IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/mgtdec/v25y2004i8p525-535.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Whither franchising? The case of Avis Europe PLC

Author

Listed:
  • Lowell R. Jacobsen

    (Baker University, Kansas, USA)

Abstract

This case study of Avis Europe PLC examines the diminished role of franchising in the vehicle leasing firm's achievement of market dominance in Europe. Market maturity, industry consolidation, adoption of centralised, efficiency-oriented technologies, and strategic alliances are the principal factors in accounting for the decline in the reliance on franchisees for local entrepreneurship and market expansion. Though many theories of franchising find at least some support in this study, the life cycle or ownership redirection explanation proves particularly compelling. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Lowell R. Jacobsen, 2004. "Whither franchising? The case of Avis Europe PLC," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(8), pages 525-535.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:25:y:2004:i:8:p:525-535
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.1183
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/mde.1183
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/mde.1183?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alchian, Armen A & Demsetz, Harold, 1972. "Production , Information Costs, and Economic Organization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(5), pages 777-795, December.
    2. Williamson, Oliver, 2009. "The Theory of the Firm as Governance Structure: From Choice to Contract," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 6, pages 111-134, December.
    3. Israel M. Kirzner, 1997. "Entrepreneurial Discovery and the Competitive Market Process: An Austrian Approach," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 60-85, March.
    4. Grossman, Sanford J & Hart, Oliver D, 1986. "The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 691-719, August.
    5. Thompson, R. Steve, 1994. "The franchise life cycle and the Penrose effect," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 207-218, July.
    6. Mathewson, G Frank & Winter, Ralph A, 1985. "The Economics of Franchise Contracts," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(3), pages 503-526, October.
    7. Antony W. Dnes, 2011. "Franchise Contracts," Chapters, in: Gerrit De Geest (ed.), Contract Law and Economics, chapter 18, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Scott E. Masten, 2002. "Modern Evidence on the Firm," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 428-432, May.
    9. Klein, Benjamin & Leffler, Keith B, 1981. "The Role of Market Forces in Assuring Contractual Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(4), pages 615-641, August.
    10. Mick Carney & Eric Gedajlovic, 1991. "Vertical integration in Franchise systems: Agency theory and resource explanations," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(8), pages 607-629, November.
    11. Martin, Robert E, 1988. "Franchising and Risk Management," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(5), pages 954-968, December.
    12. Klein, Benjamin & Crawford, Robert G & Alchian, Armen A, 1978. "Vertical Integration, Appropriable Rents, and the Competitive Contracting Process," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(2), pages 297-326, October.
    13. Niman, Neil B, 1991. "The Entrepreneurial Function in the Theory of the Firm," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 38(2), pages 162-176, May.
    14. Rubin, Paul H, 1978. "The Theory of the Firm and the Structure of the Franchise Contract," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 223-233, April.
    15. Williamson, Oliver E, 1983. "Credible Commitments: Using Hostages to Support Exchange," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(4), pages 519-540, September.
    16. Klein, Benjamin, 1995. "The economics of franchise contracts," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 2(1-2), pages 9-37, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Olivier Cochet & Thomas Ehrmann, 2007. "Preliminary evidence on the appointment of institutional solutions to franchisor moral hazard-the case of franchisee councils," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 41-55.
    2. Steven C. Michael, 2009. "Entrepreneurial signaling to attract resources: the case of franchising," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 405-422.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francine Lafontaine & Margaret E. Slade, 1998. "Incentive Contracting and the Franchise Decision," NBER Working Papers 6544, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Josef Windsperger, 2013. "The governance of franchising networks," Chapters, in: Anna Grandori (ed.), Handbook of Economic Organization, chapter 27, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Francine Lafontaine & Kathryn L. Shaw, 2005. "Targeting Managerial Control: Evidence from Franchising," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(1), pages 131-150, Spring.
    4. Francine Lafontaine & Margaret Slade, 2007. "Vertical Integration and Firm Boundaries: The Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(3), pages 629-685, September.
    5. Manuel González & Benito Arruñada & Alberto Fernández, 1997. "La decisión de subcontratar: el caso de las empresas constructoras," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 21(3), pages 501-521, September.
    6. Scott Shane, 2001. "Organizational Incentives and Organizational Mortality," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 136-160, April.
    7. Darcy W E Allen, 2020. "When Entrepreneurs Meet:The Collective Governance of New Ideas," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number q0269, August.
    8. Shane, Scott A., 1996. "Why franchise companies expand overseas," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 73-88, March.
    9. Gary J. Castrogiovanni & James G. Combs & Robert T. Justis, 2006. "Shifting Imperatives: An Integrative View of Resource Scarcity and Agency Reasons for Franchising," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(1), pages 23-40, January.
    10. Arruñada Benito & Garicano Luis & Vázquez Luis, 2005. "Completing Contracts Ex Post: How Car Manufacturers Manage Car Dealers," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 149-173, April.
    11. Josef Windsperger, 2002. "The Structure of Ownership Rights in Franchising: An Incomplete Contracting View," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 129-142, March.
    12. Jell-Ojobor, Maria & Windsperger, Josef, 2014. "The Choice of Governance Modes of International Franchise Firms — Development of an Integrative Model," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 153-187.
    13. Todorova, Tamara, 2022. "Оливър Уилямсън: Новатор На 20 Век И Основател На Новата Институционална Икономика [Oliver Williamson: an innovator of the 20th century and founder of the new institutional economics]," MPRA Paper 121077, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Cozzarin, Brian P. & Barry, Peter J., 1998. "Organizational Structure In Agricultural Production Alliances," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 1(2), pages 1-17.
    15. Kim, Jongwook & Mahoney, Joseph T., 2008. "A Strategic Theory of the Firm as a Nexus of Incomplete Contracts: A Property Rights Approach," Working Papers 08-0108, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    16. González-Díaz, Manuel & Montoro-Sánchez, Ángeles, 2011. "Some lessons from incentive theory: Promoting quality in bus transport," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 299-306, March.
    17. Josef Windsperger, 2003. "Complementarities and Substitutabilities in Franchise Contracting: Some Results from the German Franchise Sector," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 7(3), pages 291-313, September.
    18. Antonio Navarro García & Enrique Carlos Díez de Castro & Francisco Javier Rondán Cataluña, 2006. "Franchisor Types In Portuguese Franchising," Portuguese Journal of Management Studies, ISEG, Universidade de Lisboa, vol. 0(2), pages 97-114.
    19. Michael, Steven C., 2000. "The effect of organizational form on quality: the case of franchising," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 295-318, November.
    20. Francine Lafontaine & Joanne Oxley, 2001. "International Franchising: Evidence from US and Canadian Franchisors in Mexico," NBER Working Papers 8179, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:25:y:2004:i:8:p:525-535. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/7976 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.