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The literature on trust, control and knowledge creation in seems to be moving towards a consensus. Trust is necessary to create an open atmosphere for knowledge creation while control acts as a safeguard against malfeasance. Networks that neglect either one often create less knowledge, such as new skills and products. Temporary networks, however, may have to depend more on control than on trust since their temporary nature may reduce the opportunity to develop trust. This paper contributes to the literature on trust, control and knowledge creation by empirically examining these variables in temporary innovation networks in the Eindhoven region in the Netherlands. Previous research showed that these networks contribute to regional economic development. This paper explores the mechanism through which this happens. Temporary innovation networks may lack trust in case the partners had no previously collaboration. They may therefore rely more heavily on control. On the other hand, these networks are formed with a specific purpose and may have mechanism to compensate for a lack of trust. The research question of this paper is: How do trust and control affect knowledge creation outcomes of these networks? Several factors that may affect this causal relation will be taken into account: - Previous relations among partners, - Mutual dependency among partners, - Level of agreement on project goals. The data for this research were collected in 2005. The paper develops several theoretical patterns on how trust and control affect knowledge creation among the members of the temporary networks and how this yields knowledge creation outcomes. Different levels of trust and control have different effects on the willingness to share knowledge and the use of communication modes. Control encourages formal communication that emphasizes the exchange of codified knowledge, while trust encourages informal communication that emphasizes the exchange of tacit knowledge. Both are necessary to produce knowledge creation outcomes. The paper develops several theoretical patterns that ar matched to empirical patterns derived from selected networks (cases) in the Eindhoven region. The results show that a combination of moderate control and high levels of trust produce the highest levels of knowledge creation outcomes.

Ein Controlling der laufenden IT-Projekte ist heute unverzichtbar, um die verschiedenen IT-Projekte, die in einer Organisation durchgeführt werden, einzeln und insgesamt zum Erfolg zu verhelfen. Dies ist aber nur dann möglich, wenn der Projektleitung bzw. dem Project-Office valide Planungs- und Statusdaten vorliegen sowie geeignete Projektmanagement-Werkzeug vorhanden sind. Bewährte Werkzeuge sind insbesondere Kennzahlen sowie zielgruppengerecht gestaltete Management-Cockpits, Projekt-Reports und Benchmarking. Trotz erheblicher Vorteile werden die Potenziale von Projektkennzahlen allerdings oft nur unvollkommen genutzt. Hier setzt das neue Arbeitspapier von Ernst Tiemeyer an. Ausgehend von Kernaufgaben und Zielsetzungen im Projektcontrolling sowie unter Nutzung des Balanced-Scorecard-Ansatzes werden konkrete Orientierungen und Beispiele zur Entwicklung und Umsetzung eines umfassenden, ganzheitlichen Kennzahlensystems für das IT-Projektcontrolling gegeben.

This paper uses unique German data to examine the effects of the relative standing on the individual propensity to become self-employed in the next two years. The results suggest that the relationship between relative wage positions and propensity to become self-employed is U-shaped. This is interpreted as evidence that low status translates into entrepreneurial motivation for workers in low relative wage positions. Employees with high relative standing, in turn, seem to be more concerned about the lack of future career prospects in paid employment and consider self-employment as a next step on the individual career ladder.

Compliance als Teilbereich der Corporate Governance betrifft zwar letztlich den Geschäftsalltag. Doch die hierbei genutzten Produkte bzw. Systeme werden vor ihrer Nutzung i. d. R. im Rahmen von Projekten - als üblicher Form zur Umsetzung von Vorhaben der Unternehmensentwicklung - geplant und realisiert. Also müssen Compliance-Anforderungen für die spätere Nutzung bereits in Projekten bei ihrer Gestaltung, Entwicklung und Implementierung berücksichtigt werden. Zudem unterliegt auch die Projektarbeit als solche - teilweise spezifischen - Compliance-Anforderungen. Wie bei der Durchführung von Geschäftsprozessen sind somit auch in der Projektarbeit zahlreiche Vorgaben aus Gesetzen, Standards, Normen, Verträgen und weiteren unternehmensinternen und -externen Regularien zu beachten. Das vorliegende Arbeitspapier unternimmt eine Begriffsklärung und entfaltet Projekt-Compliance als zunehmend wichtiges Handlungsfeld des Projektmanagements.

