The influence of the distribution of e-commerce tasks and finances on franchisee satisfaction

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Master Thesis – SB&E

The influence of the distribution of e-commerce

tasks and finances on franchisee satisfaction

A case study among Dutch Franchise Systems

University of Groningen Faculty Economics and Business

January, 2017 Mark Wichers Riouwstraat 39a 9715 BT Groningen m.wichers@student.rug.nl Tel: 06-20983297 Student number: s2128551 Supervisors: dr. M.J. Brand dr. E.P.M. Croonen Word count: 24.077

Keywords: E-commerce, Franchising, Franchisee Satisfaction, Distribution of Tasks,

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ABSTRACT

This study aimed to serve as a starting point to research in regard of the execution of e-commerce strategies in terms of the distribution of tasks and the distribution of finances in a franchising context. In order to achieve this goal, this research draws on exploratory qualitative multiple case studies of Dutch franchise systems regarding their e-commerce strategies. In total, insights from within six systems have been combined and compared. The main focus is on the execution of e-commerce strategies in terms of the distribution of tasks and the distribution of finances and its effect on franchisee satisfaction regarding the execution of e-commerce strategies. The findings of this study suggest proof that a participative strategy is most beneficial to the franchise system, which is in line with literature. Moreover, some interesting other influences have been identified, resulting in a collection of factors that positively affect franchisee satisfaction regarding the execution of e-commerce strategies, which is providing the groundwork for future research.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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1. Introduction

In the Netherlands, over 750 different franchise systems are present. This number is increasing annually, as well as the total turnover and the amount of employees working in a franchised business (Franchise Monitor, 2014). A stunning amount of €31.200.000.000,- in turnover was realized in 2014, which is over 5% of the GDP in the Netherlands (Franchising Monitor, 2014). In 2015, the total turnover has even increased with another 400 million (Franchise monitor, 2016).

The typical "business format" franchise relationship calls for the franchisee to pay an entrance fee and ongoing payments to the franchisor and to abide by the latter's operational stipulations. In return, the franchisor offers support to franchisees and monitors and enforces quality standards across members of the franchise system on a continual basis (Shane, 2005). This sounds relatively simple, and when reviewing the above mentioned – annually increasing – numbers, one might almost think it is all rosy for the Dutch franchisors and franchisees. However, violations or missteps by either the franchisor or franchisee could cause conflict if one perceives the other as indulging in acts that impede the achievement of its own goals (Etgar, 1978). In the franchise channel of distribution, the potential for conflict between franchisor and its franchisees is high and sometimes inevitable as both parties are functionally independent but at the same time interdependent of one another (Stern and Gorman, 1969; Stem and Heskett, 1969).

As far as the origin of conflict is concerned, studies (Weaven et al., 2010) find that there are several acknowledged causes, such as lack of support from the franchisor, compliance with the franchise system, fees, communication problems, misrepresentation issues, marketing issues, profitability, franchise agreement issues, territorial issues, stock issues and control issues. Additionally, a relatively new and very interesting cause of conflict that should be included in this list is the e-commerce strategy adopted by the franchisor (Perrigot and Pénard, 2012). This is shown clearly by various (Dutch) studies (e.g. conducted by the Dutch Franchising Association (NFV), Rabobank, Franchise Plus) as well as by recent news in Dutch media (e.g. MT Mediagroep).1

1_{A study of the NFV indicated that e-commerce is one of the main issues of conflict between Dutch franchisors and franchisees}

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E-commerce has grown tremendously over the past decade in most business sectors – including the franchising sector (Achabal, Badgett, Chu and Kalyanam, 2005), and meanwhile there are a few types of e-commerce that are popular with successful franchisors, e.g., in the form of online payment by franchisees, sales to franchisees, and sales to customers. It is important to emphasize that this study focuses on the latter and that it defines e-commerce as: “The franchise system making

use of a transactional website, e.g. making online trading possible, no matter how products or services are delivered, at home or in the franchise network’s stores”

(Perrigot and Pénard, 2012, p.110). E-commerce will be further explained in section 2.2.

While geography is critical to franchisees who locate near potential customers, the Internet may allow franchised networks to reach out to new customers virtually anywhere. Moreover, it offers a wealth of economic opportunities, potentially translating into products, distribution processes, and market innovations (Verhoest & Hawkins, 2001; Franson and DeSmith, 2005; Perrigot and Pénard, 2012). Nevertheless, e-commerce also has several potential problems that franchise organizations must avoid (Kalnis, 2004; Perrigot and Pénard, 2012) - one of them being that it could damage the franchisee’s profitability (Abell, 2000; Watson et al., 2002). Other related issues are potential encroachment issues (Coldwell, 2003; Fontenot, Keaty and Srivastava, 2006; Branellec and Perigot, 2013), intellectual property matters (Vanderbroek and D’Angelo, 2008; Duffin and Watson, 2008), and trademark using concerns (Tuneski, 2011). As a result, franchisees should proceed cautiously in the e-commerce area and consider adopting e-commerce models that either actively involve franchisees or provide monetary benefits to them (e.g., Plave and Miller, 2001). If franchisees are involved in sales and servicing, the franchisor needs to consider a multitude of matters that may not be covered by the franchise contract as many of these contracts were established when the Internet was still in its infancy (Dixon and Quinn, 2004), which thus may require additional agreements between the franchisor and its franchisees. For example, what are the respective tasks of a franchisor and franchisee to fulfil a customer order and offer future customer

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service? Who will own the accounts or customer lists that result from Internet sales? Who will manage billings and collections? Who will bear the risk of customer claims? And to whom does (part of) the profit of Internet sales flow?

Researchers have started to dive into this topic. Some papers deal with Internet usage within franchised networks (e.g., Cedrola and Memmo, 2009) while others illustrate internal difficulties of communication between franchisor and its franchisees (Paswan, Wittmann and Young, 2004). However, problems related to Internet as a sales tool (i.e., using a transactional website) within franchise networks remain little explored. Vice versa, how a franchisor should execute its franchise e-commerce strategy in such a way that it leads to the least conflict with its franchisees has also not been investigated yet. As maintaining a good relationship between franchisor and franchisees is essential for the success of a franchise system, it is of high importance that the franchisee’s initial reaction of concern quickly shifts to enthusiasm about the e-commerce strategy. Therefore, this study aims to investigate this further, by comparing different manners to execute such an e-commerce strategy and to examine in which situations the franchisees are most satisfied with their franchisor’s e-commerce strategy. It is expected that the extent to which a franchisee is satisfied with the execution of the e-commerce strategy will affect his or her behaviour in the franchise system and positively influence performance. It has been pointed out in previous research that satisfied franchisees are likely to be more profitable than dissatisfied franchisees (Hunt and Nevin, 1974; Hing, 1995, 1997; Morrison, 1996, 1997).

