Abstract

Purpose - In recent years, research has been conducted on the conflict resolution strategies of the franchise headquarters and the franchisees, but there is a lack of research on how the power structure and cultural factors play a role in resolving conflicts. From this perspective, this study is to examine the structural relationship between franchisors' cultural orientation and relationship power, and conflict resolution strategies, relationship trust, and relationship performance using. The findings of this study suggest how franchise headquarters should establish long-term relationship with franchisees and share information. Research design, data, methodology - The data were collected from April 1 to April 15, 2013. Because this study examined franchise industries from the franchisee perspective, we contacted franchisee store owner and managers located in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. Interviewers trained contacted a total of 200 franchisees, and 196 franchisees responded. Out of 196 respondents, 13 respondents were deleted due to missing information. Thus, a total of 183 franchisee were used for this study. he data were analyzed using frequency analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, and structural equational modeling with SPSS 24.0 and Amos 23.0 statistical program. Results - The results showed that cooperation orientation and relational power of franchisor had significant effects on conflict resolution strategies. Cooperating, obliging, and compromising strategies of conflict resolution strategy had significant effects on relationship trust. Also, relationship trust had significant effect on relationship performance. Conclusions - This study shows that the franchise headquarters and the franchisees share necessary information for common purposes and that continuous two-way communications play an important role in resolving conflicts. In other words, the result of this study suggests that if the franchise headquarters and the franchisee actively consider the position of the other party and strive to achieve the goal, conflict resolution may be more successful. In order to do this, the franchise headquarters will have to consider how to build and maintain continuous communication with the franchisees, and continuous education is also needed so that employees can have a cooperative attitude. However, since the culture of these organizations is not made up of simple staff training and is not formed within a short time, the CEO of the franchisee headquarters should take the lead in establishing a cooperative culture with the merchants over the long term.