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    Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Industrial Marketing Management. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Industrial Marketing Management, 89, 2020 DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.03.005

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Acts of hidden franchisee innovation and innovation adoption within franchise systems

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/08/2020
<mark>Journal</mark>Industrial Marketing Management
Volume89
Number of pages15
Pages (from-to)431-445
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date2/04/20
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Franchising, as an imitative business model, provides a challenging context to create and manage innovation, as franchisors may wish to limit their franchisees' innovative activities to ensure network consistency. Drawing on data from two related empirical studies of franchisees operating in the UK, we seek to understand how franchisees contribute to innovation within their systems. Our first quantitative study reveals that although many franchisees develop innovations, these innovations are not always adopted by the franchise system, suggesting acts of hidden innovation. These findings motivated our second, qualitative study. Through a case analysis of 29 franchisees from 7 different franchise systems, we identify a number of organizational and relational factors that influence both franchisee engagement in innovation, and the extent to which their innovations are disclosed to the network. From these, we develop a theoretical framework of franchisee-led innovation processes, which contributes to the role of social exchange theory in innovation practices within business-to-business contexts. Our findings extend emerging research on innovation in franchise systems, and also provide practical insights on how franchisees can be best supported in creating and disclosing innovations to benefit the franchise system.

Bibliographic note

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Industrial Marketing Management. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Industrial Marketing Management, 89, 2020 DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.03.005