Social Franchising Research Articles

Early Lessons From Working With Local Partners to Expand Private-Sector Health Care Networks in Burundi and Mali.

The private health care sector is an important source of service delivery in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Yet, the private sector remains fragmented, making it difficult for health system actors to support and ensure the availability of quality health care services. In global health programs, social franchising is one model used to engage and organize the private health care sector. Two social franchise networks, ProFam in West Africa and Tunza in East and Central Africa, provide health care through branded networks of facilities. However, these social franchise networks include a limited number of private health care facilities, and in fragile contexts, like Burundi and Mali, they have faced challenges in integrating with national health systems. The MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery (MPHD) project in Burundi and Mali sought to expand the number of health facilities it engaged beyond the existing ProFam and Tunza networks. The expansion aimed to help improve service quality in more private facilities while advancing localization and reducing fragmentation for improved stewardship by health system actors. MPHD achieved this expansion by removing barriers for private health facilities to join inclusive, nonbranded networks and engaging local partners to build and maintain these networks. We share lessons learned regarding the growing role of local organizations as actors within mixed health systems and provide insights on strengthening stewardship of the increasingly heterogeneous private health care delivery sector in LMICs, particularly in fragile settings.

What makes conversations about death with strangers enjoyable? Applying a neo-tribal lens to the Death Café interaction

ABSTRACT Death Café is a not-for-profit international social franchise founded in 2011 in London. This paper is based on the most extensive empirical research of Death Cafés to date, examining the content of Death Café conversations. I interrogate the finding that, alongside talking directly about death and dying, people at a Death Café consistently talk about the value of being at a Death Café and about the value of talking about death. I introduce three main ways that talking about the value of conversations about death appears in a Death Café and, most importantly, I argue that talking about the value of conversations about death is an enjoyable part of the conversation in its own right. I use neo-tribal theory and its concept of aesthetics as ‘a way of feeling in common’ and ‘a means of recognising ourselves’ to examine this further. When talking about the value of conversations about death, Death Café participants reflexively consider the activity they are engaging in= together, which strengthens the feeling of collectivity, and bonds them into a neo-tribe. This paper demonstrates that Death Café is a valued form of social interaction, moving it away from the current academic attempts to discover Death Café’s instrumental utility.

Addressing Health Care Inequality Through Social Franchising: The Role of Network Stewardship in Impact Intermediation

Addressing Health Care Inequality Through Social Franchising: The Role of Network Stewardship in Impact Intermediation

Utilization of social franchising in family planning services: a Pakistan perspective.

Pakistan's private sector caters to around 65% of family planning users. Private sector family planning was promoted in the Delivering Accelerated Family Planning in Pakistan (DAFPAK) program by UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) in 2019. We use data from DAFPAK to analyze the clientele and products distributed by two major NGOs, Marie Stopes Society (MSS) and DKT Pakistan, that support private providers in Pakistan. We also examined the effect of COVID-19 on client visits and contraceptives uptake at private facilities in Pakistan. DAFPAK used field validation surveys to analyze the volume of clients and products of 639 private facilities across three provinces (Punjab, KPK and Balochistan) of Pakistan. The data was collected in two phases (February 2020 and 2021) using multi-stage cluster sampling at 95% confidence level. Using a generalized negative binomial regression, facility-level characteristics and impact of COVID-19 was analyzed with the volume of clients and products given out at 95% confidence interval alongside descriptive analysis. DKT facilities covered 53% of the sample while MSS covered 47%, with 72% facilities in the rural areas. Average facility existence duration is 87 months (7.25 years). While the average experience of the facility staff is 52 months (4.33 years). MSS is serving more clients as compared to DKT during both phase 1 (IRR: 3.15; 95% CI: 2.74, 3.61) and phase 2 (IRR: 2.11; 95% CI: 1.79, 2.49). Similarly, MSS had a greater volume of products given out in both phases 1 (IRR: 1.89; 95% CI: 1.51, 2.38) and phase 2 (IRR: 2.57; 95% CI: 2.09, 3.14). In both phases, client visits and product distribution decreased when client privacy is invaded (IRR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.67, 0.82 - phase 1) and (IRR: 0.83; 95% CI: 0.72, 0.97 - phase 2). Lastly, during COVID-19, products distribution decreased by a factor of 0.84 (IRR: 0.84; 95% CI: 0.72, 0.97) but client visits remain unaffected. Overall, clientele is low for all facilities. At a facility, privacy is a determinant of client visits and products given out per visit. Transiently, during COVID-19, client volumes decreased, with a shift from oral pills to condoms and emergency contraceptive pills.