Projekt-Compliance bedeutet die Befolgung von Gesetzen und sonstigen Regelwerken im Rahmen der Projektarbeit. Wie bei der Durchführung von Geschäftsprozessen sind auch in der Projektarbeit zahlreiche Vorgaben aus Gesetzen, Standards, Normen, Verträgen und weiteren unternehmensinternen und -externen Regularien zu beachten. Somit muss auch Projektarbeit compliant sein, d. h. Anforderungen aus unterschiedlichsten Regelwerken berücksichtigen und ihnen nachkommen. Zu den relevanten Regelwerken zählen auch Normen und Standards des Projektmanagements (PM), die wiederum durch PM-Softwaretools abzubilden sind. Somit stellt sich die Frage, inwieweit PM-Tools compliant sind zu bestimmten PM-Normen und -Standards. Zur Beantwortung sind PM-Normen und -Standards auf ihre Compliance-Anforderungen hin zu analysieren und der Grad der Erfüllung dieser Anforderungen durch PM-Tools ist zu bestimmen. Dies wird im Rahmen dieses Arbeitspapieres anhand der USamerikanischen Projektmanagement-Norm Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide (PMBOK Guide) und der Projektmanagement-Software Projektron BCS exemplarisch durchgeführt. Als Ergebnis ist festzuhalten, dass ein fundiertes Urteil über die PMBOK-Konformität von Projektmanagement-Tools durch die Ableitung von funktionalen und qualitätsbezogenen Anforderungen und die Bewertung ihrer Erfüllung durch das Tool möglich ist. Für die exemplarisch geprüfte Projektmanagement-Software Projektron BCS zeigt sich, dass diese in weiten Teilen, jedoch nicht in einem zentralen Element des PM-Wissensgebietes Kommunikationsmanagement PMBOK-compliant ist.

The paper focuses on the role of Science Parks (SPs) as seedbeds of innovation. It investigates whether and to what extent locating inside a science park relates to the innovative output of tenant firms. The simple assessment methodology proposed relies on count data models, uses patents as innovation performance indicators, and exploits original data regarding the Finnish science parks, their main characteristics, and the data of 252 SP tenant firms, including their patenting activity over the period 19702002. Among other results, the study suggests that both within and among SPs interaction and spillover effects exist, and points out the way in which they relate to firms' innovative output. Results are robust to controlling for the existence of innovation lags. Parks' first mover disadvantages also emerge, as well as non-negligible matching phenomena whereby firms' and parks' characteristics matter jointly.

This article incorporates a political decision process into an urban land use model to predict the likely location of a public good. It fills an important gap in the literature by modeling the endogenous location of open space. The article compares open space decisions made under a majority-rules voting scheme with welfare-improving criterion and finds households tied to a location in space compete against each other for public goods located nearer them. Significant differences emerge between the two decision criteria, indicating that requiring referenda for open space decisions is likely to lead to inefficient outcomes. Specifically, many open space votes are likely to fail that would lead to welfare improvements, and any open space decisions that do pass will require amenities larger than needed to achieve the social optimum. The more dispersed and large the population, the larger is the gap between the socially efficient level and the level needed for a public referendum to pass.

The paper studies whether and how CEO turnover in Ukrainian firms is related to their performance. Based on a novel dataset covering Ukrainian joint stock companies in 2002-2006, the paper finds statistically significant negative association between the past performance of firms measured by return on sales and return on assets, and the likelihood of managerial turnover. While the strength of the turnover-performance relationship does not seem to depend on factors such as managerial ownership and supervisory board size, we do find significant entrenchments effects associated with ownership by managers. Overall, our analysis suggests that corporate governance in Ukraine operates with a certain degree of efficiency, despite the well-known lacunas in the country's institutional environment.

