D.E.G V4 Franchisees have clear and definite positions

toward the headquarter and themselves, and they trust in the brand.

A.C.D.E.F.G.

H V5

Franchisees hope the headquarter would be more open-minded, and adopt more suggestions and opinions from franchisees.

B.D.F.G.H V6

Discussion

The researcher found 31 finding in these 10 dimensions. Although these findings were extracted from different dimensions, but some of them represent the same concept, some represent another concept, etc. As a result, the researcher tried to organize those findings with the same concept into one proposition, hoping to find out the common modes for franchisees. Followings are the propositions the researcher concludes.

In the leading dimension, the researcher found that the franchisees tended to care

about employees’ feeling and tried to form a family atmosphere. In human resource dimension, the researcher found that franchisees paid much attention to employees and did their best to remain excellent employees. Therefore, the researcher assumed the conclusion.

Proposition 1. Franchisees are more committed to provide caring, developmental and family oriented workplace.

Due to franchisees’ age and working experience, most franchisees were older and had long time working experience of being managers or bosses, so the franchisees already know how to get along with employees and also know what employees want to have in working place. Therefore, franchisees tended to make the working environment in the restaurant like a family, hoping employees would get along with each and help each other. Meanwhile for franchisees’ own good, also for employees as well, franchisees treated their employees better, taught employees more abilities, held more encouraging activities, brought employees the satisfaction and the feeling of achievement, and provided them promising working place. Table 4.12 shows the supporting findings of this proposition.

Table 4.12

Supporting Findings of Proposition 1

No. Finding

L1 Compare to McDonald’s institution, franchisees own abundant managing experience and understand to lead their employees with communications and negotiations.

L2 Compare to McDonald’s institution, franchisees think highly of employee feelings, treat employees equitable and sensible, observe and discover employees’ merits, and give employees sense of fulfillment and accomplishment.

L3 Compare to McDonald’s institution, franchisees possess copious life experience, they are attentive to employees as elders.

H2 Compared to McDonald’s institution, franchisees value employee development, and train employees to be multifunctional workers

H4 Compare to McDonald’s institution, franchisees committed to employees, observe employees merits, and give opportunity

H5 Compared to McDonald’s institution, franchisees utilize Management by Objective to settle down employee objectives

H6 Compared to McDonald’s institution, in performance evaluation, franchisees take human-based management, do not stick to established practices

H7 Compared to McDonald’s institution, franchisees create good working atmosphere to maintain outstanding employees

In planning, organizing and human resource dimensions, franchisees must follow some regulations of headquarter, and franchisee also chose to follow some regulations through their own decisions. In production dimension, franchisees understood the importance of McDonald’s standard operation procedure and strictly follow the regulations. Therefore, the researcher assumed the conclusion.

Proposition 2. Franchisees obey McDonald’s regulations in operation management and machine equipments.

Franchisees were aware of their relationship with the headquarter and their positions within the franchise system; therefore franchisees understood what

regulations must be obeyed and what regulations could be modified to get better results. For those fundamental and essential regulations, such as the standard operation procedures, long-term business plans, and recruitment regulations, franchisees followed as managers of McDonald’s institution did. However, for those operative plans, franchisees showed more ambitious and aggressive actions to compete with direct-chain-stores. Table 4.13 shows the supporting findings of this proposition.

Table 4.13

Supporting Findings of Proposition 2

No. Finding

P1 While making business plans, franchisees must follow the headquarter to make sure their long-term directions are aligned.

O1 Franchisees hold the impression that they are partnership with the headquarter, and the headquarter will provide assistance.

O2 Franchisees hold the impression that they are under competition with direct-chain-stores.

Pr1 Franchisees obey the standard operation procedure, and comply with business ethnic.

H1 Franchisees strictly obey recruitment regulation of McDonald’s

V5 Franchisees have clear and definite positions toward the headquarter and themselves, and they trust in the brand.

V6 Franchisees hope the headquarter would be more open-minded, and adopt more suggestions and opinions from franchisees.

In planning dimension, the franchisees fully took local information into consideration while making plans. In marketing, franchisees cooperate with local community firms to broaden accessibility, and join in local activities to accelerate brand love and trust. In the value dimension, franchisees put customers first and were willing to give back to local communities. Therefore, the researcher assumed the

conclusion.