Since Plave and Miller (2001) argue that a franchisor should consider adopting an e-commerce model that actively involves franchisees or provides monetary benefits to them, this study focuses on the way e-commerce tasks are distributed

between the franchisor and its franchisees (and thus it can be checked to what extent

the franchisee is involved by # of tasks performed) and the way e-commerce finances

are distributed between the franchisor and its franchisees (and thus it can be checked

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It is not only important to investigate both concepts separately but also the link between them, since studies from ING (2012) and Rabobank (2016) found that an imbalance between these two leads to dissatisfied franchisees. The study attempts to create an overview of different tasks that are attached to the execution of the franchise e-commerce strategy (e.g. order fulfillment, logistic tasks), what tasks are assigned to the franchisor and what tasks are performed by the franchisees, and to what extent this distribution of tasks differs between several franchise systems. Moreover, the study aims to gain insight in the way ‘costs made’ and ‘earnings gained’ relating to e-commerce activities are divided between franchisor and franchisees of several franchise systems, and to what extent this distribution of finances differs between these franchise systems.

Both task and financial distribution regarding the execution of an e-commerce strategy in a franchise system can be influenced for example by letting franchisees fulfil the orders, letting them participate in servicing and returns or by rewarding them with a share of the value (Dixon & Quinn, 2004).

As mentioned before, it is demonstrated by research of ING (2012) and Rabobank (2016) that an imbalance between tasks that need to be performed and the financial reward attached to it, leads to dissatisfied franchisees. Moreover, both studies argue that it is important to make clear agreements in terms of distribution of tasks and finances. As this has not received much attention in the academic literature yet, the overall goal of this study is to increase the current knowledge of this ‘execution of e-commerce strategies’ within franchise systems by specifically investigating the influence of certain ‘task and financial distributions’ on ‘franchisee satisfaction’. To examine this, a main research question has been developed:

In what way does the execution of an e-commerce strategy – in terms of distribution of tasks and finances among the franchisor and its franchisees – within a franchise system affect the franchisee satisfaction regarding the e-commerce strategy?

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RSQ 1 What are potential ways to distribute the commerce tasks and

e-commerce finances (e.g., execution of e-e-commerce strategy) among a franchisor and its franchisees? And is there a link between the distribution of tasks and the distribution of finances?

RSQ 2 How does the execution of a franchise e-commerce strategy affect the social

and economic franchisee satisfaction?

RSQ 3 What other influences could affect the social and economic franchisee

satisfaction regarding e-commerce strategies?

To answer the main research question and the research sub questions of this study, a case study will be conducted at multiple Dutch franchise systems, so that a comparison of the execution of their e-commerce strategy in terms of distribution in tasks and finances can be made. For this case study, franchisees will be interviewed. Moreover, the level of social and economic franchisee satisfaction regarding the e-commerce strategy will be measured and compared to the other franchisees. In this way, conclusions can be drawn about under what circumstances it is best to execute a franchise e-commerce strategy in order to gain the most optimal franchisee satisfaction. Because this study must be conducted within a set time frame, the research is limited to the distribution of tasks and finances among the franchisor and its franchisees but it is acknowledged that there might be other factors that influence franchisee satisfaction regarding the e-commerce strategy. This study therefore attempts to take into account other influences as well. The research is mainly exploratory and will serve as a starting point for more comprehensive research, to be conducted by Dr. E.P.M. Croonen and Dr. M.J. Brand later this year.

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addresses the discussion, theoretical and practical implications, limitations and suggestions for future research. At last, a conclusion will be provided in section six.

2. Literature review

This second section discusses theory regarding the main topics of this study. First, the concept of business format franchising will be explained. Second, several e-commerce strategies within business format franchise systems are presented. Then, the concepts of the distribution of tasks and distribution of finances as part of the execution of franchise e-commerce strategies are clarified. This is followed by an explanation of franchisee satisfaction, which can be divided into economic and social franchisee satisfaction. Lastly, a conceptual model is presented to visualize the links between the discussed concepts.

2.1 Business Format Franchising

Research into franchising has a long history (e.g., Stanworth and Curran, 1999; Combs and Ketchen, 2003; Blair and Lafontaine, 2005; Croonen, 2008; Lindblom and Tikkanen, 2010). Franchising is a hybrid form of an economic organisation (Norton, 1988), whereby legally distinct business entities (the franchisee and the franchisor) operate under the umbrella of a shared brand name (Felstead, 1993). The distinguishing feature of a franchise is that the franchisor provides a proven blueprint for operating the business and is responsible for training and supporting the franchisees (Watson et al., 2005). Meanwhile there are multiple other definitions of the term ‘franchising’ throughout the literature. In essence, all definitions of franchising always involve a few basic features: 1) franchisor owns the brand; 2) franchisor licenses the right to use the brand in a specific territory; 3) franchisee pays fees; 4) there is a franchise contract and handbook; 5) franchisee is independent; 6) franchisee becomes part of a ‘system’; and 7) franchisor protects the brand (e.g. Webber, 2012; study of European Parliament, 20162). In general, these basic features lead to three forms of franchising (Webber, 2012): 1) Product-distribution franchising/dealership/distributorship (cf. Webber, p. 22; e.g. Batavus); 2) Trade-mark franchising (e.g. soft drinks; Coca Cola); and 3) Business format franchising (e.g. fast food, retailing). This study focuses on the latter form of franchising, as it is

2

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the most frequently used form of franchising in the Netherlands and in the rest of the world (Croonen, 2006) and used in many sectors, e.g. fast-food chains, hotels and convenience stores (Caves and Murphy, 1976).

Business format franchising is referred to as “a contractual agreement

between two legally independent firms in which one firm, the franchisee, pays the other firm, the franchisor, for the right to sell the franchisor’s product and/or right to use its trademarks and business format in a given location for a specific time period”

(Blair and Lafontaine, 2005, p.3). Within business format franchising, the franchisee does not only sell the franchisors’ products or services (with the franchisor’s trademark), but also runs the business according to a specific formula provided by the franchisor, creating overarching uniformity (Lindblom and Tikkanen, 2010). Here, the franchisor can be seen as a innovator and the franchisee as the

concept-implementer, working together in a commercial and strategic partnership (Grace,

Frazer, Weaven, and Dant, 2016).