The object of the present analysis is organizational slack. The paper targets at a "slack type" which consists of basic information deriving from slack functions, slack conditions, antecedents of slack and dispositional requirements of slack. The purpose of the analysis is the creation of a preliminary heuristic for slack search, which combines all preconditions for systematical use of slack. The paper is the first part of an analysis series to the ambivalent role of organizational slack as an indicator of efficiency and inefficiency in the resource allocation process of a firm.

Based on an improved and extended database, the Establishment History Panel, we extend the analysis of Fritsch & Weyh (2006) by investigating the development of employment in German start-up co-horts for the period 1976 to 2004. We confirm the typical pattern of an initial increasing and then soon decreasing number of employees in start-up cohorts. Furthermore, we provide some of the first evidence for the ”liability of aging” phenomena in Germany. Older firms face a relatively high risk of failure. Although only the largest 25% of the surviving entries grow in terms of employment, after 25 years the number of employees in these relatively large businesses strongly declines.

Aktuelle Studien zur Arbeitssituation in Unternehmen belegen Einzelaspekte wie Produktivitätsverluste, fehlende emotionale Bindung der Mitarbeiter und Defizite im Managementverhalten. Die Thematik wird in dieser Fallstudie in einem interdisziplinären Ansatz untersucht. Basierend auf dem Modell Pathologie der Organisation (Türk) wird ein Interviewleitfaden entwickelt, der als Basis für Experteninterviews dient. Im Rahmen dessen werden die Existenz pathologischer Grundmuster, aber auch ihre Auswirkungen auf das Individuum bestätigt und Ursachen für Pathologien (Fehlentwicklungen der organisatorischen Steuerungsmechanismen) diskutiert. In die Betrachtung gehen darüber hinaus mögliche zukünftige Entwicklungen von Unternehmen ein. Als Lösungsstrategien zur Vermeidung pathologischer Erscheinungsformen werden u.a. eine gezielte verhaltensorientierte Managementausbildung und restriktive Besetzung von Managementpositionen, ein soziales Managementverhalten, nicht-restriktive Managementsysteme, Wissensmanagement ebenso wie eine gelebte, wertschätzende Unternehmenskultur diskutiert. Recent labour impact studies indicate individual aspects such as decreasing productivity, lack of personal and emotional connection of employees as well as a deficiency in social skills of managers. This case study is investigating the topic using an interdisciplinary approach. Based on the model of Türk (Pathologie der Organisation) a questionnaire has been developed to perform expert interviews. The results show that pathological patterns exist and their impact on individuals is confirmed. Causes of abberrations of organisational steering mechanisms are discussed. Future trends of organisations and their impact on pathological patterns are also considered. As a result of the findings the following actions are suggested to improve the labour situation in companies. For example, focused behavioural management training, development of social management skills, restrictive management hiring policies, non-restrictive management systems, knowledge management and an appreciative organisational culture are discussed.

We analyze the effect of committee formation on how corporate boards perform two main functions: setting CEO pay and overseeing the financial reporting process. The use of performance-based pay schemes induces the CEO to manipulate earnings, which leads to an increased need for board oversight. If the whole board is responsible for both functions, it is inclined to provide the CEO with a compensation scheme that is relatively insensitive to performance in order to reduce the burden of subsequent monitoring. When the functions are separated through the formation of committees, the compensation committee is willing to choose a higher pay-performance sensitivity as the increased cost of oversight is borne by the audit committee. Our model generates predictions relating the board committee structure to the pay-performance sensitivity of CEO compensation, the quality of board oversight, and the level of earnings management.

Given the need to unlock the capacity of everyone in the organization, interest in collaborative leadership is growing. But how is such a practice developed? The author proposes the use of action learning—in its original formulation, namely, through reflection on real-time work experience dealing with unfamiliar problems—as a gateway to collaborative leadership. Action learning is portrayed as growing in acceptance as a management education and learning approach that distills knowledge from a context to be used to provide learning to the practice as well as to the practitioner. The account demonstrates how the operating practices of collaborative leadership are directly affected by action learning and proposes that the two approaches are based on common principles.

