Conflict management capabilities in franchising

Rozenn Perrigot (1, 2, 3) , Begona López-Fernández (4) , Guy Basset (5)

1 IGR-IAE Rennes - Institut de Gestion de Rennes - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises - Rennes
2 CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management
3 ESC [Rennes] - ESC Rennes School of Business
4 University of Oviedo
5 LEGO - Laboratoire d'Economie et de Gestion de l'Ouest

Conflicts are common in franchising, however, they become dysfunctional above a certain threshold. Our aim is to understand how conflict management processes and, in particular, problem solving, persuasion, bargaining and politics, are developed and implemented within franchise chains and how they contribute to franchisors’ organizational capabilities. We do so through a qualitative study based on 44 in-depth interviews with franchisors and franchisees operating in France. Our main findings show that the implementation of these conflict management processes over time and with various franchisees nurture conflict management capabilities of franchisors.

Mots clés: Conflict management; Franchising; Know-how; Organizational capability; Qualitative study

Domaines: Gestion et management

Rozenn Perrigot, Begona López-Fernández, Guy Basset. Conflict management capabilities in franchising. Journal of retailing and consumer services, 2021, 63, pp.102694. ⟨10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102694⟩. ⟨hal-03335742⟩