The most common explanation for choosing ‘business format franchising’ as an organizational form can be found in the agency theory (Combs and Ketchen, 2003), which is rooted in financial economics (Jensen & Meckling, 1976). The agency theory recognizes that the interest of an organization’s owners and managers can diverge and assumes that people act in a self-interested, opportunistic, and risk averse way (Eisenhardt, 1989; Gillis, McEwan, Crook & Michael 2011). Franchising helps to overcome this agency problem, since franchisees have a vested interest in accurately representing their capabilities (Gillis et al., 2011). Ultimately, the franchisee will reap the rewards of high performance or suffer the losses from low performance (Katz & Owen, 1992; Kaufmann & Dant, 1996). As a result, business format franchising reduces the need for – and subsequently the costs of – monitoring (Croonen and Brand, 2013).

2.2 E-commerce in franchising

The introduction of e-commerce obviously has had a huge impact on the way firms sell and advertise their products nowadays. It has led to both opportunities as well as threats for the traditional firms and business plans (Perrigot and Pénard, 2013). E-commerce has therefore broadly been discussed in literature, resulting in a diverse collection of definitions. For instance, Zwass (2003, p.8) defines e-commerce as “the

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conducting of business transactions by means of telecommunications networks”.

Moreover, Wigand (1997) defines e-commerce in his study as “(…) any form of

economic activity conducted via electronic connections”. In a research of Holsapple

and Singh (2000), e-commerce is associated with any form of computer based buying and selling.3

The emphasis of this study is on e-commerce as in sales to customers, based on the definition provided by Perrigot and Pénard (2012, p.110): “The franchise

system making use of a transactional website4, e.g. making online trading with customers possible, no matter how products or services are delivered, at home or in the franchise network’s stores”.

The importance of e-commerce in the franchising sector as a driver of customer satisfaction, innovation, and performance is repeatedly mentioned in the literature (Kiger, 1999; Franson and DeSmith, 2005; Rogers, Bennett, and Grewal, 2007). The potential benefits of e-commerce for franchising include brand recognition, lead generation, global reach, cost reduction, and supply chain improvement (Plave and Amolsch, 2000; Trice, 2001; Franson and DeSmith; 2005; Rogers et al., 2007).

2.3 Franchise e-commerce strategies

In this study, e-commerce strategy is explained as a series of foresighted and overall decisions when facing an important event in e-commerce (Qin and Chang, 2014). The introduction of e-commerce strategies within franchise systems is a clear challenge:

“The central or driving idea behind traditional franchise arrangements is to increase market penetration, attract self-investors and decentralise the franchisor’s business. On the other hand, the driving idea behind e-commerce is to have a centralised point of sale, storage and distribution to reduce overheads.” (Terry, 2001). These

contradictory ideas require imaginative solutions to ensure that both the franchisor and its franchisees gain advantages from the opportunities attached to e-commerce (Boyce and Green, 2000). Even though this might result in difficulties for franchisors

3_{Others argue that the term e-commerce refers to all commercial activities conducted electronically, including transactions on}

the Internet, closed networks such as electronic data exchange, electronic trading of goods and services, online delivery of digital content, electronic banking, electronic fund transfers, direct marketing and virtual shopping malls. Moreover, e-mail, electronic retailing, intra- and extranets, Web broadcasting, point-of-service systems and security services such as firewalls and encryption could be considered as examples of e-commerce.

4_{Floriani and Lindsey (2001) describe three ways in which a website could be exploited: 1) Internal informative (i.e., intranet):}

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in making choices around e-commerce strategies, there is still relatively little academic research available about the topic (e.g., Plave and Amolsch, 2000; Plave and Miller, 2001; Trice, 2001; Dixon and Quinn, 2004; Huizinga, 2014; de Vries, 2016). However, the small amount of research has led to the development of several e-commerce strategy models (Plave and Miller, 2000). An overview of these models can be found in table 1.

Model Description

1 The franchisor conducts all e-commerce on its own, without any franchisee participation, and retains the revenues generated.

2 The franchisor conducts all e-commerce, but gives its franchisees a share in the revenues generated (perhaps as a reverse royalty).

3 The franchisor conducts e-commerce with the participation of franchisees in the order fulfilment process (and, therefore, share in the revenue received from order fulfilment).

4 The franchisor permits its franchisees to conduct e-commerce on their own, without the franchisor's involvement other than to receive royalty payments on the franchisees' e-commerce revenues.

Table 1 – Four different models for operating websites in franchise systems (Plave and Amolsch, 2000)

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Table 2 - Three different strategies for operating websites in franchise systems (Plave and Miller, 2001)

Research shows that allowing franchisees to engage in online selling on their own (decentralized strategy) can result in significant problems in terms of inconsistency and conflict caused by franchisees infringing on each other’s territories (Dixon and Quinn, 2004). Plave and Miller (2001), as the composers of the three strategies, believe that in theory the participation strategy is most beneficial to the franchise system. In practice, Perrigot and Pénard (2012) demonstrate that most franchise networks have a unique and transactional website managed by the franchisor, and not the franchisee, to reduce setup and maintenance costs and to preserve uniformity. As the participation strategy is found to be the most beneficial but simultaneously the most difficult strategy to exploit (Trice, 2001), this strategy is the believed to be most interesting in this study.

Even though there is no doubt that franchise systems can benefit from the same opportunities that the Internet holds compared to other (non-franchised) businesses, David & Quinn (2004) argue that the nature of franchise contracts may make e-commerce more complex and problematic compared to other ways of doing business. Moreover, research of Floriani and Lindsey (2001) showed that the terms of the franchise contract in relation to exclusivity and territorial rights will be a major restraining or contributing factor in the franchisor’s determination of which of the strategies, as mentioned in table 2, to employ.

Strategies Description Model

(Based on Plave and Amolsch (2000), table 1)

1 Directive strategy

The franchisor conducts electronic

commerce on its own, controlling and taking revenue

Model 1

2 Participation strategy

The franchisor controls and conducts electronic commerce with the participation of the franchisees, sharing revenue

Model 2 + 3

3 Decentralized strategy

The franchisees conduct electronic commerce on their own, controlling and keeping revenue

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2.4 The execution of Franchise e-commerce strategies

Appropriate and successful execution of e-commerce strategies within franchise systems can cause clear advantages over competitors (Scott, 2001). Logically, a bad execution leads to the opposite (Scott, 2001). As many franchise contracts do not take into account e-commerce activities, chances that franchisors may find themselves violating cross-border competition laws (Gotsopoulou, 2000), in breach of their own franchise contracts as regard to territorial rights (Floriani and Lindsey, 2001) or having dissatisfied franchisees as a result of the execution of e-commerce strategies (e.g., Morrisson, 1996, 1997; Huizinga, 2014, de Vries, 2016) increases.

