Training in Franchise Network: What is Currently Known and a Recommendation for Future Research

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of training measurement in franchise performance by reviewing existing literature and exploring the measurement of training in social franchising in the African context. The study starts by reviewing the existing franchising literature that analyze the relationship between training and franchise performance. Then, the study applied the
qualitative research approach to explore the relationship between the training measurement and social franchise performance. The findings from literature review reveal three training measurements that have been used in the existing franchise literature including absolute measures, proportional measures, and emphasis measures. The study suggests that the training content is a crucial
training measurement that franchisors need to evaluate in determining the role of training and its effect on franchise network performance. The study proposes research questions to further develop the franchising and training literature as well as providing an assessment of managerial implications to training managers in a franchise network. Further, the study highlights the effect of training measurement in franchising operating in African context. However, due to the unique features of social franchising and nature of social franchisees joining the social franchise network, the study reveals the importance of the inclusion of training content to measure the effect of training on social franchise performance.

Keywords: Social Franchising, Training content, Absolute measure, Importance measure, Proportional measure