Dialogue in the Dark Malaysia: reimagining an inclusive society through social innovation

Research methodology This case was developed via primary data collected from personal (one to one) interview with the CEO and founder of Dialogue in the Dark Malaysia (Dialogue Malaysia), Stevens Chan. With Stevens’ contact, the authors also conducted personal interviews with Kaye Chan (co-founder and wife of Stevens Chan), Lynn Foo (project manager since inception until early 2022) and Dr Foo Yin Fah (academic researcher in social entrepreneurship and advisor for Dialogue Malaysia). Secondary data included reports on visually impaired context in Malaysia, Dialogue Malaysia’s annual reports and online articles. Prior to the primary data collection, the authors obtained ethics approval from the University Human Ethics Committee (Project ID: 35461). Case overview/synopsis This case narrative focuses on Stevens Chan, a blind social entrepreneur who champions the empowerment of the disabled and marginalised community. Through a social franchising model, Stevens founded Dialogue in the Dark Malaysia in 2012. As a social start-up, Stevens showcases the strengths of blind and visually impaired individuals through transformative experiential encounters and reimagining future possibilities. Although there are constant challenges in securing financial and human capital, Stevens never lacks psychological capital, characterised by hope, self-efficacy, optimism and resilience. His vision is to educate society on the power of empathy (and not sympathy) and to create a holistic experience of celebrating diversity and inclusion through an innovative discovery centre, where the elderly and the disabled community (including the deaf, mute and those with mobility issues) share their lives with the public through fun activities. However, the future of this social enterprise is uncertain, and this case invites participants to embark on this journey with Stevens to uncover future pathways for growth and social impact. Complexity academic level The case is tailored for higher level undergraduates and entry-level and mid-level managers of executive education programs.

Markets, incentives, and health promotion can improve family planning and maternal health practices: a quasi-experimental evaluation of a tech-enabled social franchising and social marketing platform in India

BackgroundImproving family planning and maternal health outcomes are critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. While evidence on the effectiveness of government-driven public health programs is extensive, more research is needed on effectiveness of private-sector interventions, especially in low- and middle-income countries. We evaluated the impacts of a commercial social-franchising and social-marketing program – Tiko Platform – which created a local ecosystem of health promoters, healthcare providers, pharmacies, stockists/wholesalers, and lifestyle shops. It provided economic incentives through discounts and reward points to nudge health-seeking behaviors from enrolled women consumers/beneficiaries.MethodsAn ex-post facto evaluation was commissioned, and we employed a quasi-experimental design to compare outcomes related to the use of family planning, and antenatal and postnatal services between users and non-users who had registered for Tiko in three North Indian cities. Between March and April 2021, 1514 married women were surveyed, and outcome indicators were constructed based on recall. Despite statistical approaches to control for confounding, the effect of COVID-19 lockdown on Tiko operations and methodological limitations preclude inferring causality or arguing generalizability.ResultsWe found a strong association between the use of the Tiko platform and the current use of temporary modern contraceptives [non-users: 9.5%, effect: +9.4 percentage points (pp), p-value < 0.001], consumption of 100 or more iron-folic-acid tablets during pregnancy [non-users: 25.5%, effect: +14 pp, p-value < 0.001], receiving four or more antenatal check-ups [non-users: 18.3%, effect: +11.3 pp, p-value 0.007], and receiving postnatal check-up within six weeks of birth [non-users: 50.9%, effect: +7.5 pp, p-value 0.091]. No associations were found between the use of the Tiko platform and the current use of any type of contraceptive (temporary, permanent, or rudimentary). Effects were pronounced when a community health worker of the National Health Mission also worked as a health promoter for the Tiko Platform.ConclusionCommercial interventions that harness market-driven approaches of incentives, social marketing, and social franchising improved family planning and maternal health practices through higher utilization of private market providers while maintaining access to government health services. Findings support a unifying approach to public health without separating government versus private services, but more rigorous and generalizable research is needed.Trial registrationNCT05725278 at clinicaltrials.gov (retrospective); 13/02/2023.

ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM OF AGRICULTURAL SOCIAL FRANCHISING

Although the implementation of the social franchising concept is relatively new in agricultural business, examples of successful business stories have recently appeared, especially in the underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa and South America. The aim of the paper is to determine the best examples of entrepreneurial ecosystems of agricultural social franchising by applying a qualitative multiple case study analysis and point out the importance of the implementation of agricultural social franchising in the development of agribusiness in the Republic of Serbia. The experiences of analyzed social agricultural franchises from Kenya, Bangladesh and Nigeria can serve as an example of good practice for the development of social franchising in rural areas in Serbia, with the aim of developing productive agriculture that will lead to economic development. It is very important to enable the development of social agricultural franchising through the Strategy of agriculture and rural development, bearing in mind a number of benefits that can be realized in Serbian agriculture, primarily when it comes to the development of rural areas and the increase in the income and social welfare of farmers.

A Theoretical Review of the Social Franchising System

Çalışmanın konusunu, sosyal girişimleri büyütmek ve ölçeklendirmek için bir yöntem olan sosyal franchising sistemi oluşturmaktadır. Bu doğrultuda çalışmanın amacı, sosyal girişimleri ve sosyal franchising’i açıklamaya ve anlamaya yönelik bir değerlendirme sunarak sosyal franchising konusundaki bilgileri derinleştirmeye yardımcı olmaktır. Bu bağlamda öncelikle, sosyal girişimcilik kavramı tanımlanmıştır. Daha sonra sosyal franchising kavramı tanımlanarak sosyal franchising ile ticari franchising arasındaki benzerlik ve farklılıklar ele alınmış, sosyal girişimlerin sosyal franchising sistemi içerisinde yer almalarının sağlayacağı avantajlar belirtilmiştir. Çalışmada son olarak, kavramın teorik açıdan daha iyi anlaşılması adına sosyal franchising’i açıklamaya yönelik teorilere yer verilmiştir. Söz konusu teoriler Kaynak Kıtlığı Teorisi, Vekalet Teorisi ve Sosyal Sermaye Teorisidir. Bu doğrultuda sosyal franchising kavramı, belirtilen teoriler ışığında incelenmiş, her bir teorinin sosyal franchising kavramını ne ölçüde açıkladığı ortaya konulmaya çalışılmıştır. Çalışmanın, sosyal franchisingle ilgili kavramsal bir çerçeve sunarak alan yazına, sosyal girişimlerin ve sosyal franchising’in karşı karşıya olduğu finansal ve sürdürülebilirlik konularındaki kısıtlılıkları açıklamak ve bu kısıtlılıkların üstesinden gelmek için yapılması gerekenler noktasında rehberlik ederek de uygulayıcılara katkı sunması beklenmektedir.

