A franchise: a resource-rich small service firm?

Internationally, the small firm community has been the focus of attention from academics and policy makers for several decades. On the other hand, franchising of services is a relative newcomer, particularly in the United Kingdom, and has not received the attention that this form of business organisation warrants. This article investigates the extent to which franchising represents the intelligent leverage of resources by ‘small firm’ owner-operator franchisees, focusing on one major ‘benchmark’ franchisor in the UK – McDonald's Restaurants Ltd. The article enables the exploration of the profile of individuals attracted to franchising and the associated resources, costs, tensions and contradictions, and moves discussion towards conclusions based on a resource scarcity/efficiency thesis from the dual perspectives of the franchisee and franchisor.     

全球股市低迷 亚洲首当其冲

一年前，当信贷危机在美国和欧洲刚刚崭露头角时，许多投资者都将亚洲股票视为了天堂。时至今日，全球股市经历了6个多月的下跌，而亚洲市场的跌幅位居前列。     

On the formation of interaction networks in social coordination games

There are many situations where two interacting individuals can benefit from coordinating their actions. We examine the endogenous choice of partners in such social coordination games and the implications for resulting play. We model the interaction pattern as a network where individuals periodically have the discretion to add or sever links to other players. With such endogenous interaction patterns we see multiple stochastically stable states of play, including some that involve play of equilibria in the coordination game that are neither efficient nor risk-dominant. Thus the endogenous network structure not only has implications for the interaction pattern that emerges, but it also has a significant impact on the play in the coordination game relative to what would arise if the same interaction network were exogenous.     

Mapping the benefits and costs associated with process innovation: The case of RFID adoption

The successful implementation of any innovation requires an understanding of its benefits and costs. This study examines the changes in the magnitude of costs and benefits associated with technology process innovation adoption as the innovation diffuses across different industries. Using RFID as an exemplar technology, the study shows that the magnitude of benefits and costs associated with technological process innovation adoption within different industries varies as technology diffuses beyond early adopters to the early majority. During the early stages of technology evolution, the development cost, the cost of capital, ethical costs and simple direct implementation costs (in the form of the cost of tags) predominate. As a dominant design emerges the profile of costs changes with the emphasis on initiation costs, more holistic direct implementation costs and indirect implementation costs. A similar change in the emphasis of benefits is observed, with a shift from direct to indirect benefits being noticeable as the technology moves from early adopters to early majority adopters. Our findings help to explain the difficulties in consistently measuring innovation outcomes observed in the innovation implementation literature, and emphasize the need to take into consideration the stage of technology development as a significant factor that influences the realised outcomes from innovation implementation.     

Explaining greater test use for selection: the role of HR professionals in a world of expanding regulation

In recent decades there has been a well‐documented increase in organisations' use of formal tests for selection purposes. This article investigates whether tests' technical qualities and predictive validity are the critical determinants of take‐up, or whether other organisational and contextual factors are more important. Case studies of organisations were used to identify the factors driving change and Workplace Employee Relations Survey data were analysed to determine the consistency of the findings with national data. The single most important factor appears to be the regulatory environment, with tests used as a precautionary measure to protect selection decisions from challenge. The growing formal professionalisation of HR departments is also important, and the influence of both factors is consistent with current theories of organisational decision‐making. Continued growth in test use is likely, but the implications for efficiency in selection are less clear.