Franchisee satisfaction: contributors and consequences

This article summarizes an empirical study which tested a model of franchisee buying behavior. The model depicts the sequence of events which occur in the purchase and operation of a franchised small business, proposing that franchisee satisfaction is dependent on various inputs by both franchisors and franchisees which influence either the pre-purchase expectations of franchisees or the post-purchase performance of franchised outlets. The relationships in the model are expressed with three hypotheses, which were tested with data obtained from nine restaurant franchise companies and 127 of their franchisee owner-managers. The study findings demonstrate that while franchising does offer many of the benefits of independent small business ownership while reducing some of the problems, there are very real differences between satisfactory, marginal, and unsatisfactory franchise systems, at least from the perspective of franchisees.