外文翻译--品牌热情的起因与效果

Brand passion: Antecedents and consequences

作者：Noel Albert, Dwight Merunka, Pierre Valette-Florence 国籍：France

出处：Journal of Business Research, 66(2013) 904-909.

原文正文：Franchise systems account for more than one-third of all 17,s. retail sales. And it is forecast that by 2005, they will account for nearly hulf of U.S. retail sales. There are approximately 6,000 franchise systems

worldwide, and many new systems are being established every year. But prospective franchisers need to take care to evaluate whether they should expand their business by franchising or by opening company-owned outlets.

Franchise systems are commonly classified into two types: (1) product-name and (2) business format. In product-name systems, the franchisee serves as an authorized distributor of a product for a manufacturer, such as GM car dealers,or a wholesaler, such as Coca-Cola bottlers.In business format franchising. which deals primarily with service firms. the franchiser provides the franchisee with a trademark. operating guidance,and a specific format for running a service business. Examples include McDonald’s, Jiffy Lube. Mail Boxes Etc., and so on.

Most of the growth in franchising in recent years has come from business format franchise systems. The explosive growth in the service

sector of the economy bodes well for this area. It is estimated that U.S. sales from business format franchise systems will reach $1.3 trillion by 2010. Focusing on business format franchises, this article discusses the whys and wherefores of franchising, and outlines the options available to entrepreneurs and managers who are considering setting up a franchise system.

WHY DO COMPANIES FRANCHISE?

Much has been written about how entrepreneurs can benefit from becoming franchisees, how they should choose a franchise system, and how they should manage their franchise business. Relatively less,however, has been written about issues concerning prospective franchisers-entrepreneurial firms and managers of established companies who are considering the franchise option. We shall describe the benefits that motivate firms to franchise and illustrate how product-market char acteristics shape these motivations.

Benefits of Franchising

Prospective franchisers can better assess the suitabilityof this option if they understand the benefits that motivate firms to franchise. In other words, they must ask what advantages they can derive from operating franchised stores versus operating company-owned stores.

Resource Constraints. Firms often franchise because they cannot readily raise the capital required to sat up company-owned stores. John 1’. Brown. former president of Kentucky Fried Chicken, maintained that it would have cost KFC $4 j0 million to establish its first 2,700 stores-a sum that was not available to the corporation in its initial strlges. It is interesting to note that even though KFC can now readily raise capital through traditional commercial means, it still continues to franchise.

On the other hand, a firm seeking growth may be able to raise capital, but it may lack the managerial resources required to set up a network

of company-owned stores. Recruiting and training managers accounts for a significant percentage of the cost of growth of a firm. Franchisees

supply labor and capital together; often the joint cost of both labor and capital to the franchisor is lower than what it would be if the two inputs were procured separately. This hybrid nature of franchising enables firms to overcome the managerial resources and capital constraint

problems simultaneously.

Specialization/Functional Benefits. Franchising also provides an effective way to trade off certain functions and thereby minimize production costs. In general, franchisers are more cost efficient than franchisees in performing functions that decrease in cost with a substantial level ofoutput. And franchisees are more efficient in performing functions whose average cost curve turns up relatively quickly. For example, in the fast-food business, product development and national promotion are more efficiently handled on a large scale (the franchiser), whereas the production of fast food is handled better on a relatively smaller scale (the franchisee). Monitoring Costs.

Company-owned retails tores are run by employee managers who may often perform poorly if they are not supervised. A company, therefore, has to supervise its store managers. As a result, it will incur monitoring costs. But because franchisees have invested capital in their own stores, and because their earnings come from the profits of those stores, they are motivated to work harder