The latter illustrates why the way franchisors choose to execute their e-commerce strategy matters. For a good cooperation and franchise relationship, it is essential that there is a right distribution of tasks and finances between both parties (ING, 2013; Rabobank, 2016). It is not only important that franchisees understand the added value of the e-commerce strategy (Rabobank, 2016), but also that it is clear how the tasks related to e-commerce (e.g., order fulfilment, service, returns) are divided between the franchisor and franchisees (ING, 2013; Rabobank, 2016). Moreover, a clear overview of the cost and benefits – i.e., what investments need to be made and which part of the e-commerce revenue goes to which party – is required when the franchisor wants to keep its franchisees satisfied (ING, 2013; Rabobank, 2016).

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For this research, it has been chosen to hold on to the tasks and financial consequences that are identified in a study of Burn and Alexander (2005) - which will be explained later in this section - and a survey of the Dutch Franchising Association (NFV, 2012, 2013). In this latter study among their 200 members (71 respondents), it is concluded that an online business model with participation of both the franchisor and franchisee occurs most often (57%). Most of the tasks resulting from e-commerce activities, such as; logistics, returns, protection of personal information and usage of promotion (logo’s, domain name, look & feel) have all been contractually agreed on in 77% of cases5. Financial issues, such as; benefits & costs, investments and exploitations are not that well defined and up to debate; only 61% of the franchisors indicate that contractual agreements are made. The NFV concludes that franchisors are negligent about this topic. The three studies mentioned above primarily focus on the distribution of tasks. The other concept, the distribution of finances, has not been mentioned in any publications in terms of figures.

One might understand that these two parts are somewhat intertwined. For instance, executing franchising e-commerce tasks results in time spent, time spent means costs made, i.e., wages, therefore tasks and financials are connected. They can however be seen as two individual aspects, since some financial aspects (such as initial investments in e-commerce) are not directly linked to specific tasks to be executed. The execution of the e-commerce strategy includes all activities that have to be executed before and after a consumer orders a product online, until the product has been delivered to the customer. After delivery, the ‘after sales service’ also has to be included6_{. An overview of all the tasks involved is provided in Appendix A. To}

ensure proper understanding of the execution of the e-commerce strategy, this concept has been visualized in figure 1.

5_{Whether these agreements are incorporated in the franchising contract or are additionally made (afterwards), remains unclear in}

this study.

6_{This task has not explicitly been visualized in figure 1; however, it is part of the execution of e-commerce strategies. Another}

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Figure 1. Visualization of ‘the execution of the franchise e-commerce strategy’

As can be seen in figure 1, the execution of the franchise e-commerce strategy withholds an extensive amount of tasks and financial consequences. The box surrounding the e-commerce purchasing process (consumer orders product, order fulfilment process, customer receives product – marked by the red lines) demonstrates that the execution of e-commerce strategies also includes tasks that are directly connected to the actual fulfilment of orders (for instance; warehousing, after-sales service, procurement management, etc.). A full list of tasks is provided in Appendix A. In the sections that follow, the two aspects of which the execution of franchise e-commerce strategies exists will be discussed. Finally, a summary of the concept is provided.

2.4.1 Distribution of Tasks

Ideally, franchisors and franchisees are responsible to perform those tasks to which they are most suited because of their market position, their specialisation and their means (Douma and Schreuder, 2008). In the course of general distribution of tasks, for franchisors these are all tasks that can be carried out more effectively and more cheaply from head office. In contrast to this, franchisees take over those tasks, which they can fulfil more effectively from their position on the market. Franchisors are responsible for the identity, image and functional ability of their franchise system. In

Order fulfilment process Consumer orders product via transactional website of franchise system Consumer receives product

Execution of the franchise e-commerce strategy

The specific distribution of tasks and finances as a result of the e-commerce sales within franchise systems

Distribution of tasks among

franchisor and its franchisees (section 2.4.1)

Distribution of finances among franchisor

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this connection, they take over most tasks of 1) accounting and finance; 2) health and safety; 3) human resources; 4) national marketing; and 5) information technology (Webber, 2012 and Croonen and Brand, 20157_{). Franchisees put capital, work,}

contacts and information into the franchise system. Generally, they concentrate on tasks attached to 1) unit financial management; 2) unit human resources; 3) local promotion; and 4) unit operations (Webber, 2012; Croonen and Brand, 20156). Hence, tasks such as financing all necessary investments, running the franchise unit and undertaking all necessary measures to achieve acceptable sales.

Thus, there is an efficient distribution of tasks in a franchise system between the franchisor and its franchisees. For the franchisee, this consists of the practical tasks, e.g. sales and day-to-day operational tasks within the own unit. For the franchisor, the concentration is on marketing and the overall strategy/direction of the complete franchise system. However, this study specifically focuses on the distribution of tasks regarding the franchise e-commerce strategy – not in general. A research for the different tasks to be executed – when a customer orders a product via a transactional website – has not been found in any noteworthy literature yet. It is therefore not possible to find a clear definition of the concept in the existing literature. Within this study, the distribution of tasks refers to the “practice of dividing the

franchise e-commerce strategy into smaller tasks that are allocated between the franchisor and its franchisees”. Burn and Alexander (2005) provide an extensive list

of tasks regarding the so-called ‘e-fulfilment process’ that could serve as a foundation for the explanation of the concept ‘distribution of tasks’ in the context of this study. The ‘e-fulfilment process’ that they describe deals with all associated logistics, warehousing and delivery services of e-commerce activities (Crawford et al., 2000; Pyke, Johnson et al., 2000; Colin, 2001; Raman, 2001). These tasks are recognized as integrated components that create virtual proximity between an online seller and customer and cover everything a company does to satisfy customer demand within an e-commerce market (Menezes, 1999). As stated, this list of e-commerce tasks could act as a starting point for the tasks meant in regard of this study, i.e., franchise e-commerce tasks, however, it needs to be kept in mind that these are relatively ‘old’ and might be outdated since the environment and business has changed tremendously since the year of this research. Moreover, the study of Burn and Alexander (2005) is

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conducted at ‘pure online businesses’, which differ from franchise systems that are subject of this study. Nevertheless, the research complies the needs for this study and at least provides guidance. For clarity, the list assembled by Burn and Alexander (2005) has been categorized to fit four different categories. The different categories of e-commerce tasks are shown in Table 3.

