Technological progress has opened a host of scenarios, whose effects are not only difficult to predict, but also to control. This fact, together with the welfare crisis, generates several challenges, which capture the attention for their urgency and gravity. In response to these latter ones, social innovation plays an important role as resolver, generating positive societal effects on the long term. Social enterprises, social entrepreneurs and non-profits are the main actors involved in the creation and diffusion of this type of innovations. In this regards, the literature includes many strategies that can be adopted with the aim of increasing the social impact, among them social franchising is one of the most promising. Despite its big potential, the related literature is still not developed. The thesis’ objective is to deepen social franchising concept, helping its diffusion among the practitioners. Given the breadth of the topic, the thesis is focalized on the franchisor-franchisee relationship. This because in the literature this relationship is considered a key element for the success of the overall franchise network and at the same time it has not been deepen by the researchers. In the theoretical part, we referred to commercial franchising, since it is at the origins of the social one. We took commercial franchising as comparing element, given that its literature is more developed. The theoretical framework, we adopted, is the Stewardship theory, since it has high potentiality of application in the social sector. Taking into consideration the literature review, we identified nine main challenges that occur in the selection of the partner and in the management of the franchisor-franchisee relationship. Following, applying the case studies methodology, the data collection has been done through interviews and on-site visits to two realities belonging to different sectors and with different stages of implementation of social franchising. The data collection allowed us to obtain themes particularly relevant for the franchisor-franchisee relationship. The identified themes are the importance of selection process, common goals and values, the financial flow, third parties influence, the role of documentation, the importance of communication and the control perception. The in-depth analysis of these themes allowed us to increment the overall knowledge about social franchising, helping in a concrete way its diffusion. The discussed themes offer useful insights for practitioners and they can be a starting point for future researches.
Il progresso tecnologico ha aperto un ampio scenario i cui effetti non sono solo difficili da prevedere, ma anche da controllare. Questo fatto, unito alla crisi del welfare, ha generato numerose sfide che catturano l’attenzione per la loro gravità e urgenza. In risposta ad esse, l’innovazione sociale svolge un importante ruolo di risolutrice, generando effetti positivi sulla società nel lungo termine. Imprese sociali, imprenditori sociali e no-profit sono gli attori principalmente coinvolti nella creazione e diffusione di questo tipo di innovazioni. A riguardo, la letteratura mostra un numero consistente di strategie che possono essere adottate con l’obbiettivo di aumentare l’impatto sociale, tra esse il social franchising emerge come una delle più promettenti. Nonostante il suo grande potenziale, la conoscenza teorica a riguardo è ancora poco sviluppata. L’obbiettivo della tesi è proprio quello di approfondire il social franchising, aiutandone la diffusione tra gli operatori del settore. Data l’ampiezza dell’argomento, la tesi si focalizzerà sulla relazione tra franchisor e franchisee. Questo poiché nella letteratura essa è identificata come elemento chiave per il successo del social franchising, ma al contempo è stata poco approfondita dagli studiosi. Nella parte teorica abbiamo fatto riferimento al commercial franchising, poiché all’origine del social franchising, prendendolo come elemento di comparazione data la sua letteratura più sviluppata. Il framework teorico adottato è quello della Stewardship theory, visto il suo elevato potenziale di applicazione nell’ambito sociale. Considerando la letteratura revisionata abbiamo identificato nove sfide principali che ricorrono nella selezione di un partner e nella gestione della relazione tra franchisor e franchisee. In seguito, tramite la metodologia dei casi studio, la raccolta dati è stata effettuata attraverso interviste e visite sul posto a due realtà appartenenti a settori diversi e con diverse fasi di implementazione del social franchising. La raccolta dati ci ha permesso di ottenere dei temi particolarmente rilevanti per la relazione tra franchisor e franchisee. I temi identificati e discussi sono: l’importanza del processo di selezione, obbiettivi e valori comuni, il flusso finanziario, l’influenza di terze parti, il ruolo della documentazione, l’importanza della comunicazione e la percezione del controllo. L’approfondimento di essi ci ha permesso di incrementare il sapere complessivo relativo al social franchising in modo da contribuire concretamente alla sua diffusione. I temi discussi offrono spunti utili per le persone del settore e possono essere un punto di partenza per ricerche future.
Scaling impact : a managerial perspective on social franchising
DEL GENIO, MARTA ELISA;ROSSI, GIULIA
2017/2018
Abstract
Technological progress has opened a host of scenarios, whose effects are not only difficult to predict, but also to control. This fact, together with the welfare crisis, generates several challenges, which capture the attention for their urgency and gravity. In response to these latter ones, social innovation plays an important role as resolver, generating positive societal effects on the long term. Social enterprises, social entrepreneurs and non-profits are the main actors involved in the creation and diffusion of this type of innovations. In this regards, the literature includes many strategies that can be adopted with the aim of increasing the social impact, among them social franchising is one of the most promising. Despite its big potential, the related literature is still not developed. The thesis’ objective is to deepen social franchising concept, helping its diffusion among the practitioners. Given the breadth of the topic, the thesis is focalized on the franchisor-franchisee relationship. This because in the literature this relationship is considered a key element for the success of the overall franchise network and at the same time it has not been deepen by the researchers. In the theoretical part, we referred to commercial franchising, since it is at the origins of the social one. We took commercial franchising as comparing element, given that its literature is more developed. The theoretical framework, we adopted, is the Stewardship theory, since it has high potentiality of application in the social sector. Taking into consideration the literature review, we identified nine main challenges that occur in the selection of the partner and in the management of the franchisor-franchisee relationship. Following, applying the case studies methodology, the data collection has been done through interviews and on-site visits to two realities belonging to different sectors and with different stages of implementation of social franchising. The data collection allowed us to obtain themes particularly relevant for the franchisor-franchisee relationship. The identified themes are the importance of selection process, common goals and values, the financial flow, third parties influence, the role of documentation, the importance of communication and the control perception. The in-depth analysis of these themes allowed us to increment the overall knowledge about social franchising, helping in a concrete way its diffusion. The discussed themes offer useful insights for practitioners and they can be a starting point for future researches.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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Scaling Impact - A Managerial Perspective on Social Franchising.pdf
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/144532