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Price and Nicos Zafiris are all members of the International Franchise Research Centre at the University of Westminster, England. At its best, franchising is an avenue into self-employment offered by franchisors (owners of a 'tried and tested' business format) to franchisees (typically aspiring small business men and women), in exchange for payment of a once-off front-end fee followed by an on-going royalty. Based on the principle of 'cloning' success, a principal tenet of the franchise fraternity is that franchise failure rates are low. From the viewpoint of small business researchers, franchising has been argued to be of particular importance, since most franchisors still are, or recently have been, small businesses themselves and most of their royalty-paying franchisees are also small businesses. Thus, in principle, franchising offers a route to growth for the would-be franchisor and small businesses opportunities with limited risk for would-be franchisees. Debates on franchise failure rates, compared with conventional business failure rates, have historically been dogged by problems of definition and measurement. However, recent developments have improved the situation here and what emerges is a striking similarity of failure rates between the two forms of (usually) small business - franchised and non-franchised.

Aims:  To investigate the potential activation of hydrogen peroxide by a novel catalyst, reducing the concentration of hydrogen peroxide required and the time taken for microbial inactivation. Methods and Results:  The antimicrobial properties of an iron‐based novel heterogeneous polyacrylonitrile catalyst in combination with hydrogen peroxide were examined against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus using a modified version of the European suspension test. Antimicrobial activity against Bacillus cereus and Bacillus subtilis endospores was also investigated. Bactericidal activity was significantly increased when the polyacrylonitrile catalyst was combined with hydrogen peroxide. 0·2, 0·5 and 1% w/v hydrogen peroxide resulted in average log reductions of 4·76, 5·59 and 5·37 for E. coli, Ps. aeruginosa and Staph. aureus, respectively, after 60 min exposure at room temperature. The catalyst also significantly increased the activity of hydrogen peroxide against B. subtilis and B. cereus endospores. Conclusions:  These studies have demonstrated the potential biocidal use of the novel polyacrylonitrile catalyst when combined with hydrogen peroxide. Significance and Impact of the Study:  This is the first publication to demonstrate the enhanced activity gained using the novel heterogeneous catalyst to potentiate the activity of hydrogen peroxide as a biocide.

Fast‐food and franchising should present a formidable marriage when coping with declining economic performance. Compares the performance of 54 (18 franchisors; 18 fast‐food franchisees; 18 fast‐food companies) between 1987 and 1990 using Taffler′s Z‐score analysis. Finds that franchisors′ performance during the period declined but remained better than that of fast‐food franchisees and fast‐food companies. Fast‐food franchisees have remained buoyant but there are incidences of potential failures. Outlines differing solutions to return these companies to health.

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