Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to find the issues associated with international expansion of Korean franchisors going international and suggest lessons of proposition to reduce the failure risk in international expansion of franchise systems. Research design, data, and methodology - This is the exploratory study and structured to review (1) background to motivate the expansion of franchisors towards international market, (2) the status of Korean franchisors going international in recent years, (3) issues, (4) lessons learned from the experiences, and (5) summary. Secondary sources were reviewed to get necessary data and statistics. Results - Master franchising was the most preferred entry mode for Korean franchisors. Franchisors must understand the expenses to be incurred as well as revenues associated with international activities. Brand is the core asset of franchisor as a differentiation strategy. Conclusions - The paper indicates that even if international franchising is the unique business model for franchisors to use in little or least risk compared with other international entry modes, it needs a set of complex capabilities that much differ from those in domestic and franchisors should take a step approach to the international market with the planned and long term perspective.