IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cam/camdae/0027.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Plural Form in Franchising: A Synergism of Market and Hierarchy

Author

Listed:
  • Lewin-Solomons, S.B.

Abstract

In a plural form, two or more organisational arrangements possess a synergism when used simultaneously. For example, rather than specialising, many chains contain a large proportion of both franchised and company-owned stores. By franchising some stores while they own others, franchise systems can achieve dynamic efficiency that would be impossible in a homogenous system. Chains value their franchisees because franchisees exercise initiative. However, unless a chain includes a sufficiently high proportion of company stores, it lacks proper incentives to evaluate innovations efficiently. Therefore, despite the dynamism of franchises, a chain must maintain a certain proportion of company stores.

Suggested Citation

  • Lewin-Solomons, S.B., 2000. "The Plural Form in Franchising: A Synergism of Market and Hierarchy," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0027, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
  • Handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:0027
    Note: IO
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/research-files/repec/cam/pdf/wp0027.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brickley, James A. & Dark, Frederick H., 1987. "The choice of organizational form The case of franchising," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 401-420, June.
    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. Gallini, Nancy T & Lutz, Nancy A, 1992. "Dual Distribution and Royalty Fees in Franchising," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 471-501, October.
    4. R.S. Thompson, 1992. "Company Ownership vs Franchising: Issues and Evidence," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 19(4), pages 31-42, September.
    5. Francine Lafontaine & Margaret E. Slade, 1997. "Retail Contracting: Theory and Practice," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 1-25, March.
    6. repec:ner:ucllon:http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/17678/ is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Katz, Barbara G. & Joel Owen, 1992. "On the existence of franchise contracts and some of their implications," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 567-593, December.
    8. Jean-Francois Hennart, 1993. "Explaining the Swollen Middle: Why Most Transactions Are a Mix of “Market” and “Hierarchy”," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(4), pages 529-547, November.
    9. Aghion, Philippe & Tirole, Jean, 1997. "Formal and Real Authority in Organizations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(1), pages 1-29, February.
    10. 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.
    11. Antony W. Dnes, 2011. "Franchise Contracts," Chapters, in: Gerrit De Geest (ed.), Contract Law and Economics, chapter 18, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Lafontaine, Francine & Slade, Margaret E., 1996. "Retail contracting and costly monitoring: Theory and evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 923-932, 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. H. R., Ganesha & Aithal, Sreeramana, 2020. "Exclusive Brand Outlet Expansion Framework for Lifestyle Brands in India (EBOE-LS)," MPRA Paper 102551, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Lewin-Solomons, S., 2000. "Innovation and Authority in Franchise Systems: An Empirical Exploration of the Plural Form," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0015, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Kranz, Sebastian & Lewin-Solomons, Shira B., 2008. "Decision Structures in Franchise Systems of the Plural Form," Bonn Econ Discussion Papers 8/2008, University of Bonn, Bonn Graduate School of Economics (BGSE).
    3. 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.
    4. Lewin-Solomons, S., 2000. "Autonomy, Contractibility and the Franchise Relationship," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0016, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    5. Affuso, L., 2000. "Intra-Firm Retail Contracting: Survey Evidence from the UK'," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0022, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    6. Francine Lafontaine & Joanne Oxley, 2001. "International Franchising: Evidence from US and Canadian Franchisors in Mexico," NBER Working Papers 8179, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Francine Lafontaine & Margaret E. Slade, 1998. "Incentive Contracting and the Franchise Decision," NBER Working Papers 6544, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Gagné, Robert & Sigué, Simon Pierre & Zaccour, Georges, 1998. "Droit d’entrée et taux de redevance dans les franchises d’exploitation au Québec," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 74(4), pages 651-668, décembre.
    9. Dnes, Antony & Garoupa, Nuno, 2005. "Externality and organizational choice in franchising," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 139-149.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. Scott Shane, 2001. "Organizational Incentives and Organizational Mortality," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 136-160, April.
    13. Knott, Anne Marie & McKelvey, Bill, 1999. "Nirvana efficiency: a comparative test of residual claims and routines," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 365-383, April.
    14. Lafontaine, Francine & Bhattacharyya, Sugato, 1995. "The role of risk in franchising," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 2(1-2), pages 39-74, October.
    15. Arruñada Benito & Garicano Luis & Vázquez Luis, 2005. "Completing Contracts Ex Post: How Car Manufacturers Manage Car Dealers," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 149-173, April.
    16. Francine Lafontaine & Margaret Slade, 2007. "Vertical Integration and Firm Boundaries: The Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(3), pages 629-685, September.
    17. Cliquet, Gérard & Pénard, Thierry, 2012. "Plural form franchise networks: A test of Bradach’s model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 159-167.
    18. 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.
    19. Cozzarin, Brian P. & Barry, Peter J., 1998. "Organizational Structure In Agricultural Production Alliances," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 1(2), pages 1-17.
    20. Norton, Seth W., 1995. "Is franchising a capital structure issue?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 2(1-2), pages 75-101, October.

    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:cam:camdae:0027. 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: Jake Dyer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/ .

    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.