9. Pankaj C. Patel & John A. Pearce II, 2020. "Franchisees and Loan Default on Third-Party Guarantee Loans: Evidence From the United States," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(5), pages 861-877, September.
    10. Naderi, Iman & Paswan, Audhesh K. & Guzman, Francisco, 2018. "Beyond the shadow of a doubt: The effect of consumer knowledge on restaurant evaluation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 221-229.
    11. Francesco Chirico & Dianne H. B. Welsh & R. Duane Ireland & Philipp Sieger, 2021. "Family versus Non‐Family Firm Franchisors: Behavioural and Performance Differences," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 165-200, January.
    12. Gillis, William E. & Combs, James G. & Yin, Xiaoli, 2020. "Franchise management capabilities and franchisor performance under alternative franchise ownership strategies," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(1).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chabowski, Brian R. & Hult, G. Tomas M. & Mena, Jeannette A., 2011. "The Retailing Literature as a Basis for Franchising Research: Using Intellectual Structure to Advance Theory," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 269-284.
    2. Hsu, Liwu & Kaufmann, Patrick & Srinivasan, Shuba, 2017. "How Do Franchise Ownership Structure and Strategic Investment Emphasis Influence Stock Returns and Risks?," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 350-368.
    3. Guo, Shiau-Ling, 2023. "The governance implication of the geographic concentration of franchise activities for franchise relationships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    4. Gary J. Castrogiovanni & James G. Combs & Robert T. Justis, 2006. "Shifting Imperatives: An Integrative View of Resource Scarcity and Agency Reasons for Franchising," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(1), pages 23-40, January.
    5. Jell-Ojobor, Maria & Windsperger, Josef, 2014. "The Choice of Governance Modes of International Franchise Firms — Development of an Integrative Model," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 153-187.
    6. Francine Lafontaine & Kathryn L. Shaw, 2005. "Targeting Managerial Control: Evidence from Franchising," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(1), pages 131-150, Spring.
    7. Michael, Steven C., 1996. "To franchise or not to franchise: An analysis of decision rights and organizational form shares," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 57-71, January.
    8. Shane, Scott A., 1996. "Why franchise companies expand overseas," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 73-88, March.
    9. Gillis, William E. & Combs, James G. & Yin, Xiaoli, 2020. "Franchise management capabilities and franchisor performance under alternative franchise ownership strategies," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(1).
    10. Fladmoe-Lindquist, Karin, 1996. "International franchising: Capabilities and development," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(5), pages 419-438, September.
    11. Masayoshi Maruyama & Yu Yamashita, 2012. "Franchise Fees and Royalties: Theory and Empirical Results," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 40(3), pages 167-189, May.
    12. Anna Sadovnikova & Manish Kacker & Saurabh Mishra, 2023. "Franchising structure changes and shareholder value: Evidence from store buybacks and refranchising," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(5), pages 1098-1117, September.
    13. Norton, Seth W., 1995. "Is franchising a capital structure issue?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 2(1-2), pages 75-101, October.
    14. Antonio Navarro García & Enrique Carlos Díez de Castro & Francisco Javier Rondán Cataluña, 2006. "Franchisor Types In Portuguese Franchising," Portuguese Journal of Management Studies, ISEG, Universidade de Lisboa, vol. 0(2), pages 97-114.
    15. Maruyama, Masayoshi & Yamashita, Yu, 2010. "The logic of franchise contracts: Empirical results of Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 183-192, August.
    16. Cintya Lanchimba & Josef Windsperger & Muriel Fadairo, 2018. "Entrepreneurial orientation, risk and incentives: the case of franchising," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 163-180, January.
    17. Ramiah, Vikash & Xu, Xiaoming & Moosa, Imad A., 2015. "Neoclassical finance, behavioral finance and noise traders: A review and assessment of the literature," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 89-100.
    18. Affuso, L., 2000. "Intra-Firm Retail Contracting: Survey Evidence from the UK'," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0022, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    19. Vázquez-Suárez, Luis & Mejía-Vásquez, Pericles Ramón & Serafim da Silva, Sheila & Sánchez-Gómez, Roberto, 2022. "Gender’s moderating role in the relationship between organisational form and performance in the Spanish supermarket industry," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    20. Rocciolo, Francesco & Gheno, Andrea & Brooks, Chris, 2022. "Explaining abnormal returns in stock markets: An alpha-neutral version of the CAPM," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jouret:v:87:y:2011:i:3:p:406-417. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.