Business format franchise in regional tourism development

Tourism becomes increasingly an industry where interorganizational relationships can provide a global competitive advantage (Porter, 1990). Collaborative relationships are in focus for three decades now, yet interorganizational literature findings have been criticized (Bell, Den Ouden, & Ziggers, 2006), Journal of Management, 43, 1607–1619 and labelled to be on the “bring of irrelevance”. For theoretical and managerial reasons, networking the tourism industry calls for further scrutiny. Franchising offers a governance structure recognized for combining a valid business format and economies of scale provided by the franchisor with small entrepreneurs, who bring knowledge of local market and personal commitment to the joint action. Through a thorough interorganizational dynamics and franchising literature review, this study suggests that network governance mode holds promise of improving regional tourism industry performance.