Proposition 3. Franchisees participate in local community activities and focus on establishing long-term relationship.

Table 4.14 shows the supporting findings of this proposition.

Table 4.14

Supporting Findings of Proposition 3

No. Finding

P2 Compare to McDonald’s institution, franchisees utilize their own capabilities well and are more familiar with own local business restricts, so that they can make pragmatic plans.

M2 Compare to McDonald’s institution, franchisees value community

relationship, join community activities, blend into community and positively cooperate with community firms.

V2 Compared to McDonald’s institution, while executing daily operations, franchisees place importance on customers’ satisfaction, trying to obtain customers’ trust.

V3 Compared to McDonald’s institution, franchisees think highly of community development, emphasizing on local management.

In planning dimension, franchisees were well aware of their own needs, therefore they could make more directed operation plans. In production dimension, franchisees made effort in advancing efficiency while following standard operation procedures. In human resource dimension, franchisees were more willingly to hold encouraging activities to inspire employees to complete operation objects. In finance dimension, franchisees controlled every expense more careful. Therefore, the researcher assumed the conclusion.

Proposition 4. Franchisees concentrate their attention on chasing profit.

Table 4.15 shows the supporting findings of this proposition.

Table 4.15

Supporting Findings of Proposition 4

No. Finding

P2 Compare to McDonald’s institution, franchisees utilize their own capabilities well and are more familiar with own local business restricts, so that they can make pragmatic plans.

Pr2 While obeying the standard operation procedures, the franchisees seek for increasing efficiency.

H3 Compared to McDonald’s institution, franchisees are more willing to encourage employees

F2 Compared to McDonald’s institution, franchisees control expenses more strictly

F3 Compared to McDonald’s institution, franchisees have lower equipment and maintenance cost

F4 Compared to McDonald’s institution, franchisees strive for increase employees’ productivity to decrease the human resource cost.

V4 Compared to McDonald’s institution, franchisees take profit as main measurement while making operation decisions.

In planning dimension, franchisees could modify the plans given by the headquarter and make it tally with their actual needs. In organizing dimension, franchisees created one new position in their restaurants. In controlling dimension, franchisees thought highly of their own restaurant, and could modify some operation details. In marketing dimension, franchisees could decide how much effort to put in promotion activities, and could hold their own promotion activities based on their demands. In R&D dimension, franchisees could strive for joining if they wanted. In value dimension, franchisees’ decisions were influenced by their personalities and characteristics. Therefore, the researcher assumed the conclusion.

Proposition 5. Franchisees have higher autonomy over their stores.

Table 4.16 shows the supporting findings of this proposition.

Table 4.16

Supporting Findings of Proposition 5

No. Finding

P2 Compare to McDonald’s institution, franchisees utilize their own capabilities well and are more familiar with own local business restricts, so that they can make pragmatic plans.

P3 Compare to McDonald’s institution, franchisees could make adjustment in execution of business plans.

O3 In organizational structure, franchise stores are very much the same as the direct-chain-stores, the only difference is an additional position.

C1 Compare to McDonald’s institution, franchisees value their stores more and have more autonomy to control all events in stores.

M1 Franchisees cooperate with the headquarter for marketing campaigns;

franchisees could decide the intensity of campaigns and have the right to launch marketing campaigns.

R2 Franchisees could strive for joining R&D and propose ideas of new productions.

V1 Compared to McDonald’s institution, franchisees are influenced by their personal perceptions and characteristics while making decision.

After having the propositions, the researcher combined the result of the Entrepreneur Aptitude Scale and the propositions into discussion. Like what was mentioned before, if the researcher only judge the interviewees with the scale, the researcher might get the conclusion that interviewees could actually be called entrepreneurs. However, after considering with these propositions, the researcher found that these interviewees actually feel they were entrepreneurial, but they did not show much entrepreneurial behaviors.

From their narratives, the researcher could find out that in many dimensions

interviewees still need to follow the regulations of the headquarter instead of showing different behaviors. The proposition 2 thoroughly demonstrated this conclusion, meaning that these interviewees were not totally entrepreneurial, since they chose to follow the regulations, rules and standards. The entrepreneurs, in traditional thinking, should have the right to make an innovation or change the regulation by their preferences and needs. Thereafter, these interviewees could not totally be classified as entrepreneurs.

