استفاده خرده فروشان از یک شبکه رسانه حرفه ای اجتماعی: بینش فرانچایزینگ Retailer use of a professional social media network: Insights from franchising

1. Introduction Many retailers used partner firms to operate stores in their chains. In particular, retailers have frequently used franchising to develop their businesses (Watson et al., 2005). Franchising can be defined as “a contractual arrangement between two independent firms, whereby the franchisee pays the franchisor for the right to sell the franchisor’s product and/or the right to use his trademark at a given place and for a certain period of time […]. [T]he relationship between franchisor and franchisees “includes not only the product, service, and trademark, but the entire business format itself – a marketing strategy and plan, operating manuals and standards, quality control, and continuing two-way communication […]” (Lafontaine, 1992). For franchise chains, business growth often requires the addition of new units to the chain. Therefore, it is important that a franchisor selects high quality franchisees for new franchised units (Clarkin and Swavely, 2006) as well as managers and employees for new company-owned units. The challenges in doing so are exacerbated by competition from other franchisors who are also trying to attract these prospective franchisees, managers and employees. Thus, it is not surprising that “[a] key constraint facing chain operators as they sought to grow was finding interested and qualified franchisees” (Bradach, 1998). Franchisors increasingly use a wide range of communication strategies and media (including social media networks) to reach prospective franchisees (Perrigot et al., 2011), managers and employees. Franchising practitioners recognize the promise and challenges associated with using social media networks for this purpose – e.g., Betzendahl (2014) asks “how can social media promote franchise development? There isn’t an easy answer. Perceptions and goals for social media vary from business to business”.