My guess is that you are studying the concept of franchising which is why you’d be looking for franchising dissertation topics. However, I have to make some assumptions regarding the perspective you’ve chosen. Are you coming from the concept of taking a business that you’ve grown to a level of success and franchising that enterprise; or, are you coming from the other side of the industry, that of purchasing a franchise for your own business. Let me suggest some topics from both sides with the reasons they may have interest.
Franchising Your Successful Enterprise
The Franchise Disclosure Document: Should you have it developed for you? Should you contract with a firm specializing in franchise development, or use a local attorney? What will you decide on optional information for this FDD, such as ‘Financial Performance Representations?’
Choosing a Firm to Develop Your Franchise Offering: Do you need to have someone local? Will you develop any of the documents in-house? Can you work with someone who is remote if it will save money?
Procedures and Policies: Do you already have these documents prepared? How user-friendly are they? Do you require strict adherence now? Will you require strict adherence for your franchisees?
Training: How much training will you provide? Will you train on product knowledge and operations only? Will you also train marketing and sales techniques? Will it be one time only or continuous? Will you have training at headquarters, at the franchise location, both? What will all of that cost? How much will be reimbursed by the new franchisee?
Marketing: How will you market your new franchise opportunity? Will you use franchise brokers, conventions, industry publications, newspapers? How can you use the internet? What will be the costs?
Which of these franchising dissertation topics has the most interest from this perspective?
Purchasing the Right Franchise for Your Business
Cost: What can you afford? How much cash do you have available considering your needs for personal and living expenses while the business is getting off the ground? How much can you borrow vs. how much you are comfortable borrowing? What is your credit score? Are you open to using retirement funds? How is that done? Who is expert in setting that up so that there isn’t any negative tax implications?
Fit: What do you bring to the table in the way of experience? Maybe more importantly, what activities do you enjoy doing that might fit well in your new business? (If you enjoy doing certain things, you tend to do them which results in obtaining the objective of those activities. On the other hand, if you get into a business that requires activities you hate doing, you’ll eventually find a reason not to do them and the business could fail.) What services or products are you passionate about? What personality traits would fit well with specific businesses? How can you match all of this up with franchises that fit most or all of them?
Licensing: What licenses are required for what types of franchises? Which employees will need what licenses?
Structure: Should you run your business as a Limited Liability Company, an ‘S’ Corporation or a ‘C’ Corporation? When and why would one be more appropriate than another?
Marketing: Is the franchise providing my marketing procedures? Are they all that is necessary? What marketing procedures are being used by the best performing franchises? Can you replicate those techniques? What will the franchise allow you to use?
How about any of the above franchising dissertation topics when buying a franchise?
There are certainly others that may come to mind. You might even combine some of the above franchising dissertation topics with non-franchise business topics for relevancy. I’d recommend that in all cases be sure to include something about how marketing will impact either perspective. Furthermore, in today’s world, if your company, franchise or not, isn’t using the internet, it’s falling behind the competition. Learn how that can be done efficiently. Start now while you are thinking about it.