Categories Tasks

A – Administration (All financial and

administrative tasks)

Financial Transactions

B – Logistics (All packaging, sending and

reallocation of products) Picking Packing Warehousing Delivery Returns (logistics)

C – Service (All contact with customers) Customer Service After Sales Returns (service)

D - Systems and maintenance (All tasks

regarding ICT, SCM, ERP, etc.)

Transport Mechanisms and Flow Procurement management Management Information Systems Front end (ordering) services Real time tracking

Table 3. Categorization of all different tasks in the execution of franchise e-commerce strategies

One task, ‘returns’, has been placed in two categories as it consists both service activities (e.g., taking back the actual product and providing answers to questions, offering another product or apologizing for the inconvenience) and clear logistic activities (e.g., sending and delivering the product back to the warehouse). The list with all the tasks based on the research of Burn and Alexander (2005) can be found in Table 4, Appendix A.

2.4.2 Distribution of Finances

As mentioned previously, a franchisor could choose to adopt a certain e-commerce strategy, which has its influences on the distribution of finances between itself and its franchisees. The distribution of finances is referred to as the “practice of dividing the

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Amolsch (2000) that were presented in 2.3, it is very clear in what way finances are divided in the case of model 1 – franchisor retains all the revenue – and model 4 – franchisee retains all the revenue. Particularly interesting are models 2 and 3 (e.g., the participation strategy) in which the distribution of finances clearly is more complicated and very likely to differ among the multiple franchise systems that are studied.

Given that financial figures of most franchise systems are confidential, the researcher could find no information about the distribution of finance regarding e-commerce activities in literature. It seems that franchisors and franchisees are often not too open about how much revenue they retain from certain purchases (neither offline as online) or, on the other hand, how much the franchisee actually needs to pay for it – whether per purchase or per certain period (e.g. once a month a certain percentage). Even though no figures can be found, there is extensive literature regarding the business model of franchising and its ‘fee structures’ in general, which could be useful.

In business format franchising, a key element is the profit-sharing arrangement consisting of fees paid by the franchisee to the franchisor (Desai, 1997). The traditional (offline) arrangement specifies the responsibilities of each channel member and these include the scheduled payments by the franchisee. These payments typically consist of two parts. The first is the payment of an initial ‘start-up/entree’ fee to the franchisor, for the entire contract period (most often 5 years). The franchisee also generally agrees to pay the franchisor a royalty fee. In most cases, this fee is denoted as a fixed percentage of sales (Lafontaine, 1991; Ozanne and Hunt, 1971). Finally, the franchisee typically makes a further contribution to a fund to promote the chain as a whole: the advertising fee (Gillis et al., 2011).

Because the traditional way of doing business changes with the extension to e-commerce, so might the distribution of finances. When analysing the distribution of finances regarding such an e-commerce strategy, different aspects have to be kept in mind, e.g., the initial investments, maintenance costs, marketing costs, distribution and stock management, and customer service. It is advised to share these costs among the franchisor and franchisees corresponding an agreed distribution8. If the e-commerce strategy is executed properly, sales will be generated, resulting in revenue

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to be shared. Nothing new, so far, compared to ‘traditional’ retailing. Distributing these finances however can be done in various ways, for instance: based on a fixed percentage of the total revenue or depending on the exclusive territory of the franchisee. When distributing finances among franchisees, it is indicated that the efforts put in by the franchisees have to be taken into account (AG Hart Advocaten, 20168). This study strives to provide a better insight in the distribution of finances regarding e-commerce in franchising. Eventually, the margin9 of different franchisees will be provided and analysed.

2.4.3 Summary of the execution of franchise e-commerce strategy

At this point of the study, the concept of ‘the execution of e-commerce’ should be clear. To summarize the research above, an overview has been created. In this overview, the different concepts have been combined with their explanations. These can be found below, in table 5.

Concept Definition

Execution of the E-commerce Strategy

The specific distribution of tasks and finances as a result of the e-commerce sales within franchise systems Distribution of tasks The practice of dividing the franchise e-commerce strategy into smaller tasks that are allocated between the franchisor and its franchisees

Distribution of finances

The practice of dividing the finances (e.g. costs and benefits) as a result of the e-commerce tasks between the franchisor and its franchisees

Table 5. Summary of ‘the execution of e-commerce’ with explanations of the concept

2.5 Franchisee Satisfaction

Franchisee satisfaction is a concept that has received a lot of attention within the literature. This study focuses on franchisee satisfaction in regard to the execution of the e-commerce strategy. This specific form of satisfaction has not been researched before. However, it is believed in this research that the indicators of general franchisee satisfaction can be translated to the case of satisfaction regarding the execution of the e-commerce strategy. To make sure that all these different indicators of franchisee satisfaction will be included, a comprehensive definition of franchisee satisfaction is used. This definition is provided in the research of Davies,

9_{Within this study, the margin refers to the amount of money the franchisee earns after deducting all franchising costs (royalties,}

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Lassar, Manolis, Prince and Winsor (2011, p.326), who state that franchisee satisfaction is “the positive perception of franchisees meeting or exceeding their

economic and social expectations from the franchise working relationship”. Thus, a

distinction can be made between two forms of satisfaction – economic and social satisfaction (Davies et al., 2011, Geyskens and Steenkamp, 1999). First, the importance of franchisee satisfaction will be stressed out. Thereafter, both economic and social satisfaction will be discussed.

The importance of keeping franchisees satisfied in a franchise relationship has been pointed out in numerous researches and turns out to be key to good performance (Hing, 1995, 1997; Hunt and Nevin, 1974; Morrison 1996, 1997). Floyd and Fenwick (1999) state that maintaining a harmonious franchisor-franchisee relationship is a major determinant of franchising systems growth and success. Furthermore, Elango and Fried (1997) argue that the franchisor is urged to maximize franchisee satisfaction, because satisfied franchisees are more motivated to meet the franchisor’s goals. This urge is also underlined by Abdullah et al. (2008) as they state that increased franchisee satisfaction will lead to a reduction of conflicts between the two parties, a lower level of dysfunctional conflict and increased channel efficiency. Davies et al. (2011), also argue that franchisees trust, which they demonstrate is an important construct that is related to satisfaction10, leads to more cooperative behaviour of franchisees (Huizinga, 2014; de Vries, 2016, Koza and Dant, 2007). Altogether, an enhanced satisfaction among franchisees will eventually lead to greater contributions and commitment (Altinay et al., 2014a; Abdullah, 2006).

