Franchising research in marketing: suggestions for future research

In their thoughtful review of franchising research conducted over the prior decade, Dant, Grünhagen, and Windsperger (2011) sounded the alarm regarding the marketing discipline’s ceding of the franchising phenomenon to scholars in management and economics. We use their seminal work as a point of departure, reviewing the trends emerging from an examination of empirical research on franchising published in marketing journals over the ten-year period spanning 2005 to 2014. We note with some satisfaction an increasing interest in issues unique to franchising, including ownership structure, franchisee/franchisor selection, governance, and the performance of both franchisors and their franchisees. Our review also describes recent methodological advances, and assesses the extent to which franchising research in marketing has been influential (as reflected in citations) to other areas of study. For scholars with an interest in franchising, the chapter provides information on emerging data sources and suggests possible directions for future research.