Exploring digital communication in franchising in Spain: a website review

Abstract

Purpose: Communication is a key success factor in the franchise network; therefore, franchisors should be aware of incorporating new technological tools that facilitate communication in this business model. Faced with this new challenge, corporate websites are a strategic tool in the communication of franchisors with their stakeholders, becoming a source of information to consumers and as a means of attracting potential franchisees. Given the interest of this issue in this business model, this paper aims to analyze the online presence of franchise systems in Spain in order to study the effectiveness of digital communication with stakeholders by analyzing their websites. Design/Methodology/Approach: From the total of 121 franchises established in Spain, based on the information provided by the Spanish Franchise Association, 112 active franchises were analyzed. This study examined the websites according to three dimensions previously identified in the literature: informational, relational (comprising three categories: users, social networks and Web 2.0 applications) and usability. A content analysis was performed to evaluate the presence of the items included in those dimensions on the websites. Findings/Results: The results indicate that, in general, the franchise systems make use of the websites to manage their relationships with their stakeholders (e.g., franchisees, consumers). Specifically, the results show that, although the websites of the franchises operating in Spain comply with basic information and access aspects, those related to communication with users, as well as the use of Web 2.0 applications should still be developed as strategic tools for successful franchise management. Originality/Value: Given that nowadays companies and their stakeholders dialogue mainly on the web, it is necessary to continue exploring how to develop this new virtual context of relationships. In this regard, this paper contributes by identifying different categories of the relational dimension in the communication of the franchisor with its stakeholders. This allows to detect those key aspects that the franchisor should promote in order to enhance its relationship strategy.