The definition that is used within this study exists of two types of franchisee satisfaction: 1) economic franchisee satisfaction; and 2) social franchisee satisfaction. Both types of franchisee satisfaction are explained below. Additionally, indicators of both types of franchisee satisfaction are discussed.

2.5.1 Social franchisee satisfaction

The first aspect, social satisfaction, “(…) implies a positive affective response towards

the relationship’s psychological aspects, so that a satisfied member appreciates the contacts with his partner and values working with him due to the belief that the other partner will be concerned and willing to exchange ideas with him” (Rodriguez et al.,

10_{For the most part, trust has been analysed as an antecedent of satisfaction (Andaleeb, 1996, Anderson & Narus, 1990, Crosby}

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2005). Within this part, literature will be reviewed to identify what different aspects are of importance to social satisfaction. These aspects (hereafter mentioned as indicators of social satisfaction) will eventually provide the basis for questioning, which will be explained in the methodology. When reviewing the literature, the first indicator comes forward in a study of Davies et al., (2011), who state trust to be an important indicator of social satisfaction. Trust involves the perception that the other party will act in ways favorable to the trustor (Boone and Holmes, 1991; Gambetta, 1988; McEvily et al., 2003; Chiou et al., 2004). In the same study, it is stated that reliability11 of the franchisor is of influence on franchisee’s social satisfaction, as being reliable as a franchisor is key in maintaining a good relationship, eventually leading to more cooperative behavior of franchisees (Davies et al., 2011). Third, research (Abdullah et al., 2014; Davies et al., 2011; Weaven et al., 2014) demonstrates the importance of transparency, as being a key indicator of franchisee social satisfaction. Transparency is a condition under which facts are fully and accurately disclosed in a timely manner12. The studies show that a lack of transparency will lead to dissatisfaction and higher levels of conflicts. Lastly, other researchers (Geyskens et al., 1999; Altinay et al., 2014) found communication, e.g., the willingness to exchange ideas, to be an important influencer of social satisfaction. Altogether, trust, reliability, transparency and communication are identified as important psychological aspects that together largely determine social satisfaction levels of a franchisee13.

2.5.2 Economic franchisee satisfaction

The second aspect, economic satisfaction, can be described as the “positive affective

response with respect to the economic rewards derived from the relationship in which this member is immersed” (Rodriguez et al., 2005). When reviewing literature, a

meta-analysis of channel studies (Geyskens et al., 1999) found that economic satisfaction (including favorable partner perceptions in the relationship) was instrumental in reducing conflicts. From this study, and others, some different aspects (again mentioned as being indicators of the concept) that are mentioned in literature will be discussed. First, Geyskens et al. (1999) showed economic satisfaction to be

11_{The extent to which the franchisee trusts the franchisor to behave well and the franchisor does what he or she expects the}

franchisor to do

12

http://www.investorwords.com/14086/transparency.html#ixzz4VqNx0bmW

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shaped by profitability14 and trust15. This latter aspect, trust, is also mentioned to be an indicator of social satisfaction (see section 2.5.1). For this study, however, it is chosen to hold on to the findings of the study of Geyskens et al., (1999, p.234). In this study, they show that the effect of trust is bigger on social satisfaction, as they state:

“We can imagine situations in which, despite the lack of trust, the parties are satisfied with the economic aspects of the relationship. However, it is harder to expect that trust exists in the face of dissatisfaction with the relationship on noneconomic16 aspects”. Therefore, trust will be used as an indicator of social satisfaction – and not

economic satisfaction – within this study. In another study (Lafontaine and Kaufman, 1994), it is stated that other indicators of economic satisfaction are found in the distribution of economic outputs as a result of inputs in the form of costs, time and effort, i.e., fairness or balance17. Within this study – in a franchising and e-commerce

context – economic franchisee satisfaction can be described as: “the positive affective

response with respect to the economic rewards derived from e-commerce activities within the franchise system”.

2.6 Other influences of social and economic franchisee satisfaction

Although this exploratory study focuses on the main research question and thus is examining the influence of the distribution of e-commerce tasks and finances on franchisee satisfaction regarding the execution of e-commerce strategies, it is acknowledged that there may be other influences on the dependent variable that might be important. Therefore, during the course of this study, these potential other influences will be kept in mind. Based on reviewing literature18, some potential other influences are already identified. These will be kept in mind while conducting the interviews and will briefly be discussed.

The first two potential other influences are the sense of urgency on system level and franchisee level. These are based on research of van de Kaa and de Bruijn (2015) who studied the hiccups that can occur during the development of complex e-commerce systems. They state that as the sense of urgency grows, actors will become more committed, which will improve the quality of decision-making (De Bruijn et al., 2002; Kotter, 1996) and eventually satisfaction. Within the context of this study, the

14_{Situation in which a franchisee earns profit – when revenue is greater than expenses}

15_{Remarkable is that this suggest that trust can be seen as an indicator for both social and economic satisfaction.} 16_{Within this and many other studies, noneconomic or relational satisfaction can be translated to social satisfaction.} 17_{As also been indicated in the report of Rabobank, 2016}

18_{Literature that the researcher of this study came across while studying the concepts of this research. For instance because the}

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effects are believed to be similar; as franchisees’ sense of urgency towards the use of e-commerce grows, eventually the e-commerce strategy will be executed better, resulting in more satisfied franchisees. The third potential other influence, the location of the franchise store, is based on the study of de Vries (2016), as the study mentions that the location of the store might influence the distribution of finances and thus (economic) satisfaction regarding e-commerce (Cohen-Charash and Spector, 2001; de Vries 2016). The fourth potential influence, the performance level of ICT, is demonstrated to be able to improve business performance and increased satisfaction with channel members (Rao, S., Perry, C. and Frazer, L., 2003). This latter factor could affect both social as economic satisfaction regarding e-commerce. These other influences on (social and economic) franchisee satisfaction regarding the execution of the e-commerce strategy can be found in Table 6.

Factor Argumentation and influence

Sense of urgency – system level

If franchisees notice the value and urgency of the change in business from ‘bricks’ to ‘clicks’, they might be more satisfied with the efforts by (in most cases) the franchisor. Sense of urgency –

franchisee level

If the overall financial performance is good (poor), franchisees might tend to be less (more) frustrated over e-commerce.

