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Much ado about chains: A research agenda

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  • Kosová, Renáta
  • Lafontaine, Francine

Abstract

We discuss recent research on the growth of chains in the retail and service sectors, and point out the role of franchising in these industries, using new data on franchising collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. We then discuss several topics that one can analyze with data on chains, and highlight the advantages of using such data. Our hope is to entice other researchers to consider chains, and franchised chains, as a context for their own empirical research, and thus also improve our understanding of the sectors where these firms operate.

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  • Kosová, Renáta & Lafontaine, Francine, 2012. "Much ado about chains: A research agenda," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 303-308.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:indorg:v:30:y:2012:i:3:p:303-308
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2011.12.010
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    Cited by:

    1. Itai Ater & Oren Rigbi, 2015. "Price control and advertising in franchising chains," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 148-158, January.
    2. Jack (Peiyao) Ma & Andrea Mantovani & Carlo Reggiani & Annette Broocks & Néstor Duch-Brown, 2024. "The Price Effects of Prohibiting Price Parity Clauses: Evidence from International Hotel Groups," Economics Series Working Papers 1043, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    3. Mantovani, Andrea & Reggiani, Carlo & Broocks, Annette & Duch-Brown, Nestor & Ma, Peiyao, 2022. "The Price Effects of Banning Price Parity Clauses in the EU: Evidence from International Hotel Groups," TSE Working Papers 22-1371, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    4. Hollenbeck, Brett, 2018. "Online Reputation Mechanisms and the Decreasing Value of Chain Affliation," MPRA Paper 91573, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Francine Lafontaine & Marek Zapletal & Xu Zhang, 2019. "Brighter prospects? Assessing the franchise advantage using census data," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 175-197, April.
    6. Francine Lafontaine, 2014. "Franchising: Directions for Future Research," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 21-25, February.
    7. Rozenn Perrigot & Begoña López-Fernández & Guy Basset & Olivier Herrbach, 2020. "Resale pricing as part of franchisor know-how," Post-Print halshs-02566446, HAL.
    8. Nicola Lacetera & Claudio A. Piga & Lorenzo Zirulia, 2021. "Sticky Price for Declining Risk? Business Strategies with “Behavioral” Customers in the Hotel Industry," NBER Working Papers 28456, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Fishman, Arthur & Finkelstein, Israel & Simhon, Avi & Yacouel, Nira, 2018. "Collective brands," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 316-339.
    10. Nathan E. Wilson, 2016. "For-profit status and industry evolution in health care markets: evidence from the dialysis industry," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 297-319, December.
    11. Steven C. Michael, 2022. "Investing in entrepreneurs: The case of franchising," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3785-3794, December.
    12. Andrea Mantovani & Claudio Piga & Carlo Reggiani, 2019. "Much ado about nothing? Online platform price parity clauses and the EU Booking.com case," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1909, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    13. Mantovani, Andrea & Piga, Claudio A. & Reggiani, Carlo, 2021. "Online platform price parity clauses: Evidence from the EU Booking.com case," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    L8; L2; L1; Retailing; Franchising; Services; Performance; Growth; Empirical;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L8 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance

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