On the other hand, the researcher also found that in more dimensions, the interviewees showed different thinking and behaviors from employees of McDonald’s institution. The proposition 5 displayed that interviewees have the right to modify the plans given by the headquarter. Unlike employees of McDonald’s institution, interviewees could reject the commanding to some degree and hold specialized activities without requesting the headquarter. The proposition 4 might be the biggest difference from employees of McDonald’s institution. Like above mentioned, interviewees could reject some unavailing marketing plans because what they pursue is benefit, not performance. As a result, these interviewees could not be treated as traditional managers, either.

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS

The researcher was very interested in what were different between franchise stores and the direct-chain-stores, and what reasons causing these differences in such a well-developed and long-established system. The researcher interviewed 8 owners of McDonald’s franchise stores, got the interview transcript, analyzed the transcript, discussed the findings and then made the conclusions. In this chapter, the researcher would answer the research question by those research findings.

Conclusion

Research question 1. What behaviors or policies in franchise stores are in compliance to the regulations of the McDonald’s institution?

Based on interviewees’ narratives, there are some findings showing the

compliances to McDonald’s regulations, including the findings P1, O3, Pr1 and H1.

Table 5.1 shows the findings for research question 1.

Table 5.1

Answers for Research Question 1.

No. Finding

P1 While making business plans, franchisees must follow the headquarter to make sure their long-term directions are aligned.

O3 In organizational structure, franchise stores are very much the same as the direct-chain-stores, the only difference is an additional position.

Pr1 Franchisees obey the standard operation procedure, and comply with business ethnic.

H1 Franchisees strictly obey recruitment regulation of McDonald’s

The researcher found that interviewees would accept the long-term plans made by the headquarter, and also follow the regulations of all standard operation procedures and the recruitment regulations. The organization structures of franchise stores are mostly the same as well, and the only difference does not affect the interactions with McDonald’s stores within business operation. In brief, the research might say that the long-term plans and hardware of franchise stores are the same as the McDonald’s.

Research question 2. What behaviors or policies are different between McDonald’s institutions and franchise stores under the institutionalized structure?

Based on interviewees’ narratives, there are many findings showing the differences from the McDonald’s institutions, including the findings P2, P3 (table 4.2), O3 (table 4.3), L1, L2, L3 (table 4.4), C1 (table 4.5), M1, M2 (table 4.7), H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, H7 (table 4.8), R2 (table 4.9), F1, F2, F3, and F4 (table 4.10).

In brief, the core concepts of propositions represent the difference of franchise stores, in that franchisees own higher autonomy, concentrate their attention on chasing profit, take participation in local community activities, focus on establishing long-term relationship, and are more committed to provide caring, developmental and family oriented workplace.

Research question 3. How do these differences come from under the institutionalized structure of McDonald’s?

Based on interviewees’ narratives, the researcher found that those differences mainly came from interviewees’ personal characteristics and life experiences. Like the finding V1 indicates, franchisees are influenced by their personal perceptions and

characteristics while making decision. Since interviewees are commonly elder, they have experienced many stages in life, so they could run their restaurants by their different personal values. For example, one interviewee mentioned a common point;

all the interviewees are married and they have strong attachments to families. Within the narratives, the researcher could find many supporting findings for this opinion.

Research question 4. Whether the franchisees have the characteristic of entrepreneurship?

As previous discussion, there are three pillars in the institutional theory, regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive. Under the pillar of regulative, these interviewees must follow the contract with the headquarter. For example, the interviewees must use the same products and materials as the direct-chain-stores, follow the price policies of the headquarter and some other policies based on the contracts. Under the normative pillar, the interviewees have to obey the regulations and procedure; the standard operation procedure is the representative among the pillar.

Besides operation procedures, institutional theory also forces interviewees to take care of the brand reputation while making plans, holding activities and joining local community activities. However, it deserves to be mentioned that all interviewees know the importance of the reputation and behave better in this section.

According to above mentioned, interviewees possess the spirit of entrepreneur but they still concern about the risk-taking problem, therefore they choose to join a well-established franchise system. From interview narratives, the researcher could see their ambitions of entrepreneurship and concerns for risk-taking. That might be why the research could find many their own ideas and opinions within the interviews, and why interviewees expect the headquarter could be more open and accept their suggestions.

