Franchising for Social Innovation

At the intersection of social enterprise and micro finance literatures, this book reviews a variety of social franchising formats across a number of developing countries. Social franchising represents a third generation form of franchising development, after trade-name and business-format franchising. Opportunities and threats for social franchising forms are examined, including specifically social franchising, micro franchising. Detailed cases of Access Afya, World Vision and Sari Organic cover healthcare, agriculture and retailing sectors. Social franchising has the potential to change the way we live by scaling the social benefits of enterprises through standardization and replication, and by providing an impetus for economic renewal at the bottom of the pyramid.

Ilan Alon is Cornell Professor of International Business at Rollins College and a visiting scholar at Georgetown University, USA. A prolific author on global franchising, Dr. Alon's books include: Global Franchising Operations Management: Cases in International and Emerging Markets Operations (FT Press, 2012), Franchising Globally: Innovation, Learning and Imitation (Palgrave, 2010), Service Franchising: A Global Perspective (Springer, 2005), International Franchising in Industrialized Markets: Western and Northern Europe (CCH Inc., 2003), International Franchising in Industrialized Markets: North America, Pacific Rim and Other Developed Countries (CCH Inc., 2002), International Franchising in Emerging Markets: China, India, and Other Asian Countries (CCH Inc., 2001), International Franchising in Emerging Markets: Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America (CCH Inc., 2001), The Internationalization of US Franchising Systems (Garland Publishing, 1999).

Introduction (Ilan Alon)
1. Social Franchising as an Organizational Format – An Overview; Anita du Toit
2. Overcoming Institutional Challenges in Microfranchising; Lisa Jones Christensen and David Lehr
3. The Scope for Scaling Up Social Enterprises in China; Michael Norton
4. Access Afya: Micro-Clinic Health Franchise Designed for Scale;  Kevin McKague, Melissa Menke, Ajanthy Arasaratnam
5. World Vision: Catalyzing the growth of Microfranchising in Tanzania; Andy Hunter and Ashley Wheaton