Location of franchise store

First, the demographic characteristics of the population’s territory of a franchisee might influence the tendency to purchase products online (younger vs. elderly, educated vs. non-educated). Second, the location of the store might have an effect on the distribution of finances.

Performance level of ICT

As the level of ICT and automation increases, the workload might be reduced and business performance might be increased, leading to less frustration and thus more satisfaction regarding the execution of e-commerce strategies.

Table 6. Other influences on franchisee satisfaction regarding the execution of e-commerce strategies

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strategy is not the only factor that affects general franchisee satisfaction. For example, it might be possible that a franchisee is extremely satisfied about its franchisor and the franchise system in general, even though he or she is not hugely satisfied about the execution of the e-commerce strategy. This means that there are probably other influences that weigh more in the eyes of the franchisee. This study does not focus on these other influences on (social and economic) franchisee satisfaction in general – albeit only because of the already extensive existing literature and complicatedness – however, it is taken into consideration in the conceptual model and during the interviews with franchisees.

2.7 Conceptual model

The literature review provided insight into what is already known about the concept of (business format) franchising, several e-commerce strategies within business format franchise systems, the distribution of tasks and distribution of finances as part of the execution of franchise e-commerce strategies, economic and social franchisee satisfaction, both in general and regarding the execution of the e-commerce strategy within franchise systems. In this section, a conceptual model is presented to visualize the links between the discussed concepts (figure 2).

Figure 2 - Conceptual model

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variable. Moreover, it is indicated that there are other influences here as well. Finally, to demonstrate the potential impact of the concept of the execution of the e-commerce strategy and franchisee satisfaction in regard to this, it is graphically represented in the conceptual model that general franchisee satisfaction leads to certain behaviour and/or to the probability of conflict or no conflict.

3. Methodology

This section presents the study’s research design and methodology used, based on the exploratory research approach (e.g. Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2012) and theory development approach (Eisenhardt, 1989; Van Aken, Berends, and Van der Bij, 2012). First, a clarification of what this study exactly has investigated (e.g., (sub) research question(s)) is provided. Second, it is explained how this study has been carried out. In other words: this section starts with illustrating the research design, thereafter the delimitation (as in ‘focus of industry’) of the study is discussed briefly, consequently the data collection and analysis are presented, and finally the quality criteria are described.

3.1. Research design

As mentioned in section one, this study aims to provide an answer to the main research question (RQ) – In what way does the execution of an e-commerce strategy

(in terms of distribution of tasks and finances among the franchisor and its franchisees) within a franchise system affect the franchisee satisfaction regarding the e-commerce strategy? The main research question is divided into three research sub

questions (RSQ): 1) What are potential ways to distribute the e-commerce tasks and

e-commerce finances among a franchisor and its franchisees? And is there a link between the distribution of tasks and the distribution of finances? 2) How does the execution of a franchise e-commerce strategy affect the social and economic franchisee satisfaction? 3) What other influences could affect the social and economic franchisee satisfaction regarding e-commerce strategies?

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which makes exploratory research useful (Yin, 2014). The exploratory research is performed by means of multiple case studies, which is further elaborated on in section 3.3. Second, this study aims to develop relevant new theory around this topic. Therefore, a theory development approach is most suitable (Eisenhardt, 1989; van Aken, et al., 2012). This is another reason to perform a multiple case study, as it is viewed as an interesting strategy to create new knowledge (Eisenhardt, 1989).

3.2 Research delimitation – focus of industry

The Dutch Franchise Association (NFV) divides its members in different categories, based on the industries they operate in. As the NFV is the leading branch organization regarding franchising in the Netherlands, this study uses their categorization. The different categories are therefore: 1) Retail Food (25 members); 2) Retail Non-Food (41 members); 3) Services (62 members); 4) Hospitality (20 members); and 5) Others (11 members). The latter category contains relatively new and/or unique franchise systems (e.g., in agriculture). Based on the preferences of the NFV, as being the initiator of this research, the focus of this study will primarily be on the Non-Food and Food Retail Industry in the Netherlands19. The most evident reason is that these are the most important franchise sectors in the Netherlands (NFV, 2016). In total, they include 66 of all 159 members of the NFV and their cumulated turnover withholds 71,6% of the total reported turnover of all members of the NFV (NFV, 2016). Moreover, these categories have been chosen since they require an extensive and complex e-commerce strategy. The investigated franchisees thus all concern retailing, which might lead to similarities in e-commerce tasks and financial consequences and enable benchmarking.

3.3 Data Collection

3.3.1. Exploratory (multiple) case study

As mentioned in section 3.1, case studies are an appropriate method for exploratory research and a theory development approach (Yin, 2014; Eisenhardt, 1989). A case study is “a research strategy, which focuses on understanding the dynamics present

within single settings” Eisenhardt (1989, p. 534). Following Yin (2014), a case is

referred to as the main object of study and is most of the times an entity like an

19_{During a meeting of the NFV with their members, the preference to include these specific sectors has specifically been}

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organization, person or community. In this regard, the entities of the study are franchisees of various Dutch franchise systems. Case studies are found to be useful in unravelling complexities and permits in-depth analysis of evolving interaction processes and their outcomes (Gerring, 2004; Yin, 2009).

The single settings (Eisenhardt, 1989), i.e., the situation of various franchisees in a franchise system, lead to an overview of multiple cases (Yin, 2014). Multiple cases are a powerful means to create theory as they permit replication and extension among individual cases (Eisenhardt, 1991).

It is argued that the typical multiple case study design contains between four and ten cases (Eisenhardt, 1991). Using a fewer number of cases decreases the chances of collection sufficient information. Using more than ten cases however will decrease the value of the added information, as redundancies in the data will appear (Eisenhardt, 1989). Therefore, a total of six cases are researched.

To ensure a solid theory development process, the proposed steps of Eisenhardt (1989) are followed as much as possible (see table 7 below).

Step Activities proposed by Eisenhardt (1989)

Comment or remark for this specific study

Getting started § Definition of research question § Possibly a priori constructs § Neither theory nor hypotheses

- RQ = In what way does the execution of an e-commerce strategy

(in terms of distribution of tasks and finances among the

franchisor and its franchisees) within a franchise system affect the franchisee satisfaction regarding the e-commerce strategy?

- Constructs = distribution of tasks, distribution of finances, social franchisee satisfaction, economic franchisee satisfaction

Selecting cases § Theoretical, not random. - Based on Snowball sampling technique, making use of selection criteria (described in 3.3.2; Rabobank (2016) and MT Media Group (2014). Selected cases are franchisees of various Dutch franchise systems.