Social franchising in the public health sector in Vietnam: a tale of two change pathways

PurposeThat social franchising programs induce favorable outcomes is readily taken for granted, albeit lacking robust empirical support. Addressing this situation, this paper takes a closer look at a fractional social franchising program in the public health-care sector in Vietnam to better understand how such programs work. This paper aims to expand the nascent body of empirical research that has examined the inner workings of social franchising programs from the perspective of clients by focusing on the health professionals who work there.Design/methodology/approachUsing an exploratory qualitative research design, the authors conducted 25 semistructured interviews with health professionals of a fractional franchising program called Sisterhood, which introduced reproductive health and family planning services into existing health facilities in Vietnam. Interviews were triangulated with Sisterhood’s internal documents as well as with publicly available reports.FindingsThe analysis highlights two pathways through which the social franchising program brought about positive change. On the one hand, the analysis suggests that many of the positive outcomes reported by public health professionals were consistent with the stated goals and measures used by the Sisterhood program, providing evidence that improving the quality of health care for disadvantaged communities can be achieved through careful design and execution. On the other hand, the analysis revealed beneficial outcomes that were outside the scope of the Sisterhood program and, in this sense, “unexpected.” Specifically, the paper sheds light on unintended knowledge spillover effects in which nonfranchised health professionals began to adopt new practices and principles introduced by the social franchising program.Originality/valueThe paper taps into a largely under-researched phenomenon – fractional social franchising – from the perspective of health professionals. Unpacking how the social franchising program created favorable outcomes, some by design and others by accident, the paper opens new empirical and policy insights into how social franchising can improve public health in hard-to-reach communities in the global South. Based on the findings, the authors argue for the intentional promotion and institutionalization of knowledge transfers from franchised to nonfranchised health facilities to reinforce and scale up the positive impact of social franchising. The authors conclude by emphasizing the need for future research to adopt a complexity-sensitive approach that accounts for the dynamic, nonlinear adoption pathways social franchising can take. Such an approach is essential to uncover the beneficial outcomes that can result from social franchising programs but cannot be readily predicted by program design.

Death Cafe como uma estratégia formativa em fonoaudiologia paliativista

ABSTRACT Speech therapy interventions may be influenced by how one thinks, feels, and talks about death and dying. The literature suggests that the (future) speech therapist should learn how to manage their emotional responses related to death and dying and broaden their perspectives to consider death and dying as part of the human experience through reflective formative strategies and experiential learning, resembling the characteristics of a Death Cafe. This makes its formative use potentially applicable in this context. The Death Cafe is a global social franchise with pre-established rules, where people gather to freely discuss death as a part of life, without predefined objectives or themes, distinguishing it from grief support, lectures, and the like. Studies discuss the benefits of students and healthcare professionals participating in Death Cafe, including transforming death into a naturalistic perspective, exploring the humanity of dying, reassessing how they approach and want to approach end-of-life care, managing emotions, and enhancing clinical judgment.

Analysing the Factors Influencing the Internationalisation of Social Entrepreneurship: A Study of Internationalised Social Businesses from Bangladesh

Social businesses (SB) have significant relevance as they create social impact through revenue-generating business models. The current study is intended to contribute to social entrepreneurship literature by identifying the factors that can influence social business in the internationalisation process from a developing country context, Bangladesh. The research utilised the qualitative approach to extract the required information from the selected ten (10) business cases. MAXQDA software was used to generate the required codes and categories. From the findings, three broad categories of factors have been identified that influence internationalisation: firm-centric, entrepreneur-specific, and context-specific factors related to home and host country environments. The study determined that the firm’s capabilities, such as designing technological apps and platforms to provide essential health, education, and medical services, contribute to internationalisation. In addition, the research identified the adaptation of the business model as one of the determinants of SB internationalisation. Some adaptation practices include maintaining hybrid logic, adopting social franchising model, value delivery, and value capture processes through partnership with for-profit organisations in host countries. The findings of this study are expected to be useful for academicians and also for the social entrepreneurs willing to take their enterprises to the international market level.