An Internet retailer?s (e-tailer?s) outstanding virtual location enhances the probability of being noticed by potential customers. The notion of a virtual location for e-tailers refers to the analogy to the physical location. In the empirical analysis, an e-tailer?s Internet search engine rank as well as its advertising activities in search engines serve as proxies for the virtual location. The results suggest that it is optimal for e-tailers to complement a high search engine rank with investments in online advertising. Moreover, banner ads seem to serve as price advertising mechanism, whereas sponsored links rather seem to be used in order to signal outstanding customer service.

The paper analyzes the adoption of various e-business technologies. Strong empirical evidence is found for the existence of increasing returns to adoption due to indirect network externalities between related technologies. If a company is close to the technological frontier, its probability of adoption increases. The empirical analysis is based on more than 5,000 observations from a cross-sectional European enterprise survey conducted in June 2002. A classification and regression tree (CART) is used to illustrate technological complementarities and their effect for the adoption probability of a firm.

We analyze the development of employment in start-up cohorts, which is the direct gross employment effect of the new businesses. The data is for West Germany and covers the 1984- 2002 period. While total employment in the cohorts remains above the initial level in manufacturing, we find a pronounced decline of employment below this level in the service sector. Only a small fraction of the firms create a considerable amount of jobs. The contribution that the start-up cohorts of the 1984 - 2002 period made to total employment in 2002 is nearly three times as high in services as in manufacturing. Der Aufsatz untersucht die Beschäftigungsentwicklung einzelner Gründungskohorten und damit den direkten Beschäftigungseffekt der neuen Betriebe. Die Analyse bezieht sich auf Westdeutschland im Zeitraum 1984-2002. Während im Industriesektor die standardisierte Beschäftigungsentwicklung über den Beobachtungszeitraum von 18 Jahren positiv bleibt, fällt sie im Dienstleistungsbereich bereits ab dem ersten Jahr nach der Gründung fast monoton. Nur ein kleiner Teil der Betriebe schafft in wesentlichem Umfang neue Arbeitsplätze. Der Anteil der Gründungskohorten der Jahre 1984 - 2002 zu den Beschäftigten 2002 ist im Dienstleistungssektor fast dreimal so hoch wie im Industriebereich.

A firm’s business model describes the way in which it creates, delivers, and appropriates value. In the debate about the ongoing demise of several e-commerce ventures, only a few analysts have looked at the relative sanity of innovative e-business Models, relying mostly on static environmental variables and the inherent economic logic of each industry. Our study sheds new light on this debate by concentrating on a set of more complex factors, namely the relative difficulty to build new capabilities, whether by creating or acquiring them. We interviewed 60 e-commerce ventures between 2 and 3 years old, both independent and corporate ones, in order to measure their performance, the innovativeness of their e-business model, their obstacles to capability building, and their exploitable resource base. By performing cluster, discriminant, and regression analyses, we demonstrate that a number of typical obstacles to capability building can significantly affect the relative success or failure of innovative e-business models, but that a richer resource base may alleviate this relationship. We end with a discussion of the implications for the e-business model literature, and point out to some new directions to explain how various e-commerce firms, whether ‘pure-play’ or ‘click-and-mortar’, can successfully innovate despite rampant capability building difficulties.

