Quasi-Franchising: A New Model for Strategic Business Cooperation

Abstract

Franchising’s capacity for reinventing itself is a matter of record. Indeed its continual adaptation to accommodate changing circumstances and market conditions is a major factor in its increasing influence throughout the world. The franchising relationship is based on a prescribed business model developed by the franchisor and carried out under the franchisor’s guidance and oversight by franchisees who are granted the right to trade under the franchisor’s brand and system. The manner in which the franchise model is implemented is nevertheless capable of infinite variation. It is its capacity for adaptation and innovation which drives its relentless development. This paper suggests a role for a form of franchising which incorporates only back-of-house elements—the tried, tested and proven systems and procedures which are not directly visible to the customer—and eschews brand and other visible manifestations of a standardised “one-size-fits-all” approach to service provision. It proposes a form of quasi-franchising where brand and related front-of-house features are removed or, at least, significantly reduced. The “franchisee” acquires the right, and the obligation, to use the “franchisor’s” back-of-house system while retaining flexibility for entrepreneurial endeavour in building an idiosyncratic, eclectic and individualised business.