IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/entreg/v21y2009i5-6p503-527.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Franchise network restructuring: Pressures, constraints and mechanisms

Author

Listed:
  • Juliet Cox
  • Colin Mason

Abstract

Franchised businesses operate on the basis of granting individual franchisees trading rights to serve territories or market areas on either an exclusive or a non-exclusive basis. The design of these territories is generally undertaken during the roll-out phase of the franchise. However, these territories and market areas may become sub-optimal over time, necessitating restructuring. However, if the franchisor has granted exclusive rights to a territory then this is likely to involve a breach in the franchise contract. In cases where existing franchisees do not have exclusive territories they may nevertheless make a legal challenge to the creation of additional franchises on the grounds of encroachment. This paper -- which is based on a study of 40 franchisors in the UK -- examines how franchisors go about network restructuring in constrained and non-constrained situations. Franchisors typically did not act on their legal rights, echoing findings of earlier franchising studies which reveal a divergence between contractual rights and operational behaviour. This focus on network restructuring also provides new perspectives on the reasons for ownership reversion and the growth of multi-unit franchisees.

Suggested Citation

  • Juliet Cox & Colin Mason, 2009. "Franchise network restructuring: Pressures, constraints and mechanisms," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(5-6), pages 503-527, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:entreg:v:21:y:2009:i:5-6:p:503-527
    DOI: 10.1080/08985620802365178
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08985620802365178
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/08985620802365178?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.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Odile Chanut & Gilles Paché, 2011. "Franchise relationships: tacit expectations, great expectations," Post-Print hal-01773114, HAL.
    2. Rosado-Serrano, Alexander & Paul, Justin & Dikova, Desislava, 2018. "International franchising: A literature review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 238-257.
    3. Hadjielias, Elias & Dada, Olufunmilola (Lola) & Eliades, Kostas, 2021. "Entrepreneurial process in international multiunit franchise outlets: A social capital perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 13-28.
    4. Anant Deshpande & David Tsai, 2021. "Managing a Mission-driven Franchise Organization: An Empirical Investigation of Organizational Practice and Individual Outcomes," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 22(2), pages 311-347, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:entreg:v:21:y:2009:i:5-6:p:503-527. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/TEPN20 .

    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.