Efficiency of travel agency franchises: a study in Spain

Efficiency in a firm is important because it ensures that the economy’s scarce resources are not being wasted. It produces something else of value—profits or the continued existence of the organisation. This work contributes to the literature on efficiency in franchising. Specifically, it is focused on the sector of travel agencies which operate in the franchising system in Spain. This fact is an original contribution and is very important because until now there have not been any studies about efficiency in this sector of franchising. The results show that the number of brand names which are efficient is around 50%. This means that many chains are not efficient. This result may be, to a great extent, a result of the dynamics of this sector in recent years. A Tobit model is also used in order to characterise the franchisors’ efficiency. Some important findings are showed.