Understanding franchisee performance The role of the franchisee's autonomy, affective commitment to the network and innovativeness

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of participative franchising on performance from the franchisee perspective. In particular, the paper analyses the impact of the franchisee autonomy - in human resource management and marketing decisions - affective commitment to the network and network innovativeness on the franchisee relative performance. Design/methodology/approach A survey answered by 226 franchisees in France allowed to estimate a structural equations model through partial least squares regression analysis to test the hypothesised relations between autonomy, affective commitment, innovativeness and performance. Findings According to the authors' findings, franchisee's autonomy in commercial policies, mediated by to franchisor's ability to innovate and acknowledge innovations stemming from the franchisees, and the affective commitment to the network, emerge as strong determinants of the franchisee's performance. Originality/value This paper looks at franchisee autonomy, affective commitment and innovativeness as potential determinants of franchisee's performance, being the latter an underexplored topic.