Exploring the evolution and future research on sustainability in franchising: a systematic review of the literature

Abstract

The purpose is to analyze the evolution of knowledge of the sustainability–franchise relationship through a systematic literature review (SLR) for the period 2000–2023. This study focuses on an SLR of the sustainability–franchise relationship of 76 articles selected from the Web of Science and Scopus databases. Sustainability in the field of franchising is still a nascent research topic, and existing studies have mainly focused on the social and economic dimensions, with the environmental dimension receiving less attention. The novelty of this work focuses on the analysis of the sustainability– franchise relationship, because sustainability has become a necessary strategy to ensure the long-term operation of the company and open investment opportunities, and because the franchise as a distribution channel participating in the value chain of companies and as a business model is not alien to sustainability.