Sustainable restaurant franchising: Franchisor social support for franchisee resilience and intention to retain business during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

This study aims to explore the franchisor social support required for franchisees to overcome the undesirable COVID-19 pandemic and examine the influences of franchisor social support on franchisees' resilience and intention to retain business during the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers employed a PLS-SEM to estimate the model, using 168 valid responses from restaurant franchisees in South Korea who survived the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings demonstrate that the franchisor's affective and appraisal support have a positive and significant influence on franchisees' resilience but do not have significant effects on the intention to retain business. Moreover, the research findings identify that the franchisor's informational and instrumental support does not have significant impacts on franchisee resilience but positive and significant effects on the intention to retain business. The findings also highlight that franchisees' resilience plays a role as a full mediator in the association between franchisor's affective support and franchisees' intention to retain business. However, resilience does not mediate the relationships between the other resources of social support from the franchisor and the franchisees' intention to retain business. The researchers discuss the theoretical contributions and practical suggestions in the conclusion section based on the interesting findings. © 2023 The Authors