A franchise: a resource rich small service firm?

Internationally, the small firm community has been the focus of attention from academics and policy makers for several decades. On the other hand, franchising of services is a relative newcomer, particularly in the United Kingdom, and has not received the attention that this form of business organization warrants. This article investigated the extent to which franchising represents the intelligent leverage of reources by small firm owner-operator franchisees, focusing on one major benchmark franchisor in the UK - McDonald's Restaurants Ltd. The article enables the exploration of the profile of individuals attracted to franshising and the associated resources, costs, tensions and contradictions, and moves discussion towards conclusions based on a resource scarcity/efficiency thesis from the dual perspectives of the franchisee and franchisor.