IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hbs/wpaper/08-091.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Organizational Design and Control across Multiple Markets: The Case of Franchising in the Convenience Store Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Dennis Campbell

    (Harvard Business School, Accounting and Management Unit)

  • Srikant M. Datar

    (Harvard Business School, Accounting and Management Unit)

  • Tatiana Sandino

    (University of California, Marshall School of Business)

Abstract

Many companies operate units which are dispersed across different types of markets, and thus serve significantly diverging customer bases. Such market-type dispersion is likely to compromise the headquarters' ability to control its local managers' behavior and satisfy the divergent needs of different types of customers. In this paper we find evidence that market-type dispersion is an important determinant of delegation and the provision of incentives. Using a sample of convenience store chains, we show that market-type dispersion is related to the degree of franchising at the chain level as well as the probability of franchising a given store within a chain. Our results are robust to alternative definitions of market-type dispersion and to other determinants of franchising such as the stores' geographic distance from headquarters and geographic dispersion. Additional analyses also suggest that chains that do not franchise at all, may cope with market-type dispersion by decentralizing operations from headquarters to their stores, and, to a weaker extent, by providing higher variable pay to their store managers.

Suggested Citation

  • Dennis Campbell & Srikant M. Datar & Tatiana Sandino, 2008. "Organizational Design and Control across Multiple Markets: The Case of Franchising in the Convenience Store Industry," Harvard Business School Working Papers 08-091, Harvard Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:hbs:wpaper:08-091
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-091.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gomez, Miguel I. & McLaughlin, Edward W. & Wittink, Dick R., 2003. "Do Changes In Customer Satisfaction Lead To Changes In Performance In Food Retailing?," 2003 Annual meeting, July 27-30, Montreal, Canada 22048, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    2. 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.
    3. Augustin Landier & Vinay B. Nair & Julie Wulf, 2009. "Trade-offs in Staying Close: Corporate Decision Making and Geographic Dispersion," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 1119-1148.
    4. 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.
    5. Peter Boatwright & Sanjay Dhar & Peter Rossi, 2004. "The Role of Retail Competition, Demographics and Account Retail Strategy as Drivers of Promotional Sensitivity," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 169-190, June.
    6. repec:cup:cbooks:9780521772525 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Gomez, Miguel I. & McLaughlin, Edward W. & Wittink, Dick R., 2003. "Do Changes in Customer Satisfaction Lead to Changes in Sales Performance in Food Retailing?," Working Papers 127195, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    8. Miguel Ignacio Gomez & Edward W. McLaughlin & Dick Wittink, 2003. "Do Changes in Customer Satisfaction Lead to Changes in Sales Performance in Food Retailing?," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm363, Yale School of Management.
    9. Karin Fladmoe-Lindquist & Laurent L. Jacque, 1995. "Control Modes in International Service Operations: The Propensity to Franchise," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(7), pages 1238-1249, July.
    10. repec:cup:cbooks:9780521775892 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. 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.
    12. Fama, Eugene F & Jensen, Michael C, 1983. "Separation of Ownership and Control," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 301-325, June.
    13. G. S. Maddala, 1987. "Limited Dependent Variable Models Using Panel Data," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 22(3), pages 307-338.
    14. Baiman, S & Larcker, Df & Rajan, Mv, 1995. "Organizational Design For Business Units," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 205-229.
    15. Gary Chamberlain, 1980. "Analysis of Covariance with Qualitative Data," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(1), pages 225-238.
    16. Canice Prendergast, 2002. "The Tenuous Trade-off between Risk and Incentives," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(5), pages 1071-1102, October.
    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. Francesco PAOLONE, 2014. "Cost Structure Complexity And Stock Prices Volatility: An Analysis Of Possible Relationship Among Italian Listed Companies In The Period Of Crisis," Romanian Journal of Economics, Institute of National Economy, vol. 38(1(47)), pages 107-133, June.

    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. 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).
    2. Garg, Viany K. & Rasheed, Abdul A., 2003. "International multi-unit franchising: an agency theoretic explanation," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 329-348, June.
    3. Michael Carney, 2005. "Corporate Governance and Competitive Advantage in Family–Controlled Firms," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(3), pages 249-265, May.
    4. Fladmoe-Lindquist, Karin, 1996. "International franchising: Capabilities and development," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(5), pages 419-438, September.
    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. Norton, Seth W., 1995. "Is franchising a capital structure issue?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 2(1-2), pages 75-101, October.
    7. Block, Sidney T. & Friebel, Guido & Heinz, Matthias & Zubanov, Nick, 2022. "Mystery Shopping as a Strategic Management Practice in Multi-Site Firms," IZA Discussion Papers 15599, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Barthelemy, Jerome, 2004. "The administrative productivity of U.S. franchisors: an empirical investigation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 115-121, April.
    9. Crosno, Jody L. & Tong, Pui Ying, 2018. "Just going through the motions? An empirical investigation of control, compliance, and performance in franchisor-franchisee relationships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 360-373.
    10. Scott Shane, 2001. "Organizational Incentives and Organizational Mortality," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 136-160, April.
    11. 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.
    12. Utgård, Jakob & Nygaard, Arne & Dahlstrom, Robert, 2015. "Franchising, local market characteristics and alcohol sales to minors," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 2117-2124.
    13. Jean Helwege & Christo Pirinsky & René M. Stulz, 2007. "Why Do Firms Become Widely Held? An Analysis of the Dynamics of Corporate Ownership," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 995-1028, June.
    14. 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).
    15. Shromona Ganguly, 2021. "Financialization of the Real Economy: New Empirical Evidence from the Non-financial Firms in India Using Conditional Logistic Model," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 19(3), pages 493-523, September.
    16. Odile Chanut & Nadjoua Gharbi & Dominique Bonet Fernandez & Muhammad Shahbaz & E. Hachemi Aliouche, 2013. "Institutional Environments and the Internationalization of Franchise Chains: The Contrasting Cases of Three North African Countries," Working Papers 2013-39, Department of Research, Ipag Business School.
    17. Jesper Haga & Fredrik Huhtamäki & Dennis Sundvik, 2022. "Ruthless Exploiters or Ethical Guardians of the Workforce? Powerful CEOs and their Impact on Workplace Safety and Health," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(3), pages 641-663, May.
    18. 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.
    19. William E. Gillis & Ellen McEwan & T. Russell Crook & Steven C. Michael, 2011. "Using Tournaments to Reduce Agency Problems: The Case of Franchising," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(3), pages 427-447, May.
    20. Mehran, Hamid, 1995. "Executive compensation structure, ownership, and firm performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 163-184, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Control; Market Dispersion; Decentralization; Incentives; Franchising; Retailing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D86 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Economics of Contract Law
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hbs:wpaper:08-091. 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: HBS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/harbsus.html .

    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.