This paper provides an explanation of franchising's fee structure, drawing on principal agency and labor economics theory. The predictive framework includes constructs such as channel control, franchisor services, franchisee risk and the franchisor's capital constraints. The empirical investigation of a representative sample of franchise chains indicates that channel control is the major factor influencing the payment design. The results are used to test managerial implications about the use of an optimal fee structure in the growth of chains.

This paper develops a predictive model which includes game, team and university specific factors that are likely to influence game day demand for Division 1-A college football. Attendance during the 1997 regular season is used as the dependent variable. Tobit estimates of two separate equations reveal that the quality of both teams, traditional rivalry and membership of specific conferences have a significant influence on demand. In addition, colleges with lower enrollments and a higher percentage of off-campus students attract smaller crowds. The presence of a nearby professional football team also detracts from a college team's drawing power. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The paper summarizes predictions about the use of franchising as an expansion strategy and examines them through an empirical investigation of a sample of restaurant franchisors. The restaurant industry is an appropriate field for such an investigation as franchising is extensively used in this sector. The subject of growth is also important from the consumer’s perspective because of the increased desire for convenience and uniformity. The results suggest that franchising is an effective strategy for store expansion. However, larger chains have a lower need to use franchising as a growth strategy, apparently because they have their own resources. The paper also shows that the chain’s mix of company owned and franchised outlets is likely to be influenced by its past growth pattern. The results indicate that a significant increase in the proportion of franchised outlets is unlikely for chains that already have a relatively high percentage of franchised outlets. This is ostensibly because synergistic benefits are achieved through having both company owned and franchised stores.

A liquid drop may spread faster on surfaces when surfactants are added. Here we show that after some time the spreading in such systems can, under certain conditions, spontaneously reverse to retraction and the droplet pulls itself back, receding from areas it has just recently wetted, elevating its center of mass in a jerklike motion. The duration from drop placement to the onset of retraction ranges from hours to less than a second primarily as a function of surfactant concentration. When the retraction is asymmetric, it results in drop motion, and when it is symmetric, the mass of the drop collects itself on its spot. This phenomenon, which was predicted theoretically in 2014, is apparently a general one for drops with surfactants; however, other factors, such as evaporation and contamination, prevented its observance so far.

No abstract