Since this group of people could not fully be sorted in entrepreneurs or managers, the researcher found another title for them, the frantrepreneurs.

Additional Finding

Continued with research questions, the researcher found that the term

“frantrepreneur” would describe these interviewees better. Based on the previous literature review, frantrepreneurs were people with entrepreneurial thinking, but restricted by the environment. Moreover, McDonald’s was well-known for its highly regulated system; frantrepreneurs would have less space to bring their talent into full play, and that resulted in conflict. The conflict may be shown in the operation decisions they made to maximize their efforts. From the discussion above mentioned, the research found that the characteristics and personalities of frantrepreneur might be different from both entrepreneurs and managers. As a result, the result of this research might be specific only to these interviewees.

Implications Theoretic implications

In this research, the researcher found that those franchisees were actually a special group, positioning between entrepreneurs and managers. Sundbo et al. (2001) suggest that this was a different and growingly important type of entrepreneurship. In this research, the researcher found that interviewees would not thoroughly accept the norms of the operation but tried and made incremental improvements and innovations, and that was what frantrepreneur would do. The research also supported the conclusion from literature that the frantrepreneur was seen as a partner.

However the literature mentioned that the frantrepreneur was focused on standardizing strategies or plans, the researcher had different opinion. The researcher

thought that these interviewees were focused on adapting strategies or plans. This difference might come from the difference of research samples. In the literature, research was based on temporary service (Sweden) and computer training (Australia), but the sample group of this research was in fast-food industry (Taiwan). The divergence might cause the different result of researches.

Another implication might be promoting the term “frantrepreneur” with Taiwanese sample, since there were only a few literatures discussing this concept, and none research was focused on Asian samples. Within the narratives of the interviewees, the research provided some evidences of frantrepreneur, including behaviors, opinions and values. The research found that these specific group, the franchisees of a system, might not be the same as the past business research samples.

The traditional cognitions of business operations and organizational behaviors may not be applied to this group of people.

Practical implications

The research might be a reflection for franchise headquarters to revise how franchisees are treated in franchise system and what opinions and behaviors frantrepreneur might have.

In positive aspect, the research provides franchise headquarters the criteria to choose franchisees. Interviewees of this research now all own mores stores than past, so the phenomena might be the symbol that those interviewees actually are good franchisees. Therefore, since those 5 propositions concluded in this research were from franchisees with long-term franchising experience and improved operation performance, they might be efficient guide line or criteria for franchise headquarter to choose future franchisees.

Based on above mentioned, since these franchisees could not be considered as

normal managers, the headquarter of franchise system should treat them differently.

The headquarter might need to be more open-minded to accept franchisees, so they could really blend into the franchise system, and then contribute some advantages which normal managers could not bring.

To be open-minded, the McDonald’s headquarter might try to design some mechanisms to free flow new ideas and feedbacks from franchisees into McDonald’s headquarter. For example, the McDonald’s headquarter could allow franchisees into its internal executive meeting with high level staffs, such as regional supervisors, chief operation officers or even the president. Besides, McDonald’s headquarter could also invite franchisees to join its meetings with suppliers and manufactures so all participants could understand each other better. Moreover, McDonald’s headquarter could invite franchisees to join the international conference held by the US headquarter.

Another possible mechanism might be that some high level executives of McDonald’s headquarter would visit these franchise stores more frequently to understand the real operation situations of franchise stores; at the same time, these executives could also listen to franchisees’ opinions and ideas. To make sure the efficiency of this mechanism, the headquarter could arrange someone to be in charge of this policy. That assigned person could collect franchisees’ opinions and ideas periodically then organize and report to headquarter. All those feedbacks should be studied to gain solutions instead of being ignored and misunderstood.

Limitations

This research took franchisees of Taiwan McDonald’s as research sample;

therefore the research result might not be applied to other McDonald’s restaurants outside Taiwan.

McDonald’s is the leading company within the fast-food industry, but fast-food is just one part of food industry and can not represent the food industry. As a result, the finding may not be applied to other restaurants in the food industry, either.

The researchers did not adapt the triangulation into data collection procedure. In this case, because there was no similar research in this field, the researcher first put

The researchers did not adapt the triangulation into data collection procedure. In this case, because there was no similar research in this field, the researcher first put