Crafting instruments and protocols

§ Multiple data collection methods

§ Qualitative and quantitative data combined

§ Multiple investigators

- Multiple case study by means of semi-structured interviews

- Only qualitative data (to a certain extend quantitative data by making use of a 7-points Likert-scale)

- Only one researcher

Entering the field § Overlap data collection and analysis, including field notes Analysing data § Within-case analysis

§ Cross-case pattern search using divergent techniques

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Table 7 – Proposed steps of Eisenhardt (1989) in the context of this study

3.3.2. Interviews

For the purpose of this study several franchisees active in different Dutch franchise systems have been interviewed. The aim to answer the study’s main research question in combination with the preferred delimitation as presented in section 3.2 has led to a certain choice of respondents, which can be found in Table 8. Initially, the researcher encountered some difficulties finding franchisees that were willing to provide answers for this research20. To overcome this problem, the franchisees were selected by using the network of the researcher, his supervisors and the first respondents, the so-called ‘Snowball Sampling’ technique. Snowball sampling has been found to be economical, efficient and effective in various studies, and shows to be able to produce in-depth results relatively quickly (Atkinson, R., Flint, J., 2001; Avico et al., 1988; Hendricks, Blanken and Adriaans, 1992). While approaching and selecting the franchisees, two requirements were taken into account. These requirements are: 1) the use of a transactional website and 2) the franchisee has to be part of a well known, respectable and established Dutch franchise system21. More information about the specific franchisees that have been chosen for this research can be found in Appendix B.

20_{Especially the financial information showed to be rather sensitive and confidential to some of the contacted franchisees, which}

resulted in requests for interviews being turned down.

21_{The transactional website is a condition because of the definition of e-commerce that is used in this study. The franchise}

systems are well known and respectable due to (for instance) the amount of stores: ranging from 183 stores (BAKKER BART) to maximal 600 (BLOKKER). The ‘youngest’ franchise system was established in 1976, prior to the existence of e-commerce. Furthermore, most franchise systems in this study are mentioned in the news due to conflicts as a result of e-commerce (MT Media Group, 2014; Rabobank, 2016) making them interesting to study. It is not taken into account whether the franchise system uses a decentralized, participative or directive e-commerce strategy, since this remains unclear in the procedure of selecting a franchisee. Further research was needed to conclude what particular strategy is executed by the franchise system, making it impossible to use this a criteria for selection.

information that is of interest by describing the specific cases and 4) summarize and cross-analyse the results by emphasizing on similarities, differences and patterns.

Shaping propositions § Iterative tabulation of evidence for each construct

§ Search evidence for “why” behind relationships (building internal validity)

- See results and discussion

Enfolding literature § Comparison with conflicting literature

§ Comparison with similar literature

- See discussion

Reaching closure § Theoretical saturation when possible

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Respondents Sector (based on sectors of the Dutch Franchising Association22₎

1 HEMA Non-food retail industry

2 JUMBO Food Retail Industry

3 INTERTOYS Non-food retail industry

4 BAKKER BART Food retail industry

5 BRUNA Non-food retail industry

6 BLOKKER Non-food retail industry

Table 8. List of respondents

An interview is a widely used tool to access someone’s experiences and his or her inner perceptions, opinions, and feelings of reality (Zhang & Wildemuth, 2009). Based on the degree of structuring, one could interview in a structured, semi-structured interviews or unsemi-structured manner (Fontana & Frey, 2005). A semi-structured interview is actually the same as a survey (except that a structured interview is conducted orally and a survey is on paper) and consists of predefined questions, which are asked questions in the same order (Zhang et al., 2009). For these reasons, this type of interview is not used. It is too standardized, which intends to minimize the effects of the instrument and the researcher on the findings. Additionally, this would force the franchisees in a certain direction and they would not have the room to share all their opinions, attitudes and feelings. As this research aims at analysing and bringing to light potential new contributions to the literature field, it makes use of interviews that consist of both a structured part and an unstructured part. This interview form was chosen to be able to further discuss the answers provided by the franchisees, and to better understand the relevant concept (Mojtahed, Nunes, Martins and Peng, 2014).

As literature about the topics within this study is scarce, the interviews have been adjusted when needed to gain the most interesting results. All interviews consisted of a brief introduction of the purpose of the interview. Within this introduction, anonymity was granted for the respondents, due to the sensitivity of their answers. By granting this anonymity, it is expected to create an open environment, resulting in an increase of relevant information. After the introduction, questions regarding the distribution of tasks were asked. Followed by questions

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regarding the financial distribution and franchisee satisfaction. To conclude, some questions were asked to gain deeper insights into the most ideal situation and their personal preferences (see transcripts of the interviews in the appendices). During the interviews, a flexible approach was used to probe emerging themes that could enrich the insights generated by in this study. Due to this approach, the set-up altered quite a bit when necessary. However, it remained fairly consistent among all participants. 3.4 Data Analysis

Analysing data is the heart of building theory from case studies (Eisenhardt, 1989). Research (Gersick, 1988; Leonard-Barton, 1988; Abbott, 1988; Mintzberg and McHugh, 1985; Quinn, 1980; Eisenhardt, 1989) shows that data analysis in case studies in fact provides as many researchers as approaches. All researchers however agree on the fact that it is important to become intimately familiar with each case as a stand-alone entity (Eisenhardt, 1989). Therefore, the results of the interviews at the different franchise systems (cases) have been described extensively per different measured concept. By doing so, patterns across cases can be identified; so called cross-case patterns (Eisenhardt, 1989). Finding these patterns is particularly interesting in this study, since particular aspects can be identified that might influence franchisee satisfaction regarding e-commerce strategies. Within the same research of Eisenhardt (1989), different ‘tactics’ for data-analysis are provided. One of these tactics is to list the similarities and zoom in on differences between individual cases. Making this comparison can break simplistic frames and lead to a more sophisticated understanding (Eisenhardt, 1989).

In case of this study, the interview period took approximately four weeks and the interviews lasted 22 to 36 minutes, with an average of 32 minutes. All interviews were audio-recorded and fully transcribed since this made sure that a record was kept and it resulted in an increased accuracy (and controllability) of the data analysis. It is important to obtain rich data, and therefore it was better to conduct the interviews in Dutch, the native language of the franchisees.

The influence of the distribution of e-commerce tasks and finances on franchisee satisfaction

Master Thesis – SB&E