Franchise Organizations [Hardcover]

Jeffrey L. Bradach (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 1998

Experts predict that by the year 2000, an astounding 50 percent of all retail sales will pass through a franchise chain. Yet, for all its growing importance, the franchise phenomenon remains largely undocumented and poorly understood, with very little grounded insight available on the management challenges that chains face. Now, with his landmark book "Franchise Organizations", Jeffrey Bradach fills this void with a penetrating look at the key factors that shape a franchise's success. Using compelling examples from major restaurant chains, including KFC, Pizza Hut, Hardee's, and Jack in the Box, Bradach extracts the ingredients that make for a thriving enterprise. Clear and engaging, this is essential reading for understanding and managing today's franchise business.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

*By the year 2000, an astounding 50% of all retail sales will pass through a franchise chain.
*A new franchise opens every eight minutes of each business day.
*Kentucky Fried Chicken serves 2.5 billion meals each year.

From food and fuel to lodging and childcare, franchises exert enormous influence over the global business landscape as well as within our personal lives. Yet the franchise phenomenon remains largely undocumented and frequently misunderstood, with very little analysis available on the management challenges--and opportunities--that chains face. Now, with his landmark book Franchise Organizations, Jeffrey Bradach fills the void with a penetrating look at the key factors that shape a franchise business's success.

Using compelling examples from major restaurant chains including KFC, Pizza Hut, Hardee's, and Jack in the Box, Bradach extracts the ingredients that make for a thriving enterprise. He examines how chain organizations meet their primary management challenges, from adding new outlets and maintaining uniform standards to responding to diverse local markets and adapting the system when threat or opportunities arise. Perhaps most importantly, Bradach's unprecedented research reveals the formidable competitive advantages enjoyed by companies that can blend franchise outlets within their corporate structure to create a distinctive new model--identified here for the first time as the "plural form." The plural form, Bradach argues, provides a uniquely effective way to leverage strengths and mend weaknesses, enhancing an organization's capacity for self-correction and renewal. Franchise Organizations offers a framework for managing chains built on the processes made possible by the plural form.

One of the most influential organizational forms of our times, franchises are positioned to be a vital economic force well into the future. As chains play an increasingly dominant role in the growth of the global economy, the timely insights offered in Franchise Organizations will be absolute necessities to managers and owners of franchises, as well as management and organizational theorists. Highly original, and distinguished by extensive qualitative analysis illustrated with lively anecdotes and real-world examples, Franchise Organizations is a major contribution to organizational theory and practice.

About the Author

Jeffrey L. Bradach is an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Harvard Business School.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press (January 30, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087584832X
• ISBN-13: 978-0875848327
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #516,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #48 in Books > Business & Investing > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Retail Businesses
  • #63 in Books > Business & Investing > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Hospitality Businesses

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very informative and well researched, January 8, 2000

By 

"ashanab" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Franchise Organizations (Hardcover)

Great in depth research is what first striked me about this book. It has a focus on the restaurant franchise business, with 5 successful examples from the US. The book explains a lot about the details of the organizational work done in the franchise business. I have come up with a useful insight on the whole matter. It is a well written thoroughly researched book and at the same time interesting to read, with chapters and parts divided nicely if you want to go back and forth between subjects. Although I own an non-restaurant franchise, this book helped me understand how the system works and what I should expect from my franchisor in some managerial aspects. I would highly recommend it if you own or think about owning a restaurant franchise, or any other franchise for that matter.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Need better research design and deduction, December 5, 2002

By 

Sarawoot Chittratanawat - See all my reviews

This review is from: Franchise Organizations (Hardcover)

This book was written by Dr.Bradach in 1997 but it stills a good reference today.
The comment I have, however, would be the research design is too limited. The research was conducted based on "food resturant chain" but the deduction (including the book title) seems to cover every franchise business. Is it possible that the research results for restuarant business only? We don't know. The research validation of the author still questionable to me.
The selected companies are too subjective, still. Several questions raised while I read the book about other franchise companies that the author didn't select. Although the author indicate three criteria (see research design of the book) to conduct the research, there is no mention to other companies that the author didn't choose.
This book is quite comprehensive but it can be one of the best reference book if the author go more detail (and change the title) for food restuarant business and add more detail about his research design.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite insightful, July 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Franchise Organizations (Hardcover)

It would be prudent of anyone in the franchise business to read this thoroughly researched, clearly written and carefully considered book by Professor Bradach. This is not a how-to manual, like many of the books cluttering the business sections of bookstores. Instead, it's a study of how, why and to what extent organizations choose to franchise themselves. While it may come across as too academic to some readers, the insight is fresh and informative. I found the interviews with franchising industry executives particularly useful, because Professor Bradach elicited such candor from them, especially with regard to the expectations of industry leaders in their relationships with franchisees. Put simply, you'll know where they, the franchisors, are coming from. For a potential fist-time franchisee, reading this book is like accumulating years of first hand knowledge from the inside of the company, something that will better prepare anyone for negotiating and working with a franchisor for the first time. Highlighted, dog-eared and often consulted, this one will stay on my bookshelf for years.