دانلود رایگان مقاله تاثیرات فرانچیز در رقابت های صنعتی: نقش تعدیل کننده صنعت مهمان نوازی

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the impact of an industry’s involvement in franchising on its competitive condition. Findings show that, for services industries in general, franchising involvement (a) discourages industry instability and dynamic competition, and (b) has a non-significant impact on industry concentration. However, in the hospitality industry, the negative effects of franchising on industry instability and dynamic competition are weaker: franchising decreases industry instability and dynamic competition less in the hospitality industry than in other services industries. These findings open up a new discussion of how franchising influences the competitive environment at the industry level.

5. Discussion and conclusions

The objective of this study was to discover how franchising influences competitive conditions at the industry level. Franchising has enabled many firms to expand by providing access to external resources and knowledge (Combs et al., 2011; Michael, 2003) that yield potential competitive advantages (Barney, 1991; Kogut and Zander, 1992; Porter, 1980). Franchising also can facilitate efficient transactions with business partners (franchisees), thereby improving market coordination (Williamson, 1979). As a result, the intra-industry competition induced by franchising could become more active and dynamic. Based on this rationale, this study explored the conjecture that the degree of an industry’s involvement in franchising can change the competitive environment of the entire industry. Specifically, the focus of this study was to examine the influence of franchising on three dimensions of the competitive environment at the industry level. The empirical results provide evidence that franchising significantly influences the competitive environment of services industries in general, although the directions of influence are opposite to those hypothesized for two dimensions; specifically, increased involvement in franchising has a negative impact on industry instability (H2) and dynamic competition (H3). Although these findings fail to support the hypotheses, they offer evidence on how franchising can alter industry competition that could be valuable to both scholars and practitioners. In addition, results related to the moderating effect of the hospitality industry demonstrates that the negative impacts of franchising on instability (H4b) and dynamic competition (H4c) are weaker in the hospitality industry than in other services industries. These findings support our hypotheses and reveal that the influence of franchising on industry-wide competition is not identical across all services industries; rather, the effects depend on industry characteristics (e.g., capital-intensity and the dual roles of production and service in the hospitality industry).