The Cooperative Relationship between the Headquarters and the Franchisees: A Case Study of 3Q Shop

The "distribution revolution" in marketing channels is establishing a new paradigm of business management. Among the various factors which formed such a revolution, the rise of franchised chain stores is the main momentum. While practiced broadly in business, the newly developed franchised chain stores have become a new aspect of marketing channels in which academic researchers are interested-they pay much attention to the cooperative relationship among related organizations in particular. This study is focused on the paradigm of the interorganizational relationship of a voluntary franchising system-a case study in the '3Q Shop' convenience stores in Taiwan. The purpose of this study is to discuss the cooperative and interactive relationship between the franchiser headquarters and the member franchisees from the perspective of interorganizational cooperation and to understand how this very relationship influences the franchising system's overall performance. The theory framework of this study is based on the transaction cost theory the resource interdependence theory and the agency theory. On the basis of these theories, three questions are raised: (1) Which factors determine the types of cooperative relationship? (2)How does the cooperative relationship affect the channel performance? (3) How do member franchisees affect the cooperative relationship of the system?