Franchising: A Review and Avenues to Greater Theoretical Diversity

As franchising has increased its visibility and impact on the business landscape, it has attracted the attention of a wide variety of researchers from different academic backgrounds. We draw together much of this research by juxtaposing the two key theories used to explain franchising, resource scarcity and agency theory, with the empirical findings regarding three key franchising constructs—franchise initiation, subsequent propensity to franchise, and franchise performance. We suggest that research emphasis needs to shift toward understanding why firms initiate franchising and how franchising impacts different types of organizational performance. We also find that extant research can benefit from additional theoretical diversity and thus we offer new propositions grounded in three theories not yet widely applied to franchising.