In jüngster Vergangenheit hat die Versicherungswirtschaft einen grundlegenden Wandel durchlaufen. Deregulierung, Globalisierung sowie Substitutionskonkurrenz führten zu einem verschärften Wettbewerb um Marktanteile bei sinkenden Gewinnmargen. Aufgrund dieser neuen Wettbewerbsdynamik und den volatiler gewordenen Kapitalmärkten ist es nicht mehr ausreichend, die Risiken der Aktiv- und Passivseite weitgehend getrennt voneinander zu beurteilen und zu kontrollieren. Als zentrale Aufgabe ergibt sich somit, Aktiva und Passiva kombiniert zu betrachten, zielgerichtet zu steuern und dahingehend zu optimieren, dass aktuelle sowie zukünftige Verpflichtungen jederzeit gedeckt sind. So kann die finanzielle Stabilität der Gesellschaft gewährleistet werden. Dieser Prozess wird mit Asset-Liability-Management (ALM) bezeichnet und wird insbesondere in der Versicherungsbranche seit einiger Zeit intensiv diskutiert. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird eine Struktur in den bisherigen Stand gebracht und damit auf das generelle Potential dieser Forschungsrichtung hingewiesen. In recent years the insurance industry has been subject to a deeply structural change. The deregulation of markets in Europe and the globalization of insurance markets let to an intense competition with shrinking gross revenue and benefits. This change led to changes in the management of assets and liabilities of insurance companies. This new era of risk management considers both sides of the balance sheet as a whole and tries to optimize them. Asset-Liability-Management has been intensely discussed in the insurance industry. This paper focuses on reviewing the status quo of already existing research in this area in order to give hints on the potential of future work in this field.

The paper analyzes factors that influence the adoption of e-learning and gives an example of how to forecast technology adoption based on a post-hoc predictive segmentation using a classification and regression tree (CART). We find strong evidence for the existence of technological interdependencies and organizational learning effects. Furthermore, we find different paths to e-learning adoption. The results of the analysis suggest a growing ?digital divide? among firms. We use cross-sectional data from a European survey about e-business in June 2002, covering almost 6,000 enterprises in 15 industry sectors and 4 countries. Comparing the predictive quality of CART, we find that CART outperforms a traditional logistic regression. The results are more parsimo-nious, i. e. CARTs use less explanatory variables, better interpretable since different paths of adoption are detected, and from a statistical standpoint, because interactions between the covariates are taken into account.

The way in which people balance their work and family responsibilities is becoming increasingly prominent on the policy agenda. This paper uses an economic framework to explore the rationale for government policies to improve work/family balance. It finds that strongest economic grounds for government intervention are the effects that maternal work may have on children. The evidence, however, is not strong, and whether maternal employment helps or harms children depends to a large part on the nature and quality of the childcare the children receive while the parents are at work. A number of policies could be used to promote work/family balance, including leave, childcare, changes to working hours, efforts to improve the family-friendliness of organisational cultures and tax/benefit policies. The most significant factor affecting work/family balance appears to be the organisational culture of the firm. In general, if organisational culture is not, in fact family-friendly, family-friendly measures will have little effect.

