Using Professional Association Newsletters for Research

What is it about?

We provide a case study of our use of electronic newsletters from the International Franchise Association as a source of data for research studies on the expansion of U.S. franchise companies into international markets. Previous research on international franchise expansion, such as that by Schlentrich and Aliouche (2006), primarily used surveys, which tapped respondents’ intentions to expand, rather than actual expansions. Here we used official announcements that appeared in the press as a source for coding a number of variables related to firms’ international expansions. Reliability checks demonstrate that these press announcements are a reliable source of data on firms’ actual expansion activities. From these announcements, we were able to code reliably a number of variables used in our studies.

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