Education Franchising in Australia: Can Teachers be Successful Franchisees?
Joo-Gim Heaney, Service Industry Research Centre, Griffith University
Lorelle Frazer, Service Industry Research Centre, Griffith University
Abstract
Educational franchising is an emerging area in the fast growing services sector. However, no
empirical research has been done in exploring whether franchising is a suitable business
structure for distributing quality educational services. Four children’s education franchisors in
Australia were interviewed for this qualitative study to determine aspects of the business
relationship between the franchisor and franchisee. The findings reveal that while the
franchising structure supports the teaching and distribution of quality education as well as
providing a vehicle for cost effective expansion, more business skills are needed by the
franchisees. Franchisors feel that the teacher franchisees need to be skilled business people to
support the educational franchising system more effectively.
Key words: education franchising, resource constraints theory, agency theory, franchisor-
franchisee relationship
Introduction
Service franchises have grown by 78 percent in the USA since 1979 (Dugas, 1983) and have
also grown significantly in Australia over the past decade (Chow & Frazer, 2003). A growth
area of services franchises is education franchising (Frazer & Weaven, 2004). The
burgeoning growth of education franchises, the large number of parents and students involved
with education franchises and the high financial earnings of education franchises make this an
essential area of study. This paper explores the efficacy of the business relationship between
educational franchisors and franchisees, specifically, how and if the franchising structure
works for educational services.
Business format franchising has been growing steadily in Australia since the 1980s. During
the 1970s and 1980s intense business competition saw the failure of many small and medium
si