Australian franchising research: review, synthesis and future research directions

This article represents a brief history of the development of franchising in Australia and its regulatory framework and links this to an analysis of relevant research. Findings indicate a disparate ad hoc approach to research including scoping studies at the embryonic stage of franchise development; significant evidence of census style research culminating in a trajectory of disparate studies utilising more sophisticated research methods. For franchising research to advance there appears to be a need to interface with other research domains in SME and entrepreneurship research, extend the range of issues which are the subject of franchising research: begin longitudinal studies in order to better understand change over time; promote studies which have a sectoral focus in order to improve knowledge and understanding at that level of analysis; and. increase the representation of cross-border/cultural research in the volume of work being undertaken

Pre-Contractual Due Diligence by Franchisees and Independent Small Business Buyers

The role of pre-commitment due diligence in small business has received little academic attention to date. This is of particular concern given the reported high rate of failure in small business which is often attributed to a lack of adequate pre-contractual assessment of the particular small business opportunity. Data collected from a sample of 610 current and former franchisees and independent small business owners in Australia was used to empirically examine relationships between due diligence effort, business performance, owner satisfaction and relationship health. The analysis reveals different patterns of behaviour between current and former franchisees and independent business owners. In particular, franchisees spend more time and commit greater effort than their independent counterparts when conducting due diligence. Implications for theory and practice are discussed

The multi-actor perspective of engagement on social media

Despite the known benefits offered by social media to create engagement in social marketing programs, scholars have highlighted the need for more evidence-based, practical, and measurable approaches to social media use in social marketing contexts. This netnographic study employed a four-level multi-actor engagement framework originally proposed by Shawky et al. to explore engagement in a single Facebook community. We identified social media measurement tools for assessing connections, interactions, and loyalty of multiple actors which will assist social marketing practitioners’ understanding of different actors’ interactions with the social media content, enabling them to maintain these actors’ levels of engagement, advance their engagement to a higher level, or attract others to expand the community. </jats:p