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ABSTRACT

  There is an increasing interest of using franchising as the growth strategy in the global e-commerce market.  In his 1999 best-seller book Business @ The Speed of Thought, Bill Gates wrote “Information Technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without talking about the other.”  In order to build a “meaning” system managing the franchise organizational knowledge, one needs to know how to build the good “family” relationship between the franchisor and the franchisees.  In this paper, we propose a framework of franchise learning and knowledge management, which enables the franchise to develop dynamic capabilities and value-creating strategies to enrich the franchisor/franchisee relationship.  Specifically, we address the following five questions: (1) How is franchise knowledge organized? (2) What are enabling franchise organizations to learn? (3) How are capabilities developed in franchise organizations? (4) What are the roles of information technology? (5) What are the implications for global e-commerce?