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Journal of Corporate Finance Vol. 2 No. 1-2 1995

The role of risk in franchising

Francine Lafontaine; Sugato Bhattacharyya

University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

Abstract

The empirical literature on franchising suggests that the proportion of risk borne by franchisees increases as the amount of risk to be shared goes up. This has been interpreted by some as evidence that franchisors use franchising as a way to “shed” risk. This paper argues against this conclusion. First we show that the evidence is weak given the problems associated with measuring risk in franchising. Second, we show how a model emphasizing incentive issues and informational problems can give rise to the patterns found in the data. We conclude that risk shedding need not be invoked to explain franchising.

DOI
10.1016/0929-1199(95)00004-r
Volume
2
Issue
1-2
Pages
39-74
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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