Die Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit Konzepten des prozessorientierten Wissensmanagement, die sich im integrativen, gemeinsamen Einsatz von Konzepten aus den Disziplinen Prozess- und Wissensmanagement zeigt. Zunächst kann eine prozeßorientierte WM-Strategie definiert werden, die die Umsetzung auf den zentralen Interventionsebenen Strategie, Prozesse, Wissensbasis, Instrumente und Systeme steuert. Kennzeichen der Prozessorganisation ist die Verknüpfung von Prozessen des Wissensmanagements mit den operativen Geschäftsprozessen zu einem geschlossenen Kreislauf. Neben den typischen Instrumenten des Wissensmanagements werden im prozessorientierten Wissensmanagement auch Instrumente des Prozeßmanagements, wie z.B. die kontinuierliche Prozessverbesserung und die Prozessmodellierung eingesetzt. Der bisher noch mangelnde Prozessbezug der typischen WM-Instrumente läßt sich durch die organisatorische Verankerung der Instrumente als Wissensprozesse lösen. Dazu werden Instrumente als Wissensprozesse organisatorisch durch die Zuordnung von Aufgaben, Rollen, Verantwortlichkeiten und Ressourcen abgegrenzt. Am Ende der theoretischen Untersuchung werden typische Anwendungsszenarien abgeleitet. Für diese Szenarien wird die Rolle der Modellierung durch die Analyse einer Reihe von Fallstudien diskutiert. Die praktischen wie auch die theoretischen Ergebnisse gehen in die Beschreibung eines Modellierungsansatzes für die Modellierung im prozessorientierten Wissensmanagement ein. Dort werden für die Parameter Modellierungsmethode, -organisation und �unterstützung die wesentlichen Ausprägungen besprochen und mögliche Erweiterungen vorgeschlagen. Die Arbeit schließt mit der Zusammenfassung der wichtigsten Ergebnisse und einem Ausblick auf künftige Entwicklungen im prozessorientierten Wissensmanagement., Process-oriented knowledge management is defined as the common application of concepts from the two disciplines of business process management and knowledge management (KM). Starting point of a process-oriented KM initiative is the definition and implementation of a complex process-oriented KM strategy. The process orientation is achieved by the integration � in a closed circle - of KM-relevant processes and operative business processes. Typical KM-instruments and instruments related to process management, i.e. continuous process improvement and process modelling are applied. Activities, roles and responsibilities as well as resources have to be defined and combined to knowledge processes for each of these instruments. After the theoretical considerations a number of typical scenarios in process-oriented KM are defined. For each scenario the role of modelling is discussed by an analysis of several case studies. Both theoretical aspects and practical experiences are then integrated into the definition of an approach for modelling the activities of process-oriented KM. For each of the parameters such as the modelling method, its organisation and support, significant characteristics and possible extensions are suggested. In conclusion, the major lessons learned are summarised and important implications for future process-oriented KM research are set out.

Angesichts globaler Krisen wie der Bedrohung der natürlichen Umwelt und zahlreicher öffentlicher und privatwirtschaftlicher Skandale stoßen moralisch-ethische Fragen auf allgemeines Interesse. Immer mehr Menschen stellen sich die Frage nach dem Sinn und Werthaltigkeit der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung. Ethik findet aber nicht ausschließlich als Vehikel der Krisenreflexion Eingang in die Diskussion, sondern auch als Erfordernis einer Mindestmoral in der Ökonomie, ohne die eine moderne, marktlich organisierte Gesellschaft letztlich nicht möglich scheint. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden die Grundideen der Implementation ethischen Denkens in die wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Diskussion strukturiert und die Brücke zu praktischen Modellen der Unternehmensethik geschlagen.

Based on an unbalanced panel of all Bavarian cooperative banks for the years of 1989-95 which includes information on 243 mergers, we analyze motives for and cost effects of small-scale mergers in German banking. Estimating a frontier cost function with a time-variable stochastic efficiency term we show that positive scale and scope effects from a merger arise only if the merged unit closes part of the former branch network. When we compare actual mergers to a simulation of hypothetical mergers, size effects of observed mergers turn out to be slightly more favorable than for all possible mergers. Banks taken over by others are less efficient than the average bank in the same size class, but exhibit on average the same efficiency as the acquiring firms. For the post-merger phase, our empirical results provide no evidence for efficiency gains from merging, but point instead to a leveling off of differences among the merging units.

Taking into account that it is in the nature of the modern corporat ion that risks are distributed over several agents, we discuss in this paper the organisational behaviour as it results from such dispersal of responsibilities for both the principal and the agent. We explore the hypothesis that dispersal of responsibilities could be the result or a cause of a lack of consensus between the principal and the agent. Our findings suggest that a dispersal of responsibilities has a negative impact on the principal-agent relationship and that it represents a foundation for theoretical and empirical approaches to organisational behaviour. We find that agent perceptions of a dispersal of responsibilities are linked to his/her resistance to the principal’s interests, but this relationship is deeper than was suggested by previous research. However, if the sharing of responsibilities does not run parallel to that, we may have as a result what we call an agency problem.

