What Drives Royalty Rates in International Franchising?
研究了国家特征（经济潜力、法律权利保护、文化距离）和合同特征（地域排他性、合同期限）如何影响国际特许经营中的特许权使用费率，发现经济潜力提高费率，而法律保护、文化距离和合同期限降低费率，且服务类型（针对人还是财产）会调节部分效应。
Royalty rates are an essential contractual provision to reduce the risk of opportunism in franchising partnerships, many of which are international. However, extant research provides limited insights into the factors that determine the level of royalty rates in international franchise agreements. To address this gap, the authors conceptualize and empirically test a model that treats country characteristics (economic potential, legal rights protection, and cultural distance) and contract characteristics (territorial exclusivity and contract duration) as drivers of royalty rates, accounting for product-market profile and service type as potential contextual factors. Using a unique data set comprising 125 international franchising contracts between franchisors and franchisees from 19 countries, the authors find that economic potential (but not territorial exclusivity) is associated with higher royalty rates, whereas legal rights protection, cultural distance, and contract duration are associated with lower royalty rates. Although these relationships are robust across business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets, the impact on royalty rates of economic potential is more pronounced, and that of legal rights protection is less pronounced, for services targeting people (e.g., hospitality) than for services targeting their possessions (e.g., financial services). This work extends the literature exploring the contracting stage of international franchising and provides insights that inform franchisors’ and franchisees’ decisions related to the design of such contracts.