Franchisee satisfaction of goal attainment: a discovery of hierarcy of entrepreneur goals

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the extent to which franchisees are satisfied with the attainment of their personal goals in business. Although franchising continues to be exploited in the business sector, research and studies of franchising were scarcely mentioned in the organizational literature. Obviously, franchising as a body of knowledge has been studied mostly from the franchisor’s perspective than on franchisees. Within franchisee literature, studies on people’s motivation to become a franchisee have received some attention and provided little understanding, but no study has ever measured to what extent franchisees are satisfied with their personal goals in the business. Design/methodology/approach – To investigate the hypotheses, a positivist approach is chosen as the philosophical foundation of this study, and all methodological aspects related with this approach are used in this study. A total of 204 franchisee entrepreneurs in Malaysia were surveyed and answered self-administered questionnaires. Findings – In general, statistical analysis suggests franchisees were satisfied with their goals attainments. However, further analysis shows that franchisees were mostly satisfied with intrinsic rewards goals, followed by perceived autonomy goals and family concern goals. Surprisingly, franchisees have less satisfaction with economic gain goals comparatively with other goals. Moreover, based on the conceptual analysis and empirical evidence, hierarchy of economic goals and hierarchy of family goals are discovered. Besides, this study does suggest that franchisees’ sustainability in the business may be affected by attainment of their personal goals. Originality/value – This paper studies franchising from a franchisee’s perspective and from a non-Western perspective. It investigates whether franchisee entrepreneurs share similar goals compared with other types of entrepreneurs and to what extent franchisees are satisfied with their personal goal attainment in the business.

Perseverance of effort and consistency of interest for entrepreneurial career success

“…For instance, salary, promotion and level have been used for long as the dimensions of career success, but these dimensions are insufficient for evaluating entrepreneurs who are the owners and bosses of their organisations (Lau et al , 2007). Hence, scholars have gradually recognised that very often, entrepreneurs do not measure their success exclusively by financial indicators, but that subjective indicators matter most to them (Hizam-Hanafiah and Li, 2014; Wach et al , 2018). In other words, how personally meaningful careers are and how entrepreneurs experience their career success have become more relevant (Ng and Feldman, 2014).…”

Trust, Commitment And Compliance: A Study Of Franchisee’S Perception Towards The Franchisor

“…Thus, the franchisor should strengthen their relationship with their franchisee to solidify the foundation for international forays with prospective franchisees from other country (Hizam-Hanafiah & Li, 2014). As in international marketing, if a company is going international, they should conduct a country analysis about the country that they want to enter because of different rules and norms (Rahatullah & Raeside, 2008).…”

“Living the dream” – a psychoanalytical exploration of franchisee autonomy

“…For over three decades scholars have sought to understand how franchise organizations can balance franchisee autonomy and franchisors' needs for uniformity across units (Dant & Gundlach, 1999;Davies et al, 2011;Pardo-del-Val et al, 2014). Although scholars point to how franchisee autonomy can positively influence unit-level outcomes (Colla et al, 2019;Croonen et al, 2016;Hizam-Hanafiah & Li, 2014;López-Bayón & López-Fernández, 2016), there remains much debate and a recognized need to more fully understand franchisee autonomy within a system designed around compliance (Croonen et al, 2016;Dada, 2018).…”

“…This is evident in the variety of definitions of autonomy within franchise research, ranging from a broader consideration of independent thought and action (Pizanti & Lerner, 2003), to a focus on certain local decision-making or adaptation freedoms (Colla et al, 2019;Cox & Mason, 2007;López-Bayón & López-Fernández, 2016). It also explains why studies often rely on objective measures of autonomy and survey instruments that include measures relating to feeling autonomous over one's life, over one's business, or over decision-making (e.g., Dant & Gundlach, 1999;Hizam-Hanafiah & Li, 2014).…”

“…Through focusing on franchisees who operate small-scale, single-outlet, regional businesses the paper draws on the work of Lacan (1966Lacan ( , 1977 to explore how the psychoanalytic tradition can help develop a richer understanding of franchisee autonomy. Through an exploration of Lacan's notions of desire and lack, the paper reveals how on the one hand the quest for an autonomous self underpins the success of the franchise format, thus providing a new way of understanding franchisee motivation and satisfaction (Bennett et al, 2010;Hizam-Hanafiah & Li, 2014). On the other hand, the paper reveals how the continual work to construct oneself around autonomy is replete with deep-rooted tensions and anxieties, thus also providing a new avenue for exploring conflict and tensions in the franchisor-franchisee relationship (López-Fernández & López-Bayón, 2018).…”