The Role of Residual Claims and Self-Enforcement in Franchise Contracting

Much of the economic literature on franchising has been concerned with incentive issues and how these are managed in franchised contracts. Two main types of incentive mechanisms have been identified: residual claims and self enforcement. In this paper we describe these incentive mechanisms, and their use in franchise contracts. We argue that although these two types of mechanisms are usually thought of as alternative ways to align franchisee and franchisor incentives, they are in fact complementary in franchise contracts because they address different incentive problems. We explore what these incentive problems are, and then describe specifically how franchise contract terms and practices support each type of incentive mechanism. Finally, we discuss briefly, via two examples, how our analysis also applies to non-franchised systems with common marks or other reputation concerns.

Governance of the Agri-food Chains as a Vector of Credibility for Quality Signalization in Europe

For many agricultural products, the quality of the final products strongly depends on different stages of the productive chain. This stresses the importance of relationships between quality signal owners and suppliers in the vertical chain. Based on a New Institutional Economics analysis, the goal of this paper is twofold: (i) to design a framework to study the links between quality signaling, coordination in the supply chains and the institutional environment, (ii) to conduct a comparative analysis to identify, compare and explain the modes of organization implemented for the governance of different quality signs. The general hypothesis is that, in order to assure the credibility of a quality signal, there must be an efficient alignment between quality characteristics and governance of the supply chain. To test this general hypothesis, we have conducted a comparative analysis of 42 case studies in 3 sectors (processed meat, cheese, fruit and vegetable sectors) from 7 European countries. This diversity allows us to compare the organizations designed to govern different quality signals in different institutional environments and to test the matching between quality signals and governance structures.alignment, credibility, governance structures, quality signals, Agribusiness, L14, L15, L22,

Intermittency in spherical Couette dynamos

We investigate dynamo action in three-dimensional numerical simulations of turbulent spherical Couette flows. Close to the onset of dynamo action, the magnetic field exhibits an intermittent behavior, characterized by a series of short bursts of the magnetic energy separated by low-energy phases. We show that this behavior corresponds to the so-called on-off intermittency. This behavior is here reported for dynamo action with realistic boundary conditions. We investigate the role of magnetic boundary conditions in this phenomenon

Tunable hydrogen release from amine-boranes via their insertion into functional polystyrenes

International audiencePolystyrene-g-boramines random copolymers are dihydrogen reservoirs with tunable dehydrogenation temperatures, which can be adjusted by selecting the boramine content in the copolymers. They display a unique dihydrogen thermal release profile, which is a direct consequence of the insertion of the amine-boranes in a polymeric scaffold, and not from a direct modification of the electronics or sterics of the amine-borane function. Finally, the mixture of polystyrene-g-boramines with conventional NH3-BH3 (borazane) allows for a direct access to organic/inorganic hybrid dihydrogen reservoirs with a maximal H2 loading of 8 wt%

Analysis of Short Food Supply Chain Governances: Innovative Collective Platforms Supplying Local Produce

This paper addresses the issue of governance diversity of innovative semi wholesale SFSC such as multi stake-holder platforms acting as middlemen between local producers and buyers (individual and collective ones) wishing to procure local products. We apply the new institutional economics approach with special attention to ownership rights allocation (Hansmann, 1988), collective decision-making (Pozzobon and Zylbersztajn, 2013) and associated transaction costs (Williamson, 1991; Menard, 2004; Chaddad, 2012). Those concepts were already used in analysis of various agri-businesses, cooperatives and their vertical relations in supply chains but little has been done in terms of SFSC. We rely on this framework to provide a comparative analysis of their governance structures based on a detailed description of the “horizontal” relations among stake-holders and “vertical” relations between the platforms and their suppliers and customers

Introduction

L’analyse du consommateur, et plus largement de la demande, a longtemps été le « parent pauvre » de l’économie de la qualité. À partir du début des années 2000, les recherches en marketing et dans diverses disciplines des sciences sociales ont contribué à combler cette lacune. Les articles publiés dans ce numéro participent de ce mouvement, mais ils présentent des nouveautés qu’il convient de souligner. Ce n’est pas tant les secteurs d’application (les produits sous marque, le vin, les produi..

Environmental characterisation of retification process by-products (liquid and gaseous wastes)

6th International Symposium “Environment and Wood Preservation” Cannes-Mandelieu, France 7-8 February 2005 14 pagesIn order to reduce environmental risks during the service life of the treated wood and to find new alternative developments on the durability of wood, some research and technology development have been made on thermal treatment. The retification process is one of these processes. The retification process induces chemical modification of the lignin and cellulosic components and modifies the intrinsic properties of wood : efficient increases the durability against fungi and insects, increases of the dimensional stability, decrease of the mechanical properties. The interest of this process is to reduce the environmental impact during the service life. In order to confirm the high interest of this process for the reduction of the environmental impact, an environmental characterisation of wastes on pilot plant have been carried out. Chemical analysis on gaseous and liquid effluents have been performed. An energetic assessment has been realised. The results indicate the high interest of this process in terms of possible biodegradable wastes and chemical valorisation interest, interest on energetic consumption in comparison with other wood processing treatment, interest on using retification treated wood in flooring according to indoor air quality requirements

Monitoring policy and organizational forms in franchised chains

ABSTRACT: Franchising is nowadays a prominent way to organize the distribution sector. While previous literature suggests that monitoring issues are a critical determinant of organizational choices, it is rather silent on the optimal monitoring strategy once the organization of the chain is set. In this article we analyze the monitoring policy of chains with both franchised and companyowned units. We develop a model in which a chain monitors its outlets under asymmetric information on local demands and managers' efforts. We show that partial monitoring (i.e. when the franchisor monitors only a subset of its outlets) represents an optimal monitoring policy. Second, we identify the units that should be monitored. Finally, we discuss the impact of information technologies and outlet location on monitoring policy and how it may affect the proportion of franchised and company-owned units within the mixed chains