The economic importance of franchising in service provision, job creation and self employment opportunities is widely reported. However the factors influencing franchise unit success has received little academic attention. This represents an important gap in the literature. Previous research has tended to focus upon system-level operations and recently upon the reasons for franchisor discontinuance and failure. This research extends the organisational management literature through investigating factors influencing the success of individual franchised units. Convergent interviews with the franchisor and four franchisees within one service, and one retail franchise system were conducted. Findings suggest that franchisee entrepreneurship and franchisee selection criteria were the most important determinants of a franchise unit's success.