The aim of this paper is to show organizational perceptions and behaviours regarding proactive search for consultancy services. Management consulting is operating primarily through the analysis of perceived and existing organizational problems, but on the other hand it could be considered as a creation of value for organizations through the application of knowledge, techniques and, assets to improve organizational performance which is in the unknown and hidden potential part of organizational Johari window. Perceptions of organization are shown through managers and consultants perceptions survey in southeast Europe region. From the other side as an empirical base of real managerial behaviours there is a database of companies which had been proactively asking for consultancy services in southeast Europe region. This research is based on Adizes Institute database, which is the reason we have introduced the Adizes Corporate Lifecycle model theory. We will show the difference of perceptions at what stage in lifecycle organizations should engage consultant help and reality, when companies actually do that. We will use data analysis results to discuss whether timing when organizations decide to proactively engage consultants is the right time for such engagement.

URL del artículo en la web de la Revista: https://www.upo.es/revistas/index.php/RevMetCuant/article/view/2419 Franchising is a commercial form which enables firms to successfully penetrate the market and expand in an environment of growing global competitiveness. This form of business is present in many different activities and sectors, having its own characteristics and structures and significant differences among firms. It is therefore important to identify possible homogeneous groups of franchisors which share the same business strategies. This work is centred on the system of franchises in Italy. The figures about the high number of franchisors and franchised establishments, the quantity of chains operating over many years and the high penetration in the different sectors mean that franchising in Italy has a high degree of competitiveness and maturity. All this, along with the scarcity of studies about strategic groups in franchising in Italy, justifies this study. Specifically, the objectives are: 1) to identify the possible existence of strategic groups in Italy¿s franchising system; 2) to carry out a multisectoral analysis of strategic groups to determine whether the same strategic groups exist in the different franchising sectors; and 3) to characterise the different strategic groups and show their most significant variables. The results indicate that the most numerous strategic group is made up of chains which fully trust the domestic market, so the majority have not undertaken a strategy of internationalisation. On the other hand, the least numerous strategic group is composed of chains which have grown rapidly. This reaffirms the degree of saturation of the franchising market in Italy, as there is a great number of brands but few franchised establishments. The results attained in this work allow an understanding of the keys to the success of franchises in the Italian market for the franchisors to be able to maintain their position or, contrariwise, make changes and reposition themselves. La franquicia es una forma comercial que permite a las empresas penetrar con éxito en el mercado y expandirse en un entorno de creciente competitividad global. Esta forma de negocio está presente en muchas actividades y sectores diferentes, con sus propias características y estructuras y diferencias significativas entre las empresas. Por lo tanto, es importante identificar posibles grupos homogéneos de franquiciadores que compartan las mismas estrategias comerciales. Este trabajo se centra en el sistema de franquicias en Italia. Las cifras sobre el alto número de franquiciadores y establecimientos franquiciados, la cantidad de cadenas que operan a lo largo de muchos años y la alta penetración en los diferentes sectores hacen que las franquicias en Italia tengan un alto grado de competitividad y madurez. Todo esto, junto con la escasez de estudios sobre grupos estratégicos en franquicias en Italia, justifica este estudio. Específicamente, los objetivos son: 1) identificar la posible existencia de grupos estratégicos en el sistema de franquicias de Italia; 2) llevar a cabo un análisis multisectorial de grupos estratégicos para determinar si existen los mismos grupos estratégicos en los diferentes sectores de franquicias; y 3) caracterizar los diferentes grupos estratégicos y mostrar sus variables más significativas. Los resultados indican que el grupo estratégico más numeroso está compuesto por cadenas que confían plenamente en el mercado interno, por lo que la mayoría no ha emprendido una estrategia de internacionalización. Por otro lado, el grupo estratégico menos numeroso está compuesto por cadenas que han crecido rápidamente. Esto reafirma el grado de saturación del mercado de franquicias en Italia, ya que hay un gran número de marcas pero pocos establecimientos franquiciados. Los resultados obtenidos en este trabajo permiten comprender las claves del éxito de las franquicias en el mercado italiano para que los franquiciadores puedan mantener su posición o, por el contrario, realizar cambios y reposicionarse. Universidad Pablo de Olavide