The impact of omnichannel strategies on franchisee-franchisor relationship quality

While omnichannel strategies have become increasingly ubiquitous in franchising, there is a dearth of academic research on how franchisees perceive omnichannel retailing and how the latter impacts the franchise relationship. Yet, the rise of omnichannel strategies could modify the relationship between the franchisor and the franchisees in different ways. For instance, the diversity of channels could reduce the ability of franchisors to monitor their franchisees and could empower the latter (Lee et al., 2019). Some channels, mainly the brand's website, could introduce new forms of intra-brand competition between the franchisor and franchisees' units (Bridges, 2017; Cliquet and Voropanova, 2016). The present research seeks to address this gap in knowledge by focusing on the following research question: what impact does the implementation of an omnichannel strategy in franchised networks have on the franchisee-franchisor relationship quality?