Social Franchise Models Enable Innovation in Social and Financial Education

Social Franchise Models Enable Innovation in Social and Financial Education

Institutions and training: A case of social franchising in Africa

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to explore two questions: how do institutions affect knowledge transfer in social franchises in Africa, and does training help social franchises respond to these challenges? Despite advances in the knowledge management literature, our understanding of the role of training in social franchising remains inadequate. Using the qualitative induction methodology, we examine a social franchise network operating in Africa. Our findings suggest that differences in formal and informal institutions affect knowledge transfer within the social franchise network. However, social franchises that understand the institutional environment have been successful in adapting their training strategies to scale up their social impact across African countries. We provide valuable insights into the expansion of a rapidly growing business model within social entrepreneurship, social franchising, and show how a successful social franchise managed to replicate its knowledge across different institutional frameworks in Africa.

Addressing the infrastructure maintenance gap while creating employment and transferring skills: An innovative institutional model

ABSTRACT The ‘social franchising’ model for the operation and maintenance of selected water and sanitation infrastructure, the conceptual origins of the model, its subsequent development by desktop research methods, and its piloting in the field, are described. Piloted in South Africa by a team with extensive experience of water and sanitation infrastructure and business development, the model has since been rolled out to scale, simultaneously bringing about (i) the servicing of selected infrastructure, returning it to full use, and (ii) micro-business development and nurturing, job creation, and skills development. Development and implementation of the model over two decades have demonstrated its robust nature compared to equivalent stand-alone micro-businesses, how it can partner in schools to improve health and hygiene education, and the effectiveness of the work it has done on infrastructure servicing and to accomplish tasks other than basic maintenance.

Lessons for the Design of Comprehensive Primary Healthcare in India: A Qualitative Study

Health systems with strong comprehensive primary health care (CPHC) are known to result in better health outcomes for people. In India, there is a recent push to strengthen CPHC through Ayushman Bharat. This study aimed to document lessons from successful CPHC initiatives in rural and urban India using a qualitative case study approach. A total of 72 CPHC initiatives were identified through desk review and 12 of these were studied as cases. The following two main models of CPHC delivery were seen in India: (a) a hospital or health centre with outreach and (b) social franchising model, prevalent in rural and urban contexts, respectively. Themes identified were related to organisation of services, workforce, financing and challenges in practice. Services being comprehensive, dialoguing with the community, addressing social determinants were themes under organisation of services. There is need for more generalists and training health professionals towards CPHC. Financing of CPHC especially in the rural context remains a major challenge and cannot be sustained with user fees. Leadership, values, team-based care and organisational culture play a vital role in the delivery of good quality CPHC. These findings contribute to the literature on what works and why, which could be used to design CPHC in India.

Socijalna mikrofranšiza u službi zajednice - "rešenje" je JIBU model

Social entrepreneurship is becoming increasingly important for the franchise business model. Social franchising is a useful strategy for growth and sustainability of social enterprises based on practices of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The paper starts from the basic assumption that global social goals can be achieved by using social microfranchise as a modern form of franchise business. Social microfranchises combine benefits and social goals of a social franchise and a microfranchise, while providing the necessary products and services to the poor and creating business opportunities for the poorest in the community. The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of social franchising and microfranchising as new forms of franchising that contribute to the wider community, focusing on the business example of Jibu social microfranchise operating in Africa and its global social impact. There are two key challenges facing developing countries in Africa: access to safe drinking water and high unemployment. Our research has shown that Jibu helps address both challenges by training local entrepreneurs to create a network of franchise units that provide permanent access to drinking water, which can have positive implications for solving other social problems of local communities in many underdeveloped and developing countries.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ УПРАВЛЕНИЯ СОЦИАЛЬНЫМИ ПРОЕКТАМИ: ВОПРОСЫ ФИНАНСИРОВАНИЯ

The article discusses the importance of the implementation of social projects, describes the sources of their financing. The key sources of funding for social projects are: fundraising, sponsorship, donation, the activities of patrons, the system for issuing state grants and subsidies, crowdfunding, social franchising, holding various youth competitions. Examples of various social projects are given with a description of the ways of their financing. The conclusion is made about the relevance of the implementation of social projects, the importance of their application at enterprises, in educational institutions, their impact on the life of young people and society as a whole is described.

Corporate social responsibility in franchising: A meta-analytic review

Purpose: This study seeks to present a comprehensive meta-analysis of academic research on corporate social responsibility and franchising over the past 27 years (1994–2020).Methodology: The data was compiled using the ISI Web of Science database. A total of 204 articles were identified and analysed through bibliometric citation and content analysis.Findings: The analysis reveal the 49 most relevant articles, 107 authors, and 21 journals. The trending themes in the literature were clustered into three research streams: ethics and franchising; drivers of CSR performance and disclosure; and impact of CSR on organisational performance. Overall, the literature indicates that franchising has ethical implications which impacts on the large group of stakeholders it creates as a type of business strategy. Also, despite the high costs of pursuing corporate social responsibility, empirical evidence suggests that it is beneficial in establishing quality relationship with stakeholders which in turn has implications for operational and financial performances.Implications: The study makes an important contribution to existing knowledge for practitioners and provides the basis for further studies. Contribution: As the first review paper in the field, the article is unique in its extensive review and synthesis of the literature in corporate social responsibility and franchising.

Unjani Clinics: meeting the need for scale through social franchising

In this contribution to the Organization Zoo series, we discuss an organization with a unique organization design that allows for a scalable and financially sustainable approach to social impact. Unjani Clinics is a network of nurse-led clinics in South Africa, where the nonprofit (head office) organization oversees the operations of more than ninety for-profit independent primary healthcare clinics. Combining for-profit and nonprofit entities in a social franchise structure represents a unique bundle of organization design choices that together enable the organization to effectively pursue its mission. By combining entrepreneurial incentives for nurses, such as ownership rights over their clinics, with social impact-driven controls, Unjani cultivates an otherwise untapped resource—i.e., professional nurses’ entrepreneurial ambitions—to deliver on its social mission. This novel combination of entrepreneurial autonomy with formal hierarchical as well as informal controls to safeguard the social mission allows Unjani to address the tension between social and financial value creation, which often prevents social enterprises from scaling successfully.

Scaling social franchises: lessons learned from Farm Shop

BackgroundThe challenge of enhancing food security and livelihoods for smallholder farmers has been a significant concern in the agricultural development field. To increase farm productivity and enable smallholder farmers to rise out of poverty, several organizations have initiated social franchising business models to create sustainable social enterprises. Social franchising has recently gathered increased interest in lower-income countries for its potential to address social and ecological issues, support local entrepreneurs, and reach financial sustainability to allow for scaling through market forces. Social franchising combines the principles of business franchising (standardized systems and other supports that reduce risk for the entrepreneur) with a social mission. To gain deeper insights into the opportunities and challenges for scaling social franchises, we gathered quantitative and qualitative longitudinal data on Farm Shop, a social franchise with a network of 74 agricultural input shops seeking to reduce food security through improving productivity, incomes and food security of smallholder Kenyan farmers.ResultsWe derived five critical lessons from our findings. First, social franchising can create jobs and profitability for farmers and strengthens the rural entrepreneurial ecosystem. Second, economics of scale is critical for profitability and sustainability of the social franchisor. Third, building trust with farmers is crucial for a successful social franchising model. Fourth, social franchisors should be aware of the variety of options to ensure the sustainability of the social franchising program. Fifth, to develop a scalable business model, cost-effectively gathering the right data to validate key assumptions is essential.ConclusionsFarm Shop is one of a cohort of pioneering social franchises that have applied the principles of franchising to address particular social needs. In this case, the needs were food security, livelihoods, and prosperity for smallholder farmers. Farm Shop uncovered important lessons relevant for all social franchises at similar stages in the business model development process. With these lessons in mind, Farm Shop and other social franchises can be better equipped to live up to social franchising’s promise of achieving social objectives in a more resource-efficient and sustainable way.