A Study On The Main Factors Affecting Trust In Franchising

The core of marketing channel is relationship among the channel members,to manage a market channel is to construct, retain, and develop channel relations. That is the key to the study of channel management theories and practical interpretation. The study of trust in marketing channel occupies an important academic status in the West, Back in the 1980s, foreign scholars recognized the importance of trust-building channels. However, in China, until recent several years, the trust issue was brought to the attention of mainland scholars, The study was focused on the domestic trust in the field of social psychology and human relations, Marketing channels on the trust of shortcomings still exist, the research is only on the theoretical analysis stage. In particular, as a representative of new channels, there lacks such study about trust in franchising structure. With the rapid development of franchising, how to improve the quality of the relationship between franchisor and franchisee is an important problem which theoretical and practical work need to solve. Therefore, the empirical analysis to explore the pivotal factors which affect the relationship of trust between members in franchising should be concerned.Based on the background of the issue , This paper sorts out the theory about marketing channel in the second chapter, the study of trust in franchising should begin from three-pronged approach literature, the contents of literature review are as follows:(1)The author reviews the trust in psychology, sociology and economics, especially concerns to the study of trust from different angles in the role of relationship-based channels;(2)The author sums up the research results and different views about marketing channel after the 1990s, analyzes the relationship between the franchisor and franchisee, explores several channel variables which may affect the level of trust in franchising;(3)According to the franchising structure, Three mechanisms in channel monitoring theory which may affect the level of trust in franchising have been analyzed.After collection and review of the above literature, This article is based on the concept of cross-marketing organizations trust model by Preet(1996), combines the study of factors affecting trust in China marketing channels by Wang Guilin and Zhuang Guijun(2004). From the perspective of a franchisee, the author establishes a research model about the factors affecting the relationship of trust between members in franchising. The reason for selecting the model by Preet(1996) is that antecedent variables affecting trust were divided into two parts, one is channel relationship element, the other is monitoring mechanism used by manufacturers which have channel power. Research on the relationship of trust in franchising also need to investigate these two parts. Meanwhile, according to the special features of franchising, the author devides trust of franchisee after signing the contract into three dimensions by the psychological changes: evaluation,anticipation and behavior.Although in the conceptual model of trust among enterprises in China marketing channels, Wang Guilin and Zhuang Guijun(2004) have roughly divided variables, the model was based on a research perspective of manufacturer, they only put forward a number of propositions. The reliability of the model need to be confirmed by empirical research. In this paper, there are many channels relationship elements, but by reviewing franchising and channel relations theory ,it can be summarized in four major factors which affect trust. For mechanism of monitoring, this paper focuses on reviewing the channel monitoring theory, taking into account both the concessionaire operating the concession contract is not fully formed prospective integration and cooperation, Three monitoring mechanisms of the headquarters influence trust of franchisee.In order to verify the model's seven major hypothesis, we carry through demonstration research, we identify a chain of mini-convenience stores named Hang Lung Changchun to research. According to the mature questionnaire among previous study, we design a questionnaire in light of the actual conditions. by visiting the owners, we collect 51 valid datas, specific statistical analysis are as follows :Firstly, through descriptive statistics, basic information of the owner is obtained by the analysis, we analyse the datas to understand sample distribution primarily; Secondly, we use reliability analysis to verify the reliability and accuracy of data and use factor analysis to verify validity of questionnaire;finally, through relation analysis the hypothesis are examined, we use stepwise regression analysis to determine their impact on the trust and identify the pivotal factors.The paper draws main conclusions below by statistics analysis: (1)The four variables in channel relationship have significant correlation with three dimensions of trust. Among them, information exchange and dependence are positively related to the trust in the partnership, opportunism and conflict are nagatively related to the trust. information exchange and opportunism have significant effect on the trust;(2)The empirical findings support the importance of monitoring mechanisms initiated by the franchisor. Contractual control is not related to three dimensions of the trust, use of social control and authoritative control are positively related to the trust, and they have significant effect on relationship trust.According to the results of the analysis, there are three significant magagerial implications:The franchisors should pay attention to the training of human relationship with the franchisees, and concern about the psychological changes allowed which have a positive effect on the trust;The franchisors and franchisees should enhance the exchange of information and try to reduce the incidence of opportunism;Headquarters should strengthen the powerful and social control.The innovation of the paper including: The paper establishs a more comprehensive model of the factors affecting trust from the perspective of a franchisor, and puts the mornitoring mechanism into the model which is involved in the past few domestic literature; The trust is divided into three dimensions according to the humanity, the paper analyses the impact of factors on the mental trust of francisee.Finally, the paper has some limitations and shortcomings, for example, the model does not take into account the franchisor's perception of the trust, it need to be supplemented and improved by follow-up studies.