Franchising Research Frontiers for the Twenty-First Century

[Display omitted] ► We elaborate on the rich and special context franchising presents to scholars. ► We review established franchising ontology and isolate research gaps. ► We review top 50 journals for their franchising publications in the past ten years. ► We provide comparative, cross national data on impact of franchising in the economy. ► We present a slate of nine new research directions for future scholars. About four decades ago, during the formative years of the franchising industry, visionary authors like Oxenfeldt and Kelly (1968) and Ozanne and Hunt (1971) proposed a rich slate of research agenda which still continues to guide some of the contemporary scholarship in the franchising domain. This article (1) explicates some of the unique features of the franchising context that presumably inspired these pioneering authors, (2) discusses four established elements of ontology unique to franchising and isolates the remaining research gaps therein, (3) specifies a new slate of more contemporary research agenda for future scholarship, and (4) concludes with a brief discussion of the ten articles featured in this Special Issue of the Journal of Retailing dedicated to the theme of Franchising and Retailing.