IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/13327.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Are Franchises Bad Employers?

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Cappelli
  • Monika Hamori

Abstract

Franchise jobs are often described as representing the epitome of the "low road" approach to managing employees: high turnover, little training, deskilled jobs, and little employee involvement, practices often seen as unsophisticated. Research on franchise operations suggests, however, that the basic operating principles and practices of franchises tend to be more sophisticated than those of equivalent independent operators. We might therefore expect their employee management practices to be more advanced as well, challenging the stereotype of franchise jobs. We use data from a national probability sample of establishments to examine the relationship between franchise status and employment practices. While descriptive statistics suggest that franchise operations use low road practices, once industry, size, and other control variables are included in the analysis, franchise operations appear on important dimensions to offer better jobs with more sophisticated systems of employee management than similar non-franchise operations.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Cappelli & Monika Hamori, 2007. "Are Franchises Bad Employers?," NBER Working Papers 13327, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13327
    Note: LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w13327.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Norton, Seth W, 1988. "An Empirical Look at Franchising as an Organizational Form," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(2), pages 197-218, April.
    2. Eric D. Darr & Linda Argote & Dennis Epple, 1995. "The Acquisition, Transfer, and Depreciation of Knowledge in Service Organizations: Productivity in Franchises," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(11), pages 1750-1762, November.
    3. Olav Sorenson & Jesper B. Sørensen, 2001. "Finding the right mix: franchising, organizational learning, and chain performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(6‐7), pages 713-724, June.
    4. John Godard, 2001. "High Performance and the Transformation of Work? The Implications of Alternative Work Practices for the Experience and Outcomes of Work," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 54(4), pages 776-805, July.
    5. Gil A. Preuss, 2003. "High Performance Work Systems and Organizational Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Information Quality," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 56(4), pages 590-605, July.
    6. Wade L. Thomas & Michael J. O'Hara & Frank W. Musgrave, 1990. "The Effects of Ownership and Investment upon the Performance of Franchise Systems," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 34(1), pages 54-61, March.
    7. Sandra E. Black & Lisa Lynch & Anya Krivelyova, 2003. "How Workers Fare When Employers Innovate," NBER Working Papers 9569, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Hennessy, David A., 2003. "Property rights, productivity, and the nature of noncontractible actions in a franchise system," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(4), pages 443-468, December.
    9. Combs, James G. & Ketchen, David Jr. & Hoover, Vera L., 2004. "A strategic groups approach to the franchising-performance relationship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 877-897, November.
    10. Alan B. Krueger, 1991. "Ownership, Agency, and Wages: An Examination of Franchising in the Fast Food Industry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(1), pages 75-101.
    11. Scott Shane & Maw-Der Foo, 1999. "New Firm Survival: Institutional Explanations for New Franchisor Mortality," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(2), pages 142-159, February.
    12. 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.
    13. Knott, Anne Marie & McKelvey, Bill, 1999. "Nirvana efficiency: a comparative test of residual claims and routines," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 365-383, April.
    14. O. Brown Jr., William, 1998. "Transaction costs, corporate hierarchies, and the theory of franchising," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 319-329, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Peter Cappelli & Monika Hamori, 2008. "Are Franchises Bad Employers?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 61(2), pages 147-162, January.
    2. Gillis, William E. & Combs, James G. & Yin, Xiaoli, 2020. "Franchise management capabilities and franchisor performance under alternative franchise ownership strategies," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(1).
    3. 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.
    4. Guo, Shiau-Ling, 2023. "The governance implication of the geographic concentration of franchise activities for franchise relationships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    5. Affuso, L., 2000. "Intra-Firm Retail Contracting: Survey Evidence from the UK'," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0022, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    6. Madanoglu, Melih & Lee, Kyuho & Castrogiovanni, Gary J., 2011. "Franchising and firm financial performance among U.S. restaurants," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 406-417.
    7. William E. Gillis & Ellen McEwan & T. Russell Crook & Steven C. Michael, 2011. "Using Tournaments to Reduce Agency Problems: The Case of Franchising," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(3), pages 427-447, May.
    8. William E. Gillis & James G. Combs & David J. Ketchen Jr., 2014. "Using Resource–Based Theory to Help Explain Plural Form Franchising," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(3), pages 449-472, May.
    9. Chabowski, Brian R. & Hult, G. Tomas M. & Mena, Jeannette A., 2011. "The Retailing Literature as a Basis for Franchising Research: Using Intellectual Structure to Advance Theory," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 269-284.
    10. Cliquet, Gérard & Pénard, Thierry, 2012. "Plural form franchise networks: A test of Bradach’s model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 159-167.
    11. Scott Shane & Venkatesh Shankar & Ashwin Aravindakshan, 2006. "The Effects of New Franchisor Partnering Strategies on Franchise System Size," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(5), pages 773-787, May.
    12. Botti, Laurent & Briec, Walter & Cliquet, Gérard, 2009. "Plural forms versus franchise and company-owned systems: A DEA approach of hotel chain performance," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 566-578, June.
    13. 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.
    14. 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.
    15. Francine Lafontaine & Kathryn L. Shaw, 1999. "The Dynamics of Franchise Contracting: Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(5), pages 1041-1080, October.
    16. 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.
    17. Scott Shane, 2001. "Organizational Incentives and Organizational Mortality," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 136-160, April.
    18. Lutz, Nancy A., 1995. "Ownership rights and incentives in franchising," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 2(1-2), pages 103-131, October.
    19. Vanesa Solís-Rodríguez & Manuel González-Díaz, 2017. "Differences in contract design between successful and less successful franchises," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 483-502, December.
    20. Hendrikse, George & Jiang, Tao, 2011. "An Incomplete Contracting Model of Dual Distribution in Franchising," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 332-344.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure

    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:nbr:nberwo:13327. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.