Women in Franchising

Abstract

Although considerable academic attention has been given to identifying the reasons why women enter self-employment, little is known about the motivations for female entrepreneurs to become franchisors. This represents an important gap in the literature. Recent research suggests that women become small business owners to rapidly grow business concepts and create wealth. On this basis, franchising should represent an appealing business expansion strategy as it minimises capital, labour and local market knowledge limitations on firm growth. However, Australian female participation rates in franchising remain low. The purpose of this research is to provide a clearer understanding of the motivational incentives driving the choice of franchising as a business development strategy from the female entrepreneur’s perspective. Case studies with six female franchisors revealed significant differences between the decision criteria used by women entering franchising and small business suggesting that changes in public policy initiatives are required to encourage greater acceptance of women as franchisors, build awareness of franchising as a small business alternative for women, and provide accessible